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On the Jazz - Vol 02 Issue 08
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The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter
***** Now in it's second year of publication !! *****
Reflector submission address: xxxx
Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini
Please use the following address for subscribe/unsubscribe
and back issue requests:
xxxx
*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
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The A-Team On the Web: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jmm/a-team/
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DATE: January 14, 1996
ISSUE: 8
VOLUME: 2
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Greetings everyone!
One bit of administrivia this week, as mentioned in a message earlier today
through the reflector, subscription operations are now unfrozen again, so if
you need to change your subscription status it can be taken care of asap.
Thanks to everyone who waited patiently the last few weeks!
MR. T NEWS
Reports are verifying that it is definitely cancer that T has, specifically
skin cancer. I got a copy of the following article, which appeared in
the English paper The Daily Mirror on 12/12/95:
Mr. T has cancer - A-Team star pulls out of pantomime
TV Star Mr T has had to pull out of a pantomime because he is seriously ill
with cancer.
The tough-guy actor - who shot to fame in The A-Team with George Peppard -
was due to star as the Genie of the Ring in Aladdin in Manchester but had to be
replaced because he urgently needs treatment in the United States.
While theatre managers tried to play down the gravity of his illness, an
insider said yesterday: "It is more serious than people are saying. Two weeks
before he was due to come here, enquiries were being made as to whether he
could receive suitable chemotherapy in Manchester.
"It seems his management decided Mr T should stay in the United States to
receive tratment."
A spokesman for the theatre said: "Due to a recent illness Mr T is unable to
carry out his contractual agreement to appear as the Genie in Aladdin. He is
genuinely saddened not to be able to perform live in front of his favourite fans
in the world and hopes he has not disappointed them.
"Once he is feeling better, he is anxious to return to England bigger and
better than ever."
The 43-year-old star, whose real name is Lawrence Tureaud, will now be
replaced at the top of the bill by Coronation Street star Roy Barraclough.
GENERAL NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
That's all the T news I have at the moment, but I'll try to keep everyone
updated
on his situation as much as possible. On a side note, I also received several
full color, photo flyers for this production of Aladdin, with a nice picture
of T on it. I have one extra unclaimed flyer at the moment, so the first person
who emails me and agrees to send a stamped, LARGE envelope for it can have it.
In other collectible news, I have two items I'm putting up on auction to
subscribers of this newsletter. I recently was able to obtain a number of
complete sets of A-Team trading cards, and have two sets up for grabs. Both
sets are complete and in mint/near mint condition, and one set also has the
complete sticker bonus cards as well.
Minimum bid for the card set only is $12.
Minimum bid for the card set + stickers is $15.
That includes postage to anywhere in the USA...overseas postage would be
additional.
I will run the auction until the end of the month, and update any interested
parties on the current bids as necessary.
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STORY TIME
This issue, as promised, a most unusual little story enititled
The A-Team Owns . . . Castle Greyskull??
by Tracy Revels
NOTE: This story is reprinted from On the Jazz #9 by Deborah
Okoniewski with permission of Tracy Revels (thank you!)
There was a resounding crash as the massive drawbridge fell,
its chains blasted away by the staccato rounds of a machine gun.
A man charged through the dust, waving his cap in gleeful
victory.
"Yeeeee-ah! On to pillage!" He broke across the wooden
planks as his comrades brought up the rear, their heavy weapons
readied against any adversary. Only one, a heavy-set Negro, hung
back in apprehension.
"I don't like this," he growled. "It smells bad."
"That's because there's a slime monster in the moat!" the
wide-eyed leader called. The black man sneered but his silver-
haired companion removed a cigar from his jacket and waved it
towards the dismal pool.
"It might eat you," he said, without cracking a smile.
The handsome cohort, who was halfway across the bridge,
laughed. "I'll bet it just LOVES chickens!"
