LIS Memories

October 25-27, 2002
Sheraton Meadowlands
East Rutherford, NJ

Hi All,

On the weekend of October 25-27, Kevin Clement's Chiller Theatre convention once again took place at the Meadowlands Sheraton in East Rutherford NJ. And what a convention it was! Record breaking crowds showed up -- Saturday, the admission line did not stop until three thirty in the afternoon!

As far as the guest list, read like a who's who in Hollywood, topping out at over 90 celebs. Everyone from Tippi Hedren to Traci Lords was on hand to greet and meet the fans. Cast members from the Addams Family were on hand, Lisa Loring, Ken Weatherwax, and Cousin It himself Felix Sila. Also appearing was our favorite cool ghoul Zacherley, without whom Chiller would not be the same. As a special treat for the October show, I had the privilege of getting together all the remaining cast members from the Land of the Giants TV show. This was the first time they had been together since the show ended back in 1970. It was also the first time this many of the cast members attended a convention together. Logistically speaking, not an easy task to do. More about that later.

The Sheraton was definitely packed to the hilt for the event! If you don't like huge crowds then Chiller is definitely not the show to attend as it does tend to get very crowded. Remember, Chiller offers the biggest dealer rooms, most celebrity guests, celebrity Q+A, model contests and awards and also live bands Saturday night playing for the fans, so you can see the demand is great to attend the show. Thus the huge crowds.

At this October Chiller, we had the aforementioned Irwin Allen gathering. After talking to Kevin Clement, Chiller founder, back in April, I floated an idea out to him about trying to get the cast members together from Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He agreed and thus the journey began. Kevin has been very good to the Irwin Allen cast members through the years -- whenever I have approached him with idea on having cast members, he has always been positive. He loves all the IA TV shows and has tried to keep the name of Irwin Allen alive by having some cast members at either his April event, or October event. If you look at all the other conventions, none of the other promoters have done that.

I really wanted to try and get all the LOTG cast together as they have never worked a convention together. Not only that. but they haven't all seen each other since the show ended back in 1970. Being a big fan of Giants I thought this would be really neat and would give the LOTG fans a chance to meet everyone. Deanna Lund had also mentioned to me back at the April Chiller it would be really great to get everyone together. However, we had problems from the first; we didn't know where Stefan Arngrim was. So I began calling around trying to find a lead on Stefan. Low and behold, I managed to get his sister Allison's phone number. She is the one who connected us with Stefan and when I called him he said " A LOTG cast reunion? I'm there!" Gary Conway was next. Remembering that Gary owns a winery and a production company, we assumed that it was highly unlikely he would have the time or interest in coming out to NJ and signing autographs for the weekend. How wrong was I! When I called Gary to invite him, he was very enthusiastic and said YES, he would love to attend the event. It had been a while since he did a convention and said he would love to meet and greet all the fans again. Also, he wanted to see all of his cast members once again! Speaking to Deanna Lund, Heather Young, and Don Marshall, I still had to call to Don Matheson. I had met Don Matheson back in January at a Ray Courts show so he knew who I was. When I called to ask him if he would attend the LOTG reunion he said "Sure, why not?" Don Matheson has a wonderful upbeat attitude and what a dear friend he has become/

Well as the pieces began to fall into place, I realized that no LOTG reunion would be complete without Inspector Kobick, Kevin Hagen. I managed to get his phone number and gave him a call. He was very receptive to me and instantly said YES to coming out to NJ for the reunion. The reunion was complete. The whole cast and Inspector Kobick were coming to NJ for the October Chiller.

On Saturday Chiller honored the LOTG cast at their Q+A with plaques from from Kevin Clement and yours truly. We also presented each cast member with one of the Snake Scene model kits that Polar Lights has just reissued as gifts. I did the honors of presenting them, along with America's favorite robot, Bob May, who hosted the Q+A. It was standing room only and the LOTG cast answered many questions put before them.

For the October Chiller, I also managed to contact Terry Becker, Alan Hunt, and Warren Stevens from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to see if they would be able to attend. They said yes and were there to greet all of their fans. This was the first Chiller for the three of them. They had a Q+A on Saturday after the LOTG cast and we were treated to wonderful stories about their time on Voyage.

Also returning to Chiller from LIS was Chiller's favorite son Mark Goddard, and our Robot Man Bob May. Many turned out to see them and to take pictures and chat about the upcoming planned LIS TV movie that NBC wants to do.

On a sad note my dear friend Jonathan Harris had to cancel his October Chiller appearance. Jonathan was always a fan favorite at Chiller and truly loved coming out for the convention once a year. Jonathan had gotten ill and passed away on November 3.

If you have never attended a Chiller convention please make plans to attend. The next convention takes place April 25-27 and a blockbuster guest list is already being assembled.

Ray Dutczak
November 18 2002