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On the Jazz - Vol 02 Issue 04
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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
***** Now in it's second year of publication !! *****
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 me.
The A-Team Homepage(s):
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pellegri/ateam.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jmm/a-team/
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DATE: November 12, 1995
ISSUE: 4
VOLUME: 2
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Greetings again everybody!
This week we'll get back to the normal state of affairs here, finishing off the
1986 TV Guide article from a few issues back. But first, as always, our
standard news debriefing.
Yesterday was the day for the first - and most certainly not the last - On the
Jazz Philly party, which was, I think, quite a success! The festivities got
rolling a little after noon and didn't wind down until after eleven at night,
when I think us last few remaining had pretty much reached our A-Team watching
limit, at least for one day! I hope everyone made it back home safely through
the near hurricane-force winds and rain that hit the city in the evening. Maybe
sometime this Spring I can organize another party and more people who couldn't
make it this time can show up.
In other news, only one item to report to keep an eye out for. It looks as
though the episode of Deadly Games guest-starring Dwight Schultz will air,
not this week, but the following week, on Tuesday November 21.
Now, we have the answer to the trivia question from a few issues back:
>Most people remember Jack Ging for playing General Fulbright on
>TAT during the fourth season. But how many times had he appeared
>on the show before then, and in which episodes?
Jack Ging also appeared in the episode "Small and Deadly War" as Stark, and
in "Bad Time on the Border" as Taggart.
This issue's question is from the episode "The Road to Hope" and is:
>What was the code message B.A. sent to Murdock when he, Hannibal, and Face
>were captured?"
Now I'll finish the transcript of the TV Guide article...
"Kicked Around, 'The A-Team' seeks Nielsen Revenge."
(part 3 of 3)
Then Benedict appeared, chomping a lengthy Punch cigar (he's converted
Peppard and T to the things). An outspoken, high-profile fellow, Benedict sat
down near one of the plastic flamingos. He squinted up into the big, nasty
California sun, and puffed on the hot, burning tobacco. Yes, he allowed, Cannel
is right. Marketing *is* a tool. Something on the order of a left-handed
monkey wrench.
"The quality of the show was going down the toilet," he said. "I didn't
need anybody to tell me that the show was going to have trouble in the ratings.
But they paid a lot of money and hired a lot of research people. Don't you
think these people would be trying to make this show a success even if they
didn't have some *guru* research company?"
Them's fightin' words, Dirk.
"This is *all* marketing. If you want to pump up a show, then do what
anybody in America does, which is exterior, superficial. The only thing anybody
understands in America in terms of rejuvenation, whether it is in your personal
life, your sex life, your career - anything - is to *add on*. On this show, we
just add. *More* characters. It's like a football team saying, "Well, we won't
win any games with 11 people, so let's try 13!"
Peppard, limping painfully around the set with a bone spur in his heel, put
it in slightly more earthy terms:
"The audience studies that networks do are like trying to find out what
sex is like by taking interviews...and never getting the message!
"Most often, if you ask an audience, 'Would you like to see a Western?
they'll say, 'No.' Then a good Western comes along, and they say, 'Oh, I didn't
know you were going to do *that*."
Benedict said he and Peppard "screamed"-along with Schultz-for two years
that the format was stagnating, but "we were told to do our jobs and shut up."
He warned repeatedly that they'd saved too many mom-and-pop service stations.
Yet, even now, after the research studies, he says, things aren't really all
that different.
"We still blow things up, we still never get shot," Benedict said. "We
still always win. But this is the fourth week and it's all been very well
written. Who knows? Maybe the audience will freak out. Maybe Eddie Velez will
become the next Don Johnson, and there we go!"
Still, there was every appearance of peace that day at the ranch.
Benedict, after all, was chuckling. Peppard winked. Mr T found his chair, and
the lady recovered her ring. The buzzards overhead were apparently only window-
shopping. It did seem that, for the moment, cast and crew of this *new,
improved A-Team* had pulled together to give this season their best, most
professional shot. To give the A-Team a chance to rise to its greatest
mission yet - truly a do-or-die, suicide special...to save itself.
Any predictions, gentlemen?
Peppard: "I'm not a prognosticator. One of the things that helped us gain
an audience was that we were different; we were fresh. *Now* there will be
more mystery, more suspense.
Tartikoff: "I feel pretty confident we'll have some impact on the ratings,
because of the shows we're going up against, 'Webster' and 'Scarecrow and Mrs.
King.' We're not exactly going against shows that are going to explode into
40 shares."
Cannell: "I'm not Muhammad Ali. I won't call a round when 'Scarecrow and
Mrs. King' will fall."
Benedict: "Oh, I think it's the last season. You mean as a betting person?
Yeah, this is it."
Mr. T: Nothing. He had nothing to say. He was unavailable for any
comments at all, and he did not offer a prediction. As he is wont to tell you,
he's no fool.
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Finally this week, we have a wonderful little contribution from one of our
more recent subscribers. It's a poem entitiled:
Ode to the A-Team
by "Swatman" Steven Daniel
They call him Mr.T 'cause he's the toughest in the land,
Countless deadbeat villains taste the vegeance of his hand,
He plays B.A. Baracus, the muscle of the Team,
No way Decker can stop him when he gets a head of steam,
He can make a super vehicle with any kind of tool,
Don't put him on an airplane or "You're in for trouble, Fool!"
His buddy's name is Murdock and they say he's howlin' mad,
But he's still the finest pilot that the army's ever had,
Choppers, cessnas or F-sixteens, if it flies he can make it go,
He could probably skywrite his name, flying in a UFO
Sure he talks to insects, but nobody gives a damn,
Because he always saves the A-Team when they're really in a jam.
Then there is the Faceman, the smoothest of the four,
Who might be in the Whitehouse if not for the Viet Nam war.
If you are looking for a con man, he's the best that you could get,
No one can resist him with his good looks and his 'vette.
Finally there's Hannibal, the leader of the group,
Whose planning skills and cunning throw the army for a loop,
A master of disguises, he knows every trick,
He's the heart of the A-team, the cog that makes them tick.
So if you are in need of help, and don't know what to do,
Don't find the A-Team: the A-Team will find you!
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Quote of the week:
"I don't want to be a secret weapon, I want to be an *exposed* weapon!"
(Murdock from "Showdown")
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>------------------------< BABYLON 5 >--------------------------<
"Have you ever considered what might happen if a jumpgate was
opened within a jumpgate?"
"No, and neither should you, Captain!"
(Sheridan and Ivanova from "A Matter of Honor")
