Members of the U.S. Army Special Forces will emphatically assert that the "Green Beret" is a hat and not the man who wears it. Nevertheless, for a time in the 1960s the Green Berets and the men who wore them became a national fad emerging in a wide variety of popular culture referents. After a decline in popularity during the 1970s — coinciding with the American public's backlash against the Vietnam War — the Green Berets gripped the popular imagination again beginning with the Rambo film franchise in 1982. They continue to appear as both major and minor referents in popular culture — especially in movies and television — often serving as a shorthand signifier for a shady or covert military background for a fictional character. As a dramatic device, this can cut both ways — i.e., lead an audience to either admire or fear a character.

The A-Team is an American action-adventure television series that ran on NBC from January 1983 to March 1987 about former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The four members of the team were tried by court martial for a crime they had not committed. They were convicted and sentenced to serve terms in a military prison, but later escaped to Los Angeles and began working as soldiers of fortune, while trying to clear their names and avoid capture by law enforcement and military authorities. The series was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo. A feature film based on the series was released by 20th Century Fox in 2010.