Fandom Meme

[athersgeo]

Gacked from izhilzha:

sockkpuppett wondered in her LJ about the moments we, as fans, become an actual /fan/ of a show, as opposed to a casual watcher. So, I thought it would be an interesting mental exercise to see if I could remember that moment for each of my shows.

Star Wars
As cliche as it sounds, the first time I saw the opening crawl for Return of the Jedi is when I became a fan. I can only have been about six or seven at the time (!), but even then I knew this was something different - and so it's proved to be!

Highlander
In this one from the very beginning. Before the beginning, in fact, since I actually started watching the show a good six-eight months before it was first shown in the UK on Sky One - we had cable TV and one of the channels we got was RTL, over from Germany and I needed something to practice my listening/comprehnsion with and Highlander looked like it. I'm now about to commit fandom herasy: The first HL episode that really, really hooked me was Bad Day In Building A. The selfless way Duncan offers himself as the victim to the goons holding the court room, the fact that Tessa was there because she had so many overdue parking fines, the completely ruthless way Duncan takes out the goons... I absolutely loved the whole boiling of it - and loved it even better when I finally got to see it in English!

Power Rangers
The thing about this that got me interested was the fact that the heroes were more or less my age (exactly my age, as it turned out - they graduated from High School in 1997, which is when I'd have graduated, had I been American), that plus I caught the first showing of Day of the Dumpster here in the UK (I get into these things early ne?!) and couldn't make my mind up whether it was supposed to be drama or comedy or both. The moment I became a proper out-and-out fan was when the introduced the Green Ranger and the whole Green with Evil arc. That was when it really hit me that yes, there was actually more to this than the spandex and the bad special effects - for a kids show, the characters were surprisingly well drawn and there was a really pleasing edge to the whole thing.

Chalet School
I was nine and out of library books but too lazy to go to the library myself, so my mother went on my behalf and picked out some books. In amongst them was this three-in-one with a very boring looking cover (yes, I judged books by their covers). It got left till last. Middle of the following Saturday, though, I was out of books again, just this boring looking three-in-one left. So I thought "what the heck" and started to read... I think it was around about chapter two of book one (New House, for those who know the series!) that I realised this was the series for me. Something about the way the characters were written really grabbed my attention and before I knew it, I'd finished that and moved on to the next book in the three-in-one and I was completely and utterly hooked.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I'd watched this off and on throughout seasons one-three (there's an entry a few months back noting that I actually managed to watch the majority of season three without realising it!) but I'd never really become a devotee, and then about three years ago, eternalmusings was over, in London and came to stay the weekend that Once More With Feeling was broadcast on Sky One for the first time. As she's a major Buffy & Angel fan, I taped both (they were broadcast on the Thursday) and we watched them on the Friday night. This *still* did not turn me into an out and out fan, though. I was intreagued, but not quite enough to try and find time to watch the show on a regular basis, though I did buy season six on video and watched that. Then eternalmusings sent me a video of "Beneath You" and the tag scene, in the church, between Buffy and Spike, is was completely and utterly hooked me. It's a fantastic scene, brilliantly written and played and I was completely and utterly lost. (as you can tell from my music choice!)

So, there you go.

Comments

[germankitty]

Interestingly enough, I became a Buffy fan with the opening ep of season 5 -- Buffy meets Dracula. Yeah, I know it's commonly regarded as one of THE worst eps, but what can I say? *helpless shrug* I used to watch a lot of the old Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing films as a young teenager, and the different spin on DRACULA just intrigued me. Then I was lucky enough to catch all the daily reruns of seasons 1-4 on Sky One, got to share yet another viewing experience with my son, and am now the proud owner of the complete DVD box sets of Buffy (and starting on Angel). :-)

Highlander ... I remember seeing the theatrical release of the first movie and liking it, so I kind of drifted into the series. Watched it more or less religiously while it was running, but never got truly involved in the fandom. (Besides, long-haired Duncan was HOT! *grins*)

Power Rangers ... is interesting, actually. My son was still in preschool when it came out, and naturally I was aware of all the hooplah about too much violence etc, so I watched a few shows with him (in German at the beginning) to see if I could allow him the fun. I decided it wasn't as bad as the hype suggested, so ... ahead he went. :-)

Once I caught a few eps in English (during a visit to Poole) and started taping reruns off Sky One on weekday mornings when he was in school, the CHARACTERS hooked me -- more so, because I was expected to translate the dialogue for him when he came home. Thus I was exposed to three or four viewings a day ... and the major eye candy in MMPR (Jason/Tommy) wasn't half-bad, either. :-) It literally grew on me! And it's fun enough to stay involved in the fandom even now.

[cmar-wingnut.livejournal.com]

Always an interesting thing to see how people are attracted into fandoms, and wonder whether it was inevitable or depended on a combination of circumstances.

Batman

When I was a child my parents both worked and we had a maid/babysitter to take care of me during the day. She used to read comics and brought them to the house, where I read them too. Then I remember going to an airport with my parents, where I bought my first comic book of my very own, an issue of Detective, and read my first Batman and Robin story. I was hooked from then on - something about the combination of heroism and the father/son relationship was very attractive.

Star Trek

I was a teenager when STTOS was on. It was a big deal for me because I loved science fiction and it was (as far as I remember) the first 'serious' sci-fi TV series. Beyond that, something about Spock's alien-ness and the conflict between his logical and emotional sides got to me. I could identify; after all, doesn't every teenager feel like an alien sometimes? Later there was Patrick Steward, on whom I had a major crush (hair or not).

Power Rangers

While I watched a little here and there of the original when it was so popular, and found it appealing because of the superhero angle, can't say I was even close to being a fan until Time Force. That was strange - I caught an ep here and there during its first run, but nothing special. Then during reruns I remember seeing 'Frax's Fury' and wondering what was going on between Wes and Eric (they seemed almost like intensely competitive brothers). Then later, I saw 'Clash for Control' and that did it, something about the combination of male bonding and hostility between them. (Didn't hurt that they're both hot.) It was also shortly after 9/11 and I think part of it was that I needed a major distraction.

And that's the story...

[donna-k.livejournal.com]

'School Hard' got me, on BBC 2 (well actually in the huge break for various sports the BBC had decided was a good idea after 3 episodes of a new series - typical BBC - but my brother had a video and kept telling me I should watch it cause I'd love it!). I loved it straight away (I think it was Spike to be honest! ;), and couldn't wait until I could see the rest of the series. Unfortunately, that big long break lasted months, and there was some sort of arrangement between the BBC and Sky that meant Sky could only repeat it from episode 9, so I ended up missing half of the series until the BBC finally deigned to show it. By that time, Sky was halfway through series 3 and I was well and truly hooked and stayed that way until the end. It took me a little longer to hook into Angel though - I didn't manage that until season 2 (and I still haven't seen half of season 1!)

Chalet School - I can't remember when I actually became a fan - it's far too long ago now, but I loved all the characters (especially Joey) and just kept reading them!