TVSquad

(Check out part three of this four-part report)

Tired of hearing about Comic-Con? Figured all the talk was over? Sorry to disappoint you, but due to an untimely vacation (vacation untimely? Wha...how?) and a bit of reflection on my first trip to the big 'Con, I was able to get this last bit complete for you.

The Sci Fi / Entertainment Weekly Party

Man did it feel good to have gone to my last panel. I had much sympathy for Rich, who had another nearly-full day ahead of him on Sunday. So, we went out to finally get a decent meal at an actual restaurant downtown before we had to head off to the party. We had no idea at all what to expect from the party -- would there be food? Free booze? Who would be there?

TrekMovie.com has posted screen shots of the new posters for the upcoming Star Trek movie. These posters (four in total) were apparently given out at the recent VegasCon to go with four given out at the SDCC of Kirk and Spock. From left to right, the posters are of Sulu, Scotty, McCoy and Chekov.

Frankly, I don't think any of them look like the originals. John Cho has a longer face than George Takei. Simon Pegg looks like a smaller guy (at least they didn't immediately give him the mustache that James Doohan later grew). It's tough to tell with Karl Urban because of the angle of his profile, but he looks nowhere near as ornery as Deforest Kelley. Anton Yelchin has a much stronger jaw than Walter Koenig.

Do you think people would watch a movie in which they basically use only the names and don't really try to duplicate the looks of the original actors? I suppose this won't bother a new generation of Trek fans who don't know the original cast anyway. What do you think?

I was a sad little Venture Bros. fan at the peak of convention season this year, as I was unable to attend last month's Comic-Con. My pain was somewhat soothed by the presence of the Internet though, for I knew Flickr and YouTube would surely erupt with fan-documented material, with which I could experience the con vicariously.

As it turned out... not so much. Despite scouring the blogosphere, I didn't find much in the following days, apart from a few photos of my friends in Dr. Girlfriend get-ups posing with Jackson Publick and a brief report of one dirty joke from the panel. Well, probably because they could sense my silent fan-sobbing from across the country, the lovely folks from Adult Swim online have directed us to this video from the panel with Jackson Publick and Mike Sinterniklaas. It's edited down from a longer event, but there are still plenty of good moments.

One of the highlights of the Sci Fi / EW party at Comic-Con was being able to talk to and shake the hand of Joss Whedon. It's no secret that I'm a fan of his work, and with the incredible presence of Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse at this year's Comic-Con, it's no mystery why he was at the 'Con.

Unfortunately for me, I had no idea he was going to be heading down that red carpet, so in hindsight I of course have a ton of questions I would have liked to have thought of at the time. Since my time was limited with everyone anyway, I kept it relevant to what was going on at the 'Con as best I could.

I've got more to add later about the discussion regarding the digital medium, but that will be a different post down the road. As for Joss, he's very easy to talk to and my transcription doesn't really show how good-natured the conversation was. At one point Eliza Dushku stepped in to say hello to us -- you don't see that every day.

For those who haven't seen them, NBC has posted a set of hilarious videos involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con. Triumph creator Robert Smigel was at the event to plug the DVD of his short-lived Comedy Central series TV Funhouse, so it should come as no surprise that the puppet dog he created would show up as well.

Despite Triumph's insults against the nerd community, it should be known that Robert Smigel is a bigger nerd than anybody attending the convention. This is useful as he can at least insult fellow conventioneers with knowledge. This must make his insults sting all the more.

I had the pleasure of seeing Triumph live at a comedy concert. However, once you've been to one of his live shows, you can tell that his television appearances are heavily edited to make sure only his best bits appear. Despite this, Triumph remains hilarious to watch in any medium.

Videos are after the jump.

I'll have a longer post about the Sci Fi / Entertainment Weekly party early next week, but I wanted to post a couple of short interviews I was able to grab at the party first. I actually wasn't intending to interview anyone at this party, but since Rich had his handy recorder with him, I made a few choice picks from the red carpet while I had the chance.

First up: Tricia Helfer. With Battlestar Galactica finished filming, she's been busy in a guest-starring role on Burn Notice. Hell, this woman's on two shows I love and, come on, it's Tricia Helfer. I was the last person in line on the carpet, so I kept it short. She was extremely nice and open to talk to.

So there I was, sitting in the last aisle seat of the last row on my Southwest flight back to Baltimore. I was tired, hungry, grumpy, and the handle on my suitcase broke. Yet, there was a feeling of accomplishment that enveloped me as my plane lifted off the runway from San Diego International Airport and my first trip to Comic-Con International officially ended.

At least I thought it was accomplishment I was feeling. As I awaited the desperately small morning meal provided by the flight attendants (a six-pack of cheese crackers), I contemplated the feelings I had about the convention. On the one hand, I did feel accomplished, because I was able to see and report on so many television-related panels that I, and well as readers of TV Squad, were interested in knowing about. On the other hand, I was feeling a bit disappointed that I didn't make all of the panels I wanted to nor spend more time on the ginormous exhibit floor. On the third hand, I was angry at the way the convention organizers handled the whole thing -- preventing a good many fans of various television shows to wait on long lines without even getting close to the door that led to the hallway, that led to the ballroom, where their panel was being held.

