This weekend I
was having fun at Comic-Con! No, not
the famous one in San Diego, and not even the New York
Comic-Con, but the one here in Honolulu. It's the first one,
so it's still just a small, local con. I had fun, though. I
think they said there were a little over 5,000 people there,
which isn't bad.
Conventions have changed a lot since I last went (in the
20th century). I don't remember how much the over-all
tickets cost back then, but I know that you paid for the whole weekend
(or just one day), and then most of the events within the
weekend were free. You could go to many panels, watch
movies, play games, get autographs, and take photos, all for
free. Maybe they would have a special dinner with the
celebrities or something (that would cost extra).
Apparently, now you have to pay extra for autographs and
photos. That's
ridiculous. I guess it gets them the better
stars, but I don't know... I remember going to some great scifi conventions in the 80's where I got to see all of the
Star Trek stars, including Shatner and Nimoy, as well as
many others. You did have to get there early, though, and
stand in a long line. I was very poor back then, so I feel bad for kids today that don't
have that kind of money.
This convention was only $45 for all three days, which is
not bad, but then each star charged about $30-$60 for an
autographed photo, and then another similar amount if you
want to get your photo taken with them. I'd have been happy
to just get them to sign my program and take a photo of them
while they signed it! Which is what we used to do "back in the
day."
This newer setup reminds me more of when I went to the
"General Hospital" weekend events in '99 and '01. Not quite,
but almost. For that weekend, each event is separate, so
there's no over-all price. They have one big event, though,
that's a lunch or dinner with most of the show's stars, and
it's around $75-100. Then you get in line with your favorite
ones and hope the line isn't too long...autographs and
photos are free, but you can also buy nice photos from them or
their fanclubs. Then they had many smaller events with
just a few of the actors, more intimate and fun. Those went
anywhere from $25-$75 depending. Some have really fun
events like ice cream socials or karaoke. One was even a
prayer meeting!
At least with their events, though,
you can pick and choose who to see and
it's not too costly
(although it can certainly add up). But of course it's
just one show (however, back then, they also included their
spin-off show, "Port
Charles", so it was two shows). You wouldn't be
interested in it if you watched a different show. Still, it
seems like they could learn a thing or two from the way
these fan events are run. But I know that the "General
Hospital" events have a limit to how many people can
attend, and it's not nearly the size of a scifi convention.
I think they get 600 fans at most. Still, it's not the size
of the convention, but how organized it is that should
matter.
I've been having a great time chatting with other fans and
meeting some TV stars. You can see the
photos of the stars
and their autographs on our site. It was expensive,
but worth it, in a way. Not sure I could afford to do
that very often, though. There's another one in September,
so I'm going to have to see what that one's like and who will
be there. I love comics, but I haven't really read them
regularly since the early 80's, so I'm not as interested in
them as I am in TV shows and movies.
There's a great scifi
convention over on the Big Island the weekend before,
with plenty of TV actors, but unfortunately, I don't think I
can talk my husband into spending the money on that one. It
would require a plane ride, hotel etc. Plus the resort
they're holding it at is a good half hour from the airport,
which would be a costly cab or shuttle ride.
Anyway....I noticed at the convention I went to that the
TV costumes were mostly about Japanese anime, "Game of
Thrones," "Star Wars," "Star
Trek," "Doctor
Who," and the "Jurassic Park" movies. I don't think I
saw one costume from any of the Syfy, TNT or CW scifi shows,
or "Once
Upon a Time," "Sleepy
Hollow", "Teen Wolf," et al. I did see a couple dressed
up as Archer and Lana from "Archer," but I think that was
it. I would like to go as Amanda from "Defiance" next time
if I can get it together, or perhaps go as Katherine from "The
Vampire Diaries."
There
was one panel about Syfy shows, but it was terrible, so I
left early. I guess Colin Ferguson (star of "Eureka"
as well as recurring roles on "Haven"
and "The
Vampire Diaries") was supposed to be there and had to
cancel, so they just found some writer guy who was a fan to
fill in.
