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Vulkon Orlando November 15-17, 2002 |
Last Updated 10/22/2010
Featuring appearances by
Douglas Arthurs (Stargate SG-1, Highlander), Avery Brooks (Star Trek: Deep
Space 9), Glenn Shadix (Hercules, Beetlejuice), Jack Stauffer (Battlestar
Galactica; All My Children), Alan Ruck (Star Trek: Generations; Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off), Manu Intiraymi (Star Trek: Voyager), Jerry Doyle
(Babylon 5) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5). Of course, these actors have all
appeared in many other tv series and movies, but I’ve listed the ones that many
fans remember them from.
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Douglas Arthurs |
Douglas Arthurs, who
played the Goa’uld, Her’ur, in a number of episodes, did come to the convention
in Corin’s place. Leah and I were thrilled as Douglas Arthurs is one of the
Stargate actors we had never met before and he also had guest-starred on an
episode of Highlander (The Watchers). He proved to be not merely personable,
but incredibly over the top friendly. In fact, I think he is the anti-Goa’uld!
He had no sooner met us Saturday morning in the autograph room than he was
grabbing us in big hugs. He told us that all of Her’ur’s friends actually call
him “Huey” and that he was well-known as “the cuddly one.”
The hugging and
snuggling Saturday morning was only the beginning of a weekend of “Her’ur”
trying to prove that he really is a nice guy, at heart! I asked Douglas when he
was going to talk on stage since he was the only one of the guests who wasn’t
listed on the schedule. He said he didn’t know, so I went to talk to the
convention folks. They couldn’t give me an answer, either. My friend Michelle,
who works at all of the Vulkons, also tried to find out for me. Sean, who runs
the programming, kindly said he would try to get Douglas on the schedule some
time on Sunday. Alas, it never happened.
We did have a nice
dinner Saturday night with all of the guests, including Douglas, in attendance.
We were seated at Douglas’ table and he was quite a bit “fashionably” late
arriving. Michelle told me she’d passed him in the lobby and he had told her he
was going for a run but that he would be in to dinner soon. While we waited, we
all fooled around with a photo of Her’ur propped up in Douglas’ place. We even
got him a plate of food! (See photo above of Douglas after he arrived, posing
with the photo.) At one point, we had Joe Motes, the organizer of Vulkon, pose
with the picture, as well. (How much for me not to post the photo, Joe?
<g>) We shared some great conversation over dinner, mostly about
Vancouver (Leah and I had just been up there for Gatecon) and the surrounding
areas. Douglas said he’d very much like to attend Gatecon next year, by the
way.
After dinner, Jerry
Doyle went next door to do some rather raunchy stand-up, leaving Bruce
Boxleitner surrounded by people, mostly women, wanting their picture with him.
Alas, Leah had absconded to listen to Jerry, but one of the fellows at our
table took some photos of me with “Her’ur.”
On Sunday, Michelle
had given Douglas a little tour of the art show and shown him Leah’s huge panel
of cartoons. Leah had four pieces go to auction and sold eleven or twelve
pieces overall… more than half of what she had brought. Not bad, considering it
was the first time Vulkon had had an art show. The art show seemed really
popular and always had people wandering through it. Patrick and his wife did an
absolutely fabulous job setting everything up and running it throughout the
convention.
In any case,
Michelle told Douglas that Leah and I were big fans of his. He wandered by
about then and she told him I was one of the people she had been telling him
about. More hugging ensued. I did not protest.
Leah was busy in the art auction, so I took the opportunity to talk to Douglas for awhile since it was early yet and the autograph room wasn’t busy. He was very interested in Leah’s cartoons and wondered when she was going to draw one of him.
I thought about it for a bit,
came up with a rough idea for a cartoon, knowing full well that Leah would be
able to punch it up into something funny…and went off to talk Leah into doing
it. The concept sketch was done in no time and we went back to present it to
Douglas (see below). He loved it and promptly signed it. The finished cartoon
is, of course, at the top of the page. I was disappointed that Douglas never
got to talk on stage, but it was great to meet him and have an opportunity to
talk. If you’re reading this, “Huey,” I hope you like the finished cartoon!
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Avery Brooks |
I didn’t take any notes during Avery’s talk, but
I remember him saying that he stays in touch with the young man who played his
son (sorry, I don’t know how to spell the actor’s name) and that he continues
to have a father/son like bond with him. He isn’t really working much these
days because he has chosen not to have an agent or a manager.
Avery talked quite a bit about working on
Spenser for Hire and how much he enjoyed that role. He said that he would be
happy to reprise his role on Deep Space Nine but seemed to doubt it would
happen. He was not too happy with the way the show ended and felt like they had
basically killed off Sisko. They told him they had made Sisko a “god,” but
Avery maintained he would rather be able to watch his children grow up and hug
them. After seeing so many of my favorite characters on shows killed off or
“ascended” or whatever over the last few years, I have to agree with Avery. I’d
rather my favorite fictional characters remain alive and kicking.
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Glenn Shadix, Alan Ruck, Manu Intiraymi and Jack Stauffer |
He explained that the way they filmed him as the
giant on Hercules was they put the camera up real close to him and then Kevin
Sorbo would stand about 25 feet away and they would both act like they were
right close together. So, the illusion was given that Typhon was a giant.
