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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
Submission address: [email protected]
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
Please use the following addresses for subscribe/unsubscribe
and back issue requests:
[email protected], [email protected]
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DATE: May 22, 1995
ISSUE: 19
VOLUME: 1
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Hi everybody!
Time to get started on this issues matters-of-business...
First, the answer to last issue's trivia question: Can you identify at least 3 different occaisions when the team used food or some edible object of some type--as a weapon?
One brave person attempted an answer and got pretty close.
>From [email protected]:
>I can't remember the name of the episode, but I believe the A-Team was
>somewhere in the Central Valley of California, like Fresno or somewhere.
>Anyway, they were helping some farmers, and they made a "Lettuce Shooter"
>and shot heads of lettuce at the enemy.
Actually it was cabbages ("I hate cabbages, fool, so don't be talkin' about them!"), and the episode was "Labor Pains."
>Also, I'm not sure if they used the food as a weapon, but one time they
>had to help a man and his daughter transport their watermelon's. I
>remember because they totally thrashed Amy's new little European import
>car to make a little armored car.
They did use the watermelons as a weapon, dumping them out of a chopper and onto the bad guys' truck ("Nice drop kemosabe"). The episode was "Operation Watermelon."
Other episodes I had in mind were:
"Mission of Peace" -if i remember correctly the little old ladies bake some deadly muffins.
"Trouble Brewing" -they use high pressure shooters of the Hi-Brite soda to take out the bad guys in the end.
Also, I might be mistaken as I haven't watched this one in a while, but didn't they also use taffy in "Showdown!" to put the bad guys in a rather sticky situation?
This week's question inolves what seems to be Hannibal and Face's favorite song: "You Are My Sunshine." How many times did they end up singing this lovely ditty on the show and in what situations?
Moving on to other matters...those of you in the States might have caught the little blurb on Stephen Cannell in last week's TV Guide "What I Watch" section. Apparently he's just published his first novel--anyone read it yet? Anyway, when asked to chose which of his many tv shows he thought were the best, he picked Rockford Files, A-Team, and Wiseguy.
I got a number of requests for the Dwight Schultz interview about UFOs, so here it goes, at least the start of it. FYI, this is from "UFO" magazine, 14 Vol 9, No. 4 1994. Much thanks again to Valerie for getting this article to me in the first place!
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"It's No Act--He's into UFOs" Article by Dean Lamanna
In the universe, some stars are brighter than others. And so it is in Hollywood. When it comes to doing interviews, most of today's celebrities--ever mindful of why they're celebrated--would rather stay in character, tell a dumb joke or capitalize dutifully on some personal crisis than reveal their quirks or discuss their beliefs, religious or otherwise. Armed with a battery of tasty, all-purpose sound bites, many actors have learned to work the press to the point where even the most skilled reporters slip into complacency, settling for a risk-free and mainstream-friendly, question-and-quip rote.
So I found it refreshing, if a tad unsettling, that seven years and over a hundred celebrity interviews couldn't quite prepare me for the bracing personality of Dwight Schultz. While best known for his manic turn as "Howling Mad" Murdock in the long-running NBC series "The A-Team" and as the awkward Lt. Reginald Barclay in episodes of the even longer-running "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the Baltimore-born performer is closer in mien to his higher-brow roles, including those of Major Alistair Ross in the Broadway production of "The Crucifer of Blood" and the atomic-bomb daddy J. Robert Oppenheimer in the feature film "Fat Man and Little Boy." And as one spends time with him, it becomes apparent that there's more to this man--with his eclectic tastes in reading material (Albert Camus, Heinz Pagels) and entertainment (jazz music, roller coasters)--than meets the eye.
Armchair Intellectual
Indeed, over a savory lunch of sushi and tempura at his favorite Japanese restauant in the San Fernando Valley, Schultz displays all the signs of an armchair intellectual--notably a tireless inquisitiveness and a sobering adeptness at theoretical connect-the-dots.
We're here to talk about his long-standing interest in UFO phenomena, which peaked recently during a close encounter with this periodical at a local bookshop. "I've been burned so many times by going through the junk," he says, waving his chopsticks. "But, 'UFO's' attitude toward the subject is very similar to mine. It's not an advocacy; its philosophy is more 'I want to believe this, but I want it proved.' I'm not into debunking or ridiculing, but I realize that the field is littered with hoaxers and charlatans. And why is that? What can we do to change that?"
Schultz doesn't pretend to have the answer. Nor does he suggest that his ideas or personal theories--several of which we'll broach later--are more than that. Yet after a decade of reading UFO-related books, talking to experts and recording television and radio acounts, he suspects that the sleazy and hypocritical elements of the field are promulgated by the government to keep it fenced off from "real" science. "I'm a mathematical illiterate, but I'm fascinated by science," Schultz says. "And I've talked to a lot of scientists. Ironically, in private they don't say disparaging things about the UFO area. In fact, their eyes soryt of roll around and they kind of go, "Hmm'- like there's something there and they don't want to talk about it. But they're not that kind when they are speaking in public. They're cruel, in fact. Which I think is also quite interesting."
