In 1982, Peppard auditioned for and won the role of Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith in the television action adventure series "The A-Team", acting alongside Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz. In the series, the A-Team was a team of renegade commandos on the run from the military for "a crime they did not commit" while serving in the Vietnam War. The A-Team members made their collective living as soldiers of fortune, but they helped only people who came to them with justified grievances.