Comic-Con 2007: Day Three

Saturday! As stated, this is the big mother day of the Con every year. This is, obviously, when most people show up. Most folks aren't nerd enough to be taking 4 days off work to attend a comic convention, and prefer to buy the 1-day Saturday pass (or maybe the 2-day to fit Sunday in) and try to cram in all the shopping and sights and events they can. As the Con organizers know this, they put all the big stuff on Saturday so the majority of attendees can check them out. So while you've just spent two days thinking how crowded the convention center and the panels and the city streets are, you get there Saturday and realize you hain't seen nothing yet. I think I just invented the word...the past tense of "ain't". Think I'll see any money from that?

If you're a 4-day person attending, though, you get all your shopping and sight-seeing done on Thursday and Friday, because, unlike the old days, you know that you'll be spending all of Saturday either standing in lines or parking your ass in either Hall H or Room 20 to sit through all the big stuff...or just to be sure you have a seat for your chosen event that comes later. So we showed up...um...not as early as we'd planned, but in time for Russ and I to get into Room 20 early, getting in the much, MUCH shorter wheelchair line to get in. Our target was what was arguably THE can't miss-event of the show--the panel for NBC's huge new hit "Heroes". To do this, we got into the TV Guide Preview panel in Room 20 at 11:30. Heroes would be at 12:45, Battlestar Galactica at 2:15, Futurama (which held no interest for me, as I'm not a watcher of that) at 3:30 and our other couldn't-miss one--the Joss Whedon panel (he IS my master now, after all...)--at 4:45. With the Futurama thing not being that important, I figured that'd be the time to break out, try to grab a snack (no time for lunch on Saturday, Dr. Jones), and kick it a bit before going back in for Joss, since it looked like the wheelchair thing was going to take away our leaving-and-not-getting-back-in fears.

Tony and A.T. didn't make it in with us, but did their own things, and would be meeting us back there for the Whedon thing (which they were going to get in line for, since I could only get one person in with me with the wheelchair excuse). This was a tough choice, doing the Room 20 thing, by the way. As I said, lots of big stuff was happening all day, which led to some painful decisions, such as missing the Hulk/Iron Man movies panel in Hall H. This was a big target of mine when I was planning for the trip, since Jon Favreau, of whom I'm a huge fan, signed on to direct Iron Man. The panel was going to show footage from the in-progress film, and have appearances by both Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. Plus, the Hulk part of the panel, featuring the all-new "let's pretend the first one never happened" Hulk film's stars--Ed Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt, was going to be pretty sweet, too. But, as a testament to my love for Joss (and my hatred of Hall H), I had to choose Joss over that. Also missed a chance to see the pilot for the upcoming Sarah Conner Chronicles (which we've all decided is going to fail because 1) it's on Fox, and 2) it's too hard to pronounce the show's name. Try it five times. See if you don't find yourself calling it the Sarah Chronner Connicles. I'm just calling the show "Chronic", I've decided...). And other stuff, but hey...the price you pay for having too much cool crap to see.

The TV Guide "Hot List" panel turned out to be pretty damned cool. They were covering several shows, and for most, they had a combo of producer/star up there to represent. For example, we got ourselves a little Heroes pre-game fun with creator Tim Kring there with Masi Oka, who plays everyone's favorite Hero "Hiro" on the show (to say the crowd went wild for him was a good understatement). Other shows covered included Kyle XY (that whole "ooh, look, I don't have a belly button!" show), and its star Matt Dallas was there (yeah, I'm sure that's his real name...). Skeet Ulrich was there talking about Jericho, which has been big news this summer after its cancellation and rebirth (thanks to a very unusual save-our-show internet campaign that led to tons of nuts being sent to CBS (it's a Jericho thing. You'd get the gag if you watched it. I only know it myself because my friend Tim is totally obsessed with the show and was part of the campaign)). While he wasn't listed as being there, I got a big pleasant surprise when one of my favorite cult actors, Jeffrey Combs, showed up to represent the 4400 (a show I've yet to try but have heard very good things about). I think I most enjoyed the Bionic Woman stuff, though. In case you haven't heard, they're bringing the old classic back, but doing so in a way that's...well, in short, badASS. Looks to be dark and intriguing, and based on the stuff they showed us (and based on listening to the lovely star Michelle Ryan talking it up), I'm pretty psyched for it.

Ah, but like I said...Heroes was to be the big thing. And it was. Not only were producers Tim Kring and Jeph Loeb (whose comic writing I've loved for years) there, but the whole damn cast showed up! You talk about a crowd reaction and a whole lot of standing O's. Wow. With each one of their introductions, the actors were greeted with Beatle-esque cheers and adulation as they took the stage. And they were LOVING it. You can tell none of these folks knew what to expect from Comic-Con, as it was their first time there. They were having so damn much fun, and it showed. And for a 14-member panel, that took a while, and was worth every minute. We had Masi Oka again (Hiro Nakamura), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli (vote for him!)), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet (save her, save the world!)), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), and Zachary Quinto (the magnificently evil Sylar (whom, they announced in a separate panel at the Con, has been cast as the young Spock in the upcoming J.J. Abrams-produced Trek movie). Also appearing was newcomer Dania Ramirez, who will be joining the cast in season two as a new "hero" