Silly holiday question time. I was listening to an old Howard Stern radio tape and they were making fun of old TV stars sitting at tables at nostalgia conventions and I got to wondering if anyone in today's TV shows will be popular enough to attract lines at autograph tables the way, say, the casts of "Gilligan's Island," "Lost in Space," "Star Trek," "The Addams Family," "The Brady Bunch," etc. have long been doing.

Sure, "Buffy" and "X-Files" cast members will be able to supplement their residuals, to name two of my daughter's favorite TV shows while she was growing up. And "Full House" and "Family Matters." And, for a certain audience, the original "Power Rangers" cast members. But who today? I mean, people on TV right now.

I can't imagine "Law and Order" or "CSI" conventions or "Two Men and a Baby" tables at Chiller Theater cons. Maybe "Sopranos" cast members could pull it off.
Will "American Idol" participants have lines of fans decades down the road? And I'm not sure I want to include cult sci-fi shows that are currently (or recently) on that already have conventions/cult followings ("Battlestar Galactica," "Farscape," "Andromeda," that "Serenity/Firefly" thing). Unless you think people will still be lining up for Nathan Fillion's autograph in 20 years. What about "Heroes"?

I don't watch any American TV shows so I have no idea who's popular enough to be convention fodder in two or three or four decades.

Anyone?

I didn't watch the Firefly thing and wasn't all that impressed with Serenity, but judging from Slither, Fillion has the chops to end up having better things to do in twenty years than selling autographs.

He just needs the right vehicle (or a better agent).

One difference between stars then and now is that we grew up watching GILLIGAN and PATTY DUKE and MCHALE'S NAVY and LOST IN SPACE in afternoon reruns. Those shows, regardless of their quality, truly were timeless and were on all the time. When we were kids, we watched them every day, the same episodes over and over again. Kids don't do that anymore, and, as a result, won't have the same nostalgia for old TV shows. Nobody is coming home after school and sitting in front of the TV to catch ROSANNE or EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. I doubt many kids even watch prime time television because there's nothing on for them to watch.

Another factor is today's salaries. The fourth lead in a sitcom makes more money per episode than Bob Denver probably made in six months, so today's stars aren't going to need the bread badly enough to sign autographs in some convention hall every weekend (and there's little indication that today's stars enjoy meeting their fans enough to do it for the fun of it).

Definitely, the stars of the various BUFFY/ANGEL, STAR TREK and X-FILES shows will appearing at conventions as long as they live. But no way are you ever going to see David Krumholtz or Catherine Bell or Frankie Muniz making personal appearances at Hollywood Collectors shows in 2035.

Another factor is the issue of residuals. If I'm correct, most stars of classic TV shows got paid for making the shows themselves, but never had contractual clauses written in that allowed them to profit from their respective series lasting in perpetuity in rerun. They could be world-famous for starring in GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, but never be able to see any money for the show being aired all over the world. Thus, they *had* (and have) to do things like appear at conventions if they wanted to capitalize on the fame garnered by their signature series.