Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Mr. T1984

George Peppard:
Tonight I'm here on behalf of the A-Team, the whole group, on a very happy mission, to pass along our good wishes to a guy who has done so much to ensure the success of our show. And I'm talking about my friend, T, Brother T, a little bit bigger than life, with his intimidating scowl, outlandish Mandinka that parts his scalp, the oak tree arms, and that wild profusion of chains and gold jewelry, he's probably bigger than 10 lives. But there's a T you've never seen, the way I have, that T exhumes the kind of compassion and humanity that very few human beings can. There's a saying, 'You can't fool a child', and that's the truth; for despite the voracity of the roles he's played in 'Rocky III' and more recently in our show, he hasn't fooled the kids of America one bit. They sense, they know, that beneath the surface toughness is a kind of childlike quality which they recognize in themselves. That's why children swarm around him in the streets, they do everywhere we go. That's why they relate to him when despite his very busy life, he finds time to visit them in the hospital wards, and always asserting that Big Brother admonition: 'Now you go to the library and study books, you hear?' This Mr. T, this modern day pied piper, this Mr. T that I and the rest of the A-Team know, and the big secret that we all know, is the T really stands for Tenderness. He's a team player, he's a professional, and he's my friend, I'm truly so thrilled b his success, I'm glad I was around to see it happen. Thank you very much.