Jason Behr Reflects on the Lasting Impact of Roswell and Connecting With Fans
Jason Behr recently appeared on The Jason Show, where he looked back on memorable moments of his career, from his early days in the entertainment industry and Roswell, teen magazines, The WB’s unforgettable advertising campaigns, meeting his wife KaDee Strickland while working on The Grudge, and his experience meeeting fans at conventions.
One of the highlights of the conversation was Jason reflecting on the enduring popularity of Roswell and the incredibly local fanbase the series has maintained decades after it first premiered.
When asked what it feels like to be part of a show that continiues to means so much to people long after it ended, he described the experience as something truly special.“You know, it’s really special”, Jason said. He recalled that while making the pilot they all had a feeling that they were creating something different.
“You know, it’s really special. When we were doing the actual show and we’re making the pilot, we were all kind of looking around and saying we feel something special is happening. And it turned out to be true. I think we all had a wonderful time on it.”
At the time, however, they had no way of knowing just how long-lasting that connection would become. Jason explained that fans still approach him to share personal stories about what Roswell meant to them and how the series helped them through difficult periods in their lives.
“I think we all had a wonderful time on it, but people come up to me to this day and they talk about how they watched it, how it helped them maybe through certain hard times,” he said.
Jason has also been touched by the fact that Roswell has become something passed from one generation to another. Some fans who watched the original series years ago have now introduced it to their own children, creating a new generation of viewers.
“And so it’s just this gift that keeps on giving,” Jason said. “We had no idea that was going to be the case.”
That generational connection is something he also sees when attending conventions and meeting fans from different periods of his career. He said he genuinely enjoys those encounters, particularly because fans sometimes share deeply personal stories about the impact his work has had on their lives.
“You have no idea when you first started,” Jason explained, reflecting on the beginning of his career and the unexpected ways his work would eventually affect people. Fans have told him that his work helped them through experiences such as cancer or the loss of a parent, sibling, or child. Others have told him that they introduced his shows to their children, who have in turn begun watching them with their own kids.
“So you have people say, ‘Oh, I introduced it to my kid,’ and they are now introducing it to their kids and watching with like three generations,” he said.
And while Roswell remains one of the projects most closely associated with Jason, convention encounters can sometimes remind him just how extensive his body of work has become. He recalled fans unexpectedly asking him to quote lines from other projects, including Supergirl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“I was on one episode of Buffy. I don’t know if I can,” he joked, before describing how the memories suddenly come rushing back. “Then all of a sudden it comes flooding back and you like remember everything you said in this episode,” he said.
For Jason those moments seem to capture something remarkable about having a career that has stayed with audiences long after a particular project has ended. What began as a television role has become a lasting connection with people who continue to revisit the stories, share them with their families, and show up years later to tell the actors what those stories meant to them.
His appearance on The Jason Show offers another reminder of just how enduring the Roswell fandom has been and how much that connection continues to mean to Jason Behr himself.