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On the Jazz - Vol 01 Issue 11
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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
Submission address: onthejazz
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
pellegri, nicpell
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DATE: January 26, 1995
ISSUE: 11
VOLUME: 1
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Welcome again,
A few little things to bring up this week, first some questions/
info on collectibles...
I need to know about how much a complete set of A-Team trading
cards are worth. Also, someone on rec.collecting asked me
what the A-Team action figures are worth, so if anyone could let
me and also vmaiocco know about that, it would
be greatly appreciated.
I also got this interesting message this week from someone on the
'net...
>I don't have any Ateam stuff, but I though you'd want
>to know this:
>
>there was a game cartridge for the atari 2600 called
>A-Team. its based on the show. Atari never released
>it in comercial form, but a few thousand prototypes
>were made. its worth $75 among us atari collectors.
Gee, I know I'd give anything to see that game, I'd never
heard of it before! Something to keep yer eyes peeled
for.
In other news, thanks to all who have sent in their
surveys so far. In the next issue in two weeks I'll post
the results. So, the rest of you still have time to get
in your responses! Even if you can only answer a few of the
questions, go for it!!
Ok, now, as promised, here's the first part of the TV Guide
A-Team article from the March 10, 1984 issue. Have fun
reading...I made one or two comments here & there...
SIX DAYS WITH THE A-TEAM? PITY THE FOOL WHO TRIES IT!
The boisterous group 'treats' a reporter to a week of
risky stunts, explosions and high jinks.
By Tom Nolan
"I love America!" Mr. T is shouting. "I even love the
Reagans! I might vote for 'em again--yes, again."
It's a Thursday afternoon at the converted warehouse in
Culver City, Cal., that serves as home-base sound stage for
NBC's The A'Team, and Mr. T--fresh from his Christmas-season
trip to the White House--is fully launched on a running patriotic
rap. Pacing the set in a U.S. Army Seargant's uniform, he
repeats, "I *love* America! Only place where I could become a
movie star, make all this money actin' the fool. You think this
would happen in Jamaica? Forget it...do *you* love Areica?" he
asks a passing crew member. "If you don't love America, go move
to Grenada!"
I witness from a distance: a freelancer, a hired pen. My
assignment, should I decide to accept it--and I already have--is
to spend a week with the A-Team, documenting thier quirks and
foibles, trying to glimpse their true natures. Day One is off
to a boisterous start.
When an assistant director shouts at some workmen to be quiet,
Mr. T jokes: "Yeah, 'specially when I'm talking, you know--or
we'll send you back to 'Laverne & Shirley!'" Scene successfully
completed, Mr. T, who plays B.A. ("Bad Attitude") Baracus,
shoulders his imposing bulk toward the stage-door exit,
announcing: "All right, I gotta go be in conference now with Tip
O'Neill! You know where to reach me! I'm gonna let the Vice-
President take over in my absence!"
An NBC press representative, meanwhile, has buttonholed George
Peppard for the purpose of introducing me and explaining my visit
to the "A-Team" star.
"Oh, OK. Sure. OK," says George Peppard, who plays John
"Hannibal" Smith. He slowly peels off one of his black leather
gloves to shake my hand. Then he spies my battered 10-year old
hand-held Sony. "Is that a tape recorder I see?"
"Yes."
"Um hmmm."
Turning on his heel, he strides across the stage to an
assistant director and murmurs some words in his ear. A moment
later, the assistant director loudly calls for attention and
makes this announcement: "Gentlemen! We have a representative
from--" He looks to Peppard. "TV Guide?"
Peppard nods.
"From TV Guide! He'll be here for a week--I guess he's doing
an article on 'The A-Team'--and he has a *tape* recorder!"
"Keep him away from T!" shouts one crew member, and the stage
erupts in laughter. Even Peppard is wearing a thin smile as he
walks back to my side.
"Fair is fair," he says. "You get to use it--but we get to
know about it." And he walks away.
Nice meeting you, too, Mr. Peppard!
Twenty minutes later, all of the A Team--including the newest
member, Marla Heasley (Twnia Baker), this season's replacement
for the departed Melinda Culea--is assembling on a different part
of the stage, where a crew has set up some wooden crates and a
red backdrop for a cover-photo shoot. Peppard has changed into a
spiffy blue-and-grey sweat suit. Dirk Bennedict (Templeton
"The Face" Peck) shows up. Dwight Schultz ("Howling Mad"
Murdock) wanders over. Then Mr. T appears, and the energy level
leaps once more into the ozone.
"There's been a lotta rumors 'bout animosity on this set!" T
trumpets, as the crew arranges the Team into a photogenic
cluster. "Now tell me: anybody don't like anybody, tell me
right now! Because," he concludes in mimicry of a certain
tabloid's catch phrase, "Enquiring minds...want to know!"
T spots me standing on the sidelines. "George," he asks, "is
that the guy you told me 'bout, from TV Guide? The little guy
in the...maroon sweater? Looks like a...KGB agent."
Now the team is herded in tighter, with Heasley sitting on
T's massive knee. "That's it!" he says. "Nancy Reagan got
*that* knee!...Let's make up a scandal! I love scandals! Reporter,
you could say, uh: 'This lady Had a Baby by A Team!'"
