Opening X-Files ... and a can of worms

Time for another Monster-Mania convention, and it's always a pleasure, because they really do them right, with limited irritation and a crop of fun celebrities.

We did have some Chiller flashbacks when one zealous security guy kept trying to get autograph lines to be more compact. Not a man of good humor either, as we found out when I showed him that whoever had put down the masking tape for Brad Dourif's line had spelled his name wrong. "I didn't do it!" he said defensively. I wasn't accusing him of doing it. And just a little joke, guy.

First up: Mitch Pileggi!! I've always been a big Skinner fan on The X-Files, but never had the chance to meet him. So two decades later, maybe I was a little worked up and nervous about it. "Pogoing," I believe, is the term Mark used.

He certainly saw me coming, since I was all decked out with the Fight the Future cap from the first film and T-shirt from my favorite episode, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space." I told Mitch that he's my favorite follower on Twitter, where I'm known as "X-Pai."

I asked him how the revival has been going, he said very well and Fox has been so happy with it that they've added a seventh episode. But he did add that Skinner hasn't been their focus. I, of course, responded with "he should be!"

My question for him was going to be a two-parter -- what was your favorite X-Files episode overall and what was your favorite Skinner-centered episode, but he said "Home" before I got half the question out. ("Home" is the wild and wacky episode about an in-bred family.) When I finished my inquiry, he said he didn't really like any of his own spotlight episodes. That gave me an opening to go into my "SR 819" tale -- it's truly the only XF ep I remember details of watching during first run. (He hilariously crossed his eyes when I mentioned the makeup job he had to go through.) And that's because during the commercials, my friend Jenna and I were calling each other "It's Krycek! It's Krycek!" she exclaimed. "I know, I know!" I yelled back. It was event television in those days before social media and when you could still surprise viewers because spoilers didn't get out.

My other big plan was to get a photo with him, one of the pictures signed and for him to sign what I'm now calling the yearbook -- The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies book. But the standard convention deal is for a photo and an autograph, it would be $45 more for a second autograph, his handler told me. I then settled on the photo and the autograph, and that's when he told me to give him the book, which he signed without charging me. "Don't tell anyone," he quipped. Which of course, I just did. Bad X-Pai.

Then time for the photo and I bounded behind the table to get close up and personal. I might have been a little overzealous initially ... Mark should have probably told me not to try and climb the guy, but luckily we did another take and that one was a keeper.

Then we got on the Child's Play line, which turned out to be mostly a line for Brad Dourif and less of a line for Alex Vincent, who grew up during the run of the movies. I gotta say I was a little creeped out by the children who were picture-perfectly made up as Chucky and the bride of Chucky. A little bit too real and/or surreal.

Anyway, Brad is pretty much the polar opposite of anything I've ever seen him in. He was so engaging and laughed a lot and played great with kids. When the man before me told Brad that he first saw Child's Play when he was very, very young, Brad said he pretty much didn't let his kids watch anything he did.

I told him that I'm always glad to see him in anything and he really raises the level of everything that he's in. He seemed genuinely appreciative.

And then I brought out the XF yearbook and asked whether he remembered anything from the shoot all those years ago. He said he definitely did, and how great Gillian Anderson was, even so early in her tenure on the show. That first-season episode "Beyond the Sea" is considered her first big showcase on the program, and she just nailed it, particularly in her scenes with Brad.

After that, we got on line for Danielle Harris. She starred in Halloween IV when she was just 10 and did a wonderful job as Jamie Lee Curtis' on-screen daughter Jamie. So after that and Halloween V, I've been a fan. And I told her whenever I see anything I go, "It's Danielle!" She's been in lots of other movies and TV, my other favorites are Urban Legend, Roseanne and The Last Boy Scout.

I asked whether the Halloweens gave her nightmares when she was filming -- another very uninspired question -- and she said, "no way," pointing to co-star George Wilbur (Michael Myers in IV) at the next table and adding that he and everyone else made it so much fun for her. Then we joked that she had a lot more nightmares working with Willis three years later.

I wasn't sure about meeting Malcolm McDowell, and boy was I needlessly concerned, because he was so engaging and downright boisterous. He had the greatest collection of potential autograph materials -- a line of tables chock full of photos, DVDs, Blu-Rays, even A Clockwork Orange scripts.

And it was another round of "anything you're in instantaneously gets better," but it was a true, if unoriginal comment.

When I presented my newly acquired A Clockwork Orange Blu-Ray book said he usually signed the first blank orange page, and I pointed out one I liked better if it was signed in silver pen and then realized aloud, "I'm directing Malcolm McDowell!"

Don't worry, then he got his own chance. Because when I sat down behind his table for the photo, Mark was rocking the patented "Tatum O'Neal photo technique" of holding the camera higher and shooting down upon us. Malcolm objected, in good humor, of course. Then he asked whether Mark was recording the "tirade." He wasn't, so the gracious actor did it all over again. "Tatum, butt out!" became the clarion call of the day.

No further takes required, because, well, look at it, he's Malcolm McDowell and he was on it! Only later did I discover there had previously been bad blood in the press between Malcolm and Tatum's dad Ryan over director Stanley Kubrick. Didn't mean to set off more discord.

Funny thing, though, after I put the photo done his way up on Facebook against the photo done Tatum's way, Tatum's way won! I think it's just a more flattering photo. I will always treasure both of them and the organic way in which all of that occurred. I didn't get to ask him anything about any movie, because we were so busy chuckling over the photo thing. Mark got a serious belly laugh out of it, it took like 15 seconds for him to come out of it.

I did get the chance to warn Malcolm off Chiller (and that's what's going on at the beginning of the video above). Unless he wants to meet up with Tatum there and do battle! In the meantime, how do I get myself on imdb for being in a short film with Malcolm McDowell?