___ ____ ___ ___ _ ___ ___ / / / \ / / /__ / /__ / /__\ / / /__/ / \/ / / / /___ /__/ / \ /___ /___ The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter ***** Now in it's THIRD year of publication !! ***** Reflector submission address: onthejazz Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini PLEASE use the following address for subscribe/unsubscribe and back issue requests (do NOT send them to onthejazz!!): *** pellegri *** Also use that address if you wish to change your subscription status to receive the newsletters only (or go from newsletter to news + reflector). 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/ *The A-Team Hawaii Page: http://www.poi.net/~dcover *Homes of the On the Jazz Newsletter Archives --------------------------------------------------------------- DATE: March 2, 1997 ISSUE: 11 VOLUME: 3 Current newsletter + mailing list subscribership: 160 Current newsletter-only subscribership: 234 --------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all, some interesting things this week, so let's get to it...! NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Cannell and Hawaii 5-0? Dwight Schultz on Diagnosis Murder, Backchat Spring Philly Party? Happy Birthday! TRIVIA TIME UNAIRED SCRIPT REVIEW: "New in Town, Sailor?" VCR WATCH --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: CANNELL AND HAWAII 5-0: Got the following off the 'net, after a tip from Michele Lellouche: February 25, 1997 HONOLULU (AP) -- Book 'em, Dano! Production is to start next month on an hourlong pilot for a new version of "Hawaii Five-O,'' TV's longest-running crime show. CBS spokesman Teri Corigliano said the cast will be a mix of Hollywood and local actors. Hawaii Film Office manager Georgette Deemer said producers are considering using some of the main actors from the original show if they are interested. The actor who will play Steve McGarrett, head of a fictitious state crime busting agency, has not been disclosed. Jack Lord, the star of the 1968-80 series, still lives in Hawaii, but is retired. Corigliano said the pilot, being produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions and CBS Television, could lead to a 13- or 22-episode series. Michele reports that Cannell actually wrote the script for the pilot as well, though I wasn't able to find a confirmation of that anywhere... --- DWIGHT SCHULTZ ON DIAGNOSIS MURDER, BACKCHAT: This week was a good one for DS fans as we got a double-dose of on-air sightings. Dwight guest starred on "Diagnosis Murder" (for the second time, actually, those this time in a much more prominently featured part) as the bad guy of the week. Debate rages in certain circles on the pros and cons of the beard. Dwight was also featured albeit briefly in a phone interview on Backchat, the transcript of which is included below: (Sunday February 23, 1997) Would a Backchat bio (on Dwight) be to much to ask. JP: Not at all Mike, in fact we'll do you one better. Here is Howling Mad Murdock, Dwight Schultz, himself on the phone with us. Dwight, how are you? DS: I'm doing fine, out here is sunny California. JP: Well good, we're in blistering cold New York, we're envious already. We had Dirk Benedict on the show just a few weeks ago. He talked a lot about the show, one thing he was mentioning to me, was that you acctually had a tough time getting this gig. DS: Oh, more than a tough time getting this gig. (laughs) I was fired basically in the middle of the pilot. Yeah I'm not very good at the auditioning process, and so I was playing Lord Byron in Philadelphia, and I flew out on a Monday, and when you audition for shows, you walk into an empty, I mean into a room with 15-16 people that you have never met before, and I went in and auditioned and I bombed. There wasn't a laugh, a titter, a look, and they sent me out to work with the director for about an hour, Rob Holcomb, and then I came back in and all, and it was fun and lite. They loved it. And so I was hired. JP: So you got the job, and then the pilot was shot and the executives looked at it and again said? DS: It was NBC, the NBC exec. didn't like what I was doing. I shot, I had shot the hospital scenes from the pilot in Los Angeles, and we then went to Mexico to shoot, to finish shooting the pilot. And we were, the actors, the regulars, were all together in one unit, that was called the truck, it was a 2 level dressing room situation. And they moved me out. JP: That was the first sign. DS: That was the first sign. They said "Dwight, we're moving you out of here, and we're putting you way down the end." And I went down to this little tiny room and I'm sitting there and the director came in and said, "Dwight, we have to reshoot everything you've done, they don't like it." JP: But then DS: And that basically, things didn't look good for the future. JP: But then what happened, they put the show to the testing groups and boom, Dwight