Episode Trivia
Art Bell
details | add a comment | suggested by Meghann
The following is from 4.19 The Magic Bullet:
TED: “I was flicking through the radio the other night. There’s nothing really good on since Art Bell retired. I ended up listening to this woman talk.”
Nobody in talk radio quite compares to Art Bell when it comes to entertaining the notions of UFOlogists, psychics, and conspiracy theorists. From his one-man broadcasting center in Pahrump, Nevada, Bell hosted a nationally syndicated all-night radio show — Coast to Coast AM — specializing in alleged tales of the supernatural, the paranormal and weird.
Barry Manilow
details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess
The first song Angel first sings in Caritas in the episode 2.01 Judgement is “Mandy” revealing his secret shame - a love of Barry Manilow (”I think it’s kinda pretty”). He also listens to the song in the episode 4.15 Orpheus, and sings a version for Jasmine in 4.19 The Magic Bullet.
In 5.04 Hell Bound, Angel and Spike say:
Angel: “Yeah, I never told anybody about this, but I…I liked your poems.”
Spike: “You like Barry Manilow!”
In 2.06 Guise Will Be Guise, Lorne says to Angel:
“You don’t have to sing. A break for you, a break for me, and a break for Mr. Manilow.”
Funny Girl
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In 1.04 I Fall To Pieces Doyle says:
“and people who need people are the luckiest”.
These are lyrics from the song ‘People’ written by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne, which was sang by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.
In 4.19 The Magic Bullet, Lorne and Connor reference the song again:
Lorne: “You know what they say about people who need people.”
Connor: “They’re the luckiest people in the world.”
Houdini
details | 2 comments | suggested by Mel
In 5.16 Shells, Spike says of Illyria, “I fancied I saw a blur just before she went Houdini.” This is a reference to the famous escapologist Harry Houdini.
There is another mention in 4.19 The Magic Bullet:
Gunn: “This close and she pulled a Houdini.”
Connor: “What’s a Houdini?”
Wesley: “She escaped.”
MK-ULTRA
details | 5 comments | suggested by Meghann
The following is from 4.19 The Magic Bullet:
TED: “Wow. People used to think that I was paranoid. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’ve still got the implants in my head. The CIA is still listening in. It just doesn’t bother me anymore. Instead, I beam Jasmine’s love up to their satellite, you know. Share the love with those MK-ULTRA bastards.”
Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a CIA mind-control research program that began in 1950. There is much published evidence that the project involved the use of many types of drugs to manipulate peoples’ mental states and to alter brain function.
The project’s intentionally oblique CIA cryptonym is made up of the digraph MK, meaning that the project was sponsored by the agency’s Technical Services Division, followed by the arbitrary dictionary word ULTRA.
Project MK-ULTRA was first brought to wide public attention by the U.S. Congress (in the form of the Church Committee) and a presidential commission (known as the Rockefeller Commission) and also to the U.S. Senate.
Although the CIA insists that MKULTRA-type experiments have been abandoned, 14-year CIA veteran Victor Marchetti has stated in various interviews that the CIA routinely conducts disinformation campaigns and that CIA mind control research continued. In a 1977 interview, Marchetti specifically called the CIA claim that MKULTRA was abandoned a ‘cover story.’
Within the DVD commentary, it’s explained that a strong reason for Patrick Fischler being hired as Ted was due to him pronouncing MK-ULTRA correctly during his audition.
Thom Williams
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Thom Williams, who played a vampire in 7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me, has also been in the Angel episode 4.19 The Magic Bullet as a ‘Possessed Human’. He is a regular Angel stuntman.
Zakk Wylde
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Zakk Wylde (real name Jeffery Phillip Wiedlandt) appears in the Angel episode 4.19 The Magic Bullet, playing guitar during the Jasmine love-in. Zakk is the lead guitarist with heavy metal band Black Label Society. He has been voted “Most Valuable Player” for three consecutive years in the Guitar World magazine polls and in 2005, was voted “Best Metal Guitarist”, “Number 1 Shredder” and received the Metal Hammer, “Riff Lord” and “Golden God” awards.