Still Cool

Imagine if you can that it’s the summer of 1988. Not too hard, what with the terrible economy, deficit spending and incompetent president.
Still with me?
So it’s 1988, and a little show called Star Trek: The Next Generation is in it’s second season. It’s struggling a little bit, experiencing the typical sophomore slump of any new series, and a writer’s strike is not helping very much.
In the summer of 1988, I turned 16 years old, and, just like the Corey’s, I got a License to Drive!
It’s well documented within the Star Trek community that Patrick Stewart and I bought almost the same car, a 1989 Honda Prelude…the, uh, only problem is, I bought a model that was just slightly cooler than his. (He got the si, and I got the si4WS, baby.) Patrick has really had fun over the years, teasing me about how, since then, he’s always had cooler cars than I do, to which I reply something about his driver.
What’s not well documented, however, is this thing that happened, in the summer of 1988, in the parking garage at Paramount, where we all parked our cars.
We were all working late one night, probably shooting blue screen on the bridge, so we were all wrapped at the same time (a rarity). I excitedly walked to the parking garage with Jonathan Frakes, who I was already looking up to.
So we’re walking back to our cars, and we’re talking about something, I can’t quite remember what, and I really feel like Jonathan is treating me like an equal. He’s not treating me like I’m a kid. It really makes me feel good, and I say to him, “You know, Jonathan, I can tell, just from talking to you, that when you were younger? You used to be cool.”
He laughs, and I think to myself that I’ve cemented my position with him as cool contemporary, rather than lame ass kid.
Then he says, “What do you mean, used to be?!”
I realized what I’d said, and how it didn’t match up with what was in my head, which was, “Gee, man. You are so cool now, as an adult, I bet that you were a really cool guy, who I’d like to hang out with, when you were my age.”
He knew what I meant, I could tell, and he really tortured me about that, for years. Every time I see him nowadays, he turns to a person nearby, and he says, “You know, Wheaton here told me that I used to be cool.” We laugh about it, and I make the appropriate apologies, and explanations, while Jonathan makes faces and gestures indicating that I am full of shit.
Now, when I was working on Trek, I always wanted to be:

  • As good an actor as Patrick,
  • As funny as Brent,
  • And as cool as Jonathan.

I’m still working on those things, and Jonathan just recently showed me how cool he still is.
Jonathan directed this new movie, called “Clockstoppers“. It’s a movie geared towards kids, but it seems smart enough for their parents to sit through it without dreaming up ways of eviscerating the writer responsible for robbing them of 90 minutes of their weekend, which sets it well apart from most “family” films.
Ryan and Nolan have been talking about how they can’t wait to see this movie, and I mentioned to them last week that I was friends with the director, and I had heard that it was going to be really cool, and I was pretty sure that I could get us into a screening.
So I called up Jonathan’s office, and asked if I could get some tickets to a screening, so I could take the kids, and be a hero to them. Jonathan’s assistant said that it would be no problem, and I’d hear from someone at Nickelodeon about the screening.
The next day, the phone rings, and it’s totally Jonathan himself, calling me back, telling me how happy he is that I want to take my step-kids to see his movie, and that he’s really happy to get me into the screening on Saturday.
See, the thing is, Jonathan is what we in Hollywood call A Big Deal(tm), and usually people who become A Big Deal(tm) don’t usually talk to people who aren’t also A Big Deal(tm).
But Jonathan is not only A Big Deal(tm), he’s also A Really Great Guy(tm), and he didn’t need to call me back, personally. Actually, I really didn’t expect him to.
But he did, and that proves that he is now, and always has been, cool. Despite my fumbled proclamations as a 16 year old dorkus.

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167 thoughts on “Still Cool”

  2. Will have to keep an eye out for that one.
    Those what-are-they-up-to-now things always fascinate me, whether they be actors I admired or my friends from elementary school.

  3. Dammit, got excited about being first and accidentally hit post! Hate when that happens.
    That’s so cool Wil. Guess some people in Hollywood never cease to amaze you, huh?
    We all expect a full report on the movie when you return…..
    Is it Friday yet?????
    Vickie

  5. Yeah, French Stewart from 3rd Rock, is in it, he was plugging it today on 98.9 the Rock (KC radio)this morning.

  7. Frakes does always seem to be having fun. Glad to know it hasn’t all gone to his head. But how come he only got you tix to a screening and not the farking Premiere?

  8. That’s really cool, Wil… Glad to hear you still have a good relationship with all those people you looked up to when you were growing up.

  9. I always got the impression that Frakes seemed like a cool guy, at least from the interviews that I read. It’s nice to know that he probably really is in real life.

  11. And some guys are so cool that they agree to write forewards to books, even when they’ve never met you.
    I hope you meet your aspirations to become so cool, Wil.
    Actually, I hope you just have a chance to see where you are someday and then to do some gap-analysis on that whole cool here vs. cool there thing.
    /end endearing comment

  12. Wil: when you go to the screening, you don’t have to apologise about Jonathan being cool or not. Jus’ tell ‘im that now he’s “way cool.”

  13. See if he’d like an “UnrealisticExpectations.com” hat to where for all of those people who don’t believe how cool he is.
    Yeah…

  14. That’s awesome. I hope your step-kids like it.
    Are you, perchance trying to inundate us with rapid posts tonight because you feel guilty ’bout not posting or soemthing? Or did we finally lose the ‘writers block’?
    Anyways…awesome. Hope it’s cool!

  15. COREY AND COREY 4-EVER!
    (the sad thing is, i’m totally not joking. ah, the days of my adolescence… ;))

  16. Clockstoppers…the name is familiar.
    :checking website:
    Frakes is a producer for Roswell isn’t he? Hey Wil, tell him to shop it to one of the big networks so it can finally get more than 20 people watching it!

  20. Looks like the plot of clock stoppers is based on an old episode of Ducktales. Remember Ducktales Wil? Huh huh, do ya?

  22. A friend of mine set up a surprise meeting for me a few years ago for my birthday, and it was Jonathan Frakes. He is totally cool, the coolest, I may sound like I lameass, but I don’t care. Jonathan, was one of the nicest people I have ever met, thanks to Eric Stillwell.
    Hey Wil, I know you will still be as cool, when you get older. I can say that with pride, since I am 28, and I am one year behind you, haha.
    Major Mojo Uncle Willy!!!!!!!

  23. Wow, Wil. Four posts in one day. What happened to those “UPN ratings for ideas?” Knew that wouldn’t last for long 🙂
    have a nice day,

  25. There really isn’t any other show that I would feel compelled to actually go up to one of the actors in a public place and want to shake their hand and compliment them. TNG just had a cool friendliness about it, and it must be because everyone involved was so cool and they were all such good friends in real life.
    The other night I had a strange dream (keep reading, it’s not freaky) that I was in Vegas, and I bumped into Brent. It was cool at first, but then I became that terrible kind of fan that I’m sure every actor dreads meeting — I was shaking his hand and I wouldn’t/couldn’t let go. The whole time we’re standing there talking, and he’s trying to pull his hand away. I wanted to let go, but I couldn’t. I was completely humiliated. But, luckily I woke up before he had to sic his henchmen on me. Whew!

  26. You know who plays the skateboard?
    Wesley Crusher.
    But it’s not your momma’s Wesley Crusher.
    It’s Wesley Crusher: BORG QUEEN!

  27. If I were writing the script for “Clockstoppers” the protagonist would be named Chodo Gobre’l Shoat-Nin-Bread.
    And he wouldn’t ride a fucking skateboard.
    He’d ride a hydrogen-powered mechanical bull with an upholstery attachment and wet bar.
    And he’d have a very gay cat named “Monsignor Chappy Nips” who would sniff people’s asses in a flamboyant and aggressive manner.

  28. That’s bullshit.
    He’d drive a fucking Delorean that’d be powered on waste products, and you know it.
    And Huey Lewis and the News would be rocking the soundtrack.
    Tell me you can’t hear the saxophone ripping up the intro…
    And you can’t help but start to hear “Back in Time…” in your head.
    Yeah, take that, no-bones.

  30. Shhh…
    You had me at “He’d ride a hydrogen-powered mechanical bull with an upholstery attachment and wet bar.”

  36. Hrrm. I’ll hold you to this one, Wil, and take my stepkids to this movie as well. It’s so true, I can’t stand those “family movies” that have been polluting our theatres lately, it’s so painful. We actually duck into another movie after we drop the kids off at the screen showing these so-called “family movies”. Either that or wait for it to show up as a rental. ^_^
    Actually, I’ll hold Mr. Frakes to it. It better be darn well cool.
    And Wil will be A Big Deal

  37. “Wesley Crusher: BORG QUEEN!”
    That’s really very frightening.
    Aaaaalmost as frightening as …
    as Jonathan Frakes being cool.
    Eh, I’m kidding. Frakes is very amusing.
    Mmmm, mint Milanos

  39. Happy Meal dealie? Is it a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal dealie?!? Why are the McNuggets always round or boot shaped??? And what part of the chicken does the McNugget come from?
    Tonight I will fall asleep to the sound of my own screams.

  40. Carl’s Jr. has been asking the same question – where do the nuggets come from.
    They’ve got a point.
    Although it is kinda weird seeing a bunch of grown men pawing over a chicken.

  41. LMFAO! Reading this thread, I have several times almost choked to death on my french fries. You guys are damn hilarious.
    P.S. When you drive alone, you drive with Hitler.

  42. Aw shit. Really?
    I have to tell my Jewish relatives that tidbit.
    Maaaaan.
    It’s kind of ironic – in Rat Race, Lovitz’s family drives around in Hitler’s car.
    That makes my head hurt.

  44. Borg Queen? Honey, you do realize that’s one lisp away from Drag Queen, right?
    But, actually…
    “I am Wil of Wheaton.net. Resistance is futile. You will be a monkey. Sistah!”
    Man. I’d pay to see that.

  46. Hey Wil!
    Yep, Jonathan sounds like a major cool dude, maybe pitch him a movie!
    But actually I hope the lads enjoy the flick and that it is at least half as entertaining as “Spy Kids” — as a parent I need a fun film that surprises me….. my spouse and I take turns hitting the kiddie flicks since they are soooo lame sometimes.
    The only one I adored last year was “Spy Kids”. The year before (and this was my film of the year and I am a animation geek too!) “The Iron Giant”.
    But I for one am avoiding this year: Big Fat Lier and Peter Pan II. Yeeech!
    ***THE BEEJ***

  47. ah ha! at last!
    Is it true my dear Wil? Are you going to be at the Motor City Con in May? Coz I might just have to haul my ass across the border to come on down and show you a bit of Canadian lovin’. I mean sure, I’ve been to the Detroit Con before…but if YOU’RE going to be there I might have to break my three year drought. (the last trip went really badly. we needn’t go into details)
    What I enjoyed most was that on the site for the con where they list the ST cast that will be attending you are the ONLY the one with a pic up.
    So you’re gonna show up, right? You’re not gonna back out last minute like oh so many stars, RIGHT?
    -celestial blue
    T.O.

  48. The convention in Novi, MI? I have not gone there in a few years (although I only live 5 miles away).
    Last time I went I got infuriated with the gobs of humanity everywhere and the fact that everyone that I wanted to meet bailed on the convention. I might drop by this year.

  49. I always thought Jonathan was cool – glad to know he really is. Wil – if you talk to Jonathan Frakes any time soon – please tell him that some of your fans want the Roswell movie! He will know what you are talking about.

  50. gosh lots of posts. the trouble with being british (well no, that’s not *the* trouble but never mind) is that everything happens on here while i am asleep. when i am in work and desperate for something to occupy me all is silent 🙁

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