Schultz, turns out to be one of the most popular characters DS: Well yeah, Brandon Tarticoff called my agent, and I got a call from my agent saying that my dials were great. JP: That which means, that's how they used to test, right! DS: Absolutely, I hadn't a clue what it meant, but that's exactly what it was. They tested the part I had shot, and when they like you, they turn the dial to the right, and when they don't like you they turn the dial to the left. JP: We are about out of time, but Susanne had a very quick question, about the T-shirts. SW: Yeah, wht's the deal with the T-shirts, with the sayings on them? DS: Well they were, that was a great little idea wasn't it? I used to say "I wonder if sometime in the future, if this show is successful, if people would wonder what they were." Yes, that was my weekly contribution to the show. JP: You know what's funny is, we still get mail, people say do you know why, or what's the meaning behind these. Dwight, we couldn't, uh thank you more Thanx to Kiwi for the transcript! --- SPRING PHILLY PARTY: To date, I've only received 2 responses to the idea for doing an A-Team Philly Party this spring. So, if I don't hear from anyone else about it before the next newsletter, I'll postpone any plans for a party till the summer. So if you want to come hang out sometime either late next month or in April, let me know asap! --- HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Dirk Benedict yesterday, March 1. (His 52nd I believe.) --------------------------------------------------------------- TRIVIA TIME: Last issue's question was - >Name an episode that BA climbs aboard to fly without saying a word about >doing it ? Various answers were acceptable, including: MIND GAMES LEASE WITH AN OPTION TO DIE QUARTBACK SNEAK SOUND OF THUNDER --------------------------------------------------------------- UNAIRED SCRIPT REVIEW: "New in Town, Sailor?" Okay, finally getting around to summarizing this script. First off, it was written by Babs Greyhosky, and First Revision date is listed as January 23, 1986, putting it solidly in the 4th season. EPI-LOG Magazine did a good job writing an outline of this script, so I'm basically following their outline here, from Issue #18, but paraphrasing it. SUMMARY: Trudy's Beauty Salon is preparing for its grand opening. Trudy supervises three younger girls, Wanda, J.J. and Rosie, who are practicing on some dummies. Of course, in typical A-Team fashion, a black Cadillac pulls up outside, two thugs enter and threaten the girls. Their former employer, one pimp named Mr. Jade, wants them back. The thugs bust up the shop and leave, teling the girls to be back on their street corners by that evening or else. Later, Hannibal enters the shop dressed as an old woman, asking for a haircut. Trudy gets annoyed because the woman won't leave, but he tells her who he is eventually. The rest of the Team arrives and Trudy tells them her story - she's wanted to work "legit" for 20 years, saving up her money, but now she thinks all her hope is lost. She knows other girls who want to quit but they are afraid of Jade also. Of course, Hannibal has a plan that involves getting all the girls off the street first. That night, the two thugs see all the girls working the street and think everything is back to normal. They see Face arriving to pick up Wanda, thinking she is leaving with a customer. Instead they're going to a motel, where Murdock, dressed up as a pimp, helps Wanda escape out the back window. MURDOCK Pimp-poppers are on the move! FACE Murdock -- MURDOCK Flap-Jack FACE Flap-Jack, would you just help me get Wanda out the window before people start knocking on the door? MURDOCK Take it easy Face. You've got the room for the whole night. FACE Right. And that in itself has aroused enough suspicion. These things usually rent by the hour. She runs to B.A.'s van while Face leaves for another pickup. After a few hours, eight girls are rescued and delivered to a nearby warehouse where Hanibal and Trudy are giving them a meal. Face is busy picking up Rosie, but this is the third time the thugs have seen Face. They leave to see if J.J. is still at work, and she happens to be the last girl Face was to pick up. He soon arrives and grabs the girl before another customer can pick her up. Unfortunately, it turns out it isn't J.J. but a vice cop, who arrests Face. J.J. was already grabbed by the thugs and taken to Jade. He demands to know what's up, but even with his threats she claims to know nothing. Jade turns her over to the thugs. Meanwhile, Face is at the police station trying to get off the hook. He gets dragged off to a cell. The rest of the Team and the girls go to J.J.'s apartment, and find her alive but badly beaten. She didn't talk. Face calls, and as they are talking one of the cops realizes they have a member of the A-Team. Face hears this and warns the Team to work fast to get him