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On the Jazz - Vol 02 Issue 06
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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
***** Now in it's second year of publication !! *****
Reflector submission address: onthejazz
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
Please use the following address for subscribe/unsubscribe
and back issue requests:
pellegri
*NOTE* It is now possible to subscribe JUST to the newsletter and
not receive messages sent out through the reflector. If you wish
to change your subscription type, just email address above.
The A-Team Homepage: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pellegri/ateam.html
The A-Team On the Web: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jmm/a-team/
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DATE: December 10, 1995
ISSUE: 6
VOLUME: 2
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Howdy folks!
A-TEAM NEWS / MAILING LIST NOTES
A few things to mention here, to summarize any major news brought up on the
reflector or elsewhere the past two weeks.
First, check out the January issue of "Starlog" magazine for a very nice
4-page interview with Dwight Schultz. Of course I'll probably transcribe
it for the newsletter sometime in the future, but get the magazine anyway for
the nice pictures.
Also wanted to include this message which appeared from HB012JP01
in case anyone had heard anything more about this incident:
>In the Daily Mirror, was a advert for Mr. T. opening a Bingo Hall - over here
>in the U.K. (at Loughborough) on Thursday 8th December. I phoned the Hall, as I
>was planning to go, but they told me he wasn't opening it anymore - because he
>was in hospital. I asked them why and they didn't know. I then phoned the
>Manchester Palace Theatre where I am seeing him in pantomime on the 21st
>December, but they knew nothing about it.
>I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about this - like what's wrong
>with him.
I received some more T news from someone in England this week. Apparently
"The Sheffield Star" reported on October 31 that
"Mr. T, star of the TV series 'The A-Team,' is to team up with American
wrestler Hulk Hogan in a new movie 'Lightning Force.' The pair last came face-
to-face thirteen years ago during a much-publicised battle in the wrestling
ring."
As always, more details if I can find them. I was also informed that episodes
of the 'Mr. T' cartoon series were actually released on video in the UK at some
point - can anyone verify this, and find out if they are still available?
TRIVIA QUESTION
Last issue's question was:
>What was Leo Bell so famous for?
This was from the episode "Timber," and Leo Bell was a neighbor of
Murdock's at the V.A. As Valerie correctly answered, he's famous
because "his mouth is so big you can fit a jar of peanut butter inside,
lid and all."
This issue's question is:
>In which A-Team episode did Face's corvette make its very first on-screen
>appearance?
STORY TIME
As promised, this issue I'm pleased to present the first half an
original A-Team/V story:
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The Visitors vs the A-Team
by Laura Michaels
(ED. NOTE: This originally appeared in the 'zine/newsletter Grip #22
by Roberta Rogow. Reprinted here with Laura's permission.)
It was Friday night, nine o'clock.
He realized he had been watching T.V., or more exactly, he
had not been paying attention to the T.V. "Must've dozed off,"
he told himself. Templeton Peck listened as the broadcast
announcer finished giving the news on the status of the Visitors.
He didn't remember ever fighting the Visitors, or what's more,
ever meeting them, but he knew about them. The others surely
wouldn't like the idea of those aliens messing up their city.
He remembered that the only things that affected the
Visitors were lasers and Teflon coated ammo. "Have to put that
ammo on my shopping list," he told himself. It wouldn't do them
any good to get into a fight with the Visitors and have their
guns turn out ineffective.
He called up Murdock. He didn't know why. Maybe it was
because Hannibal was sure to ask him to get Murdock out of the
V.A. It happened like that almost every week it seemed. He told
Murdock he'd be over to get him out. He'd have to stop off and
find a place to pick up some ammo first. He came up with a
pretty good idea of where he could go to get it. He got his gear
together.
He was just about to call Hannibal before he left. The
phone rang as he was reaching for it. It was Hannibal. "What a
coincidence, Hannibal. I was just about to call you," he said.
