Watching Harlan Ellison reduce a twelve year old girl to tears in front of a room full of fans at her first con with the first costume she had sewed on her own sealed him in my book as an irredeemable POS and nothing resembling what a decent man is supposed to be.

The irony of Harlan Ellison scoffing at you for making games when he went on to create I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

@Wobbothe3rd

2 ай бұрын

Well sort of, if you watch the interviews he did at the time you can tell he was really dismissive of gamers and games in general. Still a brilliant mind nonetheless.

@TheSpiritOf97

2 ай бұрын

​@@Wobbothe3rd Ellison is painfully overrated. AM Might predate skynet but it's written like the scribblings of a 17 year old Angst ridden edge-lord. Every single concept, story idea, and approach to things was eventually or previously handled by better writers and better people. The fact that he was a cantankerous, unlikeable prick just means he'll be forgotten sooner.

@0neDoomedSpaceMarine

2 ай бұрын

That's Harlan Ellison, his personality was so abrasive that he could sharpen knives by just looking at them. God knows what happened to him to make him like that.

@AaronLitz

2 ай бұрын

@@TheSpiritOf97The fact that he bullied his way into getting a screen credit on _Terminator_ because he claimed it ripped him off for the idea of _soldiers going back in time_ still pisses me off. Ellison's story _Soldier_ has absolutely nothing to do with the idea of going back in time to kill the mother of your enemy, or anything to do with Artificial Intelligence rising up to wage war on humanity... you know, the core elements of the _Terminator_ story. It was literally just about two soldiers getting hurled (accidentally) back in time. He was a total ass.

@TheSpiritOf97

2 ай бұрын

@@AaronLitz THANK YOU! As an editor: Copyright and legal BS be damned, I have "aqquired" a copy that PROPERLY removes the little parasites name from The First Film.

At DragonCon once, we lost a friend of ours who was a huge Harlan Ellison fan. We were all teens at the time. In looking for him, we decided to stake out Ellison's signing table. Harlan noticed us and asked what we were doing. We asked him if he knew where our friend was and if he had talked to him. He was curmudgeony about it, as expected. I did tell him I liked "City on the Edge of Forever", but I doubt it endeared me much. 😅 An earlier Con, and friend and I approached Raymond Feist thinking he was Larry Niven. When Feist figured out our error, he called out to Niven, "These guys think I am you." My friend started pinning the mistake rightly on me for having misread the program book. Stephen Barnes started belly laughing and said, "all you white bearded guys look alike!" Everyone but us laughed. We were mortified, but got to meet three great authors that day.

@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive

2 ай бұрын

I never realized there was this "default look" for SFF writers born in the 1940s like how movie directors in the 1970s all had full beards and wore glasses. Stephen Barnes was right!

@juddgoswick2024

2 ай бұрын

@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive He did, to be honest.

You are a madman. I went to see Harlan Ellison speak. During the question and answer phase, I asked him about a proposed compact disk digital release of old Heavy Metal magazines which he had helped cancel. He became incensed, railing against unfair publishers not sharing revenue with artists during re-releases. Later, he signed my Vic and Blood (Richard Corben) comic.

@lelagrangeeffectphysics4120

2 ай бұрын

After reading the other stories commenters in this vid had... i can see Ellison was a serious piece of work jeebus, i also see that this is kind of a close club of old members to have so many people have experiences...

Sandy I love your videos brother, but I wish you’d upload more lol

Alerts good to see your iconic glasses and shiny dome on my feed

Finally sandy some more content and stories!! Miss you. Could listen to you talk for hours. I have watching your old videos AGAIN haha.

Wow, loved this story. Yes, it's a badge of honor to be insulted by Ellison. At a lecture at Worcester Polytechnical Institute during his nu-Twilight Zone consultant days, during the Q&A I asked him the worst possible question to ask Harlan Ellison - "How's The Last Dangerous Visions coming along?" He shot a look of pure distaste at me and said, "You look like the kind of guy that pulls wings off of flies or buries baby chicks up to their necks then goes over them with a lawnmower."

Another wonderful video from Sandy!

god, I love Sandy's stories

Ah, I know how you feel. I was presenting at a tech conference, and the guy before me had a sideline being a magician. He came on to stage on a unicycle, and blew the audience. I faired ok. Thankfully we are friends :) This is a shout out to him, James Twomey, who is currently supporting Ukrainian orphans by doing magic shows for them.

What a life you've lived!

wait someone told me you were dead I've been lied to- good to see you around still lmao

My housemate was once a guest at a con with Ellison as well, and was wondering who's Jewish grandmother in a jump suit he was before she heard him speak and realized it was man. She is far more into fantasy, and knew his name as an author, but that was it.

Met Harlan at Icon, another Long Island con. Accused me of killing his [number I forget] wife, after which he gave me a hug and thanked me saying "I hated that b*tch". Bought his omnibus 'Dreams with Sharp Teeth' with a $20 I put my address on with a sharpie. Still waiting for it to come back to me.

👍👍

How many people's "Worst Convention Experience" story involves meeting you?

Anyone amused by this should go read "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" if they haven't already.

It's cool because he wasn't fake. I'd rather an honest glimpse than pandering every time. I'm excited to be in the same room, they're working, adjust your expectations ya kno.

I honestly prefer Sandy to Tim Cain... dunno i find Sandy to be more fun and less braggadocious...

@meanmole3212

2 ай бұрын

ok

we’re in for a treat :)