30th Anniversary Convention

August 29 - 31, 1997

The Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel
Studio City, California

This three-day convention, in observance of the 30th anniversary of THE JUDGMENT, was held at a hotel in the San Fernando Valley of LA where part of a first-year episode, WHERE THE ACTION IS, was filmed.

Friday night had videos, including
THE JUDGMENT, followed by an audio recording of David Janssen on The Joey Bishop Show, which aired 30 minutes after the ending of the series. The audio recording was enhanced with video and freeze frames during Bishop's interview with David.

On Saturday morning, a group met at the old Goldwyn Studios (now called Warners Hollywood), where the interiors and some exteriors of the show were filmed. A tour was conducted by Bob Rubin, one of the show's assistant directors. Fans recognized locations such as the inside of the train depot where Gerard trapped Kimble in
ILL WIND, the police station where Kimble escaped with the help of Tim Considine in SECOND SIGHT, the transformer area where Kimble was stumbling around in SECOND SIGHT and the prison yard from WINGS OF AN ANGEL. After the tour, lunch was eaten across the street at the Formosa Cafe, where David and the entire QM staff and guests stars frequently had lunch and dinner. Lunch was followed by a trip to nearby location shooting scenes, such as the high school gym used as the courthouse in the epilog of the final episode, Melvyn Douglas's house in THE 2130, the tunnel used as the signature logo for the series and in NIGHTMARE AT NORTHOAK, the alley where Kimble was hiding when Carol Rossen picked him up in MAY GOD HAVE MERCY and David's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The highlight of the convention was Saturday night, starting with a no-host cocktail reception, followed by a catered dinner and a panel discussion among people who worked with David Janssen and others who knew him. The panel consisted of actors Richard Anderson and Edward Faulkner, actress Carol Rossen, music composer Pete Rugolo, costumer Steve Lodge, writers Stanford Whitmore and Phillip Saltzman, director Walter Grauman, makeup artist Jack Wilson, art director Serge Krizman, location manager Bud Brill, Elliott Shapiro, David's driver from 1974-1980 and Frank Liberman, David's publicist for 15 years, among others.

Sunday began with a two hour retrospective on David's entire career. Then there were visits to more locations — Santa Monica Pier, where the carousel played so prominently in
BRASS RING, David's beach house in Malibu, where he suffered his fatal heart attack and his final resting place at Hillside Memorial Park.

The convention was organized by Dave Brown.



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