"Did you see the newscast?" Hannibal asked him.
"Yeah I did. We're going to do something about this, aren't
we?" he asked.
"You better believe it. The A-Team isn't about to let slime
like that roam the streets," Hannibal answered. "I need you to
get Murdock and some stuff and rendezvous at the last meeting
place we used."
"Oh come on, Hannibal," the lieutenant interrupted. "You
know that the M.P.s are on to that place. They almost got us
there last time."
"Precisely why we're meeting there. They'd never think to
look there now that they know, we know, they're on to that
place," Hannibal informed him.
"I'm not so sure about that Hannibal. And I was just about
to pick up Murdock and some ammo. I was figuring we weren't
about to let this job go by. What else did you want me to get?"
"Plastic explosives, dynamite, or any other type of
pyrotechnics you can lay your hands on."
"Oh sure, that's easy enough," he replied sarcastically.
"Glad you think so," Hannibal told him.
"Hannibal!" he exclaimed. "You don't...."
"I'm sure you can come up with something, Face," Hannibal
said reassuringly. "See if you can find some automatic rifles,
and make sure the ammo you pick up will work."
"I'll see what I can do," he told Hannibal. "As for the
ammo, don't you think I know enough about that kind of stuff by
now? I mean Han-ni-bal!"
The colonel gave no answer.
"Is that all?" he asked in an unsure tone.
"Yeah, that's it. I'll pick up B.A. See you in a short
while. As the saying goes 'be there'," Hannibal told him.
When he left, he inadvertently left the phone off the hook.
He had used the first trick he could think of to get Murdock
out of the V.A. The only thing was it was really ridiculous. He
could barely believe he had done it, and it had worked. /Well
who cares. It did work. Only thing is, Murdock thought it was
very ridiculous too./ He felt uneasy about that. /Who cares
what a crazy person thinks anyway,/ he told himself.
* * *
The lieutenant entered carrying a cardboard box. Murdock
was right behind him.
"Let's see it, man." B.A. reached for the box.
He took the box out of reach and put it down on the table.
"I went through an awful lot of trouble, Hannibal, but I got your
dynamite," the lieutenant told him.
"Good going. Did you get the guns?" Hannibal asked.
"I got two automatic rifles," he replied.
"Just two?" said Hannibal disappointedly.
"Look, you don't know the trouble I went through to get you
these. I also got Teflon coated ammo. It works pretty well if
you don't aim for the armor."
Hannibal told him, "I don't know Face. I think your
slipping."
"Yeah Face, you should have gotten us some of those lasers."
Murdock pretended to fire an imaginary laser at imaginary
Visitors.
The lieutenant looked disappointed. He decided to bring out
his contingency crate. Maybe that would make the razzing he was
getting ease up. "I also got these." He carefully took out a
smaller, sturdier box and laid it on the table.
Hannibal opened the box. Inside were a few dozen grenades,
packaged so they wouldn't go off from shock.
"Careful," he told Hannibal. "They're supposed to be very
powerful." He had a big smile on his face.
Hannibal covered the box up. The momentary look of a kid
loose in a toy store, that he had when he opened the box, was
gone.
"They're okay," he told his lieutenant. The colonel's
expression was serious again.
"Just okay?" he asked. "Hannibal...."
He cut the lieutenant off. "We have to start working on the
plan." Now wasn't the time to start a quarrel. Hannibal just
didn't want any of them to get too cocky. This was going to be a
hard fight, and they had a dangerous opponent.
* * *
The lieutenant waited in the car with Hannibal. Murdock
came back with a report. He crawled up to the van. He was
acting like a soldier about to die. His act came off as worse
than the ones on the late night movies. "They got us, Colonel,"
he rasped. "They were just too much for us."
"Where's B.A.?" Hannibal asked.
"He's still in position, but he thinks we should pull out,"
answered Murdock between gasps and groans.
"Your report?" the Colonel asked seriously.
