John "Hannibal" Smith

• A Father to His Men
• Badass
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Colonel Badass
• Catch Phrase: "I love it when a plan comes together"!
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Or as Face puts it:
  "That's not even a real smile. It's just a bunch of teeth messing with my mind!"
• The Chessmaster
• Cool Old Guy
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually towards his enemies.
• Determinator
• Guile Hero
• The Hero
• The Leader: Type I.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His nickname.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His first name is seldom spoken, not even by his own teammates.
• Same Face, Different Name: George Peppard also played a crook in the fourth season's opener "Judgement Day".
• Smug Smiler
• Team Dad
• The Trickster

Templeton "Faceman" Peck

• Actor Allusion: The episode "Steel" featured a homage to Battlestar Galactica, in which Dirk Benedict starred as Lt. Starbuck. In "Steel", the team visits Universal Studios, where Face sees a Cylon passing by, with a "Don't I know you from some place"-look on his face.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• The Casanova
• The Charmer
• Chick Magnet: He can attract women even when he's trying to focus on someone else.
• Con Man
• Cool Car: His Corvette.
• Cultured Badass
• Deadpan Snarker
• Distressed Dude
• Everyone Calls Him Barkeep
• Handsome Lech
• The Lancer
• Lovable Rogue
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mr. Fanservice
• Number Two: To Hannibal.
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• The Other Darrin: Dirk Benedict was creator Stephen J. Cannell's first choice for the role of Face, but the producers hired Tim Dunigan to play the character in the pilot. After the episode was broadcasted, critics found him too young for a person who fought in Vietnam, and the actor was also too tall. So the producers, having heard of Cannell's choice of Benedict, then hired the latter instead.
• The Scrounger

H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock

• Ace Pilot
• Badass Adorable
• Beware the Silly Ones
• Berserk Button: "THRASHBAGS!!"
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
  • Let's Get Dangerous
• Executive Meddling: Schultz hardly appeared in "Children of Jamestown" (the first episode after the pilot") as he was on the edge of being written out. After seeing the pilot, critics found the character of Murdock too childish and unrealistic for a show like this. However test audiences loved the character too much, he was saved.
• Fun Personified
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Schultz had a recurring role as Barclay on Star Trek. He's also provided voices for a lot of video game characters at this point.
  • In the film, he is Wikus
• Hidden Depths
• Improbable Piloting Skills
• In-Series Nickname: H.M. not only stands for his nickname, but also his real name, which we are never told.
• Large Ham
• Last Name Basis
• Lunatic Loophole
• Man Child
• Nice Hat: His baseball cap.
• The Nicknamer
• Obfuscating Insanity: Arguably.
• Obfuscating Stupidity
• Omniglot: He can speak several languages.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: H.M. not only stands for his nickname, but also his real name, which we are never told.
• Once an Episode: Breaking him out of the asylum. Until the final season, in which he was devastated to learn that he'd been declared sane and released permanently.
• OOC Is Serious Business: There's a handful of instances where he drops his idiot routine and becomes deadly serious. It's a signal the excrement has just hit the jet turbine.
• Team Chef: In the film. He approaches cooking the same way he does flying: High skill level and cheerful disregard for common sense.
• The Trickster
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With B.A.
• Wacky Guy

Bosco Albert "Bad Attitude" Baracus

• And Starring
• Actor Allusion: Many of B.A.'s characteristics are based on that of Mr. T himself, such as the mohawk cut and the gold chains.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "I ain't getting on no plane!"
• Berserk Button: Murdock mostly.
• The Big Guy
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Bruiser with a Soft Center
• Catch Phrase: "Shut up fool!" to Murdock. And "He's on the jazz" about Hannibal.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Scooter", the nickname his mother gave to him. It only appears in that episode though.
• Emotional Bruiser
• Friend to All Children: Surprisingly.
• Genius Bruiser
• Gentle Giant: At least, whenever women or kids are present.
• Good Is Not Nice
• Grumpy Bear
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Especially when he's near Murdock.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• Perpetual Frowner
• Put on a Bus: IT ALMOST HAPPENED. Around season 4, which was a hard time for the show, Mr. T many times threatened to quit. Rumors say that NFL Player William "The Refrigerator" Perry would replace him. Luckily, Mr. T decided to stay.
• Scary Black Man
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Murdock.
• Why Did It Have To Be Flying?: Hates flying, mostly because of Murdock's piloting skills. Giving him drugged milk to knock him out so they can get him on a plane is a Running Gag.

