At the end of their stint in Viet Nam, Col. John "Hannibal" Smith and his
team were framed for robbing the Bank of Hanoi (which they had done, but
under orders), and sent to a US military prison. They escaped and went on
the run, pursued first by Col. Lynch and later by Col. Decker. While on the
lam, they became heroes for hire, working as good-guy vigilantes around the
US or the world. Hannibal was their leader and an expert at disguises. Face
was the team's con artist and lady's man. BA (officially "Bad Attitude")
was their mechanic, but also took care of mayhem and intimidation. The
final member of the Team, "Howling Mad" Murdock, was an expert pilot, and a
certified lunatic--they broke him out of a mental hospital whenever they
needed him for a mission.
During th final days of the Vietnam war, three soldiers were ordered to rob
the Bank of Hanoi. However, the man who ordered them was killed and noone
else can verify their story. They would be tried and found guilty but after
that they escape from the facility where they were being held and went
underground in Los Angeles. They then established themselves as Soldiers of
Fortune known as The A Team. Their leader is Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith
who is a master of disguises and has a penchant for danger, who works as an
actor, who takes on roles that require him to wear either heavy make up or
a costume. B.A.(Bad Attitude) Baracas has a penchant for striking anyone
who rubs him the wrong way and is so afraid to fly that they have to drug
to get him on a plane and is also a mechanical genius, and Templeton "Face
Man" Peck, who is so good looking that he can charm anyone into giving them
what they need. Amy Allen, a reporter, who hired them, convinced them to
let her join them. Amy would be written out and she be replaced by Tawnia
Baker, who would leave at the start of the third season. H.M. (Howling Mad)
Murdock flew for them when they were in Vietnam but was not with them when
they robbed the bank, who is so shell shocked by the war that he is
confined to a V.A. psychiatric hospital, and Face has to come up with all
sorts of excuses to get him released so that he could fly for them.
Initially, they were being hunted down by Colonel Lynch, whose facility
they broke out of, he would later be replaced by Colonel Decker, who is
more aggressive. A few years later, Decker would be replaced by General
Fullbright. Eventually the team would be caught by a man named Stockwell,
who runs a covert spy network, and who promised them a pardon if they join
his team and carry out some (dangerous) missions. Frankie Santana, a
special effects man who worked with Hannibal in the movies also joined them
after helping them.
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,
and also dodging 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.
