___ ____ ___ ___ _ ___ ___ / / / \ / / /__ / /__ / /__\ / / /__/ / \/ / / / /___ /__/ / \ /___ /___ The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter ***** Now in it's second year of publication !! ***** Submission address: onthejazz@umich.edu Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini Please use the following address for subscribe/unsubscribe and back issue requests: pellegri@eniac.seas.upenn.edu *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/ ------------------------------------------------------------- DATE: November 12, 1995 ISSUE: 4 VOLUME: 2 ------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------- 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! ------------------------------------------------------------- Quote of the week: "I don't want to be a secret weapon, I want to be an *exposed* weapon!" (Murdock from "Showdown") ------------------------------------------------------------- >------------------------< 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")