In its first incarnation, "The A-Team" ran for five primetime years on NBC, extending George Peppard's career and launching Mr. T's. The producers sum-up the A-Team's premise, "Four Vietnam vets, framed for a crime they didn't commit, help the innocent while on the run from the military." Although the show has the look and feel of other seventies crime-drama hits from producer Steven J. Cannell, "The A-Team" aired between 1983 and 1986, when its inevitable associations with and allusions to VietNam Special Forces no longer provoked or disturbed anti-war viewers. Moreover, "The A-Team" piqued Americans' fierce devotion to underdogs, frequently reminding viewers how the lovable, wise-cracking misfits were framed"”fugitives from injustice, always aligning them with society's oppressed and disenfranchised, and often showing them "MacGivering" ingenious weapons from junkyard parts and duct tape"”the more insidious side of legendary American ingenuity. "The A-Team" persisted in flagrant political incorrectness, often disparaging women and indulging the audience's taste for gratuitous violence, redeemed primarily by its cartoonish quality. Producers reprised the concept for a 2010 feature film that sparked renewed interest in the original show, driving fans to Fancast, IMDd, and Amazon Video on Demand for their regular "A-Team" fixes.

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