2014 Comic-Con: Saturday's TV Fun

Saturday was a lighter day as far as panels go, but we still managed to fit in a nice variety of television activities. Two pilots, an off-site experience, two state-of-programming television evolution discussions, another behind-the-scenes writers' session, and a scavenger hunt of sorts filled the day. Included below are some highlights from these events - look for more in-depth articles in the future. And, be sure to follow us on SmugMug, on Twitter or on Facebook for the latest throughout Comic-Con!

Why Not Serious? Comedy vs. Drama in Animation, with Craig Miller, Ted Biaselli, Brian Hohlfeld, and Jim Krieg.
- comedy episodes are more re-watchable than drama or adventure installments.
- sometimes descriptions don't translate well when animators are from a different region. Example: there aren't marshmallows in Spain, so there's a scene around a campfire with someone toasting a piece of bread instead!
- Mickey Mouse is a lot like SpongeBob... both are exuberant and love the world.

photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

Inside the Writers' Room: Earth's Mightiest Writers Re-Assmble, with Chris Parnell, Michael Narducci, Steve Holland, Sarah Watson, Bill Harper, Christine Boylan, Ashley E. Miller, Steve Melching, Jose Molina, and Mark A. Altman.
- The Vampire Diaries and The Originals allow support staff to submit scenes. If the make it into the script, they get a credit, and some even wind up joining the staff!
- Series that the panelists really enjoy currently include Game of Thrones, Justify, The Americans, Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black, Korra, Adventure Time, Penny Dreadful, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, The Leftovers, and Fargo.

photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

NBC's Off-Site Constantine
We also went off-site to check out the Constantine experience (if you're looking out from E lobby, across the train tracks, it's the blue dome near the Omni). At the time, the wait was about 25 minutes, which was definitely worth the unique four minutes you watched the trailer. It was similar to a theme park atmosphere, actually, as there were 4D elements such as fans blowing wind.

photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

The Digital Revolution: The Convergence of Television and the Internet, with Daniel Alter, Jasmine Andrevos, Adrian Askarich, and Jeff Krelitz.
- you can be raunchier in an online format like Hulu, Amazon, or Netflix.
- The way the digital age affects television may show up again in the near future, as people don't want to deal with the hassle of driving to a movie theater if they can have a good time at home.

photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

The Strain Screening
- During specific times throughout Comic-Con, you could stop by three booths (FOX, Dark Horse, and Harper Collins) and collect wristbands promoting The Strain. Then, you could take them to a specific theater downtown and see what could have been done better. We scored autographed The Strain comic books and had our faces morphed so we'd know what we'd look like if something similar happens. After photographing a few of the props that were places around the room, we bailed on viewing episodes 2 and 3 in favor of hitting something more closely aligned with our interests...

photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment: The Flash, Constantine, Arrow, and the World Premiere of Gotham, with ~35 members of talent on the stage at once! *We'll discuss the pilots later, but here are some highlights from the panel itself:
- Arrow will bring in Wildcat this season, who will interact with Laurel.
- Grant Gustin likes to dig as deep as he can with the emotional rawness of The Flash.
- Jesse L. Martin is excited to play a detective who actually gets to shoot people, as he apparently never did that in his ~200 episodes of Law & Order.
- Constantine's basic plan is to try a spell, fight, con, kick, then run away... he's no Superman! 

photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

** find more pictures of these panels, plus others, the exhibit floor, and off-site events at our SmugMug site! 

2 Broke Girls: They're Not Actresses

Han has an office?? That was definitely a bit of the diner that I don't think has had a set before! It was seen a great deal this episode, mainly to showcase how everyone milks the TV project for their own benefits. From Han wanting lots of money for fake damages to the girls stealing all the VIP room sushi, the majority of this episode's laughs probably came from scenes in that office. It makes me hope that we see it again! That aside, I'm surprised that there weren't more cracks by Oleg this episode, especially as he seems to have amateur experience in "film making," haha. Though I suppose Sophie trying to "become a star" was enough for both of them.

2 Broke Girls "And the Extra Work" (S02E22): It's Chestnut's tenth birthday, but Caroline says they have to pretend he's six. [haha! cute carrot cake, though.] He needs new horseshoes, and a blacksmith Max knows suggests he also needs medication for a fungus, so the ladies need to come up with $1400. [I know nothing about owning horses, but a quick search looks like re-shoeing actually needs to happen about every two months! CLEARLY the writers aren't up on this fact, either.]

