The A-Team
Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 12:00 Action
Strap in, folks: Hannibal Smith, Templeton Peck, BA Baracus and Howling Mad Murdock are speeding back to free TV as The A-Team (1983-1987). And they are locked and loaded, ready for mercenary action as former Commando soldiers who’ve been framed for “a crime they didn’t commit”. Don’t think that it was all fun – infamously difficult actor George Peppard (Hannibal) often clashed with Mr T (BA Baracus) before passing away in 1994 and it got so bad they refused to do interviews together. And do you know this A-Team trivia?
The “crime” that’s always spoken
about but never explained is murder. The guys robbed a bank in Vietnam to fund a rebellion 10 years before the show’s setting, only to return to base camp to a murdered commander. They were blamed and court-martialed.
The “A” in the title is actual army
language. It stands for “Alpha Team”, who are the first soldiers sent into a particular mission.
Season almost never happened
after Mr T threw a tantrum and stormed off set. He blamed everything from a dead family member to “annoying” air-conditioning and only returned after his list of demands were met.
George Peppard had to “suck it
up” to smoke cigars as Hannibal. Offscreen, the actor smoked up to 90 cigarettes a day until 1992 when a tumour was discovered on his lung.
Murdock’s first name is never men5
tioned during the five seasons and actor Dwight Schultz says that to this day, “It remains TV’s greatest mystery.”
The hospital that the team use
in the show is the Sepulveda Veterans’ Hospital. It was the original hospital in medical drama Grey’s Anatomy (2005-current) until season 12 (2015).