"Who you callin' chicken, fool?" The bejeweled man
thundered across the bridge like an angry bull. His speed
propelled him into the iron-studded door, which collapsed in
surrender. His friends followed him in cautiously.
"Now where do you think that scumbag could be hiding?" the
older man asked, shifting his rifle in his arms.
"What about the dungeon?" the husky one suggested.
"No, that's where he's got the princess," the lunatic
corrected.
The blond straightened his tie. "Princess?"
"No time for that, fool!" the black man barked, his
necklaces rattling annoyance. "We gotta get this Skelo . . .
Skelta . . . Skella . . . whoever! Let's try the throne room!"
As one, they turned and marched side by side down the long
hall and into a torch-lit room lined with the skulls of less
fortunate interlopers. Their hands tensed on their weapons as
the spotted their prey, a hideously ugly man in a blue bodysuit.
"Well, he certainly doesn't read GQ," the blond observed.
"Impertinent fools!" the figure screamed. "Who are you to
enter my domain?"
The silver-haired leader stepped forward, tilting his cigar
with flair. "We're the . . ."
"Silence! I will throw you into the slime pit!" the
creature roared. Four huge guns clicked into the ready position.
The thing caught its breath in a frightened gasp. "Then again,
maybe not." He jumped from his chair and ran for his life. The
foursome followed in hot pursuit up a twisting staircase, dodging
bolts of magic fire and countering with blasts of heavy
artillery. He was finally driven to the edge of a turret, and in
desperation, pulled a sword from beneath his cape, hurling it
with superhuman strength. It struck the black man, but was
deflected by his chains. All four fired their weapons and the
man toppled over the edge, disappearing beneath the inky waters
of the moat with a final hair-raising scream. For a long second
the group stared down, then with a wild war whoop, the crazed
gunner jumped onto the stone balcony, dancing in triumph.
"The A-Team owns Castle Greyskull!"
"Aw, come on, Uncle Travis," a small voice whined. "Let us
play with it!"
The college student scowled. "I thought I told you to pay
attention! You don't know how to properly play with these toys."
"MOMMY!!!" Travis shook his head and returned to the
business at hand, namely, helping Face find the Princess and the
Colonel collect his 10%. Unfortunately for him, his young nephew
had called in a professional and his elder sister shooed him away
from the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE playset. He shook his head as
he settled on the sofa and began to thumb through the latest copy
of ON THE JAZZ.
"Kids," he sighed. "There's just no hope for them."
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Kind of neat that the original newsletter it appeared in was named On The
Jazz as well, don't you think?
Finally this issue, part 2 of the recent Dwight Schultz interview
"Secret Master of the Holodeck" from Starlog, Jan 1996, by Stuart Banks
STARLOG: Do you think you've been typecast in "dysfunctional" roles since
playing
Murdock?
DS: No not at all. I went from playing Murdock in 'The A-Team,' to doing
Robert
Oppenheimer in 'Fat Man and Little Boy,' to this racist father in 'The Long Walk
Home.' I was *not* typecast. So, it's a question of what you like to do
and what's
available. But I've been fortunate not to be typecast.
STARLOG: Do you find that playing the mad Murdocks and the Barclays give
you more
scope as an actor, rather than doing straight roles?
DS: It all depends. There's madness; the great roles are always mad. Always.
I'll give you an example. Oppenheimer tried to strangle his best friend in
Europe, when he was 20 years old. They thought he had dimentia. I mean, he was
mad. Think of Ken Russell's movies. Think of the movies, the classic films,
where in recent years all the central characters are, in essence, kind of mad.
There is this madness that's a part of eccentricity. I love playing eccentrics.
They're famous as personalities simply because they're so interesting, so
out of the
ordinary. Being out of the ordinary is something good.
STARLOG: How much of yourself is there in the roles you play?
DS: There is always *something* of me. If I take the two things I'm best known
for in television, Murdock is what I want to be all the time. All right? And
Barclay is more what I am. That's closer to me as a person, offstage in
terms of
life.
