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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
Submission address: [email protected]
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
[email protected], [email protected]
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DATE: December, 1994
ISSUE: 8
VOLUME: 1
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Greetings again everyone!
We're back on-line again after the Thanksgiving holiday. A lot of things to bring up now that I'm back...
First, while at home last week I managed to find my old copy of Cracked magazine with the A-Team/Love Boat parody in it. FYI, it's Issue #197, September 1983. Rather amusing, with some really cheesy bad jokes and name puns (Cannibal, Mace, B.O, Murderdock, and Lamey). Typical line: "The kidnappers have BO!" "Well, that's what they get for not showering for 2 weeks." "No, Cannibal, they have OUR B.O.!")
Anyway, I don't know how difficult or easy it would be to find this issue anymore, so if anyone's interested I can make photocopies for you, it's 8 pages in total (counting the cover picture). Also, if anyone has scanning equipment and could possibly make some jpg of gif pictures of the pages, please let me know.
One thing that I couldn't find while at home, much to my annoyance, was my set of A-Team novelization paperbacks from about 10 years back--does anyone remember these? I think there were 6 in the series. Two were based on the 2-hour episodes, Mexican Slayride and When You Coming Back..., and 3 were each based on 2 episodes, all from the 1st and 2nd season. The last one, which was the one I really liked the best, was an original story, called something like "Operation Desert Sun (not Storm!)" and was set somewhere in the Middle East I think. Anyway, has anyone seen these anywhere? I'm really pissed that I seem to have lost my copies :-(
A few weeks back Jasper mentioned the A-Team visiting Europe many years back. Here is what the TV Guide had to say about it (from the June 23, 1984 issue:)
"HAILED IN HOLLAND"
George Peppard had to stay home, but his A-Team co-stars Dirk Benedict, Mr. T, and Dwight Schultz were mustered out and ready. The plan: accompany series producer Stephen J. Cannell on a whirlwind promotional tour of the Netherlands, where their show (subtitled in Dutch) is a big hit. Did the plan come together? And how. "We arrived at the Amsterdam airport," says Cannell, "and there were 25,000 screaming people to meet us. It took us 15 minutes to walk 20 yards to the customs shed." After that, things got hectic: "There were 4000 people in front of our hotel. They had to board up the windows." The exuberant reaction "shocked us," says Cannell. "I have videotapes of the tour. I show them to people in the office here and they can't believe it."
Another passing note for this week-
Dwight Schultz did appear in this past week's episode of Babylon 5, and turned in another excellent performance. He played a disturbed veteran from the Minbari/Earth war who was now surving as a B5 station "lurker," and who knew more than a few things about a strange presence on board an old derelict ship that B5 comes across. A very creepy, intense episode. The way it ended I got the distinct impression we may be seeing more of Dwight's character on the show in the future. Anyway, if anyone missed it and would like a video copy just let me know.
Finally this week, I was thinking over break that what's a good mailing list without the occaisional membership poll? So this week I'm going to present the first official
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On the Jazz Subscribers Survey!!!
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If you can take a little time to fill this out it would be most appreciated.
Answer as many or as few questions as you can, but the more people that respond the better! Responses will be accepted for the next few weeks and results posted shortly thereafter.
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General info
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[1] Your age:
[2] Sex:
[3] Country of residence:
[4] What other tv programs, besides the A-Team, are you a fan of (old or new)?
[5] Would you say that you
1. Watch tons of tv (at least several hours every day)
2. Watch some tv (not more than an hour or two a day)
3. Watch very little tv (not more than a few hours a week at most)
[6] Are you a member of other fan-clubs or email-groups? How many?
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A-Team questions: For multiple choice questions, brief
explantions for your choices are encouraged!
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[7] How long have you been a fan of The A-Team?
[8] Do you still watch the show:
1. On video tape
2. In syndicated reruns
3. I haven't seen the show in ----- years
[9] On a scale of 1 to 10, how big of a fan of the A-Team would you consider yourself (10 being totally-obsessively-fanatical)?
[10] Who was your favorite member of the team?
1. Hannibal
2. B.A.
3. Face
4. Murdock
[11] Your favorite A-team accessory?
1. Amy
2. Tawnia
3. Frankie
4. The Van
[12] Your least favorite accessory?
[13] Who was your favorite military bad-guy?
1. Lynch
2. Decker
3. Briggs
4. Fulbright
[14] Your least favorite bad-guy?
(Note: I couldn't decide whether to list Stockwell as an accessory or a bad-guy. Feel free to choose him as a write-in for either).
[15] Who was your favorite guest star ever on the show?
[16] What were your top 5 favorite episodes? (If you don't know the titles, just give a brief description, or the air-date from the episode list)
[17] What were your least favorite episodes?
[18] Which season of shows, as a whole, did you think was the best?
1. 1st season
2. 2nd season
3. 3rd season
4. 4th season
5. 5th season
[19] The worst season?
[20] If you had to pick one reason why you liked the show, what would it be?
