Day 2: In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
While I first got introduced to Doctor Who and fell headlong into it in 2013, I've always considered myself a fan of different IPs, though I never did any serious fannish activities for them - Star Trek: The Next Generation, Firefly, Marvel comics and then the MCU, for a few examples. Yes, I did watch ST:TNG when it was originally on, and my friends and I had a party to watch the final episode (which bombed, by the way - five minutes before the broadcast, the local station broke down and they didn't air the episode until the next week), and I collected all of the seasons when it was released on DVD, but that's about it. I do have a Q teddy bear from the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, but we went there as an afterthought while already in LV, not as a primary goal.
Thus, I was about to write about Doctor Who for this challenge, thinking that I'd really never been a fan before, when I realized that wasn't true. There were two times I was a fan of something; it's just that they aren't properties that I think about now.
The Greatest American Hero: I might argue that this was my teen addiction, that I had a huge crush on William Katt and so this doesn't count, but that's not really true. If I'd had, I would have followed his work past that show, but I never did. I loved this show. I've always loved superheroes, and reluctant heroes with their hearts in the right place have always been my weakness (which is why I got snared by Doctor Who). I scheduled my life around Wednesdays at 6:30, and around the publication of Starlog magazine every month. My bedroom wall was plastered with posters of Ralph, Pam, and Bill.
Forever Knight: I remember being at home from grad school during winter break. I never had a television once I entered college, so going home meant getting to watch some TV. It was late at night and I turned to CBS, and they were showing "Crime Time After Prime Time", which was their attempt at serious and usually sexy late-night drama. (It mostly failed.) The scene on the screen was on a rooftop at night, where (I think) the vampire detective had cornered his suspect and was talking him down. All I remember is that the dialogue was so riveting, despite the fact that I hadn't seen the whole story, and I was hooked at that moment.
It was difficult for me to get into the show, because I didn't have a TV, and I don't remember how I managed to watch it, but I did. I couldn't go all in, since I was in grad school and had limited time and funds, but I do have a couple of cast photos. I remember getting together with a couple of friends to watch the show in candlelight and with glasses of blood-red wine. (All right, it wasn't wine - we didn't drink and couldn't afford wine. It was apple juice with food coloring.) I wanted desperately to meet Geraint Wyn Davies and John Kapelos. And no, no other vampire property has appealed to me. It wasn't the vampire part that attracted me to the show; it was the writing and the characters.