#FlashbackFriday // Flight of the Navigator

Flight of the Navigator, is a film about an 12-year-old Florida boy, Joey Cramer, who ends up on a spaceship and travels 8 years into the future, while he remains the same age. He ends up in the hands of NASA and with the help of a NASA intern, his brother and the ship's robotic commander called "Max" (voiced by Paul Reubens aka Pee-wee Herman), Joey figures out how he ended up where he is and how to get back.

This was one of those movies I watched any time it was on while growing up, yet I barely remembered a thing until I rewatched it the other day. One thing I do remember? "Max" mimicking Joey saying "I'm the Navigator, I'm the Navigator!" I didn't even remember Sarah Jessica Parker being in it.

So where is everyone from Navigator now?

Joey Cramer, who played lead character, David Freeman (center), had just a few roles before and after Flight of the Navigator including portraying Tom Selleck’s son in Runaway and a two episode stint on Murder, She Wrote. He seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth until a fan spotted him working at a Source for Sports store in British Columbia (left) in 2009. Then in 2011 it was reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were looking for a Deleriyes Cramer who had seven warrants out for him. This was none other than Joey (right) who went by several other aliases including Joe Deleriyes and Joe Leighland. Allegedly he committed several check and fraud related crimes. And just earlier this month he was charged with "robbery, disguise with the intent to commit an indictable offense, failing to stop for a peace officer and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle" in a Canadian bank robbery.

Howard Hesseman is probably best known as Dr. Johnny Fever in WKRP in Cincinnati but to me he’ll always be "cool teacher" Charlie Moore, from Head of the Class aka the TV show with one of the best opening theme songs.  He was also a founding member of the San Francisco-based improvisational comedy troupe The Committee with fellow actor David Ogden Stiers. Fun fact: David Ogden Stiers appeared throughout the first season of Two Guys and a Girl while Howard guest starred in one episode as Berg's (played by Ryan Reynolds) father. 

In Flight of the Navigator he portrays Dr. Louis Faraday, a NASA scientist who has been studying the spaceship since its arrival. He means well but cares more about the science than the welfare of David. Since "Flight..." Howard, now 76,  has been working steadily in film and television guest appearances including About Schmidt, Psych and ER. 

Before Veronica Cartwright's role as David's mother, Helen Freeman, she was perhaps best known as young Cathy Brenner in Hitchcock's The Birds. Just like Howard, Helen has been keeping busy in both film and television. She has been nominated for three Emmy's (two for The X-Files and one for ER) and was most recently seen in the Amazon series, Bosch.

Cliff De Young played Bill, Joey's dad who was just kind of there. You might think of the actor himself the same way. With over 130 credits to his name he has one of those faces where you go "Ooo! ooo! I know that guy!" He's guest starred on everything from JAG to The Young and the Restless to Grey's Anatomy and has been in movies such as The Craft and Wild.  

Two actors covered the role of Joey's brother, Jeff. Albie Whitaker played 8-year-old Jeff, his one and only role to date. If this is his LinkedIn profile, then he's doing pretty well for himself. If that's not him, then I just found you a financial advisor to connect with. 

Matt Adler (above, right) played 16-year-old Jeff who helped his older brother out in the future (confusing or no?) by setting off fireworks at their family's home so Joey knew where to fly to after escaping NASA. Since Flight, Matt has been working here and there with a little bit of voice acting. IMDb also notes that he is a close friend and former housemate of George Clooney. Sidenote: I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a little crush on 16-year-old Jeff when I was all of 8 years old or so.  

Last but not least was the surprisingly forgettable (for me), Sarah Jessica Parker, in the role of Carolyn, a NASA intern who not only helps Joey escape, but comes to his parent's house to fill them in on what's going on. You all know Sarah, I don't need to fill you in on her. 

Now go watch Flight of the Navigator.

About That Time I Went to a Taping of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, but what better way to come back than with a quick recap of that time I went to a taping of The Nightly Show? Late last year I went to a taping of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and that post was a bit more detailed because I went through the whole process of signing up for the lottery of sorts, waiting in line, etc etc. Attending this taping was a little easier because I went with a group from the New York Adventure Club, so all I had to do was sign up and show up. If you live in NYC and love to experience unusual and off the grid things, I would definitely suggest you sign up. This was only the second event I've attended but so far it's been really fun and there are a lot of events that I wish I could have gone to (looking at you, Green-Wood Cemetery & Catacombs by flashlight tour...) and hope to go to even more.

Back to the show. We were to be at the studio by 4:45pm but of course we waited around for a while before we were eventually let into the building where they checked our IDs, went through a metal detector and waited in a crowded room with just fans (not even oscillating) for way too long. It's one of those things where I understand why they want everyone to show up early and all that jazz, but waiting around is never fun. Eventually they called us in by groups and led us to our seats. I was surprised to hear that we could take pictures in the studio until the warm up guy came out (though of course I did see some rule breakers during the show who weren't stopped, but I knew if I tried I'd be caught and reprimanded).

Once we all got seated the warm up guy came out. He cracked a few jokes and handed out t-shirts and hats based on different criteria (who traveled the farthest, who went to the shittiest school and who was able to procure a condom the fastest). After that he introduced the stage manager and they tried riling us up to be the most enthusiastic that we could be. 

Then Larry comes out. He did a short Q&A with the audience which was fun. The first question was about the White House Correspondence Dinner, which he hosted, and he spoke about how Michelle Obama had the best side eye, not just physically but verbally, ie: "this motherfucker...." which he quickly redacted with a laugh. 

Another person asked if he would have Donald Trump on the show and he gladly said "HELL YEAH." That would be a trip, let's be honest. 

The next question was about what he does in his free time and he mentioned that he's a nerd who loves doing magic. I quickly raised my hand for a follow up question*. Back in 2008 he guest starred in an episode of How I Met Your Mother and if you know anything about Neil Patrick Harris, you know he loves magic, so naturally my question was "did you and Neil do any magic together while on set?" He said they were never on set together so no magic, but he did know Neil from when he was the President of Magical Arts at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles and they hung out a lot back then. 

Now it's time for the show to start: the stage manager flails her arms to get us to cheer as loud as we can as Larry starts the show. This is wear something awesome happens, to me. He talks about Megyn Kelly's recent interview with Donald Trump where they talk about their relationship and Larry says that he doesn't care about their relationship, that they're not Ross and Rachel or Cookie and Lucious, or "whoever these people are. I don't know, I don't watch Big Bang Theory," then references How I Met Your Mother and points out to the audience aka ME! I was very excited about that. Instead of summarizing the entire episode you can watch it here (shout out to me is around 4:10). Basically, I just wanted to talk about the shout out, ha!

At the end of the show all of his panel and guests come out to close out the show but before the stage manager can rush the audience out, a few us "VIP" groups take a picture with Larry. He's much more taller than I thought. I don't know why. I always hear people say that about celebrities and I never thought that until I met him. 

I'm the one in the yellow pointing at him. Not sure why I did that. I already stand out with the yellow. Afterwards I realized Neil Patrick Harris likes to do the whole pointing thing so between that and my HIMYM question, I must seem like a huge NPH fan. What do huge NPH fans call themselves anyways? 

On that note...