Then there was… 11/19 Thankfulness!

In the previous post I talked about Sierra On-Line. This time, I want to focus on a specific person that worked there – his name is Al Lowe. When I first saw KING’S QUEST I, back in 1983 or 1984, I remember being amazed. But there wasn’t much story to the game. Now, not there was much to the game of Leisure Suit Larry in 1987, when it came out – but I was blown away by the graphics, the amount of content, dialogue, and hidden things to be found within the game. I also immediately identified with the off beat humor of Leisure Suit Larry. (And perhaps in way too many ways than I care to admit, I identified with Leisure Suit Larry himself!)

Back then, Sierra used to release a magazine called “InterAction.” And on a while whim, I dressed up in a white shirt, white pants, black tie (I didn’t own an actual ‘leisure suit’ at the time – so this was my effort to capture that feel). I parted my hair on the side, held a wine glass, and drew a picture of what I thought the next Leisure Suit Larry could be called – leaning, oh so coolly against my awesome powerful Tandy 1000SX. I sent the photo in to the magazine, thinking nothing of it.

The next thing I know – I get a letter back (this is way before the days of email, kids!) – asking if they can use my photo for a Leisure Suit Larry contest that they want to do in the InterAction magazine, inspired by my photo. Naturally I agreed! When the Sierra InterAction magazine with my photo showed up – I was floored with what they had done. (If you’re interested, you can see the original photo and what they did over on the Larry Laffer website).

Needless to say, that only sealed my connection that I felt with Larry Laffer.

As I mentioned in the previous post, when Vivendi closed down the Sierra Classic forums, I made the Leisure Suit Larry website to keep Leisure Suit Larry alive. When I did that, I also emailed Al Lowe from his website (which you can find at AlLowe.com and asked her permission to do the site. (I figured Al Lowe wouldn’t have minded at all; but I just wanted to be sure). Al Lowe encouraged me to make the Leisure Suit Larry page I wanted to make (since most of the new Leisure Suit Larry sites that had popped up dealt with the inferior versions of Leisure Suit Larry that Al Lowe was not involved in). The site I developed focused strictly on the games that Al Lowe had done with Leisure Suit Larry.

I batted back emails to Al Lowe over the years, just reminding him (like he needed it), how much his humor helped me in life. It helped – as strange as it sounds – develop my own sense of humor. Made me feel like that – my often crazy humor – wasn’t so absolutely unheard of. It helped me feel comfortable in my own skin. Al Lowe also developed games such as Freddy Pharkas and Torin’s Passage, which I included on the Leisure Suit Larry website. Freddy Pharkas I have many found memories playing with my wife – with the two of us trying to solve the game together. The same with Torin’s Passage – but with Torin’s Passage, I felt something more. I could see Torin’s Passage as a cartoon, and I desperately hoped that it would get sequels.

A few years ago, while chatting with Al Lowe, I asked if he would autograph Leisure Suit Larry 2 (my favorite of the series) and Torin’s Passage, which he graciously did.

Then, when I was writing the 3rd season to Neverending Nights – I knew it would be the final season. I wanted to include Al Lowe within the series – as a way to say thank you for all you have done over the years – and how his games, his laughter, his jokes, brightened my life and often times pushed me through and created memories I still cherish. Al graciously agreed to that as well – and despite his insanely busy life and schedule – managed to dish out the lines. (I gave Al free reign to improv the lines he had been given; which he did in some cases; and I loved it). I still remember when I first heard, “This is Al Lowe, reading for Neverending Nights…” I was absolutely floored!) Al Lowe is a childhood icon to me. He was something I inspired to become (back when my friend Shawn and I developed our own game that we tried to pitch to Sierra way back when!)

It seems somehow fitting that Al Lowe’s episode was also the first one that Jules appeared in (mentioned in the previous post) – since they’re both tied to my love of Sierra Online games.