__ ____ ___ ___ _ ___ ___
/ / / \ / / /__ / /__ / /__\ / /
/__/ / \/ / / / /___ /__/ / \ /___ /___
----------------------------------------------------------
...in continuous publication since October 1994!
Newsletter & mailing list maintained by: Nicole Pellegrini
Email address to unsubscribe from newsletter:
*** [email protected] ***
---------------------------------------------------------
DATE: February 4, 1998
ISSUE: 7
VOLUME: 4
----------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL NEWS:
Recent spottings
FANZINE NEWS:
Reminder from Sugar and Spice Press
A-Files now available on-line
Fan Q Award Nominating
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Dirk Benedict interview from Playgirl, 1984.
WEB WATCH
VCR WATCH
---------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL NEWS:
RECENT SPOTTINGS:
->Dirk Benedict has been spotted in a new computer game(!) called "Zork: Grand Inquisitor".
->This past Wednesday night, the Sci-Fi channel rebroadcasted "First Men in the Moon", which featured Dwight Schultz, along with Leonard Nimoy, John DeLancie, Ethan Phillips, and William Shatner.
---------------------------------------------------------
FANZINE NEWS:
REMINDER FROM SUGAR AND SPICE PUBLISHING: Passing this along as requested:
Sugar and Spice Publishing is accepting submissions for their proposed Dirk Benedict theme zines:
"Beneath the Surface" will be anything up to R rated material and artwork. "Any Way You Want It" will be a racier adult zine. (Which, incidentally, is the one getting all the submissions - no pun intended.)
Contributors of never-before-published stories over 5 pages in length will receive a complimentary copy of the zine their work appears in.
Authors of original stories that are 5 pages or less in length, or tales that have been published elsewhere (on the Internet, for instance) will receive a 50% discount for the zine their work appears in.
DEADLINE for submissions is MARCH 1, 1998
Both fanzines are aiming for a SEPT 1, 1998 publication date.
Please send your stories (in RTF if possible) to Mary Sauers at [email protected] (they will be forwarded to the Spice half - Amanda)
or
103 Davenport Street
Chicopee, MA 01013
-----
A-FILES NOW AVAILABLE ON-LINE: If you've been waiting for it, it's finally here. "The A-Files" is our fanzine originally published in the fall of 1997, which features all A-Team/X-Files crossovers. This electronic version is also reedited from the original publication. For further information on how to download, please visit
afiles.html
-----
FAN Q AWARD NOMINATING:
The Fan Q Awards are given every year at MediaWest Convention in May, although all interested individuals are encouraged to nominate and vote for their favorites in fan-fiction and fanzines in the past year. Since we have had so many talented writers appearing in our publications this past year, I'd like to encourage everyone to nominate their favorites for an award! The ballot can be found on-line at http://members.aol.com/sfmediafen/fanq98.htm along with all instructions on how to nominate. Please note that if you are not a member of MediaWest, you must pay a one-time fee of $1 to nominate and vote for that year, although you may then nominate however many titles as you wish. Nominations must be received by March 20, 1998.
Stories from the following Sockii Press 'zines, as well as the 'zines themselves, are eligible for nomination (unless as noted in the publication, the story appeared in print previously elsewhere): PLANS SCAMS AND VANS ISSUES #3 & 4; A TEAM THROUGH TIME, DEADLY MANEUVERS, WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT #1. Note that any crossover story should be nominated as a "multi-fandom" story.
---------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Time to reach back into the dusty bins and boxes in this apartment, to find an article I have a feeling many of you may not have seen before (and before anyone pesters me, NO, there are NO even remotely revealing photos in this magazine, so calm down girls!)
This is a long interview so this will be the first of several segments.
"DIRK BENEDICT: TV's Reluctant Sex Symbol" by Sue Russell (Playgirl, August 1984)
The romantic hero on The A-Team claims Hollywood today is all microwave stars--"Bang! Bang! Voom!"--and fast-food sex.
On the Face of it, Dirk Benedict seems an ideal candidate for this year's spotlighted sex symbol: 5 feet, 11 inches, bronzed, blond, blue-eyes, and the resident womanizer on a top TV series, The A-Team. It's perfect placement for a touch of the Tom Selleck two-step--drumroll, please. Yet so far, 39-year-old Benedict has turned away from the big, bright splash and the wide wash of publicity that could make him a poster-king heartthrob.
Right off the bat it's evident that there's something slightly off-center about this reluctant TV hero. Oh, the Porsche is there, the expensive gear, and the big, fat cigars. But retiring to his location trailer between A-Team takes, Dirk Benedict gives the distinct impression that if the entire TV business slipped into the Pacific one night he'd simply walk off into the sunset without a backward glance.
