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Prior to the recent Paley Festival 2009 screening of the final three episodes of PUSHING DAISIES, stars Chi McBride, Ellen Greene and creator Bryan Fuller took to the stage to deliver a heartfelt and emotional thank-you to the show’s dedicated and passionate fan base. A thank-you that this TV Addict took the liberty of recording in an effort to hold back the tears as Ellen Greene poured her heart out on stage so that we could share it with you just prior to tomorrow night at 10PM, when ABC begins to air the first of the final three fantastic episodes of this now officially brilliant-but-cancelled series.
RIP PUSHING DAISIES. 
The first thing you need to know about CAPRICA is that by design, it is absolutely nothing like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. “Our challenge with CAPRICA is to try and break the mold of BATTLESTAR,” explained co-creator Ronald D. Moore at Monday’s Paley Festival event honoring both BSG and CAPRICA. “As much as we love BATTLESTAR, we now have to destroy it. The CAPRICA narrative will be nothing like BATTLESTAR’s narrative, the style is going to be different and the characters are going to be different. We’re taking a risk and saying to the audience, ‘We know you loved BATTLESTAR, we know you invested in it and we salute you for it. Okay now, here’s something literally, completely different.’….”
Seriously, really different
Which means don’t hold your breath for the epic space-battles that became standard with some of the most memorable episodes of BSG. “There are no Cylons coming to destroy Galactica and the fate of humanity doesn’t hang in the balance each and every week.” re-iterated Moore. “I’m fascinated by stories about people and you either love these character and you want to follow them every week and see what they do next [or you don't!]”
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For the love of the Gods, before you press play on that just purchased copy of CAPRICA, why not take a moment to ensure the series gets off on the right foot by joining executive producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore in a pre-screening libation, a tradition that goes back to the first initial bow of the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA mini-series.
“We were very careful in those days to do it in private because we had a lot of dignity and a lot of self-respect,” revealed Eick mere moments before the curtain fell on CAPRICA at last night’s Paley Festival event honoring both BSG and CAPRICA. “But that’s all changed now.”
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Characters coming back from the dead! Season finale shockers! The fate of Michael and Susan! Seriously, this TV Addict did not expect notorious spoiler-phobe Marc Cherry to be so quick to dole out the spoilers. But dole out he did, as you’ll read in this TV Addict’s report from Saturday’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES panel at Paley Fest ‘09
Shocker: Mary Alice has an evil twin sister!
Okay, not really. But actress Brenda Strong who plays dearly departed Wisteria Lane resident Mary Alice in addition to narrating almost every single DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES episode does have an idea as to how she might get a little more on-camera screen time for her character. “I always thought maybe some woman just magically moves onto Wisteria Lane who looks uncannily like Mary Alice!” jokes Strong at yesterday’s Paley Festival. Too bad for Strong, creator Marc Cherry explained that, “I’ve had several actors over the course of the series who have suggested a sibling who looks an awful lot like them but it’s something I have resisted because it’s such a staple of daytime soaps.”
OMG: Marc Cherry’s Killer Regret!
Sadly, it’s not killing Edie Britt (more on that later). It’s offing Christine Estabrook who played Martha Huber way back in the first season of HOUSEWIVES. “I love Christine is a friend of mine, a I had done a series with her in the mid-ninties and I said to her during the pilot that I’m going to be killing you in sweeps, sort of my motto,” explained Cherry when asked who he regrets killing off the most. “But by the time it had come to do that plot-line I was really regretting it because she had popped so much.”
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Our Paley Festival adventure continues with a report from Friday night’s panel honoring THE MENTALIST featuring the cast (Simon Baker, Robin Tunney, Owain Yeoman, Amanda Righetti, missing in action Tim Kang) and creative team (Bruno Heller and Chris Demetral).
On the show’s origins:
Creator/executive producer Bruno Heller’s basic pitch for THE MENTALIST was Sherlock Homes, with a spin. “Essentially it was our attempt to get back to an old fashioned detective in which we tried to create a framework for a bravura performance by a great actor and this is the result.”
Inspiration for Thomas Jane:
“If you go to any city in America, any part of town, you’ll find a psychic on the block who is essentially applying the same trade as mentalists,” explains Heller. “They’re trying to create the illusion that they can read your mind, that they can see beyond the veil. And what they’re doing is essentially using genuine nature skills of empathy… to create the illusion of supernatural powers. And that seemed to be a very interesting moral position to be in because they’re essentially performing the function of a psychoanalyst or a priest. But at the same time they’re lying about their powers. And least that’s my opinion. I think the interesting thing about the psychics is that half the country will say they’re, it’s not real, they’re charlatans, the other half will say, no, they are truthful and profound things about them. And it’s precisely that line that mentalists walks along.”
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Direct from the Paley Fest ‘09 in Hollywood comes the TV Addict’s report from the hilarious and heartwarming panel featuring the cast (Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar) and creators (Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady) of hit CBS show THE BIG BANG THEORY.
What’s in a name: Producer, co-creator Chuck Lorre revealed that the character names of Sheldon and Leonard were a “goofy homage… just a little fan thing of our own… a tip of the hat,” to pioneering film and television producer, actor and writer Sheldon Leonard.
