Whoa Nellie!
Friday, January 16th, 2015
I’ve been a fan of Little House on the Prairie since I was a kid, watching them in reruns as a teen, buying the DVDs as an adult, and then recently revisiting the (almost) entire series with Carolyn during our first year together. Having said that, it is rather surprising that with all of the celebrities I’ve met, the cast of Little House has been pretty good at eluding me. Beyond meeting Charlotte Stewart and Shannon Doherty and a few assorted guest stars, the main cast had never has the pleasure of making my acquaintance. Besides the frustration of purposely not meeting Patrick Labyorteaux (major blunder) when I had the chance, the other annoying thing was that I had never ran into Alison Arngrim, although she had made numerous appearances. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s true I was there for the wrestlers, but since there were a few other celebrities of note attending the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh on April 12, 2014, I made sure to check out what they had to offer. I skipped out on Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner, mainly because they only had the professional photo ops available, but also because Star Trek just isn’t Star Wars in my estimation. I’d go for the main cast of Star Trek, sure, but when it came to Star Wars, even the most obscure performers didn’t slip by my radar. 
Well, sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. In this case I did. There have certainly been times when I was rather nearsighted when it came to celebrity encounters, autographs, and photo ops. Would you believe I walked right by Fred MacMurray once in 1985 and didn’t even stop to say hello even though I knew full well who he was? Or that I got an autographed photo from Steve Allen and his wife Jayne Meadows, who were all too willing to chat it up with me in 1997, and I didn’t get a picture with them even when I had a camera with me? Those are the dumb moves. But then I got smarter. 
At least that’s what Teacher says. At least that’s what Zuzu says. I’m referring of course to the classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life, and for those who have lived under a rock all their lives and never seen it, you can actually catch this clip as a film within the film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Ringing a bell? Well good, another angel just took flight. 
Airplane! is one of those movies that just never seems to get old. Its utter zaniness and self-referential comedy was unprecedented at the time that it came out in 1980 and it spawned not only its own sequel, but countless films that approached humor in the same way. At the center of the film is actor Robert Hays, who portrayed the film’s protagonist Ted Striker. It would be hard to imagine the part in the hands of any other actor, but it might also be argued, that this, Hays’ first feature film role, typecasted him so badly that he scarcely found additional film work.