Sonja Flemming/CBS

Law & Order : SVU wants to film a death at the diner, and Caroline, Max, and Earl want to be extras, which pays $112/day plus the tips they would have received. The girls even wear different uniforms for the shoot, and Caroline gets bumped up to be a "special victim," which earns $1000. [kinda neat.] Of course, she messes up and hugs Max, setting off her blood packs early. [figures.] The director invites her to his hotel room for dinner, so she brings Max. [awkward.] The guy isn't turned off by Caroline's incessant talking, and kisses her. He then kisses Max "to make things even," before taking a call from his wife and kids. [insanity!] The next day, Max is given the dying scene... at least until Sophie sets off Max's blood packs. Surprisingly, Han sticks up for the girls and demands $1,000 for Max and Caroline for the director trying to take advantage of them.


Cupcakery Savings Total: $1205.00. [except, this money is ear-marked for Chestnut, so it has nothing to do with their "savings." This is the same as including rent money in these totals, which we know doesn't happen.]

Was it Canceled?

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

When I was a kid, I didn't understand much of why a show was canceled or renewed. I generally thought that the writers had no more stories for a specific set of characters, and that's why so many series finales were big, all-out episodes. The randomness of Michelle's amnesia on Full House comes to mind. Later, I thought that they ended shows when the characters got past the age that the show was designed to portray - like when the Saved by the Bell gang graduated from high school. That made perfect sense to me, especially because Saved by the Bell: The College Years was a completely separate show, as was Good Morning, Miss Bliss, when Zack, Screech, and Lisa were in middle school. When I got to high school, however, I started to learn (the hard way, of course), that it wasn't so much to do with the writers or the characters - it was the ratings. Somewhere around 1998 I began to "try out" new shows, as opposed to catching ones that were already established and joining the crowd. I loved a show I've written about before, which was so forgettable that nobody has ever been able to tell me what it was called... I suspect it lasted about five episodes, and was about teenagers going to high school while pursuing Olympic dreams. In 1999 I thought that Get Real was an awesome show, and I became a fan of Anne Hathaway even before The Princess Diaries. It lasted a single season. Just like last year's Better with You. A lot of shows don't last that long, though... 10-13 episodes are all they get, like Miami Medical, Sons of Tucson, and The Goode Family.

But, the time has come and the hammer is down... the majority of the 2011-2012 shows on the broadcast networks have now been renewed. We knew that the time was coming, what with the network up-fronts this coming week, but the vast majority of renewals and cancellations have already been announced, so here ya go. Hope you're not too upset! After the announcements I'll post a few thoughts.

First, the cancellations. Because, otherwise, you'll just scroll down to read those first anyway. I know you. :)

NBC really has the boatload of cancellations. Chuck is the only show that "just ended" while they have also pulled The Playboy Club, Free Agents, Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever, The Firm, Harry's Law, Prime Suspect, and Are You There, Chelsea?. If you haven't heard of some of them, you're not alone. Many are blaming poor marketing and bad timeslot placement for several of these shows failing, particularly Bent.

From ABC, many of these were already known, but they've canceled Charlie's Angels, Man Up, Pan Am, Work It, Missing, GCB, and The River. Desperate Housewives has ended as well.

FOX has canceled Allen Gregory, Terra Nova, Breaking In, Alcatraz, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, and The Finder. They've also pulled the plug on House. They have not yet announced the futures for Napoleon Dynamite or Bob's Burgers.

CBS is holding onto the announcements for seven of their shows (including both CSI spin-offs and Two and a Half Men), so stay tuned for more on those, but they've actually canceled A Gifted Man and How to be a Gentleman.

If you care about the CW, they've canceled The Secret Circle and Ringer, and One Tree Hill is also finally ending. An announcement is pending for The LA Complex.


Now, onto the renewals!
On NBC, you'll see more of 30 Rock, Whitney, Up All Night, Smash, The Office, Grimm, Community, Parenthood, Parks & Recreation, and Law and Order: SVU.

ABC will bring you more Modern Family, The Middle, Suburgatory, Once Upon a Time, Last Man Standing, Grey's Anatomy, Castle, Body of Proof, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, Happy Endings, Private Practice, Revenge, and Scandal. Cougar Town has not been canceled, but you'll have to have TBS to watch new episodes next season.

FOX has decided to renew Bones, Glee, Fringe, New Girl, Raising Hope, Touch, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

Over on CBS, look forward to more NCIS, NCIS: LA, CSI, How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, Person of Interest, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, and The Mentalist.

And, if you're a CW person, have fun with additonal 90210, Gossip Girl, Hart of Dixie, Nikita, Supernatural, and The Vampire Diaries.


Now, some thoughts...
None of the announced cancellations truly upset me this year. Perhaps if ABC would have officially canceled Pan Am a few months ago I would have cared more, but I've made my peace with it by this point. I'm a tad bummed that Terra Nova won't see the light of day again, but I didn't think it would get renewed so I wasn't crossing my fingers there. Alcatraz's cancellation does bum me out a bit, and I was hoping for an eleventh-hour renewal, but I can handle it going away, too. I'm downright thrilled that GCB is off the air and I'll wave goodbye as House finishes up in a few weeks. I do think that Bent deserved more of a chance, but it's too late now, anyway. I hope you're able to make your peace with the future of your favorite show (and hang in there, folks banking on one of the remaining few to be saved!), but we're going to have a lot to look forward to with the rest of the new pick-ups coming this week!

News Roundup: 5 Renewals, 2 Cancellations, & a Whole Lot More

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
MTV has renewed Jersey Shore for a sixth season.

Starz has gone ahead and renewed Magic City (the show that follows a hotel in Miami) for a second season before it even premieres. You may recall that they did this with Boss last fall.

IFC has renewed Portlandia for a third season and Whisker Wars for a second season. They also have a new premiere date: Comedy Bang Bang and game show Bunk on Friday, June 8th.

NBC has renewed Smash for a second season.

The upcoming fourth season of Teen Mom will be the end of the show.

IFC has cancelled Onion News Network after two seasons.

SeaWorld is behind the new ABC show Sea Rescue, which will debut on April 7th. The half-hour show will "give viewers a first-hand look at how SeaWorld works to rehabilitate wounded animals and return them to the wild."

With the upfronts coming fast now, ABCFamily has a bunch of premiere dates. Bunheads, the Vegas showgirl-turned-dance-teacher drama will premiere Monday, June 11th at 9pm ET/PT. Baby Daddy, a comedy about a teen father, begins Wednesday, June 20th at 8:30pm ET/PT. Beverly Hills Nannies, an hour-long docuseries, begins Wednesday, July 11th at 9pm ET/PT.

FOX has announced many of its season finale dates, including Glee on Tuesday, May 22nd, House on Monday, May 21st (preceded by a one-hour retrospective), Raising Hope on Tuesday, April 17th, New Girl on Tuesday, May 8th, Fringe on Friday, May 11th, Bones on Monday, May 14th, and The Simpsons on Sunday, May 20th.

CBS has also announced some season finale dates, such as The Good Wife on Sunday, April 29th, The Amazing Race on Sunday, May 6th, 2 Broke Girls on Monday, May 7th, CSI on Wednesday, May 9th, CSI: NY on Friday, May 11th, The Big Bang Theory on Thursday, May 10th, Undercover Boss on Friday, May 11th, Survivor on Sunday, May 13th, How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men on Monday, May 14th, NCIS and NCIS: LA on Tuesday, May 15th, and Rules of Engagement on Thursday, May 17th.

TBS' Men at Work will launch on Thursday, May 24th. The network's Sullivan & Son will begin Thursday, July 19th.

NBC's Best Friends Forever begins Wednesday, April 4th at 8:30pm ET/PT. This six-episode comedy showcases the friendship of two girls after one faces a sudden divorce.

If you're a WrestleMania fan, you're in luck. Before the April 1st event, a one-hour documentary, Once in a Lifetime: Rock vs. Cena, will air plenty of times. First on USA on Monday, March 26th at 8pm ET/PT, it'll also be seen on SyFy, Bravo, E!, Oxygen, G4, Style, NBC Sports, Cloo, mun2, and Universal HD before the match.

The Ricky Gervais Show returns to HBO on Friday, April 20th.


Cast & Plot Updates:
Jason O'Mara (most recently seen playing a cop father on Terra Nova) will co-star in CBS' "untitled period drama pilot based on the life of rodeo cowboy-turned-Vegas sheriff Ralph Lamb."

When Alan suffers from a cardiac event on Two and a Half Men, Charlie ghost appears... and will be played by Kathy Bates.

Although Cuddy won't be back for the series finale of House, Thirteen will be! Olivia Wilde has been confirmed to do one final episode.

Eddie Izzard will play Grandpa Munster on the new CBS comedy, Mockingbird Lane. 

Teen Mom 2 subject Jenelle Evans has had a few of the charges against her dropped. Not the drug ones, though, just "making threats and harassing phone calls."

Martha Stewart will make an appearance on the Law and Order: SVU episode "Learning Curve" in April.

Doris Roberts will guest on Desperate Housewives before the series' end.

Austin Stowell (best known for playing Jesse on The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is now part of the cast of Ned Fox is My Manny, the upcoming FOX show.

Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
A sequel to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is in the works. More information should be available this summer, but, for now, know that an outline and several songs are written!

DirecTV, DISH, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-verse will offer a free preview of Starz and Encore March 29th - April 2nd.

Ripper Street is BBCAmerica's newest drama, an eight-part series that just began filming.

WEtv has two docuseries coming this summer: Kendra on Top and Cyndi. The first follows Kendrea Wilinson-Baskett, of course, and the second follows Cyndi Lauper.

GSN will have Jeff Foxworthy host a new game show, The American Bible Challenge, to begin shooting later this month.

MTV has four new shows in the making, including The Heights (hour-long docuseries about a group of friends living in Washington Heights), Epic Fail (half-hour panel show to re-enact "cringe-worthy moments"), Totally Clueless (a hidden camera game show), and This is How I Made It (lessons in how to succeed from two celebrities each half-hour).

With SOAPnet disappearing on Friday (March 23rd), be ready for Disney Junior to take its place! It'll be geared toward kids ages 2-7.

OWN isn't doing so hot. They've had to let go of 20% of their staff (though they had a larger staff than typical cable channels) and their numbers aren't as high as they had hoped.

If ABC doesn't renew The River, Netflix might pick it up.

News Roundup: Betty Trustworthy, Josie Walks, LA Ink Canceled...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Which celebrities would you say you trust? Apparently Betty White is at the top of the list. I'll buy that. Charlie Sheen at the bottom? I'll buy that, too!

Goran Visnjic, known from his role as Luka on ER among other things, will have a four-episode arc on PanAm. Yet another reason to love that show!

Kate Plus Eight isn't the only TLC cancellation. LA Ink has also bitten the dust.

Burn Notice will return to USA on November 3rd for six episodes.

It appears that Josie Duggar is walking. 

Are you a Law & Order fan? All 20 seasons are going to be available as a boxed set in November. How many discs, you ask? 104. You can pre-order the series for $489.99...

Game of Thrones will not only film in Croatia for season 2, but it will also use Iceland as a setting.

A Dramaturg on Television?

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I don't usually watch Law & Order, of any variety. But, when I heard that there was a dramaturg character on a recent episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, I set out to discover how they portrayed the character. Especially since I'm unaware of other instances of a dramaturg on a television episode - do you know of other cases?

Although I write about television here, my roots are in writing in a theatrical capacity. Plus, I've been having a great time connecting with others and their ideas over the past four days at the annual Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference, which concluded this afternoon. Yeah, I know. the what??!? Well, I'm not going to give my own explanation of the profession today (though you can read a bit here), but I wanted to take a quick look at how the aforementioned episode portrayed the dramaturg. In a nutshell, an actor of a forever-in-previews show has a fatal accident onstage, and it's ultimately determined that the dramaturg (conspiring with the director) is the guilty party.

- Roger Porter, the dramaturg for Icarus (a new work), is also referred to as "the director's assistant" throughout the episode. I'm not a huge fan of this terminology, as non-theatrical folks tend to merge that into "assistant director," which is not traditionally the same.

- When he first met the investigators, Roger described his job as the following: "I help Amanda [the director] shape her creative vision in all aspects of the production." I'll take it. I like it, even. It was a pretty succinct way of talking about his role. But, at the same time, I was disappointed that there were no other mentions of his work on the episode. No real examples or talk of his interaction with anyone else besides the director.

- Roger tweets about his work and/or the show's process. I particularly liked this as several conversations took place over the weekend about using Twitter (and other social media) from the dramaturgical standpoint, in rehearsal, etc. Also, the fact that the investigators have some concern over whether Roger's tweets might have enticed someone to harm Mark serves as a reminder that what we put out on the internet isn't private.

- The investigators question Roger about the relationship between the lead actor and the director. He's also the one that lets them know that the lead actor was having an affair of sorts, and that he had two separate living quarters in NYC. And he talks about Amanda's drinking. In short, he's got all the gossip. I don't know that I feel that we (dramaturgs) are privy to the secret lives of the cast and crew, but we are observant. So, in a way, I liked that he had these bits of knowledge - it demonstrated that he pays attention and applies what he knows to situations as needed.  

- Roger goes behind Amanda's back to make sure the lead actor makes it to the theater. This is the first instance we see of his sneaky and underhanded ways. As the fingers begin to point in Roger's direction, I'm just glad that he's not made out to be a villain all along. Dramaturgs are good people to work with, folks!

- Just before he's arrested, Roger reveals to the investigators and the producer that, because he wanted to make sure he did everything right, he had recorded all of his conversations with the producer. I love this. I feel that it can be a meticulous process to make certain that dramaturgs are doing what is needed and desired by others working on the show. I have never personally recorded a conversation, but I take a crazy amount of notes!

- - -

If you're interested, my entire play-by-play recap of the episode is below. This is Law & Order: Criminal Intent's "Icarus" (S10E07): 

We start with an actor arriving to star in a Broadway preview of Icarus. He's a little late and almost doesn't get to go on, as the understudy is dressed to go. The director isn't thrilled with the actor, either. While he's flying there's an accident and he falls to the stage - broken neck from falling 30 feet.

It's a crime scene, as it was determined to be sabotage. The rigging was secure at the safety check. [The wings alone took three months to complete!] We find out that the show has been plagued with safety issues. Roger Porter arrives, the dramaturg, or director's assistant as he described himself. "I help Amanda [the director] shape her creative vision in all aspects of the production." He's questioned about Amanda and Mark's [the dead actor] relationship. It's mentioned that rehearsals and previews were going on for two years!

The investigators feel that perhaps Mark's tweets enticed someone. Meanwhile, turns out that the aerial rigger was paid to tamper with things several times to make them look like accidents, in order to get publicity. The producer wanted the first two problems, but didn't hire him to tamper with Mark's wings. The producer denied any wrongdoing.

The understudy, Bryce, sent Mark flowers with peacock feathers, which are a bad luck omen. Bryce went to a favorite bar after he didn't get to go on, and the investigators talk to a cocktail waitress there. They then find out that a critic was at that preview and they talk to him about a possible cast change of Mark to Bryce, but the critic guesses that the director was overruled and Mark got to go on anyway.

L-R: Dramaturg, Director, Producer, Composer

The composer wasn't aware that the critic was in the audience that night, and also mentions that the director constantly complained about Mark's performance. The composer also says that it was the producer who wouldn't let the cast change happen, as Mark had a huge fan base [he was formerly a sitcom star]. The composer also says that the director is on a downward spiral, and has nothing in life outside of her job. Plus, Amanda has been in AA for 20 years, but the composer noticed alcohol on her breath the night of the incident. She's also drunk at the memorial service.

The dramaturg tells the investigators that Mark was sleeping with someone, and stayed in two different NY locations. Turns out, the composer was having an affair with Mark. Mark initially wanted to get the composer on his side against Amanda.

The composer rode with Mark to the theater the night he was late - Amanda had made a deal with the chauffeur so that he'd make sure Mark was late. But, "the director's assistant" (which, in this case they mean dramaturg) called to ask the chauffeur to bring Mark to the theater after all. Amanda didn't know about this call.

After all this, the producer is closing the show, and Amanda is packing up her office. Turns out, in the contracts for Icarus, there's a full pay-out for the investors if the lead actor dies or is incapacitated. The dramaturg is now the lead suspect, as he was worried about Amanda and her drinking. But the investigators deduce that the producer told the dramaturg to do it. The dramaturg recorded all the conversations because he wanted to make sure he did everything right. They're both arrested as the episode ends.