Comic Con Summary + DVD Season 2 info from MGM booth staff
I just drove back to LA from San Diego, and figured I'd post a summary before I crash...
I had driven down from LA Saturday morning, and since finding parking was more challenging than my local friend had predicted, I arrived in the con registration area mid-afternoon.
As I understand it, the misunderstanding that was alluded to in this thread was this: over the course of the week, apparently the MGM/SG-1 booth in the vendor room was handing out little blue tickets. They only passed out 500 of the tickets, since they didn't think MS could sign more than 500 autographs during the time of his appearance, without his hand falling off or running out of time or whatever. I don't know what their criteria was for handing out the tickets, perhaps you had to buy something at the booth?
In the autograph area upstairs, they had a bunch of lines and overflow lines. At the start of his appearance on Saturday, as I understand from what others in the line told me later, the security and support staff told everyone that did not have a little blue ticket that they could not get an autograph, and couldn't even wait in the line. This was kinda rough on people, because the 500 tickets had already been passed out by that point.
I showed up and hung around, and by a little after 4pm, the overflow line was accepting people without little blue tickets, but if anyone who had a ticket showed up, they got to move ahead of us.
I hung out in the line and chatted with some cool folks, and met some people involved in the new official SG-1 fan club. They seem really neat, and were passing out membership applications. I am assuming that the MGM website's links to the fan club either do now, or will shortly, have online info about joining as well.
We were warned that MS might not do autographs past the 500 number total, and that if the end-of-appearance time rolled around, he might be tired out and simply call it a day... everyone around me was either really quiet, or really patiently vocal about understanding that. A group of us kept stating how mellow we were, and that we appreciated the chance to wait around, even if things didn't work out as well as we could have hoped for, and that seemed to reassure the support staff. I thought they seemed rather sympathetic since we had been patient and hadn't made a big deal out of it, just letting people with blue tickets move ahead of us with smiles and a little envy.
Eventually, even though more people with blue tickets showed up and bumped us back a couple of times, the overflow line had few enough people in it that the support staff let us start moving into the regular line even if we didn't have blue tickets.
By the time we got nearer the front of the actual line, some rather daunting security folks started asking if we had tickets. We answered that the overflow line people had told us about the situation, and that we didn't mind waiting no matter what happened. Some of the sales staff told us that to stay in the line, we'd have to buy something if we didn't have tickets, and no one objected at all.
The line wound up and down between dividers for a while, and the way that it was set up, you got fairly close to the signing table and then farther away again and then back again a few times. That seemed to help people deal with the haze a little bit...
I spotted MS trying surreptitiously trying to rub writers cramp out of his hand a few times. By that point he had to have signed at least 400 autographs if not more, and he wasn't just writing his name, he was paying attention to special requests from what I could see. He was seated at the table, and would move his hands under or behind the table to try to work the kinks out without attracting too much attention. He was smiling and laughing with the fans and the support staff most of the time.
The autograph table was selling 3 different 8x10 photos (1 b/w, 2 color), posters, and ballcaps. They may have had other stuff, but that's what I noticed. Lots of people were having their photos taken with him, and I saw at least one woman go around the table to stand next to him for her photo rather than having the table in between them.
I think I was in line for about two hours... but I got to chatting so much that I kind of lost track of time. I'd never been to a con before and learned all sorts of stuff. We watched the line for the masquerade party start to form across the room from us, and it grew really really big really really fast. Someone said that there were between 40,000 and 45,000 people at the con on Saturday, and the masquerade room max capacity was only 4,500, so I'm not sure how that was all supposed to work. There seemed to be multiple lines and some color of tickets involved.
I'm not sure, but I think that by then that MS had already done more than had been agreed to, either by the autograph numbers or by time... or was close to it. But he was still going strong.
I was one of the first batch of non-blue-ticket people to reach the table. I bought one each of the three photos and tucked them into my bag, confusing both the blue-ticket-taker and the sales staff, who had gotten into the habit of just passing the photos directly down the table to him for signing... I explained that I was only there to hand him a thank-you note and and to say thank you in person and that I hoped that wasn't too much trouble. They seemed a little confused, but let me go ahead in the line. I figured that buying the photos ($40 total, in cash) probably smoothed the way considerably, but I don't know for sure since I'm not sure how this sort of thing is supposed to work, never having done it before...
When I got to him, he seemed very personable and a little tired, but seemed to have been enjoying himself. There was a pile of dead markers and a pile of new markers sitting on the table beside him, which made me even more glad I wasn't asking him for anything at that point.
I managed to very briefly say what I wanted to say without tripping over my words, which felt really good. I've already mailed off my other thank-yous to the rest of the cast and companies (the writers' batch will go out this coming week) but it felt really right handing him his in person. I closed the quick conversation by shaking his hand and wishing him safe journeying home, and walked away. I don't know how much longer he stayed or if everyone else in the line behind me got to talk to him or not.
My lasting impressions: His smile is even more warm in person than on screen, and he has a nice handshake, even after signing hundreds of autographs.
All in all, it was a good experience for me, and from what I saw, the rest of the crowd, too. I *sincerely* hope MS can say the same.
Other tantalizing news from the con:
I talked with two women working in the MGM/SG-1 booth about the US region 1 season 2 DVD set. The aswer I got both times was "two months". I asked if that was time until pre-order became available or if that was the time until they were on sale, and they didn't know, but said that they thought it was time to sale.
I asked one of them why there had been no official announcement on the MGM SG-1 site about the season 2 DVDs, and she said it was probably because they wanted to wait until just before they became available for an official web announcement.
Both women seemed quite convinced that MGM does plan on releasing at least season 2 on region 1 DVDs, and possibly the other seasons after that. I am really hoping that they were well-informed!!!
I plan on continuing to write my letters, and I encourage everyone else waiting for the DVDs to do the same...
-- Adele
:freak4: :hjbigeyes :laugh: 
