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PaleyFest09: Who's In?

As tickets are now on sale for the Paley Center's PaleyFest09 (also known as the William S. Paley Television Festival) for members of the Center (they go on sale to the general public on March 1st), I thought I'd ask once again this year: who's in for PaleyFest09? Tickets are once again hard to come by at this year's festival, which boasts a lineup that includes panels for series 90210, Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, The Big Bang Theory, Big Love, Desperate Housewives, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Fringe, The Hills, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Mentalist, Swingtown , and True Blood . For my part, I'll be at the panels for Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, Big Love, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Alone Blog, Pushing Daisies , and Fringe , though I probably should have also requested a seat at It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as I love that series with a fiery passion . But I am curious to know: For those of you reading who have gotten tic

PaleyFest09 Full Schedule Announced: "Pushing Daisies," "Battlestar Galactica," "Fringe," "Big Love," "Dollhouse," and Many Others to Be Feted

Ending several months of speculation, The Paley Center for Media has today announced the full lineup for PaleyFest09 , the 26th Annual William S. Paley Television Festival. Among the honorees this year are the casts and creators of 90210 , Battlestar Galactica and Caprica , The Big Bang Theory, Big Love, Desperate Housewives, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Fringe, The Hills, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Mentalist, Swingtown, and True Blood . PaleyFest09 will be held from April 10th to April 23rd at the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood; the Paley Center will also present a special closing night presentation honoring Swingtown at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on April 24. Other festival firsts this year? PaleyFest09 will be the festival event to honor a new media property, in this case Joss Whedon's celebrated web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog , and will be the first to premiere the last three unseen episodes of A

Paley Festival Announces "Dollhouse," "Dr. Horrible" Panels

While the full schedule won't be released until Wednesday, February 18th, the Paley Center for Media has offered yet another tease at two panels that will be presented as part of the 2009 William S. Paley Television Festival (a.k.a. PaleyFest 09). Joss Whedon will present not one but two panels this year as Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible are expected to be a part of the lineup for the 26th annual television festival, along with the previously announced panels for Fringe and True Blood . Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Zach Whedon, Felicia Day, and Jed Whedon are already confirmed and will participate in the Dr. Horrible panel, along with other members of the creative teams for both Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible . (What's a Dr. Horrible panel without the titular villain himself?) The all-inclusive PaleyFest09 Premium Festival Pass is available now at ticketweb.com and include one guaranteed ticket for premium seating each night, access to Festival events, free parking, concession s

Channel Surfing: Team Darlton Talks "Lost," Details About Amy Poehler NBC Comedy, Olmstead Talks "Prison Break" End, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'll have another post up in just a bit recapping the news at yesterday's FOX panel at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, including news about Prison Break wrapping its run, so sit tight. TV maven Maureen Ryan talks with Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about the new season. In this phenomenal interview, Team Darlton talks about finding the balance between mythology-based storylines and character-driven ones, time travel, "The Constant," the Dharma Initiative, why they have to go back to the island, Daniel Dae Kim, and, well, cherry pie. ( Chicago Tribune 's The Watcher ) Elsewhere, Matthew Fox talks to Details magazine about whether there is, in fact, life after Lost , which will end its six-season run next year. "When it's all said and done, you'll be able to look at the six seasons of Lost and see a pretty amazing character arc," said Fox. "Jack

Paley Festival: "Damages"

After the excitement of last week's jam-packed Paley Festival events saluting the likes of Pushing Daisies, Chuck , and Buffy the Vampire Slayer , it was a bit of a rare treat to have last night's Damages panel be such a low-key affair. The crowd was positively sedate in comparison to previous evenings (not to mention a hell of a lot older), though that didn't stop them from proclaiming their love for FX's labyrinthine legal thriller Damages . Nearly the entire cast was in attendance last night--including the ones who portrayed dead characters!--other than Aussie Rose Byrne who was in her homeland shooting a film and unavailable to participate. So who was there? Glenn Close, Ted Danson, Zeljko Ivanek, Tate Donovan, Noah Bean, Anastasia Griffith, and executive producers/creators Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, and Daniel Zelman. After watching a clip from Close and Danson's riveting 1984 television movie Something About Amelia (you didn't really think this was

Paley Festival: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Reunites Once More with Feeling

If you attended the massively hyped Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion event last night at the Arclight (courtesy of the 25th anniversary installment of the Paley Festival) and didn't leave humming Joss Whedon's tunes from the musical episode "Once More With Feeling," there's something dead inside you. The mood was positively euphoric as the cast and crew of seminal television series Buffy reunited for the first time in four years (has it really been that long since the Scoobies last saved the world?) and waxed nostalgic about the aforementioned musical episode (which was screened in its entirety before the panel), that silent-film inspired episode ("Hush"), and recalling the difficult, funny, and memorable moments that go into making a television series as powerful and oft overlooked as this one. So who was there? Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield (attired in a sexy outfit dubbed "a 40s gumshoe&quo

Paley Festival: "Chuck"

While last night's latest Paley Festival panel, for NBC's delightfully funny and action-packed series Chuck , was definitely a hoot (courtesy of the series' hyperactive stars and creators who riffed off of one another and moderator Damon Lindelof for nearly two hours), there wasn't a whole lot revealed that I didn't already learn from Chuck stars Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin when I spent the day with them in December . Nearly the entire cast was in attendance except for Sarah Lancaster who was ill and unfortunately could not attend the panel. (Damn!) In a rare switcheroo, Levi was sporting a Jesus-style beard and longish hair that still did make me want to give him all of my pudding (thanks to EW writer Gillian Flynn for that bon mot), while Josh Gomez was nearly clean-shaven with a spiky hairstyle but still sporting "chin pubes," according to Ryan McPartlin, anyway. Adam Baldwin was, as ever, sleekly attired in a stylish suit, Yvonn

Paley Festival: "Freaks and Geeks" Revenge with Judd Apatow

Mere words cannot describe just how surreal last night's Paley Festival panel, celebrating the career of comedy genius Judd Apatow , ended up being. Perhaps it was the unexpected assemblage of boldfaced names like Garry Shandling, Paul Rudd, Paul Feig, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, Jonah Hill, Tom Arnold, and Andy Dick (?!?!?), all of whom came together to express their shared love for Apatow. The first half of the evening was Apatow chatting with former mentor Shandling about the good old days, when he wrote material for Shandling's emcee speeches (like at the Grammy Awards) and on series like The Larry Sanders Show . (Huzzah!) It was truly thrilling--not to mention hilarious--to see these two neurotic comedians on stage together, ribbing one another and trading embarrassing and pointed stories about days long gone by and Apatow's belief that a decade-old botched joke (involving Hank and a baby leash) would have worked on Sanders . For many (like the former stars

Paley Festival: "Pushing Daisies" Panel

I've been going to the Paley Festival for a few years now, ever since I moved out here from New York about, oh, six years ago now. (Good god, has it really been that long?) Even when the panels aren't that, well, exciting, they still manage to entertain and provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of your favorite series. I needn't have worried about Saturday evening's Pushing Daisies panel being dull, especially with the uber-talented Bryan Fuller and nearly the entire cast--save narrator Jim Dale and Swoozie Kurtz (sadly at her ailing mother's bedside)--assembled at the historic Cinerama Dome at the Arclight in Hollywood. I cannot explain how magical it was to see Fuller, writer Peter Ocko, Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Ellen Green, and executive producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen all up on stage together as their series is about to begin its second season. (Take that, cancellation mongers!) Instead of screening an entire episode (lik

PaleyFest: Who's In?

As we near the kick-off of this year's William S. Paley Television Festival (or, as it's known affectionately, PaleyFest), I'm curious to know who among us is planning on attending this year, the festival's 25th anniversary edition. I was lucky enough to snag tickets to tomorrow night's Pushing Daisies event, as well as to panels for Chuck (moderated by Lost 's Damon Lindelof, no less!), Judd Apatow and Friends (and invites to the after-party), the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion, and Damages . (I'll be the one in the Cinerama Dome scribbling away furiously as usual.) Speaking of the Buffy reunion, the Paley Festival website lists the following updated panelists: Amber Benson, "Tara Maclay" Nicholas Brendon, "Xander Harris" Charisma Carpenter, "Cordelia Chase" Emma Caulfield, "Anya" Eliza Dushku, "Faith" Sarah Michelle Gellar, "Buffy Summers" Seth Green, "Oz" David Greenwalt, Exec. P

PaleyWatch: SMG Confirmed for "Buffy" Reunion, Tickets

The big news yesterday was, of course, that Sarah Michelle Gellar would join creator Joss Whedon and the cast for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion at this year's William S. Paley Festival, to be held at the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight in Hollywood. I'm hoping that Gellar's presence on the guest list spurs hold-outs Anthony Head and Alyson Hannigan to join up with the rest of the crew, which currently includes Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendan, Emma Caulfield, Eliza Dushku, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seth Green, James Marsters, and Michelle Trachtenberg. (I'm also hoping they lure former writers Jane Espenson, David Fury, and Doug Petry to the event.) As for me, I've already gotten my tickets so I'll be there (as well as at a bunch of other panels) with bells on. Great big, vampire-repellent bells on. Let's just hope they do something fun and make the pre-panel screening interesting and intriguing: the pilot perhaps? Or "Once More with Feeling"? But

PaleyWatch: Details About the 2008 Lineup Emerge

The PR machine is in overdrive for the 2008 William S. Paley Television Festival, the fest's 25th anniversary installment, which moves its location this year from its cramped quarters at the DGA to the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight. (Wahoo!) While the festival's organizers are being pretty coy about the full lineup and schedule this year, what with teasing us about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion , they have quietly nailed down some dates for some of the panels: March 14th: Elvis '68 Comeback Special (Opening Night Selection) March 15th: Pushing Daisies March 17th: The Comedy World of Judd Apatow & Friends March 18th: Chuck March 20th: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion March 21st: Dancing with the Stars March 25th: Dirty Sexy Money March 27th: Mad Men (Closing Night Selection) The full lineup and schedule, including the date for the previously announced panel for Gossip Girl, is slated to be revealed on February 4th. Individual tickets for members of the Paley Cen

PaleyWatch: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Reunion

It pays to be a member... of the Paley Center, that is. As with most years since I moved out to Los Angeles (five years ago, for those keeping score), I'm planning on attending as many William S. Paley Television Festival events as I can (and as many as my wallet will allow). The festival's organizers--from the Paley Center for Media--have been particularly canny this year, teasing the audience with little glimpses into this year's lineup (March 14-27 at the Arclight, in the Cinerama Dome, no less), which so far includes panels for Pushing Daisies and Gossip Girl and a special evening with Judd Apatow. If that wasn't enough, they then made me drool with sweet, sweet anticipation with their latest tantalizing unveiling of the schedule, which features panels for Chuck , Dirty Sexy Money , Dancing with the Stars , and Mad Men . And, oh, a reunion of the cast from a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Yes, that's right, ladies and gents, the cast of the cult