H.SLt. Col. John Smith
HANNIBAL
George PeppardThe leader: a master of disguise, an unconventional tactician and almost always two steps ahead.

Declassified Fan archive / NBC 1983–1987

Four specialists. 98 missions. And a plan for every seemingly impossible problem.
HSHANNIBAL
FPFACE
BAB.A.
HMMURDOCKMission file 00 / The premise


In 1972, a United States Special Forces unit is convicted of a crime it did not commit. After escaping from a military prison, the men disappear into the Los Angeles underground and begin helping people who have nowhere else to turn.
Created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, the action series combines mission planning, disguises, improvised engineering and knowingly exaggerated 1980s action. Almost every mission reaches the moment when a surprising solution is built from whatever is at hand.
Personnel files / Core team
Strategy, persuasion, engineering and aviation come together in four unmistakable core characters.

Cast / Studio portrait
Every mission depends on the four working in sync: Hannibal devises the plan, Face obtains what the team needs, Murdock flies anything with wings and B.A. builds—or breaks—the rest.
H.SLt. Col. John Smith
The leader: a master of disguise, an unconventional tactician and almost always two steps ahead.
FPLt. Templeton Peck
The charmer, con artist and fixer. He secures vehicles, equipment and access that should be impossible to obtain.
BASgt. Bosco Baracus
The team's mechanic and powerhouse. He turns scrap into working machinery—as long as nobody mentions flying.
HMCapt. H. M. Murdock
A brilliant pilot with shifting personas and a logic all his own. The team regularly breaks him out of the veterans' hospital for missions.

Expanded personnel file / Declassified
John ‘Hannibal’ Smith leads the A-Team through improvisation rather than rigid procedure. He spots an opponent's weakness quickly, enjoys sending pursuers in the wrong direction and remains calm even when his plan initially looks far too risky.
Disguises are part of his strategy: as Mr. Lee, a fisherman or an apparently harmless passer-by, he gathers information without being recognised. Away from missions, he enthusiastically pursues an acting career, most notably as the movie monster Aqua Maniac.

Expanded personnel file / Declassified
Templeton ‘Face’ Peck is the team's fixer, negotiator and social door-opener. With convincing cover identities, polished manners and quick improvisation, he obtains vehicles, equipment or access—often before anyone realises that his story was invented on the spot.
Behind the confident exterior is a more vulnerable side. Face grew up in an orphanage and clearly longs for recognition and belonging. He meets his father only late in life, initially without knowing who the man really is, and also learns that he has a half-sister.

Expanded personnel file / Declassified
Bosco ‘B.A.’ Baracus is both the technical heart and the strongest shield of the team. His talent for engines and construction was developed during his military service; later he can turn almost any vehicle—or even scrap metal—into working mission equipment.
His intimidating appearance hides a deeply caring side. B.A. looks after children and spends free time as a coach and handyman at a youth centre. His mother still calls him ‘Scooter’, a childhood nickname that nobody else should use lightly.

Expanded personnel file / Declassified
H. M. ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock was the unit's exceptional pilot in Vietnam and can handle almost anything that flies, from an improvised ultralight to a jumbo jet. The team regularly retrieves him from the veterans' hospital for new missions.
The series never settles whether his many personas and imaginary companions reflect a genuine illness or deliberate performance. When a mission demands it, Murdock is focused, technically inventive and tactically sharp. His constant sparring with B.A. also reveals how much friendship lies beneath the noise.
Personnel files / Allies and pursuers
Special missions
Music, wrestling and memorable character actors: the series repeatedly featured prominent guests. Episode numbers follow this archive, where each part of a multi-part story is counted separately.

as himself
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 16“Cowboy George”US broadcast: S4E15 · “Cowboy George”

as himself
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 07“Body Slam”US broadcast: S4E06 · “Body Slam”
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 21“The Trouble with Harry”US broadcast: S4E20 · “The Trouble with Harry”

as himself
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 06“The Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll”US broadcast: S4E05 · “The Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll”

C. J. Mack
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 06“The Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll”US broadcast: S4E05 · “The Heart of Rock ’n’ Roll”

Mrs. Baracus
Archive: Season 4 · Episode 04“A Lease with an Option to Die”US broadcast: S4E03 · “A Lease with an Option to Die”

