The A-Team is an American action adventure television series created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces who work as soldiers of fortune while being on the run from the military for a "crime they didn't commit".
The series aired in the USA on NBC from 23 January 1983 to 8 March 1987. There are 98 episodes in five seasons.
The A-Team originally aired in South Africa on the SABC in the 1980s and later on DStv's M-Net Series channel. A rebroadcast of the series premiered on M-Net Series on Tuesday 1 May 2007, marking the first time in the channel's history that it had rebroadcast a series it had already aired.
See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 4 premiered on SABC3 on Friday 8 April 2011, at 12h00. New episodes broadcast daily, on weekdays. There are 23 episodes in the fourth season.
Synopsis
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit".
In 1971 a Special Forces A Team, John H. "Hannibal" Smith, Bosco Albert Baracus, and Templeton Peck, led a raid into North Vietnam to rob the central Bank of Hanoi, a raid that succeeded but which landed Smith's A Team in trouble when his CO, Colonel Morrison, was killed in a Red shelling.
Smith, Baracus, and Peck were court-martialed in 1972 and sentenced to Leavenworth, but en route to prison escaped into the underground of LA.
For the next dozen years they survived as soldiers of fortune, aiding those in trouble in the US or overseas, working with their former pilot, Hector M. Murdoch, who has been committed to a VA psycho ward and who must be broken out via confidence games hatched by Templeton Peck.
They also have to dodge the determined pursuit of the Army, first led by the officer who was to escort them to prison, Colonel Lynch, then by the Army's best troubleshooter in Vietnam, Roderick Decker, an officer who got the job done irrespective of methods or cost and whose methods earned enmity from Hannibal Smith.
After three years Decker was replaced by Harlan Fulbright, a General whose own lack of success earned him discharge from the Army but which also allowed him to later hire the team to help him find an Amerasian daughter he previously never knew he had.
In 1986 a mysterious freelance intelligence operative, former General Hunt Stockwell, struck a deal with the government whereby he in effect kidnapped the A Team for final court martial and had them executed - a ruse for them to carry out covert missions in exchange for eventual pardon.
Each episode of the first four seasons began with this voiceover introduction:
"In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.
"If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team."
Seasons
Note: Seasonal broadcast information for the original run of the show on SABC and M-Net Series is not available. The seasonal dates below are only for the rebroadcast of The A-Team on M-Net Series and SABC3.
Season 1 (14 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 1 May 2007 | Finale: 31 Jul 2007 | Tuesdays, 22h00
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 2 Dec 2010 | Finale: 21 Dec 2010 | Weekdays, 12h00
Season 2 (23 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 7 Aug 2007 | Finale: 8 Jan 2008 | Tuesdays, 22h00
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 7 Jan 2011 | Finale: 8 Feb 2011 | Weekdays, 12h00
Season 3 (25 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 21 Apr 2009 | Finale: 6 Oct 2009 | Tuesdays, 22h00
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 9 Feb 2011 | Finale: 15 Mar 2011 | Weekdays, 12h00
Season 4 (23 episodes)
Channel: SABC3 | Premiere: 8 Apr 2011 | Finale: 10 May 2011 | Weekdays, 12h00