He admits he feels trapped in a series, and readily confesses that the good things that have come his way have happened almost in spite of himself. He claims he had always had an "I don't need this" attitude, and that it hasn't endeared him to the powers that be. A top network executive once told him to cool it with the cigars and to try to look a little hungrier. Even so, the fame is spiraling.
"We always get what we deserve," Benedict shrugs. "I'm not avoiding being as popular as Tom Selleck, although it's probably true that most actors in my situation would go for the brass ring and say: 'My God! I'm on the hottest show! I'm the romantic lead!' But it's not in me. It just doesn't matter to me."
In fact, as soon as an A-Team episode is safely in the can, Benedict (who plays Templeton "The Face" Peck) usually flies off free as a bird, piloting his single-engine Cessna to his Montana hideout. It's a modest, 20-acre lakeside ranch nestled just eight miles from his newly built hangar.
Yet Benedict isn't someone who just fell into acting. His credentials are classy. After graduating from Whitman College in Washington with a fine arts degree in music (he plays piano and trombone, and also sings), he decided to study in Rochester, Michigan, with John Fernald, the former head of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts who had nurtured such illustrious talents as Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Peter O'Toole. With two years of classical training, Benedict began to appear in repertory theater and Broadway productions.
Considering that background, you'd think it might stick in his throat a bit--all the no-talent, no-training bodies beautiful who flock to Hollywood with their sole aim to get rich and famous fast.
"No, if you come to Hollywood to be a star, that's the right goal," he corrects. "If you come here to be an actor, you're an idiot. Nobody cares! You're not supposed to be an actor. Come on! Let's be honest!
"All you gotta do is get a TV series and you've got covers plastered everywhere. Look at all the little girls who come to this town, 22 years old, and look good in a bikini. They do a TV series--bang--they're on all the covers. They're on there before Laurence Olivier is, for God's sake!"
Benedict describes Hollywood today as a hotbed of hype. "They can sell Spam--it's like selling cars and shoes. This is a town that's built on that, that's why it's so tantalizing to people all over the world because they know they could be a TV star. And you know what? They're right. If you've got a good publicist, you don't even have to to have a personality," he charges.
"It's the microwave stars. Faster, faster. Wood-burning wasn't fast enough, gas and electricity aren't fast enough. Man, we've got microwave movie stars! Bang--it's Flashdance! Bang--Footloose! Voom! Instead of a marriage between America and a Humphrey Bogart or a Clark Gable, it's one-night stands, one after the other. God bless Paul Newman, he may be the last of the old breed of stars."
Forty years ago, Benedict is sure he'd have been under contract to a major studio and nurtured along. "Now there is no film business. If there's a film being made it's for Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Richard Gere, maybe John Travolta. But there are no films for a guy waiting to be discovered."
Although Benedict made his film debut in Georgia, Georgia, a draft-resister tale written by Maya Angelou, the role of which he's proudest was in the 1974 movie W. Benedict played a psychotic, wife-beating killer, opposite Twiggy. "They were looking for Al Pacino and in comes this Troy Donahue type," he says.
Benedict recently finished another of those image-jolting roles in a British-made horror thriller TV film, Tattoo. He plays a weak gambling type who kills an occult leader who happens to be a tattooist. During the struggle, a tattoo starts creeping over his body. The part was a good stretch, he says, but he doesn't lie awake at night salivating over his movie prospects.
"I don't want to be another Richard Gere....Well, I couldn't be another Richard Gere. But I have no desire to become a movie star in that usual way and just be a hired gun. Let's put it this way, I don't care if I never make a big Hollywood movie, if I never make my Butch Cassidy or Superman. I really don't care."
To be continued...
---------------------------------------------------------
WEB WATCH:
Finally, those members of The Church of Murdock can visit an on-line site of worship, at http://pages.prodigy.com/mad_murdock/howlin.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------
VCR WATCH: All times Eastern Standard
DIRK BENEDICT
Body Slam
Wednesday, February 11, 1998 - 10:15 AM - STARZ
MOVIE: Comedy (95 Minutes)
(1987) A music promoter who manages a wrestler puts a rock group with a mat card and starts a fad. Dirk Benedict, Tanya Roberts, Roddy Piper, Captain Lou Albano, Barry Gordon, Charles Nelson Reilly. Directed by Hal Needham. Rated "PG". Adult Language.
