Summer 2004 Update.

By Ray Dutczak

Well I have some good news to report on a personal level. On May 4th my wife gave birth to our second child a girl Rachel Simone. All is well with baby and Mom. It's tough learning how to change dipears again.

LIS DVD News... Looks like season two is a go for September. The U.S. release will be split up into two parts. The first half of the second season to be released in September. The second part in November.. You can check out the box art here along with some more details. The U. K. release for season two is July 5th which has come and gone. I managed to pick up a U. K. set and all I have is praise for Fox U. K. as they did a fine job with the dvd set. Beautiful prints and box art. Hopefully the U.S. set will be equally nice. In case you haven't seen the U. K. set I have reviewed it and posted some photos.

Convention News.......... The Chiller Convention once again was top notch as always. Each show gets better and better. Chiller took place this past April on the weekend of April 23-25. Attending this time around from the I. A. alumni was most of the LOTG cast along with Mark Goddard and Marta Kristen from LIS. What was special about this Chiller was that a celebration of 40 years of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea was the focal point. Chiller was the first time in forty years that David Hedison, Del Monroe, Alan Hunt, and Terry Becker had seen each other. A full Chiller report is up with a bunch of pics. The next Chiller convention takes place October 29-31. If you never have attended a Chiller I recommend you do as you will have a great time.I managed to attend Wonderfest this past May in Louisville Kentucky. What a great convention and fun time I had. Bob May and Marta Kristen from LIS attended. They were very well received there.Also attended Connecticon in Connecticut with Bob May this past July weekend. Bob was treated very nice there and did some Q+A panels and signed many autographs. Will be posting some photos soon. Make sure to check the LIS Memories appearance schedule as to where I. A. cast members will be appearing as we are always updating it with new listings.

WB Passes On LIS Project................. Looks like the W. B. has passed on the LIS pilot for now. They may pick it up in the future? Seems the W. B. wanted to go in a different direction with there programming.

A Few Birthday Wishes.................I would like to take this opportunity to wish two very special people a Very Happy Birthday. Mark Goddard who celebrates a birthday July 24th and Robert Colbert who celebrates July 26th. The Best to them both!

A Few Thank You's............ I must send out a few thank you's to some very special people. I was in Los Angeles this past January with my pal Kevin Clement from Chiller for a week. What fun that was. Had a chance to spend some time with some old friends. Bill Mumy took us out to lunch and then we got a chance to visit the Mumy Manor. Can't thank Bill enough for having us over to his house. We had a great time. Also when out in L. A. we were invited over to Deanna Lund's house for dinner. Don Matheson and Don Marshall also came to dinner. Deanna is a FANTASTIC cook. Had a great dinner and we all had a chance to catch up on things. Special Thanks goes out to Deanna for all her hospitality and kindness towards me and Kevin Clement.

Must send out another SPECIAL Thank You to Kevin Burns. My daughter wanted to show an LIS episode to her class this past May as each of her classmates get a chance to show an episode from a TV show once a week. They watch a TV episode then do a little report on it. Anyway, Taylor wanted to show the LIS episode " Rocket To Earth" to her class. When I went to check my tape it was broken. In a conversation I had with Kevin I mentioned what had happened. Well low and behold the next day we received via Federal Express a brand new master of " Rocket To Earth" from Kevin to show her class. What a wonderful thing Kevin did for my daughter. Something I will never forget.

I must send out two more Special Thank You to my friends Mark Swandt and Simon Hancock. They hooked me up with some killer computer software that now enables me to update the web sites frequently. They also spent countless hours via the telephone and emails teaching me HTML, JAVA, etc. I never knew how much fun web mastering could be. I have been having a blast working on the updates to the web sites. Cant thank them enough for all their patience and help they have given me.

Final Thoughts............... I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer as at the time of this writing 7/27/04 we are at the midpoint of Summer vacation. Before you know it the cool nights of Fall will be upon us and Winter time will be knocking on our door. Enjoy the rest of the Summer and stay safe and healthy.

Ray D.
July 27, 2004.