It all started with: Sheldon, Leonard and a very hard partying dangerous girl who moved next door. [The original [working] title for THE BIG BANG THEORY was “Lenny, Penny and Kenny”] “We learned very quickly that the audience hated this girl [who would eventually evolve into Penny] because they were protective of these two guys. They were innocent with big open hearts and you simply couldn’t put a toxic girl next to them,” explained Chuck Lorre with regards to the initial pilot that didn’t make the cut. “But CBS did a nice thing and gave us another chance. The network recognized that even though we hadn’t got the writing right, that they had two stars in these two guys [Sheldon's Jim Parsons and Leonard's Johnny Galecki] and said, do it again.”
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Knowing full well that the story of how a ridiculously talented family band together during last year’s WGA strike to create what would become the most buzzed about internet sensation of last year has been told ad nauseam, this TV Addict thought we’d take a different approach in recapping last night’s DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG panel from Paley Festival 2009. So here it goes, one or two (or fifteen) things that you may not have known about DR. HORRIBLE. Including but not limited to Nathan Fillion’s true feelings about Neil Patrick Harris, the power of Sondheim and the true power of Wonderflonium… but more on that later.
FAMILY MATTERS
Aside from changing the whole landscape of television and becoming the accidental poster-boy for do-it-yourself content on the web, one of the major driving forces behind DR. HORRIBLE was to give Joss an excuse to work with his brothers. Or as Joss explained, as only he can, “DR. HORRIBLE will bond us or break the family apart forever. It’s worth the risk.”
LITTLE KNOWN PALEY TIE-IN
If you were one of the hundreds of fans lucky enough to attend last year’s Paley Fest BUFFY reunion and was curious as to why exactly Joss was out of breath and looked like he had just run a marathon prior to the event, well… mystery solved. “The very last night of the very last shot [shooting DR. HORRIBLE] was when I snuck in the bathroom of the laundromat, changed into a suit and came here to talk to you about BUFFY,” revealed Joss.
FILLION=FUNNY
Okay, so not exactly shocking news, but when asked by the event’s fantastic moderator Matt Roush (Part-Time Whedon Fanboy, full-time critic for TVGuide Magazine) as to what his favorite part of the experience was, Fillion dead-panned, “You [looking at the Whedon Bros. and Felicia Day] did all the heavy lifting…. I’m just so happy now…. I can’t even tell you guys how much joy it brings to my heart that… Neil [Patrick Harris] couldn’t make it.”
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As you may have pieced together from the giant header image above, theTVaddict.com will be reporting live from Paley Festival 2009 from April 14 – 21st. Which means starting tomorrow, readers can expect a blow-by-blow from the following exciting panels; DR. HORRIBLE’S SING ALONG BLOG, DOLLHOUSE, THE BIG BANG THEORY, THE MENTALIST, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, PUSHING DAISIES and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA/CAPRICA. Plus, if things work out according to plan, a possible set visit or two.
As usual, feel free to follow my adventure on twitter and keep in mind that if the site is a little slow on updates this week, it’s because I’ve either (a) have been detained and (for the record) 100% wrongfully accused of breaking into the FOX lot and demanding that TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES get a third season renewal. (b) I’ve been ‘discovered,’ already forgotten about the ‘little people’ who helped get me where I am today and ended up in rehab after spending one too many nights hanging out with Lindsay Lohan. Or (c) which let’s face it, is the most realistic reason — I’ve OD’ed on Pinkberry which I’m only slightly obsessed with since it’s not available up here in the great white north (Toronto, Canada).
First let’s be clear. The William S. Paley Television Festival is this TV Addict’s Super Bowl equivalent. So much so that for three out of the past four years, I’ve shelled out far too much money than I care to think about for the privilege of spending one week in Los Angeles amidst some of my favorite television show’s casts and creative teams (click here for coverage.)
That said, Daniel Fienberg’s recent column asking, “Has the Paley Festival lost its way?” really got me thinking. And not just about how I can legally change my last name so that it fits into a clever blog title like “The Fien Print.”
Rather, I’ve been thinking about what I would do if I programmed Paley. And how for every show that is worth honoring this year (see: BIG LOVE and DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-ALONG BLOG) there seems to be an equal number of shows that have yet to prove themselves worthy of sharing the same stage with the likes of past honourees including DEXTER, THE SOPRANOS and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (see: 90210 and DOLLHOUSE.)
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Good News: DOLLHOUSE finally finds its audience. Bad News: On iTunes, where it tops the charts ahead of such big name shows such as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, LOST and THE SUITE LIFE ON DECK (As we scratch our head and wonder, Zack and Cody? WTF!) [Source]
Good News: 30 ROCK star Tracy Morgan makes headlines that don’t involve the letters “D,” “U,” and “I” Bad News: The headline reads, “Breaking News: Tracy Morgan’s Apartment Catches Fire.” [Source]
Good News: The 2009 Paley Festival features an incredible lineup of shows including 90210, TRUE BLOOD, DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG, DOLLHOUSE, THE BIG BANG THEORY, THE MENTALIST, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, PUSHING DAISIES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA/CAPRICA, THE HILLS, BIG LOVE, FRINGE and SWINGTOWN. Bad News: This TV Addict doesn’t own a private jet or live in Los Angeles. [Source]
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