Amy Amanda Allen

• Alliterative Name
• Brainy Brunette
• The Chick
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Besides the episode after her departure, in which Decker mentions she's working in Jakarta, Indonesia, Amy just vanished from the series. The final episode of the second season was "Curtain Cull" in which Murdock was seriously wounded. While saving his life, we see flashbacks from previous episodes. And NONE of these flashbacks have Amy in them. They never even mention her again.
• Hot Scoop
• In-Series Nickname: Triple A.
• Out of Focus: After the pilot, the characters had little impact in the following episodes, until she was...
• Put on a Bus: In the middle of season 2.
• The Smurfette Principle

Tawnia Baker

• And Starring: Every episode in which she appears. Unlike Amy, she never was added into the intro.
• The Chick
• Hot Scoop
• Put on a Bus: Beginning of season 3.
• The Smurfette Principle: But, unlike Amy, she was never a full-time member of the team.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Is one for Amy.
• You Look Familiar: Marla Heasly appeared in an earlier episode, as Cherise, one of Face's yacht companions.

Frankie "Dishpan" Santana

• Promoted to Opening Titles: In the first two episodes of that season, Frankie was only a guest star, as he was credited with "And Eddie Velez as Frankie Santana"
• Remember the New Guy: Supposedly, Frankie had worked at the film studio for a long time. But before the fifth season, Hannibal, who also worked at the studio, never mentioned a special effects guy named Frankie Santana.
• The Sixth Ranger
• What Could Have Been: His name was originally going to be Frankie Sanchez.

Col. Lynch

• Put on a Bus: He made a comeback in season 3's episode "Showdown!"

Col. Roderick Decker (seasons 2-4, and 1 episode in season 5)

• Arch-Enemy: For Hannibal, in particular.
• Colonel Badass
• Genre Savvy: He never underestimates the A-Team and he has almost captured them a few times. Still, no matter how genre savvy, you cannot win against Hannibal's plans.
• Jerkass
• Put on a Bus
  • The Bus Came Back: In the fifth season's "Trial on fire".
• Smug Snake
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Lynch.

Capt. Crane

• Put on a Bus

Col. Briggs

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He only appeared in the episode "Fire!". Originally, Decker was suppose to appear, but actor Lance LeGault was unable because he was currently working on Magnum PI. Briggs really looked and almost sounds like Decker.
• Put on a Bus: After only one episode.
• What Could Have Been: When this episode first showed up, people thought that Brigss was a permanent character, and that each season would have a different antagonist (Lynch in season 1 and Decker and season 2, and Briggs for this season.), but it turned out different.

Gen. Harlan "Bull" Fullbright

• Actor Allusion: Jack Ging played the villain in two episodes on the same show before his role as Fullbright.
• Heel Face Turn
• Killed Off for Real
• Real Men Wear Pink: Gen. Fullbright's trademark white scarf. He luckily he didn't wear it when he died.

Gen. Hunt Stockwell

• Actor Allusion: Stockwell was very much the same as Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• And Starring
• Catch Phrase: "Do it... my way!"
• Batman Gambit
• Cool Old Guy: It is Robert Vaughn after all.
• Executive Meddling: Vaughn was added to the cast because he was friends with Peppard and it was hoped he could help ease tensions between Peppard and Mr. T.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: Unlike the other recurring militaries who chased the A-team during the series, Stockwell would be the first (and only) to be become a main character. It may have something to do with that he's played by the great Robert Vaughn and/or that his character was more important to the storyline than his predecessors.
• The Unreveal: Unfortunately, the series was canceled before we would know if he really was a bad guy who only used the team for his own good, or actually wanted to clear their names.

Lt. Sosa

• Tsundere: To Faceman.

Col. Morrison

• Killed Off for Real: Happened offscreen.
• Posthumous Character

Ray Brenner

• The Faceless
• Posthumous Character

The Narrator

• Opening Narration: "In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit..." And you know the rest.
• The Faceless
• Put on a Bus: Sort of. He didn't do the opening narration anymore for the fifth and final season since it's intro was heavily changed. (Respectively, now the team is finally arrested and working for Stockwell, it became useless to say these lines.)