El Paso Comic Con: Roles The Stars Might Not Want You To Remember

El Paso Comic Con 2022 is scheduled for April 22-24 at the El Paso Convention Center. Headlining the event are former child star Danny Bonaduce, acclaimed actor Giancarlo Esposito AND a man I consider to be the biggest “get” for ANY Sci-fi/comic/pop culture convention, William Shatner.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

All these beloved stars have had their famous roles. But, they’ve also had some that they’re not quite as well known for. And they might be happy that their not. This article takes a video look at some of the roles these EP Comic-Con guests may not want on the top of their bios.

DANNY BONADUCE

Known for: 12-year-old bassist Danny Partridge in “The Partridge Family” for four years on ABC; Reality Show “Breaking Bonaduce” on VH1;

ALSO: Appearing as Danny Partridge on an unsuccessful knock-off of Scooby-Doo.

Goober and the Ghost Chasers aired for 16 episodes beginning in 1973.  Everything about this show is a copy of Scooby-Doo. There’s a dog (like Scooby) who’s really scared of ghosts (like Scoob). He travels around with a small cadre of teenagers (like Scooby) did and each week there’s a different mystery involving a ghost Scoob…er, I mean…Goob and the Gang had to figure out.

Unlike Scooby-Doo, Goober Goo could turn invisible under extreme duress. I don’t think any explanation for this was ever given but, hey, it was one thing that wasn’t IDENTICAL to Scooby-Doo.

 Also, for some reason, cartoon versions of the Partridge Kids joined Goober and his pals and they were voiced by the original actors, including Danny Bonaduce.

Here’s a clip of Goober and the Ghost Chasers. In case you think I was overstating the similarities between Goober and Scooby, you’ll see that I clearly was not:

It’s like they even used the same wardrobe as Scooby-Doo. And this is a cartoon!

WILLIAM SHATNER

Known for: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, and going to actual space last year at the age of 90.

Also for That episode of Twilight Zone with the weird Chaka-looking monster on the wing of the plane.

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” aired during the Twilight Zone’s 5^th season in 1963. It is one of the very memorable episodes of TZ…partially because people 10 years later would see it as recognize Captain Kirk and partially because it was one of the segments adapted for the 1983 movie (it was directed by Mad Max’s George Miller and starred John Lithgow in the Shatner role).

The “gremlin” suit looks very cheesy, but Shatner’s great. He’s classic Shatner but several years before he became Captain Kirk.

GIANCARLO ESPOSITO

Known for: Gus Fring in “Breaking Bad”; Moff Gideon in “The Mandalorian”; Buggin’ Out in “Do the Right Thing”.

Also: Being in one of the worst SyFy Channel original movies. “Chupacabra: Dark Seas came out in 2005, the SyFy channel has really leaned into the cheese. The first “Sharknado” wouldn’t come out until 2013 and since then they’ve had titles included “Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf” and “Armadillo-geddon” (only one of those is real; I leave it up to you to guess which one it is.

Giancarlo Esposito is a very fine actor and so is John Rhys-Davies so it’s a double mystery how they both ended up in this drek. Seriously, Gimli the Dwarf and Gus the Fring were both in the same movie and it was really, really, really bad.

Esposito plays the villain, Dr. Pena, a cryptozoologist who discovers chupacabras actually exist and decides that instead of documenting them in their natural habitat he’ll smuggle them back onboard a cruise ship. This is the last part of this story that makes any sense at all. Dr. Pena is a gentleman of great refinement who secretly holds no value for human life. I like to think Esposito was actually developing the tools that would make Gus Fring such a menacing villain years later on “Breaking Bad” but he was doing it alongside a guy in a rubber suit, Indy’s friend Sallah, and some of the worst CGI ever, even by SyFy channel standards.

El Paso Comic Con will be here soon! Check it out, here!