How it all got started. Joe Castleberry had been hooked on Science Fiction since reading "Have Space Suit Will Travel" by Robert Heinlein back in the 60's. And of course TV had "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" and "Star Trek" and late Saturday night reruns of all the horror and Sci-Fi classics from the 40's and 50's. Don't forget the movies like "War of the Worlds", The "7th voyage of Sinbad", and "Godzilla".

Fast forward to the mid 80's. Joe attended his first Sci-Fi convention in Palo Alto California and decided to start selling "collectables" at the conventions myself. Joe created Pegasus Games and Hobbies and sold stuff like pre-built Star Trek models, resin hand phasers, medical scanners, Agonizers (Mirror, Mirror) and even Sci-Fi toys Joe found at garage sales and flea markets. By the 25th anniversary of Star Trek, Paramount finally realized there was a fan base out there willing to buy merchandise and started "Licensing" products. This put an end to many fan produced items an a lot of small mom and pop businesses quit. The term "Collectable" became a premium concept and unscrupulous dealers began buying up items produced in "limited" quantities and tripling the prices at conventions (the only place you could find them then). One evening Joe came across a show on the Discovery channel about Community Access Television. It showed how people all over the country with little or no background in TV could have their own Television shows on the Cable companies community access channels. The government said the Cable companies HAD to provide this to the communities free of charge. What a concept. A great idea came to Joe then about turning his Sci-Fi hobby into a TV show, and Sci-Fi Visions was born.

The first show aired October 1991. and by the end of the first 12 months of the show, Joe had started acquiring press passes for himself and the SFV crew to Conventions, exhibits, and movies. By the third year Joe was receiving Electronic Press Kits from most of the major movie studios, being invited to Press Junkets in Beverly Hills, getting free first print books from TOR Books and even free toys from Trend Masters. Joe used all the material on the show as segments and props, doing reviews of various items, and even giving away a few here and there. Joe managed to interview a few authors both at book signings in local bookstores and in the studio. Joe met a few stars at conventions and even got Bob May and Anthony Daniels to come to the studio. Joe ran segments featuring quite a number of local celebrities from Live Role Playing groups, game creators, and a magician.

SFV ORIGINS continued