Jack Stauffer was a real treat to meet. We saw a
bit of his cabaret performance Friday night, coming in on the tail end of it.
He has a great voice and you can tell he’s done a lot of musical theater. He
seemed very familiar to me, but I wasn’t sure who he was. On Saturday, in the
autograph room, the mystery was solved. He played the original Chuck Tyler on
All My Children! When I was a kid, I used to watch All My Children and was
hooked on the whole Phil (Richard Hatch), Chuck and Tara triangle. Jack had
gone on to a recurring role on Battlestar Galactica, once again paired up with
Richard Hatch! Jack was accompanied by his lovely wife and she and I spent a
few moments waxing poetical over Phil and Chuck and the like while Jack looked
on indulgently. Turns out she was a longtime All My Children fan in her own
right, long before she met Jack! She told me she met him in a bar. LOL. They
have been married over twenty years, I believe I heard him say. I took my All
My Children Anniversary book back on Sunday and Jack very kindly signed it for
me!
Jack gave some details about the ongoing battle
to remake Battlestar Galactica. He said that Sony offered to pay 40 million
dollars for a remake and Universal said no! Currently, the project is sitting
with the SciFi Channel where it is supposedly being “reimaged.” Jack, like
Richard Hatch, said that he felt Battlestar was always a human endeavor, not
just a scifi show. Like a lot of actors, he seemed to understand that great
characters that the audience can care about are more important than the special
effects. When asked what the fans could do, he urged everyone to just keep
writing. He was blunt and said: “Raise the obnoxious factor – they’ll deal with
you just to get rid of you. Keep writing. It will not just come to you.” He
joked around but quoted “Galaxy Quest,” saying “Never give up; never surrender.”
He told us that Lorne Green was like a father to
all of the cast. Very much a mentor and he set a good example for the younger
actors.
Alan Ruck, of course, was in the Star Trek film,
Generations, but I recognized him as Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. You
can see from the photo below that he still has that quirky little grin!
Manu Intiraymi of Star Trek: Voyager, told us
that his first name means “ancient festival of the sun in Peru.” Apparently, his
parents are big hippies. He said that there have been rumors of a Voyager movie
but producers don’t let the talent in on those things because then they’d have
bargaining power. He apparently has done a guest shot on the TV show “24” where
he mugs Kiefer Sutherland.
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Bruce Boxleitner & Jerry Doyle |
Jerry told us quite a few funny stories on
Sunday. When asked why he decided to go into acting, he said: “Chicks.” He told
us numerous times about his woes and travails with women (Bruce didn’t miss a
chance to tease him, either). Jerry claimed he always ended up giving his women
a credit card and a house and then they left him! He talked about auditioning
with Tracy Scoggins and how she got the role of Lockley. Apparently, he ended
the scene by saying “Ah, bite me.” Tracy stopped, turned around, came back and
said, “Mr. Garibaldi. I think I’m going to have to ask you to kiss my ass.”
Jerry turned to JMS and said “I think we’ve got our gal.” He told us his
favorite episode was the first one of the second season because he was in a
coma, with no dialogue, and he got full salary! He said JMS told him it was his
best acting, too.
Sunday afternoon finally brought the great treat
of seeing Bruce Boxleitner on stage. Of course, we’d had the unexpected
pleasure of seeing him at dinner the night before and then several hours
watching Bruce and Jerry banter (with our mouths hanging open…when we weren’t
laughing)…but this was his first “official” appearance at the convention.
Bruce went to great lengths to reassure everyone
that he and his wife, Melissa Gilbert (who is currently the president of the
Screen Actors Guild), were very happy together and that they were not
separating. Apparently there had been some rumors floating around that they
were parting ways. He seemed very upset by the idea and actually quite
offended.
Bruce told us that out of all of the people he’s
acted with over the years, he has stayed in touch with James Arness. He seemed
very fond of Arness. He said that he hasn’t seen Kate Jackson since Scarecrow
and Mrs. King ended and that, in fact, he thought she wasn’t very fond of him.
He wasn’t quite sure why.
As you can see by my photos, Bruce doesn’t like
to let go of the microphone. Hey, Bruce! If you’re out there, lower the mike so
us poor photographers can snap pictures of your gorgeous face. *ahem*
Bruce said he was very disappointed that the
spin-off of Babylon 5, Crusade, was written with all new characters and didn’t
include any of the original Babylon 5 cast. He said that he thought they should
have at least included Andreas (G’Kar), whom he praised, along with Peter
Jurasik (Londo) as two of the best actors on the cast. He hastened to say that
he thought everyone was lovely but that those two in particular were just great
actors. He said that the thinking in Hollywood is often that the franchise
alone will carry the day with no thought given to the characters that people
have come to love and identify with (boy, where have I heard that before…).
When asked about the casting of Melissa Gilbert
as Sheridan’s wife on Babylon 5, he explained that it was basically a bit of
“stunt” casting, in the hope of buying the show a little publicity. But that
Melissa also really did want to do it and had a lot of fun with it.
Come visit a Stargate Forum by and for
the fans of “Classic” Stargate: Our
Stargate!
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