Other than the panels for the actors that attended, there
were only a few "Star
Trek"-related panels, and not many about TV otherwise.
Hopefully they will have better panels next year.
I have to say that one thing I didn't like was when actor
Adam Baldwin was
bashing FOX for canceling "Firefly". Sure, that's a good way
to get fans to applaud, but it's not really fair. FOX was
the only network to actually put "Firefly" on at all. If not
for them, you wouldn't know about it, and there wouldn't
have been the DVD's and movie. FOX takes a lot of flak for
canceling scifi and fantasy shows too soon, but the fact is
that they put them on in the first place when other networks
won't take the chance. Now we do have Syfy and CW, and even
the other broadcast networks are trying to put more scifi,
fantasy and comic book shows on a bit, but FOX had the
long-running hit with "X-Files" and ever since, it's tried
to re-create that success with a long string of
shows.
It had modest success with "Sleepy
Hollow," "Futurama," "Fringe,"
"Sliders," and of course the action show "24."
They have put on many great shows like "Millennium," "Lone
Gunmen," "Terra Nova," "Almost
Human," "Dark Angel," "Terminator," "Space: Above
and Beyond," "Dollhouse"
and a whole lot more. Now they have a hit show "Gotham,"
and will hopefully have a good one with the upcoming
"Minority Report." These shows would not be on the air even
for one season on most networks. The fact is that most
TV shows of any kind are canceled within the first year.
That's a fact and you can look it up :) TV networks
are businesses, so if a show doesn't get good ratings, then
they can't sell advertising, and that's why they have to
cancel the shows. The people who work at the networks often
love the shows as much as fans do if not more.
If you look at the other networks, you will find that
they all have canceled many good shows, scifi and otherwise.
They tend not to be as edgy as the FOX shows, though.
It was hard getting back into working mode after the
convention! My brain was still "on vacation." I did scan in
all of the photos I took and uploaded the autographs. Hope
you can check them out! I'm still waiting for some of the
photos for this year's
San Diego Comic-Con.
I did our
week's news page as usual, except I didn't have time to
put up video clips like I usually do, or look for
appearances, or send out our soap opera
newsletters.
Next week's
news page will be here; I'll be working on it ASAP. Can
you believe it's August already? I sure can't.
I had to prepare to go out of town for a vacation, too,
so that's the other reason my brain was not really working
right. I hac a lot to do, but I did manage to do a lot of
work on the site to catch up a bit, and I watched some
shows. I managed to catch up on the latest season of "Teen
Wolf" so far! Such a great show. I don't know if it makes
all that much sense. Sometimes I'm confused, I admit, but I
enjoy it, anyway.
I was very sad to see the last episode of "The
Messengers" on The CW. They had a great ending for it,
though. The good guys won, kind of, and it left things open
for a second season, but not so much that we're really upset
that there won't be a second season.
I
also watched "The Bold
& The Beautiful." They're on a roll lately. First they
had all of that transgender storyline with Maya and Ric,
then they brought in her parents. Her father is apparently
only interested in Maya's money now and who she's marrying,
which makes it fun. Then they slowly built what looked like
another boring quadrangle with Wyatt, Steffy, Liam, and
Ivy... but then they had Aly go all crazy and then BOOM!
They killed Aly off, and made it look like maybe Steffy
killed her, and Ivy was a witness. Now Wyatt and Ivy are
sort of co-horts on that. Meanwhile, Liam broke up with Ivy
and is now firmly on Steffy's side. It made their little
romantic stuff way more interesting. I liked Aly, but they
hadn't done much with her lately, so this was a good way to
get rid of her. However, now what is Oliver to do? I really
liked him and Aly together. They were a cute couple. I loved
him with Hope, too. Poor guy. They don't give him, or
Carter, much to do. They should put Brooke with Carter for a
while, spice things up. Donna doesn't have much to do,
either, for that matter. There are too many people with no
storyline and nothing to do except occasionally show up for
weddings, funerals, or the odd board meeting. It was
great to see Thorne back, though. I liked how they had Ridge
quote a poem and kind of annoy people with its
inappropriateness. It kind of reminds us that he's still a
little strange and antagonistic since he fell out of that
helicopter.
