TCA-Mr. T Pities the Fool

Ok, Mr. T is a ridiculous smash hit with the critics – hands down their favorite star so far. They are bombarding him with adoring playful questions about why he "pities the fool" (because you don’t want to beat up the fool"), what he watches on TV (The A-Team on TV Land, National Geographic, the Christian channels, the Travel Channel and TLC) and whether people should be afraid of him (no – he’s a "big overgrown, tuff mama’s boy.").

He’s beyond animated at this 9 a.m. panel, the first of the day ("I’m always up, brother, no drugs," he explains. "I be so up people think I’m on drugs. They ask me what you got, man, what you got, I say it’s God." When he’s in the presence of ladies, he "speaks low," he says). He’s debonair in a tailored suit and gleaming white sneakers. T says he’s not going to give advice in his I Pity the Fool TV Land show (which starts on Oct. 11), but rather inspire people, what he says he does best.

Why is he qualified, they want to know. He says "you can’t get no degree in the streets for doing this," and that he’s got "not a doctorate, but a street degree." He’s talking a lot about his mother, who’s the lady in his life because no one lives up to her – "just when you find a woman who cooks like your mother, she looks like your mother," he says, to roaring laughter. T, who clarifies that to the women in the church that means "tender," says he was asked to be in The Surrreal Life, but declined because he "doesn’t do stuff like that." But as for his show, whatever you do, don’t think it’ll be like Dr. Phil "where people sit around crying, he tells the adoring crowd, ‘What’s wrong with me, Dr. Phil? What’s wrong with me Dr. Phil?’ You’re a FOOL, that’s what’s wrong with you!"

By Anne Becker