So, you could say that I had a feeling of disappointed accomplishment tinged with anger. Plus, soft pretzels were $4 a piece at the convention center, which would piss anyone off!

(Check out part two of this four-part report)

Saturday

This should have felt like the home stretch. I should have felt like the end of it all was near. But a glance at the day's schedule reminded me I was going to be running around like a madman all day, trying to make some of the most popular panels of the weekend.

Saturday was a schedule that Rich and I had been contemplating since the schedule was released. The problem: With only two people, how would we get me from the extremely popular Lost panel in Hall H, all the way over to the other extremely popular Dollhouse panel, while Rich covered The Office? It simply wasn't possible. So, we made the decision that Rich would sit in Ballroom 20 after covering Futurama and The Simpsons, right through the oddly-placed Dean Koontz panel, and save my seat for Dollhouse. The Office would have to suffer.

(Check out part one of this four-part report)

Friday

Morning was weird, as I was still on east-coast time. My alarm was set for 7 AM, but I was wide-awake by 5:30. I was scheduled to go to an X-Box breakfast that morning, but I was getting freaked out that I'd miss getting in to wait for the Stargate panels, most of which I was saving for Rich but I knew would be incredibly popular and busy. Thankfully I made the right decision -- the line for Ballroom 20 was already insane by the time I arrived.

As I waited for Ballroom 20, I saw another line creeping up the patio outside. I learned that this was just a glimpse of what to expect with waiting for panels in the enormous Hall H, as the line I saw was for the popular Watchmen panel. Trust me, part of me was jealous I wasn't in that line to see the new footage.

For most of my time at Comic-Con the TV show panels had a fairly diverse audience, with an equal amount of men and women. However, during the Sunday morning panels for Smallville and Supernatural I noticed a significant female shift in the audience. This was definitely prominent with Supernatural. Of course, being that the main characters of Sam and Dean (played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) are hot it's understandable. Well, at least that what I observed...I just think they're cute.

Regardless of your opinion of their looks these two stars, along with creator Eric Kripke, talked about season four of Supernatural and what's coming up for the demon hunting brothers.

In one of the rowdiest panels of the Con, the stars and writers of the CW's Smallville took to the stage on the last day of the convention. Moderated by Joseph Loeb, the panel featured Allison Mack (Chloe), Justin Hartley (Green Arrow), new stars Sam Witwer (Doomsday), Cassiday Freeman (Tess), and showrunners Kelly Souders, Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer. It was a panel full of spoilers, fan appreciation, and a good amount of name plaque requests.

Some of what is upcoming during season 8 can be found after the jump.

After a log day of being in Hall H and Ballroom 20, things started to come to an end for the busiest day of the 'Con with the Battlestar Galactica panel. Basically, if didn't already have your arse planted in a seat in Ballroom 20 for that panel, you weren't getting to see BSG. I'm either completely dedicated to the coverage for TV Squad or a complete fanboy for the show. I submit that I'm likely both.

I'm not going to post the full, detailed report yet, as Sci Fi has told me we'll have embeddable video to show you soon (here it is on SciFI.com). Seriously, there's no way I can put to justice the funny job that Kevin Smith did as moderator -- you have to see and hear it for yourself. I will, however, submit to you the highlights for now.

Joss Whedon fans, take note ... you may have competition from the fans of ABC's Pushing Daises. That's the way it seemed at their Comic-Con panel on Saturday afternoon. They were so loud and applauded so frequently that it made an audience of Whedon fans seem like a group of cloistered monks taking a vow of silence.

But, that really isn't surprising since the show (whose first season comes out on standard DVD and Blu-Ray on September 16th) has such a wealth of talent both on and off screen. The audience at the Pushing Daises panel had an opportunity to see all that talent in one place as the entire cast joined creator Bryan Fuller and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld in answering questions about season two. The tantalizing morsels appear after the jump.

There are only so many hours of television I can fit in a day, so I'm picky and particular about what I watch. Chuck is one of those shows that I watched early last season, I liked it, but for reasons I can't think of, it didn't make the cut. Seeing as it was good enough and is clearly popular enough to have a second season, with the first season DVDs out in a couple of months, I may have to do some catching up and find a way to fit it in.

This session was great for fans of the show, as the first five minutes or so were filled with a video montage of scenes from next season. I'll describe some of those scenes in my summary below, but I'll start them off with SPOILER in case you don't want to know.

By the time the Fringe panel started, I wasn't the only one who was exhausted. This was one of the final television panels of the day, with the exception, I believe, of MythBusters -- a panel I regret having to miss but, since I literally hadn't eaten anything but two Clif Bars all day, I had no choice. Otherwise you would have heard about the guy who passed out in Room 6B.

Since I'd already seen the Fringe pilot, I considered not attending the panel. I think a lot of people felt the same way, as Ballroom 20 wasn't even full for it. I'm glad I did attend, however, because it was interesting to hear what people wanted to ask of J. J. Abrams.