___ ____ ___ ___ _ ___ ___ / / / \ / / /__ / /__ / /__\ / / /__/ / \/ / / / /___ /__/ / \ /___ /___ The totally unofficial A-Team electronic mail newsletter Submission address: onthejazz Administrivia: Nicole Pellegrini Please use the following addresses for subscribe/unsubscribe and back issue requests: pellegri, nicpell ------------------------------------------------------------- DATE: April 10, 1995 ISSUE: 16 VOLUME: 1 ------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings, everyone. A couple big things to mention right off the bat this issue, my apologies for its tardiness. First, it may soon be possible, thanks to some extra effort by one of our subscribers, that this group will go real-time instead of digest. Hopefully this would encourage some discussions to get started. I will still plan on putting out on a regular basis a 'newsletter' of info, trivia and stuff like that, but messages sent to the email site would be automatically and immediately forwarded to everyone on the group. Anyway, I will keep everyone updated on the progress of these changes. I recently received some information on a Star Trek convention to be held in Maryland this summer, which may be of particular interest to some of you here. Why? Because one of the confirmed guests is Dwight Schultz! Here's the important info, straight off the email flyer: ------------------------------------------------------------- Shore Leave 17 July 7 - 9, 1995 Hunt Valley Mariott Inn Shawan Rd.,Hunt Valley, MD Tel. (410)785-7000 (make your own res.) Confirmed Guests: Garrett Wang (Ensign Harry Kim on VOY) Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay on TNG; also guested on B-5) Ann C. Crispin (ST novel author) Carmen Carter (ST novel author) Brad Ferguson (ST novel author) Howard Weinstein (ST novel and comics author) Bob Greenberger (ST novel and comics author) Tim DeHaas (ST script author) Bob Eggleton (ST and SF artist) Joan Winston (ST fandom legend) Jaqueline Lichtenberg (ST fandom legend) Steve Wilson (ST comics author) Bob Pinaha (DC Comics) Kirk Borne (Astronomer, Space Telescope) Warren Hack (Space Telescope Science Institute) Anne Kinney (Astronomer, Space Telescope) Christian Ready (Science Planning Specialist, Space Tel.) Patricia Vener-S. (Technical Specialist, Goddard SFC) more guests TBA Shore Leave 17 is produced by the Star Trek Association of Towson Inc., a not-for-profit organization in Towson, Maryland. For updated information please call our 24-hr hotline at (410)821-5563. Direct any questions you may have to me (heyer), the above hotline, or write to: Shore Leave 17, PO Box 6809, Towson, MD 21285-6809. ------------------------------------------------------------- Anyway, I'm planning on going, if anyone else here is interested let me know, 'cause it would be cool to meet up with another TAT fan or two while there. And now, onto the answers to last week's trivia challenge: >Can you identify which team members assumed which of the following >aliases in the persuit of a scam? Can you also name which episode the >alias was used in? >1. Joe Morgan Face in "The White Ballot" ("I lost?!") >2. Colonel Bradley Lexington Murdock in "Diamonds 'n Dust" >3. Clarence Wilkinson Hannibal in "The Taxicab Wars". Actually it should be Clarence Wilkinson the THIRD, to be precise. >4. Sean O'Shay Hannibal in "The Big Squeeze" >5. Dick Nash Murdock in "In Plane Sight" ("Oh, grape. I don't like grape.") >6. Ashley Hemmings Face in "Members Only" >7. Volcano Johnson BA in "Champ!" >8. Mrs. Murdock Hannibal in "Lease with an Option to Die" ("Please, not his yo-yo hand!!") >9. Carlos "Blue Moon" Mendoza Murdock in "A Little Town with an Accent" - don't forget the z! >10. Dr. Pepper Face in "Pros and Cons" >11. Donny and Marie Murdock and BA in "Bad Time at the Border". Go watch it again if you don't believe me. This week's question is concerning one specifc episode: "The Grey Team," the last episode of the series (or next to last episode, depending on how you want to argue the point...). Anyway, this episode is chock full of in-jokes, specific to the series and tv media in general. I counted five in total. How many can you catch? ------------------------------------------------------------- Finally this edition, part of the Mr. T bio info I promised last issue. This comes right out of a VERY old (1983) British fanzine, "The A-Team File #1". I know I'm violating 'zine etiquette in copying this here, but considering that: (1) this 'zine is very old and decidedly out of print; (2) I've been pretty free-wheeling about copying stuff from regular magazines like TV Guide verbatum here and no one's rasied any objections; (3) this is the most bio information on T I've managed to find anywhere, I figured I would go ahead and share it here. There's no author credit given, so I can't tell ya who to thank for writing this, unfortunately: Mr. T was born Laurence Tureaud on 21 May 1952 in the rough southside ghetto area of Chicago. He is the second to youngest of twelve children (he has four sisters and seven brothers) and grew up in the housing projects of Chicago. His father left when he was 5, and his mother raised the family on $87 a month welfare in a three- room apartment. Mr. T's brothers encouraged him to build up his body in order to survive in the area, and he has commented, "If you think I'm big, you should see my brothers!" His mother is a religious woman, who has had a strong influence on him. He says, "Any man who don't love his momma can't be no friend of mine." He was an average student in school. "Most of the time," he says, "I stared out the windows, just daydreaming. I didn't study much because I have a photographic memory." Apart from one spell between 5th and 7th grades when he went a little astray -- playing hookey, cursing, acting tough, being disrespectful -- he was a well- behaved child. (He worried about how his mother would feel if he ended up in jail, and stayed out of trouble!) He attended Dunbar Vocational High School. He was a college football star, studied martial arts, and was three times city wrestling champion! He won a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University in Texas, but was thrown out after a year -- after that he went to a couple of little colleges in Chicago, always on an athletic scholarship. When he left college, Mr. T was a military policeman in the US Army. After that, he was invited to try out for the Green Bay Packers, but a knee injury finished his professional football career. He became a 'minder', and remained largely in that profession for about nine years. He has bodyguarded such stars as Muhammed Ali, Leon Spinks, Michael Jackson, Steve McQueen, Diana Ross and LeVar Burton. He charged about $3,000 a day (more for 'special' jobs) and his business card reads, 'Next to God, there is no better protector than I'. He boasts that he never lost a client. Of the job he says, "I got hurt worse growing up in the ghetto than working as a bodyguard." He believed in having a very professional attitude toward the job, preventing trouble from even starting rather than having to sort it out once it had. "I was a very dapper dresser," he recalls. "I shaved my head, wore derby hats, white gloves, 3- piece suits, carried a cane. I never went any place without a fresh carnation or a rosebud in my lapel." When he wasn't working as a bodyguard, he filled in by working as a bouncer. One job he had was at Dingbat's club in Chicago. Club owner Ron Riskman says, "He was always very smartly dressed and he shaved his head completely bald. He'd confront trouble makers and say to them, "It's only fair to warn you that my patience is as long as the hair on my head." Most of them would get pretty quiet after that." He changed his name in 1970 by deed poll to Laurence Tero, and later to Mr. T in order that people would HAVE to address him as "Mr." It was whilst reading "National Geographic" that Mr. T first saw the hairstyle for which he is now famous -- on a Mandinka warrior. He felt that adopting the style was a powerful statement about his origins. ...to be continued next time. ------------------------------------------------------------- Anyway, that's all for now folks. Take care & play nicely :-) nicole ------------------------------------------------------------- Quote of the Week: "Colonel Smith was heard to observe, quote, 'The A-Team is proud to do its part to help diminish the rampant violence so prevalent in society today.'" -- Hannibal in "The White Ballot" -------------------------------------------------------------