Fan Expo Canada
August 25-28, 2011, Toronto, Canada
Larry Hagman was a guest at Fan Expo Canada, and you couldn't keep me, or Kimberlee and Barbara, away! We stayed at the Renaissance, and immediately noticed a strange quirk. It had the oddest hallways we had ever seen! Twisting and turning, sometimes doubling back on itself, the long trip from the elevators to our room was disorienting. We soon discovered the reason for this oddity. The hotel wraps around the Rogers Centre, a baseball stadium. Some rooms overlook the field. The hotel's restaurant, Arriba, overs fantatic views of games. This place is a baseball lover's dream. I enjoyed it even though I'm not a baseball fan.
Fan Expo Canada is geared mostly to comic and sci fi fans. There were many artists in attendance, as well as a strong Star War presence. R2D2 was rolling around the convention interacting with people. A stroll around the room revealed storm troopers and Darth Vader too! Large robots from an upcoming movie Real Steel made an impressive display. The actor signing area was fairly small, and featured quite a few Star Trek alumni, including Marina Sirtis of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ethan Phillips of Star Trek: Voyager, Nichelle Nichols and, for a brief time, William Shatner! Lee Majors, Martin Landau, Malcolm McDowall, Robert Englund, John Astin, Lance Henricksen, Kevin Sorbo and Elvira were also there. Barbara Eden was a few tables away from Larry. For the younger crowd, Hayden Pannettiere and Tom Felton attended.
Saturday's hightlight was an I Dream of Jeannie Q&A. Larry and Barbara were fantastic! They have great chemistry and delighted the large audience. There were also photo ops for both of them, at different times each day. Sunday was a short day. Although Kimberlee was able to go home as planned, Barbara and I were stuck an extra day due to Hurricane Irene. All the New York area airports were shut down. During our extra day, we saw Martin Landau several times. He is a very nice man with several projects in the works! Rather than wait yet another day, or more, for a plane, we boarded a Greyhound bus for a 14 hour ride back home.
For the complete story of a series of Larry Hagman events, see About This Site.