My chevron report- as best i can remember
Chevron 7.6 con report
6th -8th May 2011 Hilton Metrople Birmingham
Guests: Richard Dean Anderson, Teryl Rothery, Dan Shea, Gary Jones and Fulvio Cecere
Arriving at the station on the Friday I was greeted by friends with warm hugs. We were soon off to the Hilton hotel in Birmingham. We checked in, unpacked and hung out in the lobby greeting attendees as they arrived. When registration opened we registered and checked out the impressive dealer’s room with an array of everything stargate. One thing I didn’t like about the Hilton is the mood lighting in the toilet. In the lobby and the chef gave me his hat, I like to think that it was in recognition of my awesome cooking skills.
At the opening ceremony all the guests came on stage and said how they were really looking forwards to this weekend, Fulvio said he wanted to entertain everyone, RDA asked Teryl who Fulvio was she said she didn’t know either. Teryl said play with everyone, RDA said I’m going to waffle in all my guest talks.
Then we had Egyptian party, a little kid asked me if I was the queen I replied yes. They had a Gould throne and 2 jaffa great for Gould posing.
The next morning had my photo with Dan Shea, he said he was feeling old I said he didn’t look old. Then my Fulvio autograph he said he was enjoying himself in the UK and loved Birmingham. My photos with Gary and Fulvio were lovely. My photo with Teryl was hilarious as I had a nice one then asked for a funny one, she said on 3 and yelled, she looks fierce I looked gobsmacked. Then was RDA, I had a hug pose for the my first one didn’t work out well so I had to have another photo with him, then asked for a funny one I pulled a face while he gave me a what the f*** look. I think it turned out quite well. Lastly I had my costume photo that was epic we all pulled funny faces, it turned out really good.
Then was the guest talks for the first RDA one, he spoke of how he spent the begins of life riding a motorcycle through Canada and Alaska, this is where he really began to appreciate nature. He spent his time dossing and sleeping wherever. RDA mentioned one time when he was bunking in Alaska and a call came in they needed volunteers to fight a forest fire. He said why not and joined in. 3 long days and nights later RDA finished and thought he might want to be a forest ranger, then realised how much work this required. He went off telling us about an essay he wrote at school in which they had to list 3 jobs they wanted to do when they were grown up. He laughed “grown up”. His 3 were dentist- as there was lots of information on it, architect until he realised he couldn’t draw and motel manager, as he’d always have a place to sleep and if he installed room service something to eat, then he realised he wouldn’t be able to travel. He then spoke about how he came to do acting, he started studying at uni but quit before the end. He travelled to California where he started shooting some adverts and working the streets, after the laugh he explained he meant as a talking mime, then he got a job on General Hospital, he didn’t realise it was a soap and he would have to learn lots of lines until he rang a friend and the friend couldn’t stop laughing. He spoke how his original career idea was to be a hockey player but he fell and busted his arm really badly had to have surgery and lots of pins in it and this ended his career.
RDA explained General Hospital was very patient with him and he learnt so much about TV in those few years. After 3 years he rang his agent and said he didn’t want to work on it anymore, his agent rang them demanding more money, they agreed. RDA said he learnt his lesson there if you don’t want to do it come clean.
Then he spoke about his McGyver interview. He said it was a beautiful day and he was out riding his Harley, he rang his agent from a phone box and they gave him the details of the interview. He was really tempted not to go but remembered he needed to eat so went. He walked in sweaty hot and still wearing his leathers and the whole room went quiet, he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not but they gave him some lines to read. He looked but the room was really bright so he asked if he could have his sunglasses on, the room went quiet again. Later on he was told he’d got the role because they’d wanted someone who wasn’t pretentious. He also said he had to have his hair in a he mimed sticky up hair we yelled out quiff. He remarked he thought a quiff was a woman’s fart.
RDA then took interest in the banner behind him with the photo of himself he stood next to it mimicking the pose then kissed himself on the lips.
Next up was the Teryl and Gary panel. Teryl was asked what kind of abnormal she’d like to be, she hadn’t seen Sanctuary so didn’t know but Gary thought she would have a cool exoskeleton. Gary spoke about Walter and how he knew he was never going to be an action hero when in season 1 they gave him a cardigan. Even his death scene he died in his chair. Teryl was asked about heros as a lot of stargate people have remarked it was there favourite episode. Teryl said it wasn’t hers as she died by staff blast so it wasn’t even a pretty death. Michael got to ascend. She said she was in her kitchen when she got the call to let her know Janet was dying. They told her they thought stargate was going to end in season 7 and wanted to kill off someone to make it seem like it was all ending. Teryl said she wasn’t happy but loved the script and said if she had to be killed off it was the best way to go but she would have liked Janet to get laid once in the 7 years. Gary said that hero’s was his favourite episode as Walter has that little rant.
Teryl said that would never get twitter as she had a 2 and ½ year old to run after. Gary said he had twatter and assbook. Gary spoke about his name in stargate and how it had started out as Norman Davies, but Don S Davies said airman but it sounded like Harriman so they changed the name, then Rick called him Walter and after the scene was told that’s not his name to which he replied he is now. Gary also said he was grateful to Rick as it was his influence that gave his character the development from just sitting in the chair.
