Leaning into the touchy-feely con

The biannual Chiller convention is great for meeting people we developed affection for in movies and TV shows we started loving at a young age. At the latest Chiller, it was repaid in kind in a very tangible way.

It started off with the first addition of the day to The X-Files Yearbook Project -- Don Gibb. He's probably known best to the world at large for Revenge of the Nerds, but to me, he's the crispy-eared Kip from the fourth episode of The X-Files.

Gibb was super-friendly from the get-go, he remembered flying into Vancouver to film his part of the episode in one day. He deemed it "super fun" to play the bartender with one ear. He joked about his photo not being part of The Complete X-Files book that I've been toting around for signatures for about five years. And I got a peck on the cheek after the photo op.

Right next to Gibb was Larry B. Scott, also from Revenge of the Nerds. I know him best as Rudy Tyler from SpaceCamp. I was really glad I stopped to talk with him, because it turns out he's as big a space geek as I am. I asked if they got to use the "Vomit Comet" to film without gravity, and he said the movie's budget wasn't big enough for that so they faked it with body movements. But they did get to watch a shuttle launch, visit NASA and meet some astronauts.

I recalled watching SpaceCamp a lot the summer I worked at a movie theater and bemoaned the fact that the Challenger disaster meant a lot of people who otherwise might have seen it that year didn't. They've been missing out on a nice family-friendly flick.  

When signing a picture from the movie, Scott had a technical malfunction with the silver marker. Instead of trying to make the best of it, he just discarded the photo and started over again. And then we started chatting about SpaceX, particularly how they land the booster back on the pad and how astonishing that is to see every single time there's a launch. "It's crazy!!" he said. We got so into it that I don't think either of us noticed the line for him developing behind us. 

Sis' big draw for the event was Robert Wuhl, first and foremost for Batman, but also for Bull Durham. Although Sestra knows not to ask the actors yes or no questions lest she get yes or no answers, she inquired whether he had any input into his lines as wisecracking reporter Alexander Knox in the 1989 film. Wuhl simply said yes. But she got a more playful affirmative after offering up his taxes quip -- "Commissioner Gordon, is there a 6-foot bat operating in Gotham City, and is he on the police payroll, and if so ... what's he pulling down ... after taxes?" and Robert added the wicker people line -- when looking at of Bruce Wayne's odd sculptures, Knox said, "Check this out! He must have been King of the Wicker People." 

As we took our photo, I mentioned running the social media channels for John Reilly, who played a competing sports agent in nine episodes of Wuhl's series Arli$$. Robert quickly brightened up and asked about him. "He's a good man ... I loved him," he said.

After Sestra met the equally photogenic Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason) for her Nightmare on Elm Street collection, we went off to the Fame room and I met four of the actors I enjoyed so much from the TV series. Valerie Landsburg was sitting next to Carlo Imperato, and they were just chatting away and teasing each other. Valerie quipped, "I've had the same relationship with Carlo all these years." Then she whispered something I couldn't hear in the bustling room, so I leaned in, and she said, "He just might be the best person in the world."

I got some of the love too. When Landsburg came out from behind the table for our photo, I told her what an inspiration her portrayal of Doris had been to me and she gave me an impromptu "thank you so much" hug. (Props to Sestra for getting pictures of that, I thought she was looking elsewhere at the time.) 

I always try to find something different to tell the actor that he/she might not hear all weekend, but I had to admit The Wizard of Oz-inspired episode -- basically Doris' fantasy -- was my favorite. She said it was hers too. Before we moved on, she told me about her directorial effort, Love & Debt,  which stars Tom Cavanagh, Bellamy Young and Brynn Thayer. (It's on Amazon, Spectrum, Comcast and Cox Broadcasting platforms, so check it out!)

Then I talked with Imperato, delivering a similar spiel about my love for the show. But the signals might have gotten crossed somewhere between the part in which I had a crush on Carlo's character, Danny, and how uplifting Doris was to me. "Your first crush was Valerie?" Imperato said in good humor. That's when we discovered a fresh and exciting way of getting additional photos, Sestra showing us the photo she took while we still had our arms around each other. Bonus hugs!

Jesse Borrego got me to do something I never would have done under normal circumstances. After joking that our "I Want to Believe" shirts should say "I want to live forever," he started singing the title song ... and I actually picked up where he left off. That had to have offended his eardrums. Jesse also has a new movie -- Phoenix, Oregon -- with James Le Gros and Lisa Edelstein. 

After saying hello to Carol Mayo Jenkins, the last Fame cast member I met was Lee Curreri. I recognized those soulful eyes before I saw anything else. The only one of the foursome who also was in the original movie was really enjoying himself, remarking he had spent more time with Billy Hufsey the previous night than he ever got to on the set. Lee came out from behind the table for the photo and kept talking to us after it was taken. When we mentioned Sibling Cinema's 10-word movie reviews, he sheepishly brought up the 1986 film, Crystal Heart, with Tawny Kitaen. Neither Sestra nor I knew of it, but mark our words, we will hunt that one down and give it the 10-word treatment.

Next we made our way to Nancy Allen, who not only still is completely gorgeous (and blessed me for telling her so), but was also really sweet and accommodating. (Notch another one in the Blockbuster/X-Files t-shirt fan club.) We joked about how harsh the lighting is in the Hilton Parsippany -- "interrogation lighting" I do believe Sestra deemed it. 

After Sis pointed out that Allen's Robocop character, Anne Lewis, was a great role model of the time, Nancy told us a story about a fan from Mexico who had only seen Robocop 2. Lewis was her hero, and Allen was grateful to have been able to play a part like that.

I mentioned I had met Piper Laurie, Nancy's Carrie co-star, at the last Chiller. Allen said Laurie is so lovely, but she never really got to know her until after the movie wrapped and became a cult favorite. "We just had no idea it would be so big, and then it got even bigger," Nancy said.

Very happy to have gotten so much accomplished during the pre-show portion of the program, I got on the Richard Dean Anderson line so I could finally meet Dr. Jeff Webber/MacGyver. It probably helped that neighboring Tori Spelling took a break after an hour, which cut down the line a bit. Knowing he's a dog aficionado, I wanted to share with him a picture of our husky, Lady Cayenne. 

After Richard declared her to be beautiful, I mentioned we'd been fans since General Hospital -- "Oh, that goes way back" -- and that I run Sharon Wyatt's YouTube channel. He really just melted -- "She's so great, I adored her." He asked after Sharon, and I spent the rest of the minute or so we got with him talking about his GH co-star, which I really didn't mind all that much. Sestra made him jump, because she had been so quiet while I was rambling on and he didn't know she was there.

Sometime during dinner, a lightbulb went off and I realized that Krista Allen -- whose setup was adjoining the Anderson line -- had been on The X-Files. She was needed for the yearbook! Didn't really relish the idea of getting back on that long line that swings around again, but there was only one person at Krista's table, and so I was able to slip into that queue without offending anyone.

Allen recalled she was psyched to be on the show -- "Are you kidding, it was phenomenal!" was the exact quote. Then she told me how she pranked David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson by doing an NC-17 take on Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct leg crossing during their scene together. She even included that as part of her signature in the book, which she scrolled through to see all the signatures. Her memorable character(s) from "First Person Shooter" (Season 7, Episode 13) somehow also wasn't pictured in it.

Then we got on the line for Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield. Although, even though it looked like one line, it was actually two, so you went through past Busfield to get to Gilbert, and then we had to get back on it again to meet him. Fair enough, we did that (and Wuhl crossed our path sometime during the process), and I met another of my childhood favorites from Little House on the Prairie. That went pretty quickly. Basically I told her we had been fans forever and that their dog, Josephine -- in tow complete with little puppy bed -- was adorable and she thanked us while the camera clicked.

It was adorable to see Melissa and Timothy together. When Josephine wandered over to his table, Gilbert exclaimed, "Timmy!!" And then Busfield called her over to look at an unusual movie poster a fan had brought for him to sign. 

Meeting him went almost perfectly. "Hi, I'm Tim!" he said brightly when I introduced myself and Sestra. The fan before me picked out a photo from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to be signed, but admitted he didn't know the show. So I said I did and I loved it. "Well, ya know, Sorkin," Busfield said. Then I asked him about his role in Field of Dreams, which starts as the bad guy and then becomes someone the audience laughs with at the end. He loved the question and even said as much. "I knew there was a turn, so I could work with it. I could be as big a dick as I wanted," he laughed, adding that he had another part locked up and turned it down to be in the movie. This would have been the perfect point for Sestra to chime in with her question about Tim's character walking right through the scene as one of the pitchers threw to home plate, but she couldn't hear what we'd been talking about at all. So we'll save that particular one for another con.

Smart man he is, Busfield recognized that our Blockbuster shirts were of The X-Files nature. And he started telling us a story about running into David Duchovny while he was with thirtysomething co-star Ken Olin at an audition. He tried to psych Duchovny out as the doors closed by calling the people he'd be meeting with assholes. At that moment, we were interrupted by a Soprano. And if there's one thing any self-respecting fan at Chiller in New Jersey knows, it's best not to interrupt someone from that show. It's all right, we were mostly done.

The last person I wanted to meet was Danielle Brisebois, who most might know from Archie Bunker's Place. But she's even better known to me as singer/keyboardist/percussionist for The New Radicals', who released one of my all-time favorite records -- Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too -- in 1998. I told her how much I loved it and that it was such a complete effort from the first song to the last. She thanked me profusely and belted out the first line on the album, "Make my nipples hard, let's go!" to liven up our photo op. I was so tickled that it gave me an incredible case of the giggles. She helped me deal with the "interrogation lighting" by offering to change sides.

That capped a fun night of huggy-kissy-hang-on-to-the-celeb-while-we-check-the-photo evening at Chiller. Our final image was of Busfield and Scott renewing ties near the former's table. No Soprano in sight.