Alaska
Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 9:30 AM - SHOW
Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 5:30 PM - SHOW
MOVIE: Drama (120 Minutes)
(1996) Children find an orphaned polar-bear cub while seeking their father, whose plane crashed in the wilderness. {Stereo}. Thora Birch, Vincent Kartheiser, Dirk Benedict, Charlton Heston, Gordon Tootoosis. Directed by Fraser C. Heston. Rated "PG". Adult Language, Adult Situations.
Battlestar Galactica
Thursday, February 5, 1998 - 4:00 PM - SCIFI
"Experiment in Terra". An angelic stranger urges Apollo to intercede on a world called Terra and prevent its destruction in a nuclear holocaust.
Battlestar Galactica
Monday, February 9, 1998 - 4:00 PM - SCIFI
"Take the Celestra". Starbuck's long-lost love (Ana-Alicia) becomes involved in a mutiny led by a power-hungry junior officer. Guest: Paul Fix.
Battlestar Galactica
Tuesday, February 10, 1998 - 4:00 PM - SCIFI
PROGRAM: Science Fiction (60 Minutes)
"The Hand of God". As the fleet prepares for an imminent Cylon attack, Apollo and Starbuck attempt to penetrate the enemy base star.
GEORGE PEPPARD
Banacek
Tuesday, February 10, 1998 - 9:30 AM - AE
Tuesday, February 10, 1998 - 3:30 PM - AE
PROGRAM: Drama (90 Minutes)
"The $3 Million Piracy". A bejeweled coach disappears from the hold of a freighter bound for the Middle East.
DWIGHT SCHULTZ
The Temp
Sunday, February 8, 1998 - 2:00 AM - HBO
MOVIE: Suspense (100 Minutes)
(1993) A junior executive's temporary helper works her way up the ladder with her own deadly agenda. {CC,Stereo}. Timothy Hutton, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dwight Schultz, Oliver Platt, Steven Weber, Colleen Flynn. Directed by Tom Holland. Rated "R". Adult Language, Violence, Adult Situations.
MELINDA CULEA
Brotherly Love
PROGRAM: Comedy (30 Minutes)
Monday--Friday - 6:30 PM - DISN
Down, Out & Dangerous
Thursday, February 5, 1998 - 12:00 PM - USA
MOVIE: Suspense (120 Minutes)
(1995) An escaped killer convict upheaves the lives of a San Diego businessman and his pregnant wife. {CC,Stereo}. Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, Cynthia Ettinger, Steve Hytner, Christine Cavanaugh, Melinda Culea. Directed by Noel Nosseck.
LANCE LEGAULT
The Gambler
Monday, February 9, 1998 - 9:00 PM - WGTW
MOVIE: Western (120 Minutes)
(1980) An Old West poker player acquires a sidekick and sets out to help the son he never knew. Kenny Rogers, Bruce Boxleitner, Christine Belford, Harold Gould, Clu Gulager, Lance LeGault. Directed by Dick Lowry.
A-TEAM
Thursday, February 5, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Skins". Infatuated B.A. volunteers the team to help a Kenyan game warden (Daphne Maxwell) find the poachers who killed her brother. {CC}.
Friday, February 6, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Road Games". As payment for a debt, the mob demands a reformed gambler (Jason Evers) sign over a foster home he and his daughter run. {CC}.
Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Moving Target". Rebels pursue an Arabian princess (Sue Kiel) the team is escorting to her wedding. Guests: John Saxon, Frank Annese. {CC}.
Monday, February 9, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Knights of the Road". The team confronts a greedy towing-service operator (Don Stroud) pressuring a one-truck competitor to fold. {CC}.
Tuesday, February 10, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Waste 'Em!". The team battles a garbage-disposal company sabotaging its competitor and dumping toxic waste into city sewers. {CC}.
Wednesday, February 11, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Bounty". A lovely veterinarian (Wendy Fulton) saves Murdock after bounty hunters kidnap him. Guest: Bill McKinney. {CC}.
Thursday, February 12, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Beverly Hills Assault". Murdock takes up painting and Face becomes a critic to bust a ring of Beverly Hills art thieves. Guests: Lloyd Bochner, Dennis Franz. {CC}.
Friday, February 13, 1998 - 5:00 PM - FX
"Trouble Brewing". A saboteur attempts to put two sisters (Suzanne Barnes, Claudia Christian) out of the soda business. {CC}.
nicole ()
---------------------------------------------------------
"The main motive for going beyond the rim...there's a
heck of a big Taco Bell out there...." jms
----------------------------------------------------------
Proud member of the Narn Bat Squad <Whack!> and the C.o.M. | | |