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Ok, that's all from me for now.
Until next week,
nicole
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Quote of the week:
"Kill him. He is a fool!" - Nasty Terrorist Dude
"Sure, kill the fool! Kill the fool! You know there are
places in this world where people worship fools? Like
Hollywood California!"
- Murdock, from "Dishpan Man"
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Subj: No Subject
Date: Mon, Nov 28, 1994 4:45 PM EST
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Hello all. I have a couple of questions. First, I seem to remember an episode where Tawnia leaves, or something like that. The most I remember is that she had trouble deciding whether or not to leave the team or not, and what she was entitled to if she did leave. Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? My memory is very fuzzy.
Also, is there are known reason why the actor laying Face is different in the first episode? I'm just curious, cause I just got to see Mexican Slayride.
I'm off now. Thanks in advance.
val
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Valerie,
The last episode with Tawnia was I believe "The Bend in the River," the 2-hour episode from the 3rd season. Now I haven't caught this one in years either so maybe someine else can provide more specific details on Tawnia's departure. If I remember correctly at the end of the episode Tawnia gets married to her boyfriend that the team had gone off to rescue in this episode. I guess as a married woman she wasn't about to go around chasing bad guys with the team anymore. Basically, Cannell wanted to write her out of the show, a good idea IMHO at least.
As far as the different actor playing Face in the 1st episode, apparently the part HAD been intended for Dirk Bennedict from the start, but some head honchos at NBC didn't want him for Face and didn't hire him until after this episode had been filmed. That little tidbit of info comes from Dirk's book "Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy," which I don't believe is in print anymore but you can probably locate at a used bookstore somewhere (I did for only $5.00).
--nicole
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Subj: misc
Date: Fri, Dec 2, 1994 1:24 PM EST
From: [email protected]
X-From: [email protected] (roberta chi-woon kwong)
To: [email protected]
First of all, thanks to Nicole for sending me the back issues of the newsletter! I was an avid viewer back during the series' original run, and I'm just starting to get back into it again now that it's running daily on a local channel ("Wheel of Fortune" is playing even as I type).
Further appearances of Mr. T: The first time I ever saw him was on an episode of "Diff'rent Strokes," where he pays a visit and Arnold's...girlfriend, I guess...develops a crush on him. Of course, at the time I had no clue who the man was. I've also seen him, more recently, as a guest host on A&E's "Evening at the Improv."
I used to love "Battlestar Galactica" when it was on as well, but I was very young at the time, and never connected Dirk Benedict between one and the other.
Are there any plans to turn the newsletter into an unmoderated reflector? Running discussions can work really well in that format. I may have the ability to set that up from my site, but I'd have to look into it a little more closely.
Robin C. Kwong ("er)
Leapers do it all accelerated.
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As far as setting up an unmoderated reflector, I would be for it, I just have not had the time to figure out how to run one thru my school email account. AOL is promising to make this feature available and easy-to-use (supposedly, at least) in the "near future," but when exactly that would be I have no clue.
Anyway, Robin, if you are interested in finding out if you can get one running from your account, please go ahead and keep me informed. I would also like to know what everyone else thinks on the issue of newsletter vs. real-time format, they both have their advantages and disadvantages.
--nicole
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Subj: No Subject
Date: Sun, Dec 4, 1994 1:42 AM EST
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Hello all. I have something to bring up. A friend who does A-Team with me and I talk a lot about the roles of the characters. One of our favorite topics is of Hannibal as a father figure/leader. There are many scenes that come to mind to demonstrate that. The fact that he is the main talker in situations; he is the mediator between BA and Murdoc, and sometimes Face; many other similar things.
There is also the observation of the team working as a team, always seeming to know what is going on with the others, and being able to anticipate in large measure the other's wishes. And how they work together so well. (Partly due to the leadership of Hannibal, I'm sure)
I also have another question. Anyone have any idea how BA survived in Vietnam with his fear of flying? Did he have the fear then? Any ideas? (It was brought up tonight, and I was curious.)
I'm off now. Bye
val
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About BA & flying...
Hmm. that's something I never thought about...I think BA must've had the fear of flying since Vietnam, I'm remembering a scene in "Body Slam" where Hulk Hogan is asking him if he's still afraid of flying like he was in the war. Perhaps it was too many flights with Murdock that did him in? :-)
About the team working as a team...
That is one of the things I really like about the show too, you get the feeling watching them in action that these are definitely guys who have worked together a looooong time and who know exactly what they can expect from each other. I love some of the fighting scenes where this is played out perfectly, a typical pattern runs like this: Murdock distracts the bad guys, then Hannibal takes advantage of the distraction to start the fight going. Face & Murdock team up on a couple of guys, and if they get in trouble Face just yells for BA who comes along and cleans up the rest of the bad guys. I'm thinking of the "West Coast Turnaround" episode as having a great example of this, but lots of little variations on this appeared in different episodes. ("Steel," "Incident at Crystal Lake," etc.)
--nicole
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