The lieutenant didn't know whether to laugh or be sick at
Captain Murdock's terrible overacting and antics.
"Well, we dynamited the road. Along came a Visitor's
convoy. We blew it up just like in the plan. It was beautiful.
The cars rolled over the cliff. They turned over at least twenty
times, no make that forty. ...Only everyone walked out O.K.,
unscratched, 4-0...."
Hannibal interrupted. "I got the point."
"I think," Murdock added, "these suckers are going to be
hard to kill."
"Did you pick up any leads on possible Visitor weaknesses or
figure out what their advantages were from?" asked Hannibal.
"B.A. says the only reason they got us so bad was cause
'killing ain't our style' and we should just try to 'get rid of
them suckers'," Murdock replied. "I think he's right. If we
just try to reason with them, use the peaceful approach...."
"...They'll blow us to bits," the lieutenant finished for
them.
"Face is right," said Hannibal. "We've got to get rid of
these lizards."
"Just thought I'd represent the pacifistic point of view,
especially seeing as how we soldiers are dying out there. You
know, Hannibal," Murdock put in seriously, "these guys are bad.
We're gonna need one hell of a plan to stop them."
"We have a plan, Murdock," Hannibal told him. "Have B.A.
back out and join us down here. All we've done so far is kick
over a few rocks. Now we're gonna start squashing bugs."
"So this is all according to plan," the captain said. "I
understand, Colonel. I'll go get B.A." Murdock trotted off,
half fake-limping, acting like a soldier who had just left the
hospital. He started bandaging himself with a piece of newspaper
he found on the floor.
"Hannibal, this isn't gonna work," the lieutenant
interjected. "We've used up the dynamite...."
Hannibal cut his complaints off, telling him, "Sure it will
work, Lieutenant. Don't my plans always work?"
He didn't answer knowing full well they never worked right,
but they did always work. "He's on the jazz," he said to himself
pessimistically.
* * *
They listened to the radio as it told of some of the
Visitors' attacks, all of them successful, and all highly deadly.
They all knew they'd have to do something about this. The A-Team
had to stop these Visitors.
They pulled up to the curb in a black G.M.C. van with a red
stripe. The van was B.A.'s and woe be to anyone who 'messed with
it'. Down the street was a place where they might be able to get
some more backup.
The lieutenant was trying to figure out a way to find and
scam some more explosives from the store when he noticed a guy
coming out of the place. Hannibal noticed the man also, and he
quickly told Face to inconspicuously get back in the van. What a
time to get his suit caught in the door. It was an expensive one
too, and it was probably ruined.
He was more worried about whether or not the man was working
with the Visitors. He remembered the guy, but couldn't quite
place him. As soon as they had driven a little ways, he opened
the sliding side door of the van, and got the rest of his jacket
in.
Murdock was bubbling over with curiosity. "Who was it?" he
wanted to know. The store wasn't in his line of sight from the
back seat.
Hannibal, who was in the front passenger seat of the van,
had had a very good view of what was going on. He had seen and
recognized the man coming out of the shop. He had then ordered
Face back in the car, and told B.A. to drive his van out of plain
sight and then proceed to tail the man from a distance. "That
was Ham Tyler. He's a mercenary," Hannibal informed Murdock.
Murdock had to cut in and ask, "Like us?"
"No, not at all like us. He's scum of the worst kind. He's
as bad as the Visitors. You see, he might still have connections
with the government, and that means M.P.s," Hannibal finished.
"Maybe he's working on the same side as us," Murdock
conjectured.
"He also might be working for someone who answers to the
Visitors. I've heard rumors," Hannibal said, "about something
called a conversion process."
"Well I won't let him out of my sight," B.A. said assuredly.
"He doesn't even know we're back here," boasted B.A. "Some
government mercenary he is."
