Month: February 2003

As promised, here’s the place to sound off for the return of Anthony Freemont and the introduction of daughter Audrey on tonight’s “Twilight Zone.”

As you guys know, I thought it was really nicely done. I still wish they’d done the whole show in black and white and not had color turn up until the very end. But that’s probably just me. And hey…who now wants a Peaksville bowling shirt with “Anthony” stitched on the front. I sure know I do.

“Buffy” discussion tomorrow.

PAD

Tonight is “It’s Still A Good Life,” the Twilight Zone sequel starring Bill Mumy and his daughter, Liliana. That’s 9 PM (unless they’re running it in the second half hour) Eastern Standard time, check your local listings. Remember, Bill said he’d be swinging back here tomorrow to hear what you all thought. At exactly 1 AM EST tonight, I’ll start off a journal entry and you guys can sound off.

PAD

I’m back. Well, we’re back–Kathleen and the baby and I–from the Neverending convention that was Farpoint, down in Maryland.

The problem with having heard so many weather reports in the past warning of major snowstorms which turn out to be a half inch of dusting is that one becomes cynical. You figure, who’d dumber? The weathermen for not knowing what they’re talking about, or you for believing them? So on Saturday when meteorologists spoke with grave portents about snow, I didn’t think anything of it.

We woke up for Sunday morning’s programming to discover that snow was falling at a rate of 2 to 4 inches an hour, and had been falling since about 5 AM. We thought of trying to leave immediately, but the roads were already being shut down. By Sunday afternoon we knew we were stuck.

So was pretty much everyone else. The convention had been lightly attended as far wiser folks than us had stayed the heck away, preparing for a blizzard. Fortunately enough, everyone remained in good spirits, even as food supplies in the hotel began to dwindle. A good thing this year’s actor guests were good sports (as opposed to the occasional egomanics one gets). Fans hung out with (and I apologize for misspelled names) Erin Gray and Gil Gerard of “Buck Rodgers,” Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint and Michelle Scarabelli of “Alien Nation,” and Armin Shimmerman of “DS9” and “Buffy” (and hey…wouldn’t it be a hoot if the First showed up as Snyder and spent a whole episode telling Principal Wood that he was going to wind up eaten, because all Sunnydale principals wind up eaten?)

And since Mike Friedman, Bob Greenberger and I were snowbound together Monday and had nothing else to do, we started work on the next “Mystery Trekkie Theater” for Shore Leave, after T. Alan Chafin managed to hotwire a VCR loaned us by dealer Herb McCullough.

The biggest challenge was shoveling out my car. With yeoman like help of several friends, including Deb Greenberger (Bob’s wife), I managed to find the car and start it up. I figured the smart thing was to try and back it out of the spot and find one with less snow (of which there were several). The problem was, although I knew enough to clear the snow away from the exhaust pipe, I didn’t realize snow had packed itself up INTO the exhaust pipe. Since I was gunning the engine to try and roll the car back over the icy spots, the interior of the car filled up with carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes. I spent the next couple of minutes wretching and coughing before I cleared it out of my lungs.

When we finally got home, we literally couldn’t get into the house. We were blocked by over two feet of snow.

Fun.

PAD

From Bob Greenberger:

Well, the Davids and the Greenbergers, among many others, are snowed in at the Hunt Valley Inn as the snow continues unabated. It’s weird, you’d think being trapped an extra day at a con would be fun. Instead, it’s eerily quiet as people wander aimlessly. There’s a full slate of programming today, with evening activities added. The con, which suffered from poor attendence due to weather fears, threw their programming open to all hotel guests since, after all, no one was going anywhere. The highways were closed around 9:30 a.m. and the National Guard got called out this afternoon. The hottest selling item in the dealer’s room was the “I Survived the Farpoint Blizzard ’03” t-shirts.

Given the current forecasts, those of us returning north will not try it until Tuesday morning. The true test of patience will be filling Monday’s empty hours without a con. People are lining up to borrow Deb’s laptop since Peter has a column due at CBG on Monday and Mike Friedman is on deadline. The three of us have already picked three episodes to watch in preparation of our next Mystery Trekkie Theatre performance, so we hope it thaws out by next July.

From those of us trapped down in Baltimore, to those of you potentially trapped up in Boston, we wish you a safe journey home. And to those on the west coast, we envy your current existence.

Okay, let me see if I understand: Boskone was also this weekend, but the convention in Maryland is snowed in rather than the one in Massachusetts?