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On the Jazz - Vol 01 Issue 26
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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
Submission address: onthejazz (when it behaves...)
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
Please use the following addresses for subscribe/unsubscribe
and back issue requests:
pellegri, nicpell
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DATE: September 6, 1995
ISSUE: 26
VOLUME: 1
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Well, it's that time again...actually a bit tardy this week,
thanks to the Labor Day weekend in the States and the beginning
of classes. But now back to important things!
First, the ubiquitous administrivia. It seems our real time
mailer is down again, due to some "software updates" in the works
at the umich site. I'm not sure how long it will be till we're
back on-line, so just be patient (please)! And pass along to me any
messages you may want to send on to the group if the problem
persists, and I'll stick them in the next newsletter.
Now, I mentioned this in a message last week that I don't think
got through the mailer. There's going to be a media sci-fi con
in Universal City, CA, October 27-29, called ConRad that's going
to feature both Dirk Bennedict AND Dwight Schultz among the
many guests in attendance. 3-day registration is only 30.00,
and discount travel & hotel rooms are available. If you're
interested in further info, there's an email contact address:
cpl. The guest list is truly amazing, lots of people from
Galactica, various Trek shows, Babylon 5, and tons more. Through
some miracle of effort I'm going there for it and if anyone else
is thinking of attending, let me know, it would be great to meet
more of you all.
Speaking of meeting fellow group members, I'd like to announce
preliminary plans for the first (annual?) Philadelphia A-Team
Fest. I've heard from a number of people interested in this,
so let's make it official!
The Place: my apartment (Center City Philadelphia).
The Date: sometime in either October or November.
If you want to come, send me a list of good and bad dates and we'll
go from there.
The Plan: watch A-Team and related vids, talk,
play the cool A-Team board game, and generally have a party (there will of
course be muncies and milk.) As I said, email to RSVP.
Now onto some true A-Team news...
The ST:Voyager episode guest-starring Dwight Schultz that I
mentioned a while back, "Projections," is due to air in the states
the week of Sept. 11, so keep an eye out for it. It looks cool.
No clue yet when the Deadly Games episode he did will air, but I'll
send out the announcement as soon as I know.
Also, does anyone know anything about a tv commercial for a new talk
show host that Mr. T was in? I just heard report of it.
Last issue's trivia questions must've been harder than the
last few batches 'cause there weren't any takers on the answers!
So here they come now:
>Can you name which A-Team episode each song was featured in?
>
>1. "One Way or Another" ---> "Incident at Crystal Lake"
>2. "Addicted to Love" ---> "Sound of Thunder"
>3. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" ---> "Mexican Slayride"
>4. "Super Freak" ---> "The Heart of Rock n Roll"
>5. "Roxanne" ---> "Steel" (playing on the radio
B.A. smashed)
>6. "Louie Louie" ---> "Theory of Revolution"
Now for this issue's trivia question:
>What are the rules for playing "Scotch," as explained
>by Murdock during the episode "The Big Squeeze"?
Ok, onto the continuation of the George Peppard article from
TV Guide, which I began in the last newsletter:
"He Made A Lot Of Enemies"
(Part 2)
"In the network mind, in the studio mind, you cost them
millions of dollars," Peppard says, poking his fork into a
piece of sole. "That's more than being difficult. That's
being a sonofabich. You also cost yourself millions of
dollars, and that's *insane*. It's the same thing as dropping
a baby out of a 40-story building as far as they're concerned."
Worse, probably.
Peppard nods. "The man who does that has *no* ethics."
Later, expanding on the curious morality of Hollywood's attitude
toward someone who gives up millions, he says chuckling, "You
can't be bought and that renders you *totally* untrustworthy."
"I thought it was self-destructive," says Monique James, who
watched him walk from "Banacek." She was Peppard's agent before she
became co-head of new talent at Universal. "It was very difficult
to through to him in those days. You were talking to the bottle."
In 1972, he told TV Guide that he had "a troubled spirit." What
troubled him he didn't say and doesn't now. Although he does say
that he was never much of a George Peppard fan. And he may not
simply be talking about his acting. "He said to me once, 'I'm not a
nice man'," says a friend of his. "The fact is he *is* a nice man."
"One could always wish one had the charm of David Janssen,"
says Peppard. "It was hard not to like David. He was outward-
going. He always had a new joke to tell. I'm not that way. I don't
know a lot of jokes."