T. J. Bryant
Archive: Season 5 · Episode 04“Quarterback Sneak”US broadcast: S5E04 · “Quarterback Sneak”

Miler Crane
Archive: Season 2 · Episode 07“The Taxicab Wars”US broadcast: S2E06 · “The Taxicab Wars”

Ivan Trigorin
Archive: Season 5 · Episode 06“The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair”US broadcast: S5E06 · “The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair”
Home video / Verified release status
The German cassette names are not translated here. Each language market was checked separately, and an edition is described as a VHS release only where the evidence supports it.
English-language status: No separately titled English-language VHS edition corresponding to the German cassette could be verified in the catalogues consulted. “Judgment Day” is the original NBC title of the two-hour television movie, not a translation of the German video title.
The dual role: George Peppard plays both Hannibal Smith and the gangster Augie, whose identity Hannibal assumes. It is Peppard's only dual role in the series.
English-language status: No English-language VHS compilation equivalent to the German “Feuerprüfung” cassette could be verified. These are the three original episode titles, not an invented cassette title.
Mission logs / Original US broadcast order
Open every mission file for its synopsis, official NBC title and original US premiere date.
Reporter Amy Allen hires the A-Team to find a colleague who vanished in Mexico; she is soon captured by General Valdez as well.
Hannibal and his men organize the liberation of the prisoners and take on Valdez's heavily armed troops.
A wealthy businessman hires the team to free his daughter from the isolated Jamestown cult.
When B.A.'s friend is imprisoned by a corrupt warden, the team has itself locked up to stage a breakout from within.
A police inspector asks the team to stop a corrupt special unit that hires itself out for contract killings.
After B.A. is seriously wounded, the team hides out in Bad Rock and becomes caught up in a conflict with a biker gang.
Two college students ask the team to rescue their professor from the Mafia after his successful gambling system makes him a target.
In Manhattan, the A-Team and harassed shop owners defend themselves against a gang that systematically extorts protection money.
After a crash landing in South Carolina, the team encounters men who want to eliminate a government official.
A melon farmer is sabotaged while transporting his harvest - the A-Team ensures that the goods still reach the market.
Colonel Lynch captures Hannibal, Face and B.A., but the military soon needs the very same men for a dangerous rescue mission overseas.
An heiress is being forced to marry her late father's business partner, so the team stages a spectacular rescue.
Terrorists hijack a passenger plane and the A-Team has to bring the plane and the hostages back under control.
At the funeral of a Vietnam comrade, the team discovers that his hometown is ruled by a violent family.
After the murder of a mine owner, the team helps his daughter defend a diamond mine in Africa against a powerful rival.
Face is reunited with the cook who helped the team survive a Vietnam POW camp and now needs protection from former captors.
A mysterious cry for help leads Face and the team to his former great love and to an embattled church in Central America.
B.A. promises a young Mexican refugee that he will rescue her sick mother from a gang of human traffickers.
A young indigenous man asks for protection for a herd of wild mustangs that are to be sold to Mexico despite their protected status.
The team pursues the horse thieves across the border and tries to bring the mustang herd and its defenders home safely.
A small taxi company is forced out of business by a brutal competitor - until the A-Team intervenes in the street war.
Farm workers are exploited like prisoners; Hannibal organizes their resistance against the local landowner.
A fishing family resists a blackmailer whose destructive fishing methods further threaten the coast.
Three Vietnam veterans want to open a hotel in the desert, but a real estate speculator tries to force them away.
An honest demolition contractor encounters sabotage and a long-hidden crime when he takes on a high-rise job.
The team supports an opposing candidate against a corrupt sheriff and turns the election campaign into an undercover investigation.
A restaurant owner and his daughter are threatened by an extortion ring, so the A-Team takes on the racketeers.
A pilot is in custody in Venezuela for smuggling cocaine, even though the drugs were brought on board without his knowledge.
Reporter Tawnia discovers a plan to arrest the team and warns Hannibal - making herself part of the mission.
A soldier asks the team to investigate her brother's death and expose an illegal arms operation at a military base.
