Year in Review

You Are What You Write

In 2021, my Medium articles did some deep dives on UFOs, The Beatles, artificial intelligence, JFK, 9/11, the Emmy Awards, and even Santa Claus. Go figure.

WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS, these are the most popular articles I wrote in 2021 — all of them getting at least a thousand views, most closer to five thousand, several over fifteen thousand, and the most popular one at 31-thousand and still growing.

My Most Popular Article of the Year

This article is the gift that keeps on giving. It had a strong launch, but it has never stopped being read. I think many people have seen this photo before, but most know nothing about it. And they just plain want to know more. So did I which is the reason I looked into it, and wrote it.

My Three-Part Investigation into John Lennon’s UFO Sighting

This combines two subjects I’m passionate about — UFOs and The Beatles. Many Beatles fans know that John Lennon claimed he saw a UFO in 1974, but don’t know many of the details. I couldn’t find the article that I wanted to read, no one had written it, so I wrote it myself.

Remembering the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 through the Emmy Awards

Everyone remembers what they were doing when 9/11 happened and, in that regard, I’m no different than anyone else. What makes my experience stand out is that I’d just been elected to run the TV Academy and the Emmy Awards were five days away when the Towers came down.

This Investigative Journalism Actually Made a Difference

This one is so damn gratifying. It had always bothered me that the journalist who broke the Betty and Barney Hill abduction story had been marginalized and villified for his work. The misrepresentations carried over into the New Hampshire highway historical sign. So I wrote this article to set the record straight. Just a few weeks ago, I heard from the State of New Hampshire that they agree with my article, they’re taking this sign down, and putting up a new one that will be more historically accurate.

Looking at the Vaccine as the Writer of the ‘Pandemic’ Miniseries

Vaccines have become so political, but that wasn’t the case in 2006 when my wife and I co-wrote the Hallmark miniseries Pandemic. It went on to win the Writers Guild of America award for Outstanding Longform Screenwriting. Here’s what we got right and what we got wrong.

People Think I’ve Channeled Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing

Since it was clear that President Biden was never going to give the speech about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena that I wanted to hear, I took it upon myself to write one for him. Most people really liked it, and that makes me happy.

The One That Started It All

An earlier version of this one, think of it as my UFO Manifesto, started my writing here at Medium. So I got it out in 2021, dusted it off, and gave it a polish. It remains something that people find and read and that’s extremely gratifying.

I Just Can’t Quit The Beatles

In 2018, I authored a book called “Once There Was a Way: What if The Beatles Stayed Together?” It went on to win the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and, in effect, qualifies me as a Subject Matter Expert on how the band made just have figured out a way to stay together longer than they did. Given Peter Jackson’s documentary about the perilous time right before they broke-up, this one was something I just had to write.

The TV Series I’m Most Proud to Have Created

Incredibly, it’s been 25 years since Dark Skies went on-the-air on NBC. It’s always amazed me that an establishment network would let us make such a seriously subversive TV series. It’s about an alien invasion taking place in the 1960s that blends real ufological events with history and an alien invasion.

The Murder of JFK Still Bothers Me

For most people, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has the same relevance as the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. I think that’s a mistake. There are issues about what happened that still need to be considered and straightened out today, more than ever.

Yes, I Really Did Challenge Neil deGrasse Tyson to a Debate

I think America’s astronomer has been condescending to the extreme on the subject of UFO/UAP reality, resorting to canned sound bites and punch lines instead of reasoned analysis of evidence, something he claims to support. I’m totally serious about this. I want to debate him, one-on-one and hash this out in front of an audience.

Only Half Tongue in Cheek

Having reared three kids, I learned every trick in the book to maintain the Santa Claus reality. My thoughts about how to do this are so specific, I thought they might help other parents who want to not blow it prematurely, so here it is, and Merry Christmas to you, too!

They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

This is the year that 60 Minutes actually covered UFOs. I wrote a lot about that in other articles, but the one that seems to have struck a nerve is this one. If ET is here observing us, they probably have a killer A.I. system and it has sucked up so much information about us that it should give us pause. At least it gives me pause…

The Runner’s Runner

I’ve been a runner most of my life. I went to the University of Oregon back when Steve Prefontaine was there running track and breaking records. Later, as a TV newsman in Eugene, I covered Pre’s death. I think his words still have a lot to say all these years later.

The Original Sin of the UFO Cover-Up

I’ve researched the Roswell crash extensively and this is my strongest piece so far, and it continues to get many readers’ attention. The idea that it was a real event is not far-fetched. Next year will be the 75th anniversary and you’ll be hearing more about it, so start here.

I Put All My Swear Words in This One Piece

It’s very hard to describe this piece, but people love the holy fucking hell out of it. Please excuse all the goddamn swearing.

An Article Full of Little Bite-Sized Poems

The idea of alien contact is such a big idea that it occurred to me that maybe the best way to talk about it might be in little bits and pieces. Haiku seemed to fit. Here are some of my own, and some of my readers.

My Life as Seen Through the Prism of The Beatles

I simply had to write this article if not for me, or for you, at least for my children and grandchildren so they can understand what this band meant to me and how it impacted my life and times.

People Did Not Like This Article

I worked on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman so I felt like I could venture an opinion on a new direction for the character. What I found out is that fans did not want me promoting an African-American actor for the role. I’m still trying to understand if that is racism at work, or simply a rejection of political correction. As of now, I think it’s a bit of each.

The World Does Not Need Another Podcast

Yet I started one with Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart. So far people seem to like it a lot. This is the article that explains how two people who knew the world did not need another UFO podcast decided to do a UFO podcast anyway.

The Hail Mary of All Hail Marys…

The U.N. issued a report stating that it was “Code Red” for Earth, what with climate change, species extinction, pollution, etc. My take is that it may take UFO/UAP disclosure to bring us together enough to fix the problems we have (if they’re even fixable at this stage).

Not Just Another Celebrity Encounter

As a Hollywood writer/producer and a former CEO/chairman of the TV Academy, I’ve met more than my fair share of celebrities and that would be a fine article on its own. This one is about meeting Carl Sagan as a young man, and arguing about UFOs with him in the PBS parking lot. Kind of My Favorite Year meets ET.

Meet the Couple That Started It All

I’ve been obsessed with the Betty and Barney Hill case for decades now. They’re the interracial couple who were the first Americans to claim alien abduction, the first to experience missing time, the first to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories and the first to describe the Grays. This is the 60th anniversary and here’s my deep dive.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

With John murdered in 1980, and George dead in 2002, there is effectively no way whatsoever for a new Beatles album. Except that depends on your definition of things maybe. Is it possible that an advanced artificial intelligence could take the Beatles Challenge and make something wonderful?

The Bad Luck of the Irish

Back in the 2000s, my family spent some time in Ireland, and the country has never quite gotten out of my soul since. As the son of a history teacher, I’m amazed at how their Revolution and their Civil War happened so recently that cars and trucks were involved. Here’s my take, expressed through a couple of films on the subject.