In 1979 he stopped drinking cold turkey and his "load of angst
and depression" lifted. "I think my pattern's about as ordinary as
you can get," he says. "You have problems, you think drink helps,
then you have two problems."
But sobriety didn't help his career. Six years ago he was
forced to lease his Beverly Hills house after sinking his capital
into producing the film "Five Days From Home." He was living in
Marina del Rey, contemplating a future acting in dinner theaters.
"The temporal quality of all things was being firmly impressed upon
me," he says with his habitual amused detachment. Yet when he was
hired for the "Dynasty" pilot, he argued with executives over how to
play the Blake Carrington role and left the show.
"Everyone thought I was crazed because of my career being in the
dumps at the moment," he says. "I'm so glad I wasn't drinking. I
bet a lot of people thought when I did certain things, I'd been
drinking, and now they found out it wasn't the booze at all-it was *me*."
Shortly after the "Dynasty" debacle, Peppard was expecting to be
cast in the Alan Jay Lerner-Charles Strouse musical "Dance a Little
Closer." "I hadn't heard a word from them since the time Lerner said
to me, 'I want you terribly'," Peppard says. Then, to his surprise,
he read in the New York Times that Len Cariou had been cast instead.
"I had voiced...some doubts about certain plot points that I thought
needed fixing," he says. "It may have been that they didn't want
to hear anything from me about it." The surprising thing is that
this still surprises Peppard.
"His beliefs haven't changed," says Monique James. "He was
always fighting for what he felt as an actor was important. He's
still fighting for the same things. It was just so out of hand
before."
"A lot of people in this business play a lot of games. But I
know them all." George Peppard smiles. "There's always the new
wrinkle. One must keep one's eyes always open. But some things are
done in context with producing a series, certain positions are...,"
he hestitates discreetly, "not exactly whay they *seem*. They are a
*strategic move*."
It's another Friday lunch time in another show-business
restaurant. "Use my name. We'll get a better table," Peppard said on
the phone. He now watches people come and go. I sit facing a wall
and Peppard, who is, if possible, more immaculate than before in
fine-chord jcket, tan slacks and cream shirt.
"I do not make the rules of the game," he says. "Nor do I play
games that I initiate. However, other people do. And if you can't
recognize them as such and deal with them strategically, you'll get
yourself into hot water."
To illustrate, he launches into the tale of an A-Team director,
whose methods the actors didn't like. There was a bit of conflict on
the set. "If you want to call it a war, you may," Peppard says
helpfully.
So what happened to the director? "He's no longer with us,"
Peppard says. He's grinning, with his cigarette clamped in his
teeth the way it so often is. And what did it take to get rid of
him? "Quite a bit," he says, gliding smoothly on. "I really don't
think that's very important. We're talking *tactics* here."
Mr. T explains the usual tactics. "George is our *leader*. And
I say, 'I'm leavin' with my *leader*.' Boom-boom. And we'll hold up
production."
*Stop production*? Stephen Cannell is horrified. *Never*.
Well, maybe once for half an hour. And he would never shove a
director onto his stars, he says, adding: "Why should I put a
director in that position to go down there and be brutalized by four
actors?"
Of the director who left, Peppard says: "I imagine he's
walking around saying, 'George Peppard is a bastard.' My reputation
grows and grows."
...part 3 next issue.
Finally, I have one message to pass along here for the group tonight:
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Date: Wed, 06 Sep 1995 20:32:03 -0400
To: pellegri
From: txp137 (Tedd Prontnicki)
Subject: question for on the jazz
Cc: pellegri
i'm trying hard to recall which episode contained a helicopter crashing into
a cliff face, landing on a ledge, and the occupants crawling out unscathed
(as per usual.) i died laughing the first time i saw it and am trying to
get the episode name so i can watch it again.
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That was in "The Battle of Bel-Air." I agree, that one still cracks me
up too. The chopper OBVIOUSLY smashes head-on with the cliff, blows up,
and tumbles down in a crumpled heap of flaming metal--and the bad guys
all walk out without a scratch! As far as I an recall, that was the one bit
of
A-Team-style violence that TRULY stretched suspension of disbelief beyond
any other episode.
Well, that's all from here for now. As always, stay cool and stay on the
jazz.
nicole
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Quote of the week:
Murdock: "But what are we gonna call this thing?"
Hannibal: "B.A.'s mistake."
(from The Duke of Whispering Pines)
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