A priest takes on a racketeer who sells dangerously contaminated moonshine—even to teenagers.
The Scorpions rob patrons of a desert casino in armored go-karts, so the team prepares an improvised trap.
After B.A.'s van is stolen, the trail leads to a crooked car dealer and a professional vehicle-theft ring.
A hostage develops feelings for her captor, complicating a rescue operation that doesn't go according to plan anyway.
A crime syndicate hires four elite mercenaries as a criminal mirror image of the A-Team, forcing Hannibal into a battle of equals.
A pacifist religious community is to be driven out of its settlement; the team must help without violating their principles.
As Colonel Decker approaches, Murdock is seriously injured during an operation and the team must decide between escape and rescue.
Gangsters try to force two young women to sell their beach hotel, so the A-Team turns the resort into a defensive position.
Tawnia asks for help finding her fiancé, who has encountered a feared river pirate in the Peruvian Amazon.
The expedition pushes deeper into the jungle and uncovers the criminal operation behind the attacks along the river.
The owner of a small private fire company fights for a city contract while a larger rival resorts to sabotage.
Disguised as lumberjacks, Hannibal and his men protect a family business from a corrupt union official.
A former Mafia accountant's daughter is kidnapped, and two rival crime groups make her rescue especially dangerous.
Workers at a car factory are intimidated because they want to uncover systematic theft - the team infiltrates the company.
B.A. rushes to the aid of a former paramedic whose remote island is being used as a criminal base by armed gangsters.
Three impostors pose as the A-Team at a Wild West show; the real team must expose them and restore its reputation.
In the Republic of San Marcos, the team serves as local sheriffs and protects workers on a power-plant project from violent saboteurs.
A female singing group is threatened by its record-company boss, so Hannibal poses as a producer to expose the scheme.
Face wants to save a kidnapped model and comes across a ring that blackmails, copies and falsifies fashion designs for profit.
Bank robbers steal B.A.'s van and send B.A. and Murdock to a prison work camp; Hannibal prepares a breakout.
A restaurateur tries to force a family diner to sell because a new freeway exit will make the site valuable; the team takes over the diner and fights back.
A violent loan shark terrorizes an Italian restaurant family, so Hannibal opens a sham restaurant and deliberately becomes the racketeer's next debtor.
A boxer is ordered to throw a decisive bout so gangsters can finance a drug deal; B.A. steps into the ring.
After the murder of a game warden, the team travels to Kenya and pursues an international gang of ivory smugglers.
The manager of a foster home loses the property through gambling debts, and Face infiltrates his creditor's illegal casino on wheels.
The A-Team is hired to test the security of a North African royal palace, but the exercise turns into a real attack.
A small towing company is violently harassed, and the team discovers a smuggling route across the Mexican border behind the turf war.
A waste company tries to drive out a courier service whose property blocks access to an illegal toxic-waste dump.
Bounty hunters kidnap Murdock to lure in the entire A-Team. A young veterinarian helps him escape and becomes a target herself.
A missing painter leads the team to a gallery that exchanges perfect copies for valuable originals.
A powerful brewer pressures two sisters to sell their small soft-drink company and resorts to sabotage when they refuse.
The team's planned vacation at Crystal Lake turns into a clash involving robbers, a park ranger and Colonel Decker's approaching military police.
Kidnappers use a judge's daughter to blackmail him, and the trail leads the team from the United States to a Mafia family in Italy.
Aboard a cruise ship, the team and the rescued hostage hide behind a series of disguises while the Mafia family closes in.
A film project takes the team to a Mexican village that is being terrorized by a former military ruler.
After B.A.'s mother is injured, the team protects the residents of a Chicago apartment building from violent eviction.
A trap set by Decker leads Hannibal to a network that sells the identities of missing homeless men to criminals.
Rick James asks for help for musician C. J. Mack, who finds himself in danger again immediately after his release from prison.
Hulk Hogan helps the team save a youth center that a crime family wants because it believes stolen gold is buried underneath.
Hannibal's nephew, a race-car driver, is threatened by a rival backed by a Chicago gangster, so the team goes undercover at the track.
Face unexpectedly receives a pardon, but Hannibal sees it as a sophisticated trap to arrest the rest of the team.
