WKRPaige in Cincinnati

I have a lot of "favorites," and I'm always eager to sort who or what I like more than who or what else. And in ranking my favorite sitcoms of all time, "WKRP in Cincinnati" invariably works its way to the top. It was a perfectly cast show with tremendous ability to deftly mix and mingle laugh-until-you-cry comedy and drama with a message.

So having four of the cast members of the show at Chiller at the end of April was a must-see for me. Particularly when three of the four are my favorites on the show, and one would also have a place on the "favorite fictional characters of all time in any medium" list that has been discussed but never put on paper. See what I mean about the penchant for listing?

Anyway, the first person I met was Jan Smithers, who played shy Bailey Quarters. And I had heard that Jan was a lot like Bailey when she started on the show, so I wasn't sure how it would go, but she wound up being my favorite person of the event. (Lists, lists, and more lists...)

She told me that the WKRP cast remains close to this day, which I loved to hear, and that her time on the show was the best time of her life. In turn, I told her that as a shy youngster who wanted to be in journalism, she was something of a role model for me. That earned me an unexpected hug.

The next person I met was Howard Hesseman, who played Johnny Fever -- the hippie jock who landed at WKRP after burning his bridges everywhere else. And he's the one on my list of the best characters, 'cause how could he not be with lines like, "If I die, who's gonna teach the children about Bo Diddley?"

Howard, and more on this later, has an uncanny ability to take in all of his surroundings. He's really aware of what's going on around him. (The polar opposite of Johnny Fever, basically.) He recognized the Black Death malt liquor shirt I was wearing to be like the one Johnny often donned on the show, and told me about the design's origin by a cartoonist in Marin County, California.

When I brought up the born-again cult classic flick "Clue," he laughed that another fan had just had him sign a photo from the movie. The film is one of those that became a fan favorite after its original release. I said that I had sought out theaters showing the alternate endings, and he surmised that I must have been one of the very few to actually do that. He also showed great admiration for the photo Jan had signed for me -- it was a reprint of the 1966 Newsweek magazine cover that got her discovered.

And then I met Loni Anderson. She wasn't too impressed by my disclosure that we had once been at the same place at the same time -- the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota -- but she did appreciate it when I said she had made a real mark by turning the traditional blonde role on its ear as Jennifer Marlowe on "WKRP." And she also seemed pleased by the fact that a group of us on Facebook still enjoy and discuss the show on a regular basis.

Later I had the pro-shot photo with all three and Tim Reid. When it was my turn, I asked them if they were interested in a group hug. They said yes, so we all gathered together and had one! Howard quipped, "We should be facing the other way" -- toward the camera. With me in the middle, Howard on one side and Jan on the other were too far away, so we sort of held hands. When it was over, other fans waiting on line told me I did a good job. I think it emboldened them to ask for what they wanted in their own photos.

The next day, I finally got the one-on-one with Tim. I told him how much I loved Venus Flytrap and his costumes and his subsequent show "Frank's Place," which was gone all too soon. Then I mistakenly called the film "Trade" that he did with Kevin Kline "Chaos," which made me feel bad until he called it "Traffic," which wasn't right either!

But there were a lot of other famous faces to come into contact with during the Chiller weekend. Some in the literal sense, like Julie Warner (of "Doc Hollywood" and "Indian Summer" fame). When she was trying to squeeze through the Skyland Suite, she brushed up against me by accident. As Lorrie called it, she got to second base with me. And I added to that legend by deeming us to be bosom buddies.

Also in that room was Chris Sarandon, who was forced to bow out last time due to a work commitment. But he made it right by rescheduling for this event. And while he wasn't the most engaging person during autographs/photos, he told great stories during his Q&A session with "Nightmare Before Christmas" co-star Ken Page. Particularly about the fun he had on the set of "The Princess Bride."

