by Amy K. Bredemeyer
Picking up where I left off yesterday, TheTalkingBox was in Pasadena for an all-day press conference for FOX...
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| CR: FOX
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After a
Simpsons-themed lunch (complete with all sorts of tracks from "Mr. Plow" to the Kamp Krusty song), we started back up with
Napoleon Dynamite,
which brought a large crowd of producers and talent to the room. I've
never been a fan of that movie, though I do enjoy seeing people dressed
as the characters at parties, if that counts for anything. I don't know
if there was a general lack of interest in the new show or if people
were in a mini-coma from their
Simpsons donuts, but the questions
just weren't that good... I mean, when you're an animated character,
it's cool to hear about who your animated inspirations might be, but I
don't know that we needed to force a response from each person. On that
note, Jon Heder (Napoleon) loves Otto and Jimbo Jones on
The Simpsons,
and Tina Majorina (Deb) always wanted to be part of Scooby Doo's gang.
The best thing about the movie becoming an animated TV show? Ligers. You
can't really do that in real life. One big change? LaFonda isn't on the
show... yet. They wanted to be able to explore Kip's dating life a bit
first. Something strange? Jon Heder and Jared Hess had a workshop to work on Napoleon's giggling... that involved tickling one another. The etymology of "Napoleon Dynamite" as a name? Jared Hess was doing
his (Mormon) mission in Chicago and met an old Italian guy there who
introduced himself as such. Hess wrote it down.
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| Cr: Patrick Ecclesine/FOX
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The Finder
is a show that, in my opinion, has received VERY LITTLE publicity,
considering that it premieres this Thursday. First of all, let's talk
about how this (very quirky) show got its name. Oh, that's right. Nobody
could come up with anything better. Failed ideas include
Location, Location, Location,
The Boy Wonder,
Lost and Found, and, simply,
Finder.
Hats off to the journalist who asked why the title was so flat. Where
did the idea for the show come from? Well, it was conceived to be a
partner to
Bones, which Hart Hanson (who appeared via Skype, due
to motorcycle injuries preventing his attendance in person) is "very
confident" will come to have an eighth season, which he'd "like very
much to do." What's the show about? Well, George Stults (remember him
from
7th Heaven?) plays Walter, an Iraq war vet living in the
Florida Keys ("if you turn on the news, all the goofy people live in
Florida - Geoff Stults). He is "a remarkable man with the extraordinary
ability to help people find the unfindable." Walter believes that
whether or not he's truly gifted doesn't matter, because he believes it.
I'm gonna pass, what about you?
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| Cr: Andrew McLeod/FOX
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FOX then took some time to have a panel about some of their returning comedies this spring,
Breaking In,
New Girl, and
Raising Hope. Yes, that's right, the previously-cancelled
Breaking In is back, adding Megan Mullally to the cast. This isn't the first time that she's joined a show late in the game (
Party Down the
movie, by the way, is currently being written), and she just had her
first day shooting on Friday. Mullally joins the cast as a rule
enforcer, as the company portrayed in the first season has been "bought
out by a stuffy, multi-billion dollar, global corporation." Adding her
character, Veronica Mann, was needed to create a foil for Oz, noted Adam
F. Goldberg, Executive Producer. And, although the
Raising Hope
babies were not present this time, there were still a couple of
references to them throughout the panel, the most amusing being that
Greg Garcia (Executive Producer) said they'll ask the girls' parents
about what they're doing that's funny, and then they'll write that into
the show. I think that makes a lot of sense, but it's probably something
that everybody does and we just don't hear about it, LoL. There were
also a handful of questions for
New Girl, but I'm not going to
bother talking about them, other than to let you know someone actually
asked what type of cereal Zooey (and sister Emily) Deschanel ate growing
up.
Snack break!
Bob's Burgers had a bunch of
sliders and a couple of different types of fries, plus ice cream sundaes
and mini-pies. I heard that there were onion rings, but they were gone
by the time I got to the front of the line!
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| CR: Warwick Saint / FOX |
The final panel of the day was for
American Idol, which I almost didn't stay for. As you have probably realized, we don't talk much about
American Idol here on TheTalkingBox, except during awards season, where it pops up rather frequently. Of course there were some questions regarding the judges' and host's personal lives, like how Jennifer Lopez balances work with being a mom. Ryan Seacrest reminded us that he was only 27 when he began working on
American Idol. A few folks tried hard to find out what else the man's got going on, but he kept a zipped lip. Steven Tyler announced that the songs for Aerosmith's new album have already been written, but only about half have lyrics right now. The other pushed topic was
The Voice as a direct competitor to
American Idol, which none of the talent seemed to think was a true problem. Mike Darnell, President of Alternative Entertainment at FOX, said that
American Idol "is the gold standard." Executive Producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz added that the marketplace is just so much more competitive now. When
American Idol started, it was the only show of its kind. And, Randy Jackson reminded us that
The Voice has contestants who have previously ha record deals.
American Idol isn't really the "here's a second chance" show. So, if you want to give the eleventh season of the hit reality show a try, it premieres on Wednesday, January 18th and Thursday, January 19th.
...and that's a wrap, folks! Hope you enjoyed our recaps of the panels!