The only silly thing, as I said last week, was how Steffy
cowered from Aly when she just had a rock in her hand! It
made no sense. First of all, Steffy is a strong, athletic,
confident person that should be able to handle herself.
Secondly, she could have tried a lot harder to talk Aly down
by reminding herself of fun times they had together, how
they were family etc. Thirdly, she could have easily run
away, or got in her car and locked the doors. It really made
very little sense that she would cower on the ground from
this young girl with a rock! LOL! And poor Aly, she died a
virgin...
I have a lot of TV to watch when we get back from our
trip. I still haven't watched last week's "Beauty
& The Beast." We're going to have a ton of episodes of
"The Daily Show" and "The Nightly Show" to watch, too.
We're in Philadelphia. I really haven't had time to watch
TV! They showed movies on the plane out here, but I just
listened to my iPod and slept.
There
were two big announcements in the past week about "General
Hospital" - they fired head writer Ron Carlivati, and
they're now writing out Michael Easton. I don't care about
the first, but I'm upset about Michael Easton leaving. He is
a great actor and has chemistry with everyone. They didn't
do a very good job with him as Silas ever since he and Sam
broke up. He was fabulous as John the cop, but there wasn't
much for him to do as a doctor. He was good with Ava and
Nina, but not very believable once they established him as a
good guy. I hope he finds another good job somewhere because
he's just an amazing actor and still very handsome.
I was reading a list of canceled shows, which made me
annoyed because
two shows I really liked were canceled recently, and I
didn't even hear about it: "The Comedians" on FX and "The
Returned" on A&E. They were both very good, and I will
miss them.
Maybe if these cable networks sent more of their actors
and other people to smaller scifi and comic book conventions
around the country, instead of just to the big ones, more
people would watch their shows. Who knows? It might have
helped "The Returned" as well as "Allegiance,"
"Constantine," "Helix," "The Messengers," and others. I
mean, sheesh, at least have a booth with maybe a PR person
to distribute T-shirts. Something!
They
haven't announced it yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion
that this might be the last season for "Dominion," which is
already a short-episode series (I think it's 8 per season).
I notice that Syfy doesn't send out info about it to the
press this year. Too bad because I really enjoy it. It
wouldn't surprised me if they did the same with "Defiance"
within a year or two, either. They just don't seem to
get the audience they should on Syfy. Perhaps because they
canceled so many good shows and put on so much crap (like
wrestling, bad movies and reality shows). I know they're
trying to do better, though, but once fans decide not to go
there, what can you do? I don't know... I really enjoy both
of these shows as well as "Haven".
I'm behind on watching "Continuum," but I enjoy that one,
too. It's on its last season already. "Bitten" is
good, too.
I spent a little time working on the site while on
vacation, but not much. Don't forget to check out our "What's
New" Page to see all of the stuff that gets put up every
day.
I wish I had more money for traveling. I would love to go
to most of the conventions and fan events, and take photos,
get autographs, and interview people for the site. That
would be awesome. Then again, if I lived near L.A. again, I
would get to most of them...we used to live there but that
was before I worked full time on the site, so I didn't go to
all of these events.
I
do love living in Hawaii, though. Perhaps this year I can
try to get to the big "Hawaii Five-0" event they have for
fans every year. I don't watch the show, but I like the
actors in it. It's a free event they have on the
beach. Thousands show up and the actors arrive on a red
carpet. They have musical acts play and the
actors
chat and sign autographs, and they show the premiere episode
for the season. You have to get there early to get a seat,
though, or to see the actors up close. We'll see!
The new Fall season is coming up soon! You can already
see many promos for the shows on TV. It sure keeps me busy.
Monday I'm interviewing Ludacris, who's hosting the Teen
Choice Awards. I have no idea what to ask! Hopefully I will
some ideas...
You can find my older blog posts at
http://www.tvmegs.com
Chronicles
- My personal blog, which is not about TV.
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Page updated 8/1/15