STARLOG: Do you think Barclay the character is actually a contradiction in
terms?
DS: Well, that's the way he was described when they wrote him. But you
see, it
really has to do with how brilliant he is. Can you overlook his social skills
problem to get to his intelligence, his capability?
STARLOG: Many fans like the way he came across in "The Nth Degree."
DS: That was my favorite episode because of what happens to him and also
what the
writers did - they captured human failing and human experience. In the
future, I
believe we're going to be part human and part computer. That's going to
happen.
We're doing it now. We have cells, neurons are attaching themselves to chips in
petri dishes. We're going to have artificial vision that's all computerized.
STARLOG: Shades of the Borg?
DS: Oh, it's there. It's happening now. Think about it. Think of
viruses they
use as computer switches. They're alive. Human beings see things before they
happen. They always happen. Science fiction writers like H.G. Wells and
Jules Verne
did it. Think about what H.G. Wells predicted, and what came true. Then,
go back
amd look at science manuals and their predictions and you'll find they're all
linked. These people predicted the future. not scientists. The only scientist
who predicted the future, predicted it knowingly, was Albert Einstein. But
he was
a creative genius. Creative minds predict the future accurately.
Scientists, although they create that reality, don't really predict it.
STARLOG: SF writers do seem to be more open minded.
DS: They see things intuitively. They make extrapolations that are from
present
world solutions, that are more accurate than people who are so narrowly
focused on
the mathematical equation and how it applies to the scientific method.
STARLOG: What SF shows do you like, apart from 'Star Trek' and 'Babylon 5'?
DS: Of course I love the old 'Twilight Zone.' Black and whites. I did
one of the
new 'Outer Limits.' It's a cheekier episode. It's very good quality. They're
very good scripts. They're shot in Canada. I worked with a fabulous
actress named
Alberta Watson.
STARLOG: Are there other parts in 'Star Trek' you would like to play?
DS: I would love to play a Cardassian. I would like to play someone truly
wicked.
But deceptively so. I would like to play somebody who really professes love for
everybody, and just deceives the hell out of them. Just like in life. I
want to be
able to play someone who can be truly hated.
STARLOG: How do you feel about the lack of British-made science fiction,
considering the demand for such shows as 'Doctor Who' in America?
DS: It's very interesting. Going back to when the Cold War was at its height,
there were two films made about doomsday. One was 'The Day After,' which was
American. And the other was 'Threads,' which was British. 'Threads' was
absolutely
incredible. I found that 'The Day After' was boring. 'Threads' knocked my
socks
off. There's a need for it. It's like 'ALIEN,' which, to me, was *the* great
science fiction/horror film. It was the essence of a great movie. Storytelling
made you (the audience member) do 50 percent of the work. And therefore,
you were
in there. it was just sensational. It was everything that you wanted it
to be.
The dark sexual aspect - there was nothing in that film which didn't have a
sexual
overtone. And then there was the concept of rape. Everybody being
violated by this
thing and turning the body against your will forcibly. Every surface
glistening.
Slime dropping from the mouths. Things slipping in and out. People being
killed
off camera. When you hear them scream over a box, it doesn't sound like a
scream;
it could be a woman at the height of orgasm. I mean, those kind of things were
mind-boggling, dark. They play games with your head because they're things you
associate, but they're jarring, because this is horror. You don't know what's
actually going on, and what it looked like. All these things are happening
to you
in a sensory way. You're taking it in subconsciously.
...to be continued (and finished) next issue...
Well, I feel carpal tunnel syndrome setting in so I think I ought to wrap things
up for now!
Until next time, everyone.
Nicole
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Quote of the week:
"I always like to see the size of the slug I'm
after - before I step on him."
- Hannibal in "West Coast Turnaround"
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This waste of bandwidth has been brought to you by Sockii
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pellegri/home.html
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The \/ "After talking with Agent Mulder here I suddenly
/\ Files feel slightly constipated."
