Ramblings and Musings 

"This is my midget. That'll be 20 dollars."

After recently going through a lot of old photos from past Wizard World conventions, I started thinking about the “celebrities” that are often seen at such places. The sci-fi, horror, and fantasy genres of film and television have a unique way of creating celebrities, then letting them fall to the bottom of the entertainment industry like the chum that they are. It’s strange that no matter how far down the precariously placed ladder of fame these stars hang, there are hardcore fans that will always adore them no matter how long ago their particular show or film was last in the public consciousness.  

Case in point: go to any comic book convention to see stars from shows like Buck Rogers. I mean seriously, how many people still want Gil Gerard’s autograph? You’d think that everyone on Earth who wanted one would have one by now, but year after year I still see Buck Rogers himself waiting for fans willing to fork over twenty bucks for a damned autograph.  

There has to be a sympathy factor that inspires some people to buy these autographs. To me, there’s nothing worse than seeing the guy from the nearly forgotten early 90s Superboy series sitting in his booth bedecked with pictures of his glory days, behind a stack of 8X10 glossies and looking like a sad puppy. Still, there shouldn’t be that many people feeling sorry for these former stars to support inhabiting a booth every year across the country.  

In another, similar vein, one of the most surprising things I’ve learned over the last year aside from learning I can eat about six pounds of Long John Silver’s food in one sitting and still live, is that Jason David Frank is not a forgotten has-been, but is indeed one of the most searched for items that brings people to Digital Monkey Box. For those of you not up on who Jason David Frank is, Shawn wrote an article about the guy about a year ago that can be found here. I forgot he existed until Shawn wrote the article. 

Others still search for him by the hundreds if not thousands every day. I’d like to think that all the hits are coming from one crazy fan entering “Jason David Frank” over and over, but that would make too much sense. I know it would be too good to be true that people named Jason David Frank would be googling their name repeatedly, but guys named Jason David Frank are too busy kicking boards in half, lifting weights, and infecting hapless victims with free cases of herpes to look up their own name on the internet. In this crazy world there are enough people to care about the nearly lifelong Power Ranger who actually expel a minimum amount of effort to put his name into a search browser. (In a side note, why won’t the Power Ranger shows die? Why must Power Rangers live on like some sort of crazy zombie franchise? ) 

I’m almost completely flabbergasted (to quote my mother) that I'm not the only person who is aware of Richard Chavez and his impact on film history… well his impact on the film Predator and his short lived role in the War of the Worlds television series. I once received an email from a reader who likes Richard Chavez more than me, and I thought I was his biggest fan. I’ve only ever thought about him about 8 times in my life, which actually was what I thought rather excessive considering he’s Richard Chavez and all. No, I was wrong. For fans that enjoy this fine actor there are some havens for their adoration to be found on the internet.  

I guess the lesson learned here is that no matter how weird it is to like one of these actors, there are others out there who like them just as much if not more than you. It’s sort of a sanity safety valve. If you like some obscure sci-fi actor like Tim Dunigan from Captain Power fame so much that you are actually his biggest fan, then you might have a problem, but if you’re one step behind some other person in the obsession line, then you’re doing just fine. And even if you are that one gal out there that really likes Clint Howard more than anyone else in the world, it’s still better than being a furry or an adult that wears diapers for sexual purposes.

- Paul - 5/3/06