The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman…Just a Day Apart
Sunday, November 4th, 2012
Sometimes film and TV reunions are easy to come by. The various celebrity shows I attend always seem to highlight a few reunions at each and every show. But in the case of trying to meet up with the performers who portrayed Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers in The Six Million Dollar Man, and its eventual spin-off The Bionic Woman, it wasn’t exaclty handed to me on a silver platter. Although I infrequently tuned into either show as a kid, both characters were iconic forces for life in the seventies. At some point I know I at least picked up a Steve Austin doll at a garage sale. That eye thing was pretty weird. Read the rest of this entry »
Another tempting stand-up comedy show at the Funny Bone in Beavercreek came up once again on October 11, 2012. Ever since discovering this location at the Greene shopping mall, I’ve been enjoying an occasional evening out alone, a nice dinner, and a little celebrity encounter. I hoped that this one with Kevin Pollak would yield the same results. At first I had bypassed this one, but quickly realized that even though the name Kevin Pollak was only vaguely familiar, I did indeed know a good chunk of the body of his work. Ironically, most of the roles were in the dramatic vein. 
Frances Fisher is quite a versatile actress who seamlessly makes the transition back and forth between comedy and drama. She also holds the distinction of starring in supporting roles of two Oscar winning Best Pictures. In Titanic, she portrayed Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the cold-as-steel mother of Kate Winslet’s character Rose. Five years earlier, she had played Strawberry Alice in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven. Both performances were impeccable. 
Continuing the theme of Halloween (for Halloween), I present to you two of the actors who portrayed the killer Michael Myers in the film franchise. Both of these encounters took place at the Flashback Weekend show in Chicago on Sunday, August 12, 2012. For portraying the same character on film, these guys are about as different as you can get in real life. The first one (above left) is Dick Warlock, who had acted as the mad killer in Halloween II in 1981. 
Since I’ve been attending more and more celebrity shows that might be better classified as “Horror Conventions,” my appreciation and fondness of the genre has grown to the point that I’ve become more tuned in to picking up signed photos and engaging in celebrity encounters with actors and actresses from some of the more notable franchises. Whereas I had skipped plenty of these opportunities in the past, this year I’ve made them part of my want-lists going in. For example, I had passed up both Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton at shows in the past, but when I attended the Flashback Weekend Chicago Horror Convention on Sunday, August 12, 2012, this time they made the cut. No pun intended.