"First of all, he's probably getting weapons like we are or
he wouldn't have been at that store. Second, don't be so sure he
doesn't know we're here. He's bound to get wise soon." B.A. was
about to make a comment, a nasty one, but the lieutenant cut him
off and continued. "And third, the rumors say he has C.I.A.
connections, but I doubt it."
"Picky, picky, Face," Murdock teased him.
Tyler drove around for half an hour and then pulled his car
into a small alley.
"I don't like this Hannibal," the lieutenant said.
Before the Team could back their van out, a truck pulled in
behind. Tyler stopped his vehicle. They were stuck in a small
alley between a large truck and Tyler's van.
"We can't move the truck, but we could move the van."
Hannibal was stating this for the purpose of laying out possible
strategies.
B.A. replied strongly, with a lot of conviction and a fist
full of gold rings behind it, "We ain't gonna get my van messed
up Hannibal!"
/Well that puts an end to that idea,/ the lieutenant said to
himself.
Two people were getting out of the truck and Tyler had
gotten out of his van. They were all heavily armed.
"Let's give these people a friendly welcome," Hannibal
suggested. He got out his semi-automatic machine gun and loaded
it. Then he stepped outside onto the cramped street. The others
followed suit.
/Oh great,/ the lieutenant thought. /We're outnumbered,
blocked off, surrounded, and we walk out of the van with our guns
up. Got to be the jazz. It's a wonder they didn't shoot us.
Well, one good thing; one of them is a lady or at least a
female./
A man from the truck said to Tyler, "Who do these people
think they are?" He was referring to the fact that the Team was
holding guns when they were trapped and should've given up by
now.
"They call themselves the A-Team. I'm familiar with Smith
here." Tyler pointed his gun at the colonel as he mentioned his
name.
"Do you think they're working with the Visitors?" the lady
asked.
"Not their style. They're always going places, pushing what
they consider bad guys around. They get their kicks telling
other people what to do."
"Now wait a micron...uh minute," the lieutenant started.
"You're one to talk," Tyler returned. "You broke half the
ladies' hearts in Nam. You conned the other half of the women.
Chris and I hate scum like you. What's more, you guys always act
so righteous, and then go and rob the bank of Hanoi. I guess the
war wasn't enough action for you, or maybe you just needed the
money."
"Is that right? You're criminals?" the female asked.
Hannibal explained, "We had orders to take that bank. It
was a military position."
"Is it our fault," Face put in, "they lost the orders?"
The lady seemed doubtful.
Hannibal continued, "Look we're not too crazy about you
either, Tyler. Maybe neither side has the whole correct story on
the other, but it seems to me we're working for the same cause.
If we work together, maybe we can get something done."
"Like putting those lizards out of business," B.A. added.
"Yeah," said Murdock, "what ever happened to cooperation,
helping each other out when there's trouble, peace on earth good
will to...."
"Shut up fool," B.A. ordered menacingly.
"All right, we could always use some help," the lady told
them.
"But if you cross us...." The man from the truck left his
threat at that, knowing the message had gotten across.
"Good," said Hannibal, "I'm glad we're in agreement, because
I have a plan."
"I'm not taking any orders from them," Tyler said angrily.
"I'd rather work for the Visitors."
"Easy Ham, at least we could hear what they have to say
first." The lady addressed the Team, "We'll make the decisions
for our Resistance, understood?"
"Yes," Hannibal replied agreeably.
Face was beginning to like this lady, even if she was a
little young. He liked females who could make good decisions.
* * *
...to be continued next issue.
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That's all for now folks, I gotta start studying for final exams
now (joy, joy!)
Good luck to anyone else dealig with finals, and stay on the jazz,
nicole
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Quote of the Week:
"When it comes to paying up I've got a great line of credit".
Hannibal from "A Nice Place To Visit"
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of the A-Team Homepage (don't tell Colonel Decker!)
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pellegri/ateam.html
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"It's always darkest just before it goes completely black"
-Col. John "Hannibal" Smith