Carter's sighting
Schultz's curiosity about matters extraterrestrial deepened as he began to notice what he calls "a pattern of belief" displayed by those who are antagonistic toward the field. To help illustrate this point, he places a cassette player on the table between us and replays the excerpt from a 1980 broadcast of the Michael Jackson radio talk show. The guest is former president Jimmy Carter, who, in a gripping account, vividly and explicity recalls a UFO he and others had seen over southern Georgia years earlier. "What it was, I have no idea," Carter says in closing.
"It's a very typical UFO sighting," says Schultz, clicking off the recorder. "Carter said it changed color and, in the physical report, described it as being about the size of the moon. And he saw it with about twenty-five other people. Now, (radio host) Michael Jackson has an extraordinary ego. He can remember names, dates, places and phone conversations from callers years ago, and very specifically."
Here's why that's important: About six months later, according to Schultz, Carl Sagan appeared on the show to plug a new book. "A caller wanted to know about the existence of extraterrestrial life and UFOs, and Sagan gave his typical [Schultz imitates the astronomer's distinctive delivery] 'Well, these things are never seen by more than two or three people at a time, and there's never any corroboration by radar triangulation.' And Michel Jackson chimes this is a paraphrase 'Why is it that the only people who ever see these things are off-duty, half-drunk policemen on the banks of the Mississippi and single mothers coming home from the Pillsbury bake-off?' and I thought to myself, You pigmy! just six months earlier Jackson had heard the president of the goddamn United States--a man he reveres!--say that, along with fellow witnesses, he had seen a UFO.
"Now, Jackson could remember a caller three years ago calling about some event in Nicaragua. But *this* information could not be calculated, couldn't be stored, because it did not comport with his predetermined belief as to what was what in the world."
Going back even farther, there are other blatant instances of witnesses pilloried by the media, says Schultz--citing television journalist Mike Wallace's grilling of Major Donald Keyhoe. Wallace took Keyhoe to task over four Air Force documents described by Keyhoe, informing him that the Air Force steadfastly denied they existed. Then, according to Schultz, Wallace attempted to get Keyhoe to praise astronomer Donald Menzel, a well-known debunker.
"Keyhoe's stock dropped," Schultz says. "He was made to look like a liar on television." Today, he adds--thanks to the Freedon of Information Act--the documents have been obtained.
Exactly as described
"They are *exactly* as Keyhoe described them. I think these should be sent off to Wallace, who kept saying to Keyhoe, 'Why would the Air Force lie to you? Why would they lie to us?' Now he should be saying, 'Why was I utilized by the Air Force to lie to the American Public?' That's the question."
Schultz believes that military personnel who were active during the intense burst of UFO activity from 1947 to 1952 and wanted to come clean about what they saw were surpressed by the government. "They did everything they could to ridicule them," he says. "We even have the document which states that this was going to be the government's tool--debunking and ridiculing. So they implemented that policy, and it has been successful to this day--to the point where you can't get someone like Michael Jackson to remember, after just six months, an incident involving the president of the United States."
To be continued next time...
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Finally in the information and silly trivia department, according to [email protected], the group that did the "Idiot Grin" video with the A-Team figures in it was called Do-Re-Mi.
Now on to some postings...
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Subj: A-Team books
Date: Tue, May 9, 1995 2:56 PM EST
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Nicole, Looking in past issues of OTJ and also in the Distasis bibliography, only six books of the series seem to be mentioned, all written by Chris Heath and concluding with the original story of the Team`s escape from the`maximium security stockade`.
I have four other books than those mentioned (numbers 7-10 surprisingly enough) - are these maybe only available in the UK or something, or have they just been forgotten about?
When I have sorted it out I'll post a list of all the titles, authors etc.,plus I know a good second book mail order firm in the UK where they are available, generally in good condition and I'll let you know the address - I don't know how soon that'll be though as exams are looming!!! Just watched the "Tr-ash bags" episode yesterday (much more interesting than revising!) and can finally appreciate your comments about it, what an excellent episode - but then all the first season ones are pretty good in my opinion.
Does anyone in the UK have many copies of episodes? I reached 71 over Easter but don't have access to many more unless they're shown on TV which isn't very reliable. I'd love to hear from anyone who'd be willing to copy some for me, or if anyone would like copies, please let me know.
Hope to post some more soon,
Cheers,
Peter.
Exeter, UK
[email protected]
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Peter,
Please keep us updated on the books when you get a chance. I know I only ever saw 1-6 in the stores in the States and I diligantly kept an eye out for them when they were originally being published. #6 was awesome! Wish I could still find my copy...
nicole
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Date: Tue, May 9, 1995 1:40 PM EST
From: TanelornCS
Subj: A little factoid
To: Onthejazz
Hey there!
I just have a little fact that I thought might be kind of interesting, especially for any college basketball fans out there. I'm a student at the University of Kansas, and one of our basketball players, the 6'11" power forward Raef LaFrentz, is named after a George Peppard character in one of his movies. I can't remember the name of the movie off the top of my head, but I will dig through some newspapers and see if I can't find it. By the way...look out for Raef! He's going to be incredible! Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU! ::grin::
Chad Schaffer
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Well, that's it for now. Z you later & stay on the jazz.
nicole
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Quote of the week:
Face: "You want me to go out there and ask B.A. for
PAPRIKA?!" Murdock: "You remember that girl you had me
call--" Face & Murdock (in unison): "Paprika."
--From "Cup A' Joe"
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