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The Fannish Life: Big Doings With Bigfoot

What's in store for the grand finale of Syfy's quartet of June Saturday night monster movies

If you’re the kind of person who likes to chill on a Saturday night at 9 with a goofy, over-the-top monster movie that is best watched with a tasty beverage, popcorn and some wisecracking family or friends, Syfy has been your friend in June.

Syfy started its “month of monsters” with "Alien vs. Predator" which is not one of their original movies but moved on to the kind of crazy we’ve come to expect from their originals the next week with "Jersey Shore Shark Attack." This was followed by "Piranhaconda" and "Arachnoquake."

The big finish for the month is "Bigfoot," starring longtime friends Danny Bonaduce, who is probably best known for his role in "The Partridge Family," and Barry Williams who was one of "The Brady Bunch."

There are legends of creatures like Bigfoot all over the country but it's the northwestern one we are dealing with here.

While Williams will only say he believes in the Bigfoot in the movie, Bonaduce says that if you use Bigfoot as an umbrella for aliens or other life forms with similar or higher intelligence than ours, he definitely does believe.

Bonaduce lives in Seattle where Bigfoot is a frequent topic of conversation. He says that in the Seattle airport, there is a Sasquatch Café where you can get Bigfoot Burgers and other Bigfoot-themed food items.

“Bigfoot’s” storyline is that Bonaduce’s character is cutting down old growth trees and diminishing Bigfoot’s habitat. Bigfoot takes issue with this and lets others know by smashing things and people. In the end, Williams’s character, an environmentalist, and Bonaduce have to work together to save the day.

The filming of "Bigfoot" took place in Seattle, which is usually a good thing but this time around there was a big unforeseen problem.

Seattle experienced the worst snow storm in 100 years right when they were supposed to be filming. As the majority of this movie takes place outdoors, that made it pretty darn trying for the cast and crew.

Williams said that he liked making monster movies because they are scary when you watch them but not scary to make. Bondaduce disagreed. For him, seeing this movie would not be scary but filming it was horrific.

Williams and Bonaduce will not be the only familiar faces in the film. Alice Cooper, Sherilyn Fenn and Howard Hessman also appear. Just the make-up of the cast makes me curious to see this one.

I often have the opportunity to see screeners of the Syfy movies but don’t always watch ahead of time. For me, there’s something more entertaining about being in my comfy chair in front of the telly watching with everyone else who is in my time zone.

You might have picked up on the fact that I’m usually the one reporting on Syfy original movies here at Airlock Alpha. I’m not quite sure how this happened but I’m cool with it. It’s given me the opportunity to speak with some interesting people.

It can be difficult though when I’m on a press conference call with many other website representatives because the questions I have in mind may be asked before I get my turn. Due to some technical difficulties — my stupid phone died — I missed getting my bid in early and I was near the end of the time allotted for the call. Pretty much everything I had in mind when I started had been asked already and then, I got what I thought was a great idea.

See if you agree. Here’s an excerpt from the transcript of the call with my bit in it.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Ann Morris with Airlock Alpha. Please go ahead.

Ann Morris: Hi.

Barry Williams: Airlock Alpha. What is Airlock...

Ann Morris: Airlock Alpha.

Barry Williams: What? Air - what?

Ann Morris: Airlock Alpha is a science fiction and fantasy news and review and opinion site and...

Barry Williams: Cool.

Ann Morris: ...I seem to be their kind of resident Syfy movie reporter. And I had a question for you. I want to ask both of you. This is fantasy time now. If you were pitching a movie, another movie and not a sequel to "Bigfoot," to Syfy what would you pitch for a movie of the week?

Danny Bonaduce: I’ve actually given this some serious thought. I have this great idea.

I have an idea for a vampire film or a vampire movie of the week but it’s played by a working band. A band. A rock and roll band or a goth kind of band that you would recognize. A goth band with records out.

But if you think about it, a rock and roll band’s job besides performing is to sleep all day and be out all night so these vampires would never be in hiding. Plus we’re talking about Alice Cooper who I saw at the Hollywood Bowl in 1977 cuts his head off in a guillotine.

So these guys would bite their victims live on stage and everybody would think it was just part of the show. So my first pitch to Syfy would be a rock and roll vampire movie.

Ann Morris: Thank you.

Barry Williams: I like outer space and I think it would be fun to first of all, casting would have to be the same. It would have to be, you know, Danny and Barry at each other trying to save the world for different reasons. But I’d like to start in some kind of a spaceship that hits a different planet.

And it’s a hostile planet and it’s jeopardizing Earth because it’s important to save the world and somebody has to do it. So to get in and infiltrate it and come at it from different directions and with cross purposes and have that kind of conflict going on.

But ultimately get to the root of the problem and the monsters, whoever they are, the bad guys and we should not be in human form of any kind and then - and hopefully at the end of the day save the world.

That's where we left it but I’d probably watch either or both of those movies if Syfy chose to make them, wouldn’t’ you?

For now, we'll get our fun from watching these guys' current project, "Bigfoot."

“Bigfoot” airs at 9 p.m. June 30 on Syfy.

About the Author

Ann Morris imagined visiting other worlds and dimensions in her childhood play but didn't 'officially' begin living a fannish life till the early 1970s when she was a founding member of the Stone Hill Science Fiction Association in 1979 and remains active to this day. She lives in Plant City, Fla., where she writes from her geekosphere.
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