This is a clapperboard from from the first season of the The A-Team that was filmed in 1983, starring George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, Dwight Schultz, and of course, Mr. T.
The A-Team had been conceived by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo to be a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max, and Hill Street Blues, with “Mr. T driving the car.”
Above Video: This is the remastered trailer for the original “A-Team” TV series that debuted in 1983. The theme song is still considered one of the most memorable in television history.
The formula behind the series was relatively simple but it worked well, in fact it worked better than NBC expected. Almost no one thought the series would be a hit, but on January the 30th, 1983 when the first episode aired it secured over 1/4 of the American television watching public – making it the 4th most popular show on television on its debut.
The A-Team would quickly establish itself as one of the must-watch shows of the era, providing subject matter for countless water cooler conversations. The series proved popular with all age groups between 7 and 70+, and despite the frequent on-screen violence there were rarely any serious injuries.
The formula that made the show so popular typically revolved around the key characters wanting to clear their names – they were all former-special forces who had been court-martialed and sentenced to military prison for a crime they hadn’t committed.
The men had escaped to Los Angeles, where they worked as soldiers of fortune while evading capture and working to clear their records. The 1983 GMC Vandura van used by the A-Team became a character in its own right, with many replicas being made by fans over the years.
The “A-Team” Clapperboard Shown Here
As far as pieces of 1980s TV memorabilia go, this one is hard to beat. It’s an original clapperboard from the first season of the hit show, it’s made from wood and it still carries the information from filming.
This is the main cast of The A-Team, the characters are (left to right): Templeton “Faceman” Peck, John “Hannibal” Smith, H.M. “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock, and B. A. Baracus. The actors are Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, Dwight Schultz, and of course, Mr. T.
The information shown on the board includes: “Stephen J. Cannell Prod.”, “A-Team”, “2nd Unit”, Dir: C. Baxley”, Cam Al Francis”, “Date 3-15-83 B”, “Day Ext. 1110.” The clapper has been taped shut to stop it from moving or accidentally being broken off.
It’s now being offered for sale by Heritage Auctions in an online auction with a starting bid of $600 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here, at the time of writing there are still a few days left to bid.
Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions and Universal Television
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