Just as engaging on the panel front was Michael Paré with "Eddie and the Cruisers" co-star Matthew Laurance. He was also great one-on-one, with that great Tom Cody voice that kinda makes you want to melt away. Lorrie told me I should go at him with the "Pleased to meet you" line that he says in "Streets of Fire." I did, when he was signing my lobby card, and he chuckled. He said Amy Madigan was actually the best singer in that movie's cast, with a bluesy voice that rivals Etta James'. During the Q&A, he told everyone about how psyched leading lady Diane Lane had been on set when she got all B's on her report card. She was only 17 when the film was made.

The last thing I said to him when we met was how much I liked his small part in "The Virgin Suicides" -- he briefly plays Josh Harnett's character as a burned-out adult -- and he seemed very pleased by that, deeming it a top-notch movie.

Another of the people I was really looking forward to meeting was Jack O'Halloran, who is in three of my favorite childhood-era movies -- "Superman I," "Superman II" and "King Kong." Now sitting down, the former boxer didn't look as massive as I thought he would be. But you can certainly see by our picture together that he is.

In regards to the "Superman" experience, Jack said being around the likes of Marlon Brando, "Terry" Stamp and Gene Hackman was an awesome experience. He and Gene had just come off the film "March or Die," so they were pretty well bonded when they got to the blockbuster. And he did have a lot to say about "King Kong" too, which he said suffered from a bad director, but in all other respects -- particularly casting with Jeff Bridges and "Jessie" Lange -- was solid.

Lorrie doesn't traditionally do a lot of "celeb" time, other than being my expert photographer trained to not only get more than one posed shot, but to also get some candids while I'm talking with the actors. On this occasion, she did stop for John Wesley Shipp, probably best known as "The Flash," but kinda known in my soap circles for his work on "Guiding Light" (Speedo!!!!), "As the World Turns" (Emmy!!!!) and "One Life to Live."

So Lorrie and John were chatting about the reboot of "The Flash," and she was trying to get him to reveal something about the part he'll be playing in that. And that's when the guy behind her started honing in on the conversation. He continued on in that vein for a while longer, so I finally said something about that being my sister's time and he would get his in a little bit. That shut him up but quick, and John didn't seem to mind because then I was included in the convo with Lorrie. I said "Congrats on that Emmy win 25 years ago," and he couldn't believe that was that long ago.

I spent a good amount of time the second day hanging with my friends, Carol and Linda. We've developed kind of a short-hand when walking around the event. We try and take some pictures, occasionally engaging those who don't have people around them in conversation. That's apparently frowned upon on the security front, 'cause Chiller expects you to lay down your greenbacks when you want to take pictures of one of the celebs. Not that a picture from 300 feet away of that person talking to someone you don't know would make an incredible keepsake or anything. And we do pay to get in and all.

But when I was doing this in one of the main signing areas for my friend, well, I was spotted by Howard Hesseman, who was probably tired of seeing me by this time. Because I waved to him from the floor when he left the pro-shot cast event, I waved to him when the elevator doors opened early Saturday and he just happened to be there (or I just happened to be there), I didn't wave but was painfully trying to avoid gazing his way while waiting for Tim Reid, and now, there I was breaking the Chiller code of honor sorta kinda in front of him.

Luckily I avoided eviction, and we moved on to the Skyland Suite. I had read Allison Arngrim's autobiography, which was by turns, uproarious and frightening and definitely wanted to meet the woman who relished playing Nellie Oleson on "Little House on the Prairie" for so many years. We scored some more "contraband" celeb photos and Linda and/or Carol chatted up Julie Warner, David Faustino and Alison.

Got to hear more of Paré's mellifluous tones and we scouted out some of the smaller rooms as well, seeing the reunion of the cast of "The Last American Virgin" -- Diane Franklin looks great, by the way! We didn't get a chance to cop a peek at Priscilla Presley behind closed doors, but we did have fun in the museum with the Audrey II plant from "The Little Shop of Horrors" and a bunch of monkey heads.

And the last thing I saw that weekend was wizened Abe Vigoda making his way through the packed crowd for his pro-shot photo-only session. A fine capper if ever there was one.