General Grievous
Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
As the landscape of autograph collecting and celebrity photo ops continue to change in the worst way possible, I find myself acclimating to the ever-increasing prices, adapting to changes in my ways of thinking, and in short admittedly more tolerant of shelling out more money and getting less in return. Or we could just say that maybe I have Star Wars fever in this particular case, as I, like many, anticipate the new Star Wars film coming at the end of the year. Case in point: paying Matthew Wood $30 for an autograph, which included a ‘free’ photo op. Read the rest of this entry »
Actor Sean Whalen has kept pretty busy over the last 25 years, starting with his debut appearance in an episode of the TV series Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Most notably, he identified with the character of Roach in Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but thankfully Mr. Whalen wasn’t necessarily typecast as a young friendly cannibal. When he appeared at the Knoxville Fanboy Expo on June 6, 2015, I didn’t originally have him on my list to get, but Carolyn recognized him from his “Roach” roll right away, so I went ahead and picked him up… and I’m glad I did. 
I’ll admit it. I’ll admit it. I wanted to win the trivia contest this year. We were tracking to win every other convention… and anytime we participated… and I wanted to keep it that way. David, Peter, and I had claimed our first victory back in 2006 in Augusta, Georgia. Then in 2008 the Europeans changed it up and made it some strange single player event in a circle in the middle of a banquet or something. In 2010 our team re-grouped and won again in Sacramento. In 2012 we felt a little snubbed as once again it was taken over by other hosts who hand-picked two-person teams while the former champs – us – sat idly by and watched. We made a production of how we would regain our crown in 2014. 
It seems way too trite to actually name this posting “Norm!” One can only imagine how many times a day poor George Wendt hears it as he goes through his daily routine. But there is simply no better way to remember this actor because George Wendt has become synonymous with this character. Yes he’s done other things, many of them quite cool: My Bodyguard, Fletch, Guilty by Suspicion, Airplane II: The Sequel. But since his day on one of my all-time favorite sitcoms Cheers, where he was one of only three actors to appear in every single episode, there was no cutting ties between George Wendt and his character Norm Peterson. 
The centerpiece of our massive two-week-in-July-2013 road trip was the Wilder Pageant in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and the driving force at the Wilder Pageant that made it some desirable was having a decent number of Little House on the Prairie TV cast members present at the affair. This was made even more amazing by the seats that we were given on that Friday, July 25, 2014, performance of the play. Two of the celebrities present happened to play siblings on the show, that of Laura Ingalls’ husband Almanzo Wilder and his sister Eliza Jane, both fictionalized versions of real-life people.