out. Hannibal goes in disguise as Winston T. Shoemaker, a government official. Meanwhile, Fulbright has been alerted and is on his way to the police station. Hannibal gets there first, and runs a scam - he claims to be from DC, ordered to pick up Face. To prove it, he shows the police captain the rest of the Team handcuffed in his car - B.A., and "Colonel Smith" - actually Murdock in disguise. Face is turned over immediately, and Fulbright arrives just in time to cause a scene and chase after the guys. Hannibal's driving isn't up to par with B.A.'s, but they manage to outsmart their pursuers and return tot he warehouse. J.J. phones Jade, telling him she knows who the guy was who was picking up all the girls. A new pimp by the name "Flap-Jack" Murdock. He's got a bigger operation and wants to meet with Jade to discuss business. Jade agrees. It's all a set-up so that Murdock can get into Jade's place, set-up some monitoring mikes to find out if Jade is really planning on setting up a big drug deal, as J.J. had told them she'd heard about. When Murdock gets to Jade's place, he does a thorough job confusing Jade, going off about Pimp conventions, health and pension plans for their employees, etc. We see BA and the others listening in on the conversation at the warehouse. They're waiting to hear the details of the drug deal, which it turns out will happen at night in a deserted dock area. At the dock, a sedan pulls up, but they wait until Murdock identifies Jade's car to head in for the bust. The Team watches the deal go down, Hannibal trying to reach the police captain on the phone to tell him what's going on. But the Captain is already on the scene, in fact, it turns out he is in on the deal. The Team go for an attack anyway, using stink bombs to disrupt the deal. Afterwards, heading back to the warehouse, Trudy is upset they didn't get Jade but Hannibal is already thinking about a new plan. But Fulbright is waiting at the warehouse. Murdock, fortunately, is still well disguise in his pimp outfit and therefore not recognized. Fulbright is triumphant and gloating but it turns out Trudy may have a secret weapon to use against the General - the fact that Fulbright was one of her "better customers" in Baton Rouge.... TRUDY Yes, but I'm out of that business now, Harlan. Me and the girls here are in another business. A legitimate one. That is, if you let my friends go. FULBRIGHT Let 'em go?! Honey, this is the A-Team. There's nothing that can make me let these men go. TRUDY (pointedly) Easter Sunday. Fulbright stares at Trudy. Obviously these words have a tremendous impact on him. FACE (to Hannibal) Not the rabbit suit...? FULBRIGHT (defensively) That was along time ago. TRUDY But I still remember it. Vividly. Hannibal makes a deal to let Fulbright "move them" to Trudy's shop until the bust goes down - the MP's can bust Jade, his men, and the crooked Police Captain. After that, the Team will surrender. They go to the Beauty Shop, and Fulbright hears Jade arranging the deal with the Captain on the mike that is still set-up at Jade's place. So, intercut we get scenes of Fulbright moving in on Jade's place, while the Team are busy in the beauty shop making weapons out of the blow dryers, curling irons, heat lamps, etc. In typical fashion, all the MPs are OUTSIDE the shop, oblivious as to what is going on inside. Fulbright makes it back to the shop just in time to see the Team break loose in a shower of shampoo and curlers gone crazy. MY COMMENTS: I generally really liked Babs' scripts for AT (such as "In Place Sight" and "West Coast Turnaround") but this one seemed a bit weak to me overall. Or at least, considering this was supposedly a 4th season script, it felt like too much of a retread of the earlier season's standard plots. Bad guys terrorizing the defenseless women, the military right behind the Team, the escape at the end due to the incredible stupidity of the MPs. With all the disguises, perhaps it would have been more amusing on screen than it reads, but I can see why this one might have been passed over. Also, I have to wonder whether they really could have gotten away with a "lighthearted" episode about pimps and former prostitutes on the A-Team in the mid-80's, in that 8 pm "family-hour" time slot especially. It also seems that perhaps this script was written much earlier and just revised from an earlier incarnation - there is a Lieutenant Crane with Fulbright for some reason, and it seems suspiciously like it was supposed to be Captain Crane and Decker instead of this Lieutenant and Fulbright originally. In any case, if you want to try to find this script, you can contact SCRIPT CITY at 1-213-871-0707 or write to them at 8033 Sunset Blvd. #1500-SL, Hollywood CA 90046 USA. --------------------------------------------------------------- VCR WATCH: All times are Eastern Standard DWIGHT SCHULTZ: 04:00pm Thu Mar-06 FAM .... HART TO HART: TILL DEATH DO US HART (1 4-6pm ...... Movi/Crim Jet-setting sleuths on a mission of mercy head to Germany, where mistaken identity gets a dead-ringer for Jennifer kidnapped. With: Robert Wagner, Stefanie Powers, George Hamilton, Dwight Schultz, Katja Riemann, Gotz Otto, Nellis Du Biel, Angela Roy, Paul Majer. NR ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GEORGE PEPPARD: 01:00pm Mon Mar-03 TCM .... HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1963) *** (G) .. 