Later shortly after 5:30 after being forced to move twice due to people with VIP seating, Gil Gerard and Erin Gray's Q&A started. I got into the forth row with a pretty good view of them on stage. Gil talked about his relationship with Erin in a very fiskly manner. At one point some guy was shouting, one of the things this guy said what reason is unknown, "Coma!". Gil after having heard that "Some one give that person an enema, that will help'em," or really close to that. Erin was asked about how did she get into Tai Chi. This was a long story that got Gil a bit restless, Erin saw the body language he was giving better then I did because she knew with even the little of movement he wanted the mic again. Short version of the story, when Ms. Gray was working on Silver Spoons, she found out that for an episode about to be filmed she needed to sing. Well she was feeling a bit under the weather and went to a person she'd been seeing for some time for giving her acupuncture. He told her she wouldn't need his help any more if she got into Tai Cia, plus she wouldn't have to pay him a good amount of money for his service. She said that because she's been doing Tai Chi she hasn't had a cold in 14 years. Now turns out Gil has also had acupuncture done, he said he needed it after filming episodes of Buck Rogers. Working on that show was so wearing for him he needed it in order to get out of bed right in the morning. Turns out back in 1979 acupuncture was illegal in the U.S., doctors didn't recognized it as a real practice. He was never caught but Erin was stocked to learn it was illegal back then. She said she had a fear that one day she might be forced to ... and if I'm remembering this right. Forced to run outside naked with forty needles in her due to an Earthquake. Gil said he'd be with her in having that fear too.
A question was asked how did the auditions go for the show ( Buck Rogers ). Gil stated he never had to have an audition, that he'd been offered the role three times before he accepted. He had a fear the show was going to be like Batman and that's why he kept turning it down till he read the script to the Awakening and decided it was worth the shot because the story was so good. Erin was asked to do a screen test right after she had just filmed for another project. She as tried and wasn't too wild about jumping on to another project after over 10 hours of filming. I think it was ten hours that day, but she'd been working hard for a number of days and really wanted a rest. She asked about what kind of character Wilma Deering was and was told some things like Wilma was raised by computers not people. That Wilma was very career driven and didn't socialize with others except for work. That when she meets Buck it well made her womanhood blossom. Gil was stocked the show had a series Bible cause he never got to see it, only Erin saw it. He said how he played Buck was he'd read the script and even rewrote it at times, would play Buck how he best felt it should be done.
They were asked if they'd ever played pranks while working on the show. Yes they did, one was solely a joke Gray had made while Planet of the Slave Girls was being filmed. This prank was also mentioned by her at the '05 Mega Con.( see the report in the valleyofeagles yahoo group files ), about you could only lay an egg once. Now the joke both of them did together was Gil got Erin into going up the one of the hot shots working on Buck Rogers after having just stepped off a plane and, Erin did the acting on stage to go with this story. She when up to this man and went on about what a wonderful time they'd had together and in bed, that maybe drinking was a blame why he didn't remember her. Well he was terrified of what Erin was doing to him because his wife had walked behind Ms. Gray while it was going on. Now to end the joke which I bet had scarred the man out of his wits by what she was doing to him. Gil walked up and said she was with him and explained the joke to him I believe. Why there were no bonus features for the DVD was some one had stolen a blooper reel that had been put together.
Also asked was which did they like better season one or season two of Buck Rogers. Neither of them had any thing good to say about season two but Hawk. Hawk was the only good thing they could think to say besides Gil had like working on the Satyr episode. Now Gil was disappointed by some thing that didn't happen with the show. He had his own vision for Buck that never came to be due to the show not getting a third season. His vision for Buck was that after five hundred years and the Earth changing so much wouldn't Buck want to explore the world to see the changes? Universal said they'd consider this story line if the third season happened for the show :(. I took in this fact with very good reason hint hint.
Gil was asked about his health and he proudly showed off his flat stomach & told of his road to getting a healthier life style. How he was told by his doctor when he was at a bad weight that if things didn't change that he'd have only two years to live. When he first started talking with his surgeon they had a dinner where he in the afterwords of his surgery noted that what he ate that night would have been enough to eat for two weeks. That part of what they had done to him during the surgery was drain out a chemical from him that what this chemical does is signal the brain it needs food. He said that in obese people they carry more of the chemical. That's why many diets fail is cause they cave into what this chemical is telling them to do.
Gil also noted that the special done on him for the Discovery Health Channel is up for an Emmy.
Another question that came up was why didn't Buck ever sleep with anyone, Wilma included. Gil answered that by "What do you think was the only thing that didn't thaw out for Buck after five hundred years?" Now why it was stated Buck and Wilma never sleep together was Wilma would have to die afterwords. He stated that every time people would sleep together in a TV story the partner would get killed of. From Gil again "They never touched pee pees," about Buck and Wilma. Some one in the crowd shouted "Ardala!" this was about some one Buck could have slept with with good cause to being killed off. Gil pointed out what had happened with Buck and Ardala during the Awakening. Also on note to that movie/episode, when Gil found out how the ballroom scene was going to be filmed he held up the production for three hours till the scene was changed. Reason being Wilma was going to be the only woman in uniform and the rest in dresses. Gil had noted it was a family show, that little girls could be watching this. The change he got made in the ballroom scene was that more women than just Wilma would be wearing uniforms. Again with that episode, a scene Gil wanted in it. He wanted a scene where Buck is looking out at New Chicago and Doctor Huer tells him it wasn't a nuclear holocaust that devastated the Earth but a man made environmental one.
Both were asked about upcoming film projects, Gil answered first on this. He didn't have as long a list as Erin but he did have a list. He was recently filmed in a movie for the Sci Fi Channel named and I wish I could remember the whole name but "Bone" was part of it. I believe the next word in the name started with an "L". He said that he'd been casted with a lot of other former action stars. He as mentioned a few other projects but I can't remember their names. Erin proudly stated she had also recently been in a film for Sci Fi Channel and an independent film. That by the way she described it, it seemed to sound like quite the drama. She also stated she writes for an online newsletter for Vivmag
http://www.vivmag.com/. And that she runs a company named Heroes For Hire, Gil was her first client for that. Now some thing both stated together was about how they had a film coming out where for the first time since filming Buck Rogers they got to work together. It's name is Storm Effect, Gil played Erin's boss as she is playing on of his employees. If I'm remembering this right Gil plays a bad guy and the place they work in deals in nuclear technology & there is a hurricane bearing down on the work place. Sounds like a good suspense film in my opinion.
It was also asked if either of them would be reprising their rolls for Buck Rogers in the future. Both stated how it wasn't going to happen and Gil pointed out how Hollywood had no interest using him in a role like that being over 50. But Erin stated there was a rumor that there could be a Buck Rogers film project on it's way.
At the end one of the staff with StarFest came on to stage with a large sign for StarFest and asked the both of them to sign it which they did. After they went off stage and people started leaving I asked the StarFest staff member a couple things. First: the rumored Buck Rogers film project, I asked if it might have any bases off any internet fan fiction. The staff member said it might because Hollywood didn't like it's own ideas too well so Hollywood might look to fan fic for inspration. Second: What was going to be done with the StarFest sign they signed. The staff member told me it was going to be put into an auction.
I'll be posting more on StarFest later but here's something I'd like to share now because I forgot about it in earlier posts.
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/nightat ... zE8mRfVXcA
Click on the link for the T-Rex in Denver, I'm the one in the blue ball cap.
Erin