So Many Activities, So Little Time (and Money)

My weekly blogs for the last couple of weeks have been about the events, activities or movies I have attended or seen over those weeks; and this week’s blog isn’t much different. Living in Los Angeles affords the residents many special opportunities to participate in a wide variety of events like conventions, free movie screenings and Paley Center panels (just to name a few) as long as you are aware of the many events that take place in this huge metropolis, that is.

Fortunately, since moving here from the East Coast over 9 years ago, I’ve learned about many of the television related events that are held throughout the city of Los Angeles (and elsewhere) and have been even more fortunate to meet so many wonderfully diverse and fun people along the way.

Thanks to the short-lived CBS series Moonlight, which debuted on the network back in September of 2007, I meet a multitude of terrific ladies all of whom fell in love with the show much like I did. Despite the demise of the show, the Moonlight fans from the Los Angeles area – or to be more specific – those fans who live in Southern California – have remained friends and we continue to hold get togethers nearly every month.

One such get together was this past weekend, as a number of us attended the Paley Center for Media’s “Vampire Weekend,” which featured free screenings of past Paley events such as the True Blood Paley Fest event and the Moonlight Panel. Since all of us attending Saturday’s screenings were in attendance at the Paley’s salute to the show back in April of 2008 – and because of the headiness of the night – we wanted to relive all the wonderful moments and see the panel with fresh eyes.

It was interesting, to say the least, to see the playback of that night, but also a bit disappointing since the playback wasn’t quite as good as we had hoped; not because the panel was bad or anything like that; but more so because the quality of the recording wasn’t as good as it could have been. Regardless of the quality, it was a fun outing for all of us and it was nice to relive the night and remember what could have been.

Next up on the calendar of activities is the Third Annual Firefly/Serenity Convention, run by Creation Entertainment, that will be held this coming weekend (November 21 and 22) at the Marriott Hotel near the Los Angeles Airport.

The special guest stars for this weekend include the following:

Nathan Fillion – now the star of the ABC series Castle
Morena Baccarin – now the star of the ABC series V
Adam Baldwin – now the star of the NBC series Chuck
Alan Tudyk – a guest star in the ABC series V
Mark Sheppard – versatile actor who has appeared on Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Warehouse 13, Bionic Woman, Burn Notice and much more
Yan and Rafael Feldman – who appeared in the Serenity movie as twins Mingo and Fanty

This will be another fun activity for my friends, including some from the Southern California Moonlight fans (otherwise known as the SoCal Freshies) to get together and have fun; and see these great stars in action. You can rest assured that Nathan and Alan will be at their funniest over the weekend, Morena will look amazingly beautiful, Yan and Rafael will regale us with stories from the set of Serenity and Adam will be at his dead-pan finest.

If you live in the area or will be visiting sunny California that weekend; and most important of all, if you are a Browncoat or a fan of any of these fine actors, try to hit up the LAX Marriott Hotel and join in the fun. You can learn more about the Third Annual Firefly/Serenity Convention at the following website: http://creationent.com/cal/serenity.htm.

Oh, and by the way, you can get your picture taken with any of these actors or get their autograph (as long as you don’t mind spending a little bit of green in order to get them). After all the holidays aren’t that far off and what fan wouldn’t love to have an autographed photo of these great folks.

I hope to see some of you there. You’ll know me by the screams of delight in the dealer room as I fawn over pictures of Moonlight, Legend of the Seeker, Chuck, Pushing Daisies and many, many more… What can I say; I’m a sucker for 8 x 10 photographs and am an avid collector of postcards and buttons. Now if I could just work that into my budget somehow….off to do some math to make it all work…

So many activities, so little time (or rather money)…

The 2009 Paley Preview Parties

As Louise wrote last week, she attended nearly all of the preview parties held at the Paley Center for Media, screening episodes from the major networks prior to their airing on their regular nights. I, too, had the chance to attend three of the five preview parties: those for NBC, CBS and ABC.

For NBC’s night, most of the cast and major crew from the new comedy Community were on hand for a short Q&A after the pilot episode was screened. Since I am not a fan of half-hour comedies, I will refrain from giving a review of the episode, letting those of you who are interested in the show to enjoy it for what it is. However, I will say that the comedy stars Joel McHale (The Soup) and legendary comedic actor Chevy Chase and chronicles the lives of a unique band of students at a “lowly” community college.

The dramas from NBC that were also featured that night included both new medical series by the network: Mercy and Trauma. Most critics’ reviews for Mercy have been harsh and unyielding. And, unfortunately, I must agree with their assumptions of the show. It is an awkwardly pieced-together series with grand intentions but short-sighted in its delivery. The protagonist, as portrayed by newcomer Taylor Schilling, is a rather unlikeable nurse who served in Iraq. She is now home, unhappy with her life and her job, working with what she feels are inferior doctors and reeling from an affair she had with a doctor while over there.

The other characters such as Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) and Jaime Lee Kirchner (Just Legal) are pale caricatures of what their characters should actually be.  James Tupper (Men In Trees) and well-known movie actor Delroy Lindo are simply wasted in this weak version of what a gripping medical drama should be.

As far as Trauma is concerned, the pilot was a bit stronger than Mercy; but still lacked the right punch to make it a successful show in my opinion. The cast includes Cliff Curtis (Live Free and Die Hard), Anastasia Griffith (Damages) and Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) as part of a team of first responders who handle emergencies by land, sea and air. The one shining light in the show is Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) as the chief at San Francisco City Hospital. This series has a slightly better chance of succeeding than Mercy.

