It’s always nice when so-called reunions of this film or that film bring obscure character actors to an autograph show, who most likely wouldn’t be there for the reason that I think they should be. It’s happened many times in the past. There was Jerry Houser who showed up for Summer of ’42 – but I knew him from The Brady Brides. There was Robert Davi who was there for his James Bond appearance, but I knew him from The Goonies. And of course there was Barry Bostwick who was present because he was in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when I knew and loved him for Murder by Natural Causes. Those are just a few of many examples. Whatever… it works out to my benefit 100% of the time.
Another case in point: a hefty reunion of cast members of John Carpenter’s The Thing that took place on July 17, 2013, at the Days of the Dead event in Indianapolis. At the time, I hadn’t even seen the movie (but I have now), so cast members of that film didn’t mean all that much collectively. But individually there were three of them that I was super excited to meet. The first one was Richard Masur, and here is the second one: Joel Polis.
Horror fans may indeed know him for his role as Fuchs in The Thing, but I was much more focused on his television persona in three of my all-time favorite series, Cheers, Seinfeld, and Picket Fences.
In Cheers, he was Gary from Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, instigator of a war of pranks with the gang of Cheers that kept recurring year after year. But what didn’t always reoccur was Polis’ role as Gary. Joel Polis played the role first in 1985, but since it wasn’t a regular part, he couldn’t keep himself available at the producers’ beck and call. So when they needed him three years later, he happened to be busy and they brought in another actor named Robert Desiderio – who incidentally looked nothing like Polis. Then he was free the next couple of times, and then the next couple of times he wasn’t. Gary appeared in six episodes of Cheers; Joel Polis appeared in three.
Then he played Reilly in the Seinfeld episode The Comeback. “The ocean called George. They’re running out of shrimp.” ‘Nuff said.
And finally he played the HIV-positive dentist Bob Taymer in a heartfelt performance in the Picket Fences episode The Body Politic. There are many more appearances: Home Improvement, Roseanne, Northern Exposure, Matlock, Doogie Howser, Ally McBeal, etc. etc. This guy really gets around. Thing shming. Its a great movie and all, but c’mon…
Unfortunately, I don’t think he realized that there would be people like me at the horror convention, so he limited the photos that he brought along to The Thing and a few others. And he regretted it because othres had asked him for photos from those shows as well.
In any case, I did buy one of the photos of him as Fuchs for his reasonable price of $20. He was very nice, but slightly cocky when he declared that he was the better of the two Garys. I happened to agree, so I liked that. He was nice enough to pose for pictures with both Carolyn and me for free, so that was cool. But next time the ‘cocky store’ is open, please bring along your Cheers photos!
Celebrity encounters at the 2013 Indianapolis Days of the Dead show will continue…
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