Dead Ends

I had a really urgent topic I wanted to address this week (WATCH ARCHER! SAVE ARCHER!), but as I was writing it, Andrew Koenig went missing and sparked a major search through Vancouver. It ended yesterday, when a group of his friends and his father found his body in Vancouver's Stanley Park.

Koenig, 41, was best known as Mike Seaver's best friend "Boner" Stabone on ABC's Growing Pains, appearing in 25 episodes from 1985-89.

He also guest-starred on shows like My Sister Sam, Deep Space Nine, and 21 Jump Street (his experience shooting the latter would inspire him to move to Vancouver for a time during the early '90s).





In later years, Koenig focused his attention behind the camera as a writer, director and editor, but also pursued interests in art, photography and comedy. He was also known to fans of the podcast Never Not Funny, as he made off-camera asides while operating their camera.

Andrew Koenig's connection with science fiction and fantasy was up to this point less well-known, despite being the son of Star Trek's original Chekov, Walter Koenig. He was also the inspiration for Harlan Ellison's short story "Jeffty Is Five." But as far as his own genre work is concerned, the astute will remember his spin on one of the most iconic characters in popular fiction.

In Sandy Collora's short film Batman: Dead End, the Dark Knight pursues an escaped Joker through a bleak, rain-soaked Gotham City. While it was a fan film, Dead End received critical acclaim across the Internet and a lot of attention. Kevin Smith lauded it as the truest Batman film ever made at the time (note that this was before Christopher Nolan really did hit the nail on the head). And opposite Clark Bartram's grim, determined Batman was Andrew Koenig's take on the Joker. Koenig started out closely replicating Mark Hamill's animated Joker, though he soon injected bitterness and a sort of adolescent rage to the character, creating his own unique portrayal.



So while everyone remembers the sweet yet dim Boner, I prefer to remember a talented man who had much more to offer had he conquered his demons. His versatility is one of the key reasons Batman: Dead End holds a place in the vault to this day.