On the night of CBS’s party, word spread quickly that the network would not be airing the pilot of their new medical drama Three Rivers, but rather NCIS: Los Angeles as well as episodes of Medium, The Good Wife and new comedy Accidentally on Purpose. The entire cast and crew of Medium appeared for the Q&A session that night followed by the season premiere of the series that resolved the cliffhanger ending from its previous network, NBC. NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife aired next, winning the audience over with terrific action and great character chemistry in both. The new comedy, starring Jenna Elfman, aired last.

The final night of the preview parties was for ABC and featured episodes of four new comedies: Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer, The Middle, starring Patricia Heaton, Cougar Town, starring Courteney Cox and Modern Family, starring Ed O’Neill and Julie Bowen (among others). Again, since I’m not a comedy viewer, I will provide no review; but I will say that I was somewhat troubled to see Jordan Hinson (who appears as Zoe Carter in the Syfy series Eureka) appearing as the daughter of Kelsey Grammer’s character in Hank. As a fan of Eureka, that just didn’t feel right to me.

The sole ABC drama to be featured is the highly-anticipated David S. Goyer/Brannon Braga series FlashForward. The hour series that is being touted as the potential successor to Lost did not disappoint, providing plenty of mystery, intrigue and action as well as characters rich with history just waiting to be unfolded. If there is one series that you must watch this fall, it is FlashForward.

Before I forget to mention, the Q&A for ABC’s night included Busy Phillips from Cougar Town, Sonya Walger from FlashForward, Patricia Heaton from The Middle and Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell from Modern Family as well as the executive producers from each series.

If you would like to see any of the above series when they debut, here is a run-down of their details:

ABC:
Modern Family starts on Wednesday, September 23 at 9 PM
Cougar Town starts on Wednesday, September 23 at 9:30 PM
FlashForward starts on Thursday, September 24 at 8 PM
The Middle starts on Wednesday, September 30 at 8:30 PM
Hank starts on Wednesday, September 30 at 8 PM

CBS:
Accidentally on Purpose starts on Monday, September 21 at 8:30 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles starts on Tuesday, September 22 at 9 PM
The Good Wife starts on Tuesday, September 22 at 10 PM
Medium returns on Friday, September 25 at 9 PM

NBC:
Mercy starts on Wednesday, September 23 at 8 PM
Trauma starts on Monday, September 28 at 9 PM
Community starts on Thursday, September 24 at 9:30 PM

The Creative Process: Inside House

After an uncharacteristically late start (for their standards), the Paley Center for Media’s special presentation of “The Creative Process: Inside House” began with a brief introduction by Craig Hitchcock, who joked that he knew what kind of day it was going to be when he arrived at the center at 8 AM that morning (June 17) to find four (4) people already in line for the event, with one of the members traveling from Utah to be there. Mr. Hitchcock then introduced the night’s moderator, Ray Raymond, a renowned entertainment journalist for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter (among others). Mr. Raymond made a short speech about House and introduced a 7-minute clip reel of scenes from this past season.

A thunder of applause from the packed audience was heard after the completion of the clip, and without further ado, the guests for the night were announced, starting with cast members Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein, Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie. Executive Producers Katie Jacobs and David Shore as well as Co-Executive Producer and Director Greg Yaitanes rounded off the panel.

A series of questions were lobbied at the cast by Mr. Raymond , ranging from their favorite episodes – which Ms. Edelstein answered as the two-part Season 4 season finale “House’s Head/Wilson’s Heart” – to how Mr. Laurie landed the critically-acclaimed and award-winning role of Dr. Gregory House – which was done via a short video tape made by two cast members of Mr. Laurie’s as he filmed a movie in Namibia – to what it was like for Ms. Edelstein to “make out” with Mr. Laurie (in character, of course) in one of the most-talked about couplings in TV history – which was answered by Mr. Laurie as “odd” (which then set everyone to laughing and blushing when Ms. Edelstein joked that it was so ‘flattering’ to be considered odd) – to what it is like to work on the show – which all the cast members agreed as actors it is a fantastic experience to be allowed to be part of such a creative show.  Mr. Shore also explained the reason for choosing the names House and Wilson, which was done in honor of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  Different specialty fields but both “teams” detectives in their own ways.

The audience had an opportunity near the end of the panel, as is the norm, to ask questions of the cast and crew. Some of those questions included:

If Mr. Laurie would ever write an episode of House to which he asked succinctly, “No.” He related that it is such a gargantuan task that he would not feel up for that.

What are their inspirations for the storylines, to which Mr. Shore answered they are based on actual medical cases that are researched by their team of writers (some of who were in seated in the audience) and vetted by three (3) doctors who are available to them by phone and on-set medical consultants.

The youngest member of the audience, a spritely pre-teen boy enthusiastically raised his hand, causing Mr. Laurie to point him out to the Paley usher and asking to provide the young man with a microphone. The boy proceeded to ask Mr. Laurie, “What was the grossest thing he ever had to film.” Mr. Laurie answered after a slight prompt from Ms. Edelstein that it was the tape worm in the young girl who could feel no pain. Mr. Laurie stated he is not overly squeamish, but that particular scene was gross because the tape worm was so very long and it felt like forever that he was pulling it out of the character’s body.

One woman asked Mr. Laurie if he liked doing comedy or drama better since until appearing in House, he had been most well known (at least in his home country of England) for his comedic work. If memory serves correctly, Mr. Laurie answered that he enjoyed both equally.

The night then had to come to an end with a roaring round of applause for the actors and crew on stage. As Tiffany and I left for the evening, Mr. Laurie and Ms. Edelstein were graciously signing autographs for the throng of fans who had advanced to the stage seeking their opportunity for an albeit short meet and greet.

House returns to FOX on Monday, September 21 at 8 p.m. (7/CT) with a two-hour premiere.

Photo Credit:  Rueben and Tiffany