Losing cast members from Dark Shadows is, unfortunately, something that oldtime fans of the show have gotten used to, yet it’s always a sad moment and that’s particularly true with the loss of Lara Parker, who made such an impact in her role as Angelique Bouchard. I had the opportunity to interview Lara a number […]
There’s no denying the obsession AI has triggered in me for Beatles-related AI music, especially original songs being done in the style and voices of the Fab Four, cover versions of other artists (Raffi’s “Bananaphone”) and inserting a couple of Beatles into a solo Beatles song (Paul’s “New” and “Return to Pepperland” and John’s “Grow […]
The Beatles AI version of the song “Bananaphone” became something of a sensation online, but then was yanked down (understandably). Originally created in 1994 by Raffi, who specializes in children’s songs, someone had the bright idea to kick the originator out (sorry, Raffi; nothing personal) and replace him with the Fab Four. This was the […]
Back in my early college days, I had it in my head that I would write a “making of” book to one of my favorite television shows ever, Dark Shadows, the Gothic horror daytime soap that starred Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins. But a friend of mine at the time, Mike Pyne, looked at […]
The late Harlan Ellison was a brilliant writer, but he could also be a cantankerous pain in the ass. I’d had a couple of encounters with Harlan that went great, particularly for a profile that I’d written for Cinescape magazine that looked at his career in general and writing Star Trek‘s “City on the Edge […]
Let’s get one thing out of the way at the outset: even though this section of the blog is called “Fab Song of the Day,” the odds are pretty strong that it won’t be updated daily (I know myself too well). But you’ve got my promise that I’ll try. Now one thing I can say […]
When you really fall in love with a TV show, it’s more common than you’d think to want to connect to it on as many levels as you can. Maybe you want to read some fiction that branches the adventure off in a different way or (never admit that you) play with action figures based […]
Sitting down to watch the 1978 movie musical Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one can only imagine the clash of egos that must have taken place on the set, given that the film starred the Bee Gees as the title characters with Peter Frampton as Billy Shears. At the time, the former had triggered […]
It’s a time of transition in the world of Superman. The comics, after a number of years of hits and misses, seem to be on a pretty great path thanks to writers like Philip Kennedy Johnson and Tom Taylor. For good or for bad, we finally received an answer on whether or not Henry Cavill […]
Superman Celebration 2023 came to a close yesterday and as I returned to my hotel room, I found myself reflecting on the weekend that was and actually feeling sad that it was over. Admittedly there are a lot of people who probably feel that way, but my personal response is a little surprising to me […]
SATURDAY JUNE 10, 2023: What a day! There were autograph sessions aplenty with Tyler Hoechlin, star of Superman & Lois, and Jesse Rath and Nicole Maines of Supergirl. Tyler participated in a photo op at the Superman statue in front of the courthouse, and later in the day took to the stage for a Q&A […]
FRIDAY JUNE 9, 2023: Admittedly this was officially Day 1 of Superman Celebration, but given that I started yesterday, we find ourselves in some strange sort of time paradox. In either case, it was an interesting day. For starters, there was a rededication of the 15-foot Superman statue outside the Massaic County Court House — […]
Thursday June 8, 2023: This year marks my third visit to Metropolis, Illinois for the annual Superman Celebration, the first having been in 2018 and the second in 2022. The difference between those and the 2023 trip is that the first was as a fan, the second was for the purpose of research for the […]
The idea of being on the receiving end of questions is a fairly new experience for me as an entertainment journalist, but not an unenjoyable one as I’ve discovered while promoting my upcoming oral history of Superman book, Voices from Krypton. Over the past few weeks I’ve been on a number of podcasts where I’ve […]
You ever have one of those moments where you hear of somebody being cast in a role and you’re just, like, “I’m in. That sounds great?” Well, that’s precisely the response I had to the recent announcement from Deadline.com that actor Eddie Murphy is circling a brand new version of The Pink Panther, taking over […]
Wish I could say this was a result of having too much time on my hands, but, instead, it’s about looking for a bit of fun as life tends to pile it on a bit. So last night I decide to ask ChatGBT to write a script for Lord of the Rings featuring The Beatles […]
Time was that fans of James Bond could go to bed at night comfortable in the knowledge that every two years, like clockwork, a new 007 adventure would reach the big screen. Time before that was a new flick once a year! Oh, there would be a few hiccups along the way, notably the three-year […]
When it came to movies, my parents had the most bizarre habit of walking into a theater whenever we got there, even if it was in the middle or towards the end of the film, and sitting there as the next showing unspooled — until the point we walked in on, which is when we […]
Superman’s incredible 84-year journey in comics and various mediums will be explored for the first time in oral history format within the pages of Voices from Krypton: It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s the Unofficial Oral History of Superman, written by veteran entertainment journalist Edward Gross and to be published by the Nacelle Company (The […]
Deemed “Star Trek Day,” September 8, 2022 was an odd one for me, the basis of that feeling probably stemming back to 2016. It was that year which saw the publication of the two-volume oral history of Trek that Mark A. Altman and I had written, The Fifty-Year Mission, which had been a culmination (at […]
I can remember like it was yesterday going to the movies with friends to see The Odd Couple, starring Walter Matthau as sportswriter and slob extraordinaire Oscar Madison, and Jack Lemmon as neatnik photographer Felix Unger. This was a film, based on the stage play by Neil Simon, about a couple of divorced guys who move […]
Definitely some relief on this side of the world as I was able to hand in the text for Chevrons Locked: The Unofficial Oral History of Stargate SG-1, The First 25 Years, which is a behind-the-scenes look at the first TV show based on the 1994 film Stargate. It’s written in the same oral history […]
I’d spent 15 years as executive editor of Life Story and Movie Magic magazines at Bauer Publishing, when those magazines were abruptly canceled and what should have been a ticket to the unemployment line, instead became — after a weekend of actually being unemployed — a shift over to the company’s digital division. For a […]
Back in the 1980s I was in my twenties, embarking on my career on a career as an entertainment journalist and nurturing the dream of breaking into Hollywood writing for film or television. It was a dream shared by Tom Sanders, who I’d met at Hofstra University (selling movie posters out of my dorm room, […]
Pop culture has always played such an important role in my life, the real problem being I’ve never been able to let things go. For the most part, once a passion, always a passion, and I tend to just add more topics and characters into the mix. After all this time, it’s a wonder that […]
A few years ago there was an announcement that Tom Hanks would be producing a film based on the old Major Matt Mason toy line from the 1960s — which immediately brought me back to my childhood and the realization that during my formative geek years, my obsessions were pulling me in different directions. In […]