(I swear, you gotta love this guy... - ed.)
Once the photo session is completed, my momment comes to meet
Mr. T in person. "How you doin'." he says. "Yeah, I was
wondering, man, I told my brothers to watch you. I thought you
was a KGB agent or something. Or a Klansman!"
DAY TWO:
The team is shooting in Valencia, at a big RV and camping-
supplies store. (Most of the show is filmed on location, with the
Culver City stage seeing action only one or two days in six.)
Benedict, a licensed pilot, is telling how he spent the weekend
in Montana, trying (unsuccessfully) to retreive his snowbound
aircraft. "Some of the coldest weather in the country there,"
he says. "Thirty-five below. Snowing hard. I'm getting over
pneumonia, so I guess Montana was not the place to go, really."
I ask Benedict about job-related injuries. "Oh well, it's a
physical show," he says. "I separated some ribs, the first
episode this season. Then a rib went 'round and threw a couple
vertebrae out, threw my back out. That was painful."
More trying than the physical hazards, he says, is the sheer
drudgery of the schedule. "This is a grind. It consumes you.
It's a bit like professional athletics: they use you up, you
know? They'll push you. You do 12 pages, they want 15. Do 15,
they want 17. The trouble with that is, something's gotta give.
And working in today's economy, the days are numbered [that] you
can put shows like this on television. (Sad but true. *Sigh* -
ed.) When you can do an 'Alice' or 'Three's Company' in four
days, on one set that costs $1.98, and get the same ratings, and
come in each day at 10 and leave at 3 in the afternoon--I mean,
who wants to do *this*?"
But wouldn't the ratings indicate he;ll be doing "this" for at
least four years?
"In four years, " Benedict says, "we'll all be wearing
hairpieces and pacemakers."
....that's all I got time to transcribe this week, the rest to
follow next time....
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Quote of the week:
"I *HATE* this movie!!!"
--Face in "The Bend in the River"
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The only submission this issue is from Laura, a flyer for
her Distasis zine. If anyone wasn't convinced to pick this
up from my rave last time, here's more info to wet your
appetite...
Date: Sun, Jan 15, 1995 8:21 PM EST
From: LauraM3017
Subj: DISTASIS flyer
To: Nicpell
DISTASIS
A-TEAM article by Michele Lellouche
Been looking all over for an "A-TEAM Episode Guide"? (I know I have.)
Well here it is, more than you ever knew there was to know about the A-TEAM.
(It's very well researched.)
A-TEAM story by Susan Garrett
What will Templeton do without his little black book? Does the
A-Team believe in ghosts? Find out "When Shadows Fall."
A-TEAM story by Michele Lellouche & Laura Michaels
(Jewel of the Nile parody)
The Team runs into an old enemy, Kalem, from "Moving Targets".
It's a job for "Pasadena Murdock and the Gem of the Sahara."
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA story by Sharon Monroe
Will Ortega outshine Starbuck and win the girl, glory, and everything?
Find out at the Academy during "Maneuvers."
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE story by Tracy Revels
Has the I M Force come up against an impossible case, one even they
can't solve? Find out during "Mission: Spaghetti."
STAR TREK article by Paul Pence
Ever wonder about Vulcan rituals? Learn some interesting facts about
Vulcans in "Notes on the Nature of Pon Farr."
DOCTOR WHO/STAR WARS story by Gennie Summers
The fifth doctor is having a bad time when the TARDIS ends up on Dagobah.
Ever have one of those days when you can't shake "That Sinking Feeling"?
QUANTUM LEAP/BATTLESTAR GALACTICA story by Mary Wernke
Sam leaps into a Cylon and gets to meet some of the personnel from the
Galactica. Find out how he gets there and why.
"Never Thought I'd Be Rooting For A Cylon." (Bet you didn't either.)
A-TEAM/STAR WARS script by Laura Michaels
Jabba's contraband carrying vehicles and B.A.'s prized van have
disappeared. Will the A-Team, Han and Chewie ever see these vehicles again?
"Wanted: Missing Vans"!
STAR TREK/ST:TNG/BLAKE'S SEVEN/STINGRAY/HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE story by Michele
Lellouche & Tracy Revels
Been dying to see your favorites back together again: Kirk, Spock & McCoy,
Avon & Blake, Tasha, Worf & Data? Well "Everyone Comes to Milliways."
Plus SABACC & SEJ programs, artwork, poetry and more.
Prices currently $10 book rate, $11 first class, $12 overseas surface.
Contact Laura Michaels, 5910 Morningstar Cir, #303, Delray Beach, FL 33484
for
further information or e-mail lauram3017.
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On a slightly related note, I am seriously considering working on
publishing at least a one-off zine of all A-Team fiction *sometime* this
year, hopefully by around this summer. I have 2 or 3 stories of my own
in the works but would like to get submissions for the zine from as many
other
writers/artists as possible. If you're interested in becoming involved in
it at all, drop me a note and I'll send you more info. Or if you know anyone
who does A-Team fiction put hasn't been having much luck getting it
published in any mutlimedia zines, pass along the info. Short or long
stories,
original artwork, poetry, whatever, would be considered for inclusion. And
cross-universal stories are particularly encouraged!
-nicole
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