Whatever Happened To: The Cast Of "The A-Team"

Do you remember The A-Team?

It opened with machine-gun-like music, followed by the title stamped across the screen in stenciled, military-style letters, which were then punctured by bullet holes containing pictures of the stars. From opening title to closing credits, The A-Team was a veritable weekly demolition derby—and it was a smash hit.

The premise, like the plots, was standard-issue TV. A crack team of soldiers in Vietnam was caught while on a super-secret mission behind enemy lines. Seems that four days after the war had ended, they had knocked over the Bank of Hanoi for one hundred million yen, but could not prove who had given them their orders, and so were imprisoned by their own government. They had escaped, but now were outcasts, pursued as criminals by a relentless Col. Lynch (and later by Col. Decker), who was determined to put them behind bars again. They not only managed to evade the colonel's clutches, however, but became freelance soldiers of fortune, righting wrongs across the country and in exotic foreign locales.

It was a colorful team.

Col. Hannibal Smith, the cigar-chomping, remarkably fit leader, was a master of disguises.

B.A. (officially “Bad Attitude,” but you can use your imagination) was big, black, and menacing—and also an expert mechanic.

Howling Mad Murdock was their pilot, whose sanity was seriously in question (they had to spring him from a mental hospital for their missions), but who could apparently fly anything from a crop duster to a 747.

Faceman was the pretty boy, a smooth talker who could hustle practically anything they needed for their missions.

Joining them in the first episode was Amy Allen, a pretty reporter who was understandably taken with this odd bunch and their far-flung adventures.

The destruction they wrought may have seemed appalling to some, but it was carried off with such panache, such a twinkle in the eye, that viewers knew it was not for real. Despite jeeps spinning through the air and buildings leveled in fiery explosions, hardly anyone—even the bad guys—ever got hurt. One furious chase scene ended with the pursuing villains' car in a spectacular high-speed crash. The camera lingered for a moment on the overturned wreck; one voice from inside grunted, “You okay, Al?” and another answered, “Yeah, I'm all right.”

Nor were the team members ever at a loss for firepower, even when separated from their innocuous-looking but well-armed van. B.A. could build machine guns out of old washing machines, rocket launchers out of used water heaters, and an armored tank out of a broken-down school bus.

Mr. T (as B.A.) was the cult hero of the show, with his macho chains (35 lbs. of gold) draped around his neck and his favorite scowling line, “You better watch out, sucker!” For all his threatening appearance, however, he did have one abiding fear—flying in a plane piloted by Howling Mad. So the team regularly drugged, hypnotized, or tricked him to get him to the scene of the action.

In the fall of 1986, the team's status changed dramatically. Tricked into capture by the mysterious Gen. Stockwell, they were tried and sentenced to die—but Stockwell arranged for them to “pay their debt” by becoming undercover government agents instead, under his heavy-handed control. Joining the team was a sneaky little special-effects expert known as “Dishpan” Frankie.

So what happened to the original cast?

Ya gotta love The A-Team, a show that will forever be part of POP culture.  We so ❤️that.