Teryl told us about the episode 2010 where she was meant to not look at the actor but look at the camera, she looked at the actor first then remembered and turned around, she did it so fast she looked like she had a twitch. Both her and Amanda burst into giggles while Michael carried on twitching. They laughed so hard there make up was smeared and they had to have he re-done. Gary said when he was acting on his close up whenever Amanda was in the room she’d pull faces and try to make him laugh. Teryl said when she was being Janet Rick was the hardest patient to deal with but she loved the sound of gloves snapping.
Next we had an emotional sea Sheppard panel. They told us how most of the fishing done in the world is illegal and they see it as their job to enforce international law any way possible because the animals can’t do it for themselves. It’s a very important charity fish aren’t in endless supply, law is set and not followed.
Then Rick dropped his pants, he had black boxers on. Next was the Sea Sheppard’s auction, which sold things like a portrait of the Captain Paul Watson and a Sea Sheppard’s jacket.
Next was the Dan Shea and Fulivo Cecere panel. Dan spoke about his worst stunt accident where his leg went towards some heavy rollers and the tech guy pressed the wrong button effectively crushing part of his leg. He also explain there was an accident where this stun man called gas got set on fire. His safe word to stop it was gas but the effect guys thought this meant he wanted more flames in the end the building burnt down. Dan thought he was fired but everyone was happy the producer got a really expensive fire scene for nothing and the warehouse owner who got insurance money for a building he didn’t want any more and as police were in attendance they couldn’t argue.
Fulvio said he hadn’t really made any acting mistakes as everything was a learning experience, Dan said he regretted that Gay soft porn. Dan reported that Chris Judge farting was lethal and it meant certain foods had to be banned on set. Dan also said he had head injuries. Fulvio also took photos of the audience.
At the Saturday night party there was a bunjee run and a bouncy castle. The guests hung around, Teryl was matchmaking, Fulvio was jokingly picking his nose for the amusement of a small child. They also had a version of the stargate Orlin had made in his basement.
The Sunday morning was collecting autographs and photos I didn’t have. The first guest talk was with Rick, he spoke about stargate, he said he wasn’t sad to see the franchise go as it had 15 year which is what most shows can only dream of. He said he liked SGU when he guest starred the dynamic of the cast reminded him of SG1, but on Atlantis he had issues with one of the cast but didn’t mention names- When signing the posters he drew a sad face on Joe Flannigan. When he was at Fed Con Rick had a chance to do the Nuremberg ring he really enjoyed it, although would like to go back as it was foggy the first time and he couldn’t go as fast as he liked. Rick was asked which TV show he’d liked to be remembered for he said MacGyver as that really launched his career and was an iconic TV series. He was asked if he would write an autobiography, he claimed he would when he was older and less public. He felt there were something that he would like to be made public, then he remembered he had a really short attention span and it might not work. He continued that as his dad taught Grammar he was very particular something that annoyed Wylie. He spoke fondly of Wylie clearly he is a proud father, he said how she was starring in 2 plays one in school and one out. That she wasn’t as diligent in learning lines as he thought she should be and they’d disagreed on this but that she had a better memory than he did. He spoke how she dealt with him being famous, remembering when she was about 2/3 and he’d been hazzled by paparazzi, he’d run into the shop before realising Wylie was standing outside asking them why they were taking photos of her dad. Now he says she just grabs his hand and pulls him away which now he thinks about it is quite rude.
Next for me and a lucky few was the guest encounter with Teryl, who is extremely funny. There we tried to persuade her to go on twitter. I got out my phone to show her how easy it was and she grabbed it. It was then I realised I was going to get twitter raped by Teryl, she typed
My first tweet from Teryl at chrevon 7.6 ;)
She then started reading out my fan girly tweets and one from Amanda that made everyone go aww while I desperately tried to stop blushing. She spoke about her daughter Londyn, and her role on hell cats and Caprica firmly believing they waited too long to air the second half.
Teryl and Fulvio had a panel, they realised they’d done a cheese commercial together and started running though roles and actors they’d worked with before remembering they were on stage.
The final panel RDA was late which led to Gary commenting he was invisible again. When he finally came in he sat in the crowd and started commenting on a story Gary was telling with “boring”, “is this guy ever going to finish” “can’t believe I paid for this” the story was about Gary being hung in a harness for a business launch, it was funny cus it took them a while to realise Rick was commenting Rick then rolled onto the stage and told Gary he enjoyed being in the harness with him. Gary replied it wasn’t him. Teryl remarked she’d been in a harness with Rick and Gary for the episode foothold. The rest of the panel was filled with a lot of laughter and giggles, I think Teryl cried all the way through. Then they all left and we sadly departed the hall.
That night a lot of people left but we still managed to rock 1969 into the 1970’s.
We woke the next morning to breakfast and saying goodbye to more friends. Then at the station we saw Fulvio, he said he had a great weekend and would love to do more cons in the future. We wished him luck and said goodbye.