The team hides a threatened rock singer in a suburban neighborhood and is caught between a neighborhood watch and a criminal gang.
Murdock's psychiatrist is kidnapped, and the search leads to an officer preparing a coup in South America.
Hannibal lands a role on a children's show and discovers that the program is being used for criminal purposes.
Murdock wins a trip to Hawaii on ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ but gangsters kidnap him because only he can fly a stolen Soviet attack helicopter.
After a staged defection by a Soviet ballerina, the A-Team joins forces with a former Russian enemy to stop the theft of a secret satellite system.
Face joins an exclusive country club and uncovers counterfeiting, blackmail and a new military attempt to capture the team.
Face accidentally books Boy George instead of country singer Cowboy George. During the concert, a gang plans to rob an armored cash shipment.
The team is mistaken for four hired gunmen and ends up protecting a veteran and his son from a greedy rancher.
B.A.'s former girlfriend asks the team to find her missing husband; the investigation leads to Hannibal's hometown and an old score.
At an orphanage reunion, Face finds a clue involving a childhood friend, a treasure map and a sunken Spanish ship.
A group of retirees hires the team to defend their Old West attraction, Mission de la Paz, from a developer trying to seize the land.
Loan sharks and the Mafia are hunting a former boxer, so B.A., Hannibal and Hulk Hogan protect him and his son.
Behind the pressure on a small gas station is a supposedly dead mafia boss and a meeting of the underworld.
General Fulbright takes the team to Vietnam, where he reveals that his personal search matters more to him than the official mission.
General Stockwell has Hannibal abducted from a veterans' hospital and offers a mission that could finally prove the team's innocence.
After the betrayal, the men are brought before a military court and have to reconstruct the bank robbery and Murdock's role at the time.
With the death sentence imposed, Murdock and Frankie race to stop the execution while Stockwell offers the team a life-changing bargain.
A football exhibition provides cover for the team's attempt to extract a scientist and his wife from East Germany.
Stockwell sends the team to San Marcos, where American hostages, revolutionaries and foreign agents are fighting for power.
Stockwell's former CIA partner kidnaps him in a dispute over a stolen stealth bomber, leaving the team only 36 hours to act.
Face wants to leave Stockwell's service, but first he has to save a reporter and prevent a planned murder of a union leader.
Stockwell orders the team to reunite a terminally ill informant with his daughter on Thanksgiving; the man also claims that Face is his son.
Hannibal disappears while on a solo mission in Hong Kong; the team searches for him on their own, against Stockwell's original orders.
A crystal skull leads Murdock, Face and Frankie between two warring groups, who quickly declare Murdock king.
In Monte Carlo, the team hunts the terrorist Jaguar, while Murdock plays his spy role a little too convincingly.
A teenage girl runs away with a top-secret file; aided by a group of older veterans, the team tries to find her before enemy agents do.
In the restaurant where Murdock works, Face and Frankie get caught up in a hostage situation - and Face is seriously injured.
Case notes / Verified
Production changes, casting details and television history—six verified notes from The A-Team Archive.
Tim Dunigan played Templeton Peck in the feature-length pilot “Mexican Slayride.” Dirk Benedict took over for the series; Dunigan was considered too young to convincingly play a Vietnam veteran.
The first regular episode aired immediately after Super Bowl XVII. “Children of Jamestown” earned a 26.4 Nielsen rating and a 39 percent audience share, making it one of the week's most-watched programs.
The team was captured and began working under General Stockwell. The new setup refreshed the familiar pattern of fugitives helping people in trouble.
Tia Fulbright was intended to join the team. Carrere's existing ABC contract for “General Hospital,” however, prevented the character from becoming a series regular.
The three nominations concerned the feature-length pilot “Mexican Slayride,” the two-hour television movie “When You Comin’ Back, Range Rider?”, which also aired as a two-parter, and “Firing Line.” The two parts of “When You Comin’ Back, Range Rider?” are overall episodes 19 and 20 in this archive, or season 2, episodes 5 and 6.
In the two-hour television movie “Judgment Day,” later split into two episodes, George Peppard plays both Hannibal Smith and the gangster Augie. Hannibal assumes Augie's identity for an undercover operation. It is Peppard's only dual role in the series.