The Wonders of Comic Con

For the majority of last week through this past weekend I – along with 130,000 of my closest (euphemistically speaking) genre-loving friends – were in San Diego for the annual salute to all things pop culture: Comic Con

The big event started out with arriving in San Diego, getting some much needed sustenance and settling into the hotel. From there it was getting my press pass and having dinner with my fellow NiceGirls. That was followed by several hours in the exhibit hall, trying to hit all the booths and vendors for which I wanted to check out during my short time in that football-sized room (if you can even call it “a room”).

Before I knew it, though, it was early Thursday morning and the big event was underway. I made it inside the now infamous Ballroom 20 for a long day of great panels, starting first with the presentation by the USA Network for shows like Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, Covert Affairs and Psych. That was followed by the CW’s introductory panel for their new series Ringer – Sarah Michelle Gellar was in the house! Then it was HBO’s turn with some of the cast from their acclaimed series Game of Thrones in attendance, including recent Emmy nominee Peter Dinklage.

That quickly lead into TV Guide Magazine taking over the room for their annual salute to fan favorites such as Nelsan Ellis and Kristin Bauer from True Blood, Matt Smith from Doctor Who, Zachary Levi from Chuck, Jorge Garcia and Nestor Carbonell (both formerly of Lost) from their new shows Alcatraz and Ringer (respectively), Leslie Hope (formerly of 24) from the new series The River, recent Emmy nominee Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory and Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson, the Executive Producers of The Vampire Diaries. The day rounded out with a Showtime panel spotlighting their shows Shameless and Dexter as well as the new drama Homeland, which featured an albeit short visit from recent cast addition Morena Baccarin.

After a long, but fun and eventful day, it was time to join up with a group of friends for our one and only sit-down dinner (there just wasn’t time for this kind of dinner the rest of the convention) and then it was back to bed to “attempt” to get some sleep.

Friday started out much the same as Thursday, getting up early and heading off to the convention center before 7 AM. My day started out with a screening of the FOX pilot – that was, unfortunately, NOT picked up by the network (or any other network for that matter) – Locke & Key, which is based on the very popular graphic novel of the same name.

From there I was in the panel for the new ABC Family Channel series The Nine Lives of Chloe King (as well as the press room where I got to interview much of the cast) and that was followed by a panel for the new summer hit series Falling Skies.

For once I had a little bit of a break in my otherwise hectic schedule to relax for an hour before heading into a very special (almost) one-on-one interview with actresses Anna Silk and Emmanuelle Vaugier and the creative minds – Jay Firestone and Michelle Lovretta – behind the Canadian hit supernatural series Lost Girl, which will be coming to the US hopefully in January 2012 via Syfy.

As we rolled into Saturday, I was up bright and early (again) in order to get into Ballroom 20 for the Chuck panel. Since this will be the final season of the show, the cast and executive producer Chris Fedak pulled out all the stops, providing the fans with a fantastic panel to send off the show. From there I was off to the pilot screening and short Q&A with the cast and creative minds behind the new ABC drama Once Upon A Time, rounding out the day with a press room visit with the cast of the new CW series The Secret Circle.

The only downside to my Saturday schedule was – as always – the long lines of people trying to get into the various panel rooms. I was unable to get into the Sanctuary, Being Human (the Syfy version not the BBC original) and The Secret Circle panels because there were simply too many people in line.

But the silver lining to Saturday being a bit of a letdown was my being able to get into the panel room for not only Castle but also the Syfy series Merlin on Sunday morning. Those two panels alone were the best way to cap off a very interesting convention experience. Before I knew it our departure time arrived and I was back on the road, heading to Los Angeles.

As always, you can expect to see a lot of upcoming coverage by the NiceGirlsTV staff from all of our adventures at Comic Con 2011.