1:10-4pm ... Movi/West Three generations of a family go west through a buffalo stampede, the Civil War and a train robbery. With: Spencer Tracy, Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds. G ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Thu Mar-06 ENC+ ... NIGHT OF THE FOX (1990) ** (R) ....... 4:10-7:15pm. Movi/Mini Two Allied spies pose as Nazi and mistress to save D-Day, on a mission confused by a fake Rommel. With: George Peppard, Deborah Raffin, Michael York, David Birney, John Mills, John Standing, Gottfried John, Andrea Ferreol, Vincent Grass, Dieter Steinbrink. Stereo. R: Violence ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 09:30am Tue Mar-04 03:30pm Tue Mar-04 A+E .... BANACEK .............................. 9:30-11am .. Ser/Crim "If Max Is So Smart, Why Doesn't He Tell Us Where He Is?". A hypochondriac's (Anne Baxter) $2.5 million computer and medical software are stolen; with Paul Richards. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE A-TEAM: 04:00pm Sun Mar-02 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "Judgment Day". The team finds the mission continues when mobsters board the ocean liner during a masquerade party. Part 2 of 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Mon Mar-03 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "Lease With an Option to Die". A land developer's takeover of a Chicago neighborhood results in an attack on B.A.'s mother (Della Reese). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08:00pm Mon Mar-03 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 8-9pm ...... Ser/Dram "A Little Town With an Accent". A crafty mobster (Mark Lawrence) fakes his own death to avoid prison and plots to take over a town. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Tue Mar-04 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "The Road to Hope". Murdock zealously recruits derelicts to rescue his compatriots from paramilitary captors. Guest: Elisha Cook. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08:00pm Tue Mar-04 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 8-9pm ...... Ser/Dram "The Sound of Thunder". The search for the half-Vietnamese daughter (Tia Carrere) of Gen. Fulbright leads the team to a resourceful teen-ager bent on vengeance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Wed Mar-05 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "Body Slam". Wrestler Hulk Hogan calls on old Vietnam buddy B.A. when mobsters threaten to close a friend's youth center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08:00pm Wed Mar-05 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 8-9pm ...... Ser/Dram "Dishpan Man". Gen. Stockwell (Robert Vaughn) blackmails the team into rescuing hostages held on board a Mexican airliner by terrorists. Part 1 of 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Thu Mar-06 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "Blood, Sweat and Cheers". B.A. drives in a stock car race to prevent Hannibal's nephew (Ken Olandt) being run off the track by thugs. Guest: Stuart Whitman. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08:00pm Thu Mar-06 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 8-9pm ...... Ser/Dram "Trial by Fire". The team faces court-martial in the murder of a colonel who was cooperating with the enemy. Guest: David Ackroyd. Part 2 of 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04:00pm Fri Mar-07 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 4-5pm ...... Ser/Dram "Mind Games". Pardoned Face's book-promotion TV tour hits a snag when a Viet Cong general seeks revenge for his jilted daughter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 08:00pm Fri Mar-07 FX ..... A-TEAM ............................... 8-9pm ...... Ser/Dram "Firing Line". Murdock and Frankie Santana ask Gen. Stockwell to help them rescue B.A., Hannibal and Face from a military firing squad. Part 3 of 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That's all for this time, everyone! Until next time, stay on the jazz! nicole (http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pellegri/) --------------------------------------------------------------------- "The main motive for going beyond the rim...there's a heck of a big Taco Bell out there...." jms --------------------------------------------------------------------- Proud member of the Narn Bat Squad <> and the C.o.M.