Hey! You Tricked Us, Bobby Ewing
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
…So I made no qualms about tricking him back. How did he trick us, you ask? If you were a fan of the TV series Dallas during the 1980’s, you might recall an entire season of the show that in essence ‘never was’. This was because Patrick Duffy who was portraying Bobby Ewing had decided to leave the series and so the producers killed him off in a car accident. The next year he decided to return, so in a season cliffhanger, it was revealed that his death – along with the entire season – had been a lengthy dream sequence. Longest damn dream until Bob Newhart would have one that lasted for an entire series. Read the rest of this entry »
Our time on the road was winding down as Bob and I departed the Grand Canyon National Park on the morning of Thursday, March 31, 2011. We had only one more major city to hit and this would be Phoenix, Arizona, which I would be seeing for the first time. We headed out that morning at around 9:30am, with only the minor distraction of seeing a Smokey the Bear statue delaying us initially. Then we came upon the small Arizona community of Valle, where we were sidetracked for over an hour. The reasons for this: Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. 
As a long-time fan of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, I don’t generally pass up the chance to get autographs from or meet members of the shows’ casts. The Chiller Theatre Show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 30, 2011, brought along two such opportunities for these celebrity encounters. The first, and probably more impressive of the two, was getting to meet Mercedes McNab, who portrayed snotty-girl-turned-vampire Harmony Kendall in both series. 
No particular reason, but I didn’t envision Erik Estrada being as nice of a guy as he was. When I first approached his table at the Hollywood Show on Saturday, April 2, 2011, he was away chatting with someone else. I sighed, wondering how long I would have to wait. Out of nowhere, Erik Estrada came rushing back to the table toward me, not to arrest me, but to give me a giant hug. Hmmm… he never did that to the criminals on the semi-classic 70’s TV cop show CHiPs. 
I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever seen a single episode of the TV sitcom Family Affair, but it’s on my current ‘want list’. It was quite popular during its five-year run, being nominated for numerous Emmy awards. The actress who played Uncle Bill’s eldest niece Cissy Davis was Kathy Garver, and I had the chance to meet her at the Hollywood Show on Saturday, October 9, 2010.