Erin and Tim Together Again

Having both Erin Gray and Tim O’Connor involved Dreams Awake was a truly double pleasure in itself. However, not everyone realizes that “Dreams Awake” wasn’t the first time these two wonderful actors worked together. Back in 1979 Erin played Colonel Wilma Dearing in the TV series ‘Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century’ alongside Tim, who played Dr. Elias Huer. He was on Buck Rogers for just one season (21 episodes), but Erin continued on for the other season (32 episodes). And Erin and Tim have remained friends over all these years. In fact, there is quite a serendipitous story behind how they wound up working together again.

During production, on the day third day of shooting, a major casting problem sprang up. Originally another actor had been cast to play the mysterious character Ambrose. But when the actor came to our main location, we were informed that he had just been released from the hospital because of some type of accident he had been in. After conversations with the actor by the director and others, it became apparent that he just wasn’t up to taking on the role. That put us into a major bind, as we were prepping several scenes in the woods with Erin and this actor for that day. We wound up shooting Erin’s side of the scene, and put off the other piece until we got another actor.

Later that day, Jerry, the director, Erin and a few others were in a discussion about what to do, and Erin came up with an idea for the Ambrose replacement. She had recently seen Tim O’Connor and said he was in great shape. So the very next day she called him and then a script was emailed to him. Then the following day the director had a long fruitful conversation by phone with Tim. He loved the script, and certainly wanted to work with Erin again, so he came aboard. At 80, he actually was retired and hadn’t done a film in about ten years. And luckily, he lived just north of Sacramento, only a few hours away by car. So we had someone hop in a car, pick him up, drive him back, and he was available on set the next day. Which just happened to be a shot on the mountain. So he got introduced to Mt. Shasta right away.

As the production progressed we all learned what a special treat it really was to have both Erin and Tim involved with “Dreams Awake.” They certainly helped make it what it is!

Erin Gray & Tim O’Connor – “Dreams Awake”