Doubling up on a hero and a dad

Heading into the April Chiller on very little sleep, my plan was to save my celebrity meetings for the second day. So when Sis met up with some of her pop culture icons, I went along as the general photographer. That ended up giving us two chances to meet the title character from "The Greatest American Hero" and Steven Keaton from "Family Ties."

The first celeb we saw the first day was John Schneider, probably best known to the free world for "The Dukes of Hazzard," although Lorrie was more of a fan from his time on "Smallville" as Clark Kent's dad, Jonathan. He looks amazingly wonderful and really knows how to work his crowd. Lorrie had a variant cover from one of the "Smallville" magazines with him on it to sign, and he hadn't seen it before. That's one of the things she loves to do most at conventions is show off rare acquisitions, so score!

We got in a little conversation with table neighbor, Terry Kiser, more renowned for the dead title character in "Weekend at Bernie's," but better known to us as obnoxious reporter Al Craven in "Night Court." (Wearing my "Night Court" crew jacket to the show was a nice talking piece.) Surprised to find someone interested in him from the latter show, he didn't have photos for that. But we did chat with him a bit without paying any money for it, a Chiller rarity to be sure.

That wasn't the case with William Katt, whom we know not only from the unlikely superhero TV show, but also from cult film favorites "Carrie," "House" and "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend." Sis had a chat with him about how he carefully toed a precarious line to make his character sympathetic in the "Carrie" prom scenes, and that showed off a great retro find -- "The Superhero Illustrated Guidebook" which had him on the cover as "The Greatest American Hero" with the late, great Robert Culp. He hadn't seen it before either, score again! And he was super-sweet, I was already looking forward to my turn the next day.

Then we went to find Wesley Eure of "Land of the Lost" fame. Since we also remember him from pictures in soap magazines as Mike Horton on "Days of Our Lives," Lorrie got a great-looking picture signed from that era. Another kind and attentive celeb, it was funny that Sis was taller than him in their photo together.

And last but definitely not least was Michael Gross of "Family Ties," although Lor knows him even better from the film series "Tremors." Again we played the "Night Court" card, I told him that even as a kid I realized that the show was trading on his goody-goody image as perfect dad Steven Keaton in order to make the plot about him sexually harassing Markie Post's character work. I was smiling almost more than they were as I took their picture together, and then Michael took the camera, 'cause he loves taking selfies!

Then we went off hunting down treasures in the vendor room, where we found some rare DVDs and old magazines and other things we probably didn't need but were really excited to find. One of my particular faves was a press kit for the Cameron Crowe film "Singles." I had just seen the new Blu-Ray, so it seemed particularly appropriate.

Before we knew it we were back again and it was my turn to hang with the celebs. The Living Room area was populated with more fans than personalities, so we went to the adjoining room to see whether I could meet the duo of Don Most and Anson Williams (best known Ralph Malph and Potsie Weber). They were there, and they had no line. So after I scored tickets for my photo op (a separate line strangely enough), I was in the middle of a "Happy Days" sandwich. I promised I wouldn't say "sit on it" and we got enough of a chuckle for a nice photo.

When I was departing, Anson did something no other celeb has done in the history of my pop culture conventions -- he kissed the side of my head.

Said "hi" to Michael Gross, who was in that room visiting old friends such as Carol Potter ("Beverly Hills 90210"), but by the time we took another look around the Living Room (more on this in a minute) and then went to his area, he was back in place and ready for more selfies.

I told him I had gone home the previous night and watched some "Family Ties" on Netflix and he was proud of that. On his table, there was a special price for people who wanted a photo of themselves with Michael posted on his Facebook feed, but I stuck with the regular shot and did it the old-fashioned way on my own Facebook page.

But of course there was a downer, cause there's always at least one at any pop culture convention, and usually more than one at Chiller. The plan -- as it was -- was to wait on the short line for Vanessa Marcil (best known to me as Brenda Barrett on "General Hospital"). She had a photo op set for 11 a.m., and her handler said Vanessa was on her way down. Apparently she got lost somewhere between the elevator and the Living Room, because half an hour later, she hadn't showed.

At some point, we realized she wouldn't be down at her table before the op, so that's when we went off to see Michael and when we came back, "Kitty Katt" was being his engaging self. When it was my turn, we started talking about what it was like the first time he had to play a guy who didn't know how to work his superhero suit. I said it must have been truly bizarre to be acting like he's flying out of control when there was no precedent for any of it. He said indeed it did was, and added that show creator Stephen Cannell didn't even let him see the suit until they filmed the scene in which he first examined it so that his reaction would be true.

According to the pictures Sis took while this was going on, it was an animated discussion, there was only one in which either my hands or his hands weren't gesturing wildly.

Anyway, it definitely turned my frown upside down. When I got my hug for the picture, I said I would just stay that way all day and he said I could. Yes, he was a real "Kitty Katt."

Eventually I did get my time with Vanessa. She apologized to everyone for being late. As far as I could tell, only two people stuck it out on her line the whole time -- and one of them was a lady who had cut in front of me on the pretense of looking at the Vanessa photos available for autographs on her table.

We saw Billy Zabka of "The Karate Kid" at the next table being affectionate with his fans. Next to him, Gavin MacLeod of "The Love Boat" was also very amiable, although he insisted on wearing Captain Stubing's cap throughout the event. I was sad to see Rip Torn, a favorite actor of mine, looking kind of out of it. And not wanting a repeat of the Lee Majors photo, I chose not to go to his line.

Now I'm starting to lose my own train of thought. Anyway, I told Vanessa about the work I do on YouTube and Facebook on behalf of Sharon Wyatt and John Reilly. She really couldn't recall them being on early in her tenure, but when I mentioned they were often in Robin Scorpio's storyline she brightened up with a "Kimberly McCullough" and again apologized, this time for having a bad memory when it comes to things like that.

So she was perfectly charming and cordial, but I kinda felt like I was acting as much as she was just to get through it. I'll have to ask Lor if I was Emmy-worthy.

Then it was time for shopping again, and over a week later, I still haven't sorted all my stuff out, so I'll take my leave now.