NBC president Brandon Tartikoff pitched the series to Stephen J. Cannell as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with the tagline 'Mr. T driving the car'.

Cannell had just been fired from ABC before being hired by NBC, and The A-Team was his first project for the network; the show was not initially considered commercially promising.

The role of Face was written by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell specifically for Dirk Benedict, but NBC insisted on another actor, so Tim Dunigan played Face in the pilot before Benedict took over, reportedly because Dunigan was 'too tall and too young' for a Vietnam veteran.

The role of B.A. Baracus was written specifically for Mr. T, according to both Mr. T himself and co-creator Stephen J. Cannell.

Tia Carrere was set to join the main cast in season five as Tia Fulbright, a Vietnam War orphan, but her contract with General Hospital prevented her from joining, so her character was abruptly dropped and replaced by Frankie Santana (Eddie Velez).

James Coburn, who co-starred in The Magnificent Seven, was considered for the role of Hannibal, while George Peppard (who ultimately played Hannibal) had originally been considered for the role of Vin in The Magnificent Seven, a part that went to Steve McQueen.

The first regular episode, aired right after Super Bowl XVII on January 30, 1983, reached 26.4% of the television audience, placing fourth among the top 10 Nielsen-rated shows and giving NBC its highest ratings in five years.

In 1984, when main cast members George Peppard, Mr. T, Dirk Benedict, and Dwight Schultz were invited to the Netherlands, the turnout was so overwhelming that the stars had to leave early for security reasons, prompting Schultz to release an apology video to fans.

Despite depicting intense combat with heavy weapons, the show's violence was heavily sanitized with no visible wounds or blood, and after almost every crash there was a brief shot of occupants climbing out of the wreckage; co-creator Stephen Cannell said this became a running joke among the writing staff who would deliberately test the limits of believability.

A 2010 Fox Digital Entertainment iPhone game tied to The A-Team film featured voice-overs for B.A. Baracus performed by Quinton Jackson, the actor who played the character in the film.