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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
Submission address: [email protected] (note the change!!)
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
Please use the following addresses for subscribe/unsubscribe
and back issue requests:
[email protected], [email protected]
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DATE: August 6, 1995
ISSUE: 24
VOLUME: 1
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Lots of little odds and ends to mention this time. First, it seems there's still some problems with the umich server, so if you try to send a message there and it doesn't go through, forward it over to me at [email protected] and I'll stick it in the next newsletter. Hopefully things will be straightened out soon...
I wanted to respond to a couple of threads & questions that werebrought up while I was away. First, Barry ([email protected]) asked:
>I hope the fans can help me out here: is it true that Mr T threw a
>temper trantrum on a ship during the filming of one of the episodes?
>I read that after this alleged incident, the producers were planning
>to phase him out. True or false?
True, although exactly what happened is not entirely clear. The episode being filmed was "Judgement Day," the 2-hour 4th-season opener.According to an article in the TV Guide (November 29, 1986):
"While filming last season's opening episode aboard a cruise ship, Mr. T, in the words of one source at the scene, became "a little screwy." It seems that the air conditioning was aggravating his asthma, passengers on the ship were aggravating him, and he was already aggravated over a personal family loss. He walked off the set (not on the water--he was actually flown), then telephoned Cannell with a list of demands. Cannell then, in his word, "fired" T, who in turn rescinded his demands and went back to the show."
While this article doesn't mention it, this incident apparently set off a big fued between T and Peppard, and the two wouldn't talk to each other off the set for a long time. I'm not sure exactly when they supposedly reconciled, but by the start of the 5th season it seems things were pretty much back to normal between the two stars.
Barry also mentioned:
>I think there may have been an episode in which someone was killed.
Yes. Actually more than once people were mentioned having died or were killed off-screen during the course of an episode (the brother of the game warden in "Skins," for instance, or Face's "father" in "Family Reunion), but there were two instances of on-screen deaths that I can remember. Once was in "The Rabbit that Ate Las Vegas," when the one guy was thrown out of the window. I think that was shown on screen, but I'm not entirely sure. The second time and the one most people I think remember is General Fulbright getting killed in "The Sound of Thunder." But I think HM already mentioned this in a post while I was away so excuse my redundance.
Now, on to the idea of a reunion movie:
As some people suggested, I too would love to see one--if it was done correctly. Of course Cannell and Lupo would have to be involved in it and the writing (whatever happened to Lupo anyway? About the only thing I've heard mentioned he was involved in recently was a Hunter movie. I actually liked a lot of his A-Team scripts better than Cannell's...) Revenging Hannibal's death could be interesting, but perhaps a bit too serious a plot-line to really be done in a movie. I think a lot of us would like to think Hannibal lives on even if Peppard isn't with us anymore. Personally I would just love to see Dwight and T together again, bickering as always, if Dirk doesn't want to do anything A-Team ever again. But I'm not holding my breath to see it anytime soon. Anyway, if it was done I agree that it would have to have the biggest and best chase-and-shoot-em-up sequence ever seen on TV! Something to rival the Die Hard movies, at the very least. :-)
And please, if anyone spots anything more about T doing the Genie in Aladin, I would love to hear more about it (news clippings, photots, if possible. I think he'd be *perfect* for the part!)
That's all for the old news. Now on to the new stuff...
Dwight Schultz news:
Do I ever not have any? :-) Well, I just found out this past week that he was in an episode of the new Outer Limits program on Showtime last Sunday (August 30th). If anyone happened by some miracle to tape it please let me know as I missed it and would love to see it.
The A-Team Soundtrack CD:
Well, I finally got my copy sent over from England and would like to recommend it strongly to everyone! It's really excellent. The music clips come all from episodes early in the first season. For instance, you get the opening act music from "The Out of Towners" and "The Rabbit that Ate Las Vegas," about 3 or 4 clips from the "Pros and Cons" episode and "Mexican Slayride," and some other good stuff. My favorite track is "Young Hannibal," which contains several musical themes that would be heard again and again in A-Team episodes over the years. Plus, you get the super-extended version of the theme song that was only played occaisionally over extra-long closing credits (running time 3:27. There is a 10-second shorter version of the theme on the cd as well, without the drum intro.) I only have two complaints--one, that it's too short, clocking in at under 40 minutes total running time. Second, just that the music is only from the first few episodes, and there's a lot of great stuff that isn't on the cd. It would have been nice to have, for instance, that "Trouble on Wheels" song they kept using in different episodes. But those are minor quibbles, overall it's a great cd (with a cool cover picture of a huge explosion :-)
A-Team related 'zine information:
A few people have asked me about finding A-Team fanzines or multi-media zines with A-Team stories in them. Well, I wish there was more stuff out there but today there really isn't much available (besides my own 'zine, but I won't talk about that now again, I promise!) However, I did recently get a catalog of zines from the following address that had some A-Team stuff in it:
Bill Hupe and Peg Kennedy
Footrot Flats
916 Lamb Rd.
Mason, MI 49954-9445 USA
What they had was a number of authorized reprints of British multi-media zines (including "Frak" and "Airwaves") that contained a fair amount of A-Team stuff. There is one special edition of "Airwaves" for sale containing two A-Team/Battlestar Gallactica crossovers, for instance. There are a number of other multi-media zines with A-Team stories listed as well. They claim to have a lot of old used zines for sale as well, but when I asked if they had anything A-Team they said they didn't. Anyway, if you want their catalog you should send a large SASE to the above address.
Trivia Question:
First the answer to my last question--
>Which mobster, mentioned as being dead in the early episode
>"The Rabbit That Ate Las Vegas," magically appeared alive
>and kicking in a later episode (and in fact was the main bad-
>guy-of-the-week?)
No one dared an answer to this one! It was, in fact "Crazy" Tommy T. Hannibal makes an off-handed remark about him in the "Rabbit" episode as being dead, yet wouldn't you know it he's live and kicking in another Lupo-penned episode from the second season, "Steel." One could never accuse the show for being stickler for continuity. This week's question should be a bit easier:
>Which 1st season episode borrwed a final climactic sequence from
>directly from a popular movie?
Finally this issue, I have a message to pass on to everyone here from one of our subscribers looking for suggestions:
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Subj: No Subject
Date: Thu, Aug 3, 1995 7:40 AM EST
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Hello Nicole,
Every year new university student have to be introduced to their new environment (school, city, bars, clubs, other students). As a part of this introduction we are origanizing a weekend. At this camp-weekend about 120 students can get to know each other a little bit better. Our theme is the A-theme, eh team. What I would like to know is if you or any other newsgroup member has any ideas for A-team related activities. Activities for 120 persons but also for smaller subgroups.
You can mail these directly to me ([email protected])
or to Jeroen ([email protected]) or Tom ([email protected]).
Groeten,
Adri van Binsbergen
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I think one thing that could be a lot of fun is to take small groups of people and give them a box full of seemingly useless objects (chains, pulleys, nuts and bolts, small wheels, wire, springs, whatever) and tell them to try to go build something useful with it, like the A-Team would. They could use any other objects they could find or might have on them. The most creative (not necessarily violent!) designs would win a prize.
Anyway, that about wraps things up for now. Someone requested some information on Stephen Cannell so I'll see what I can dig up for the next issue.
Until then,
nicole
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Quote of the week:
Babe-of-the-week: "Is there anything you can't do?"
Hannibal: "Ballet. We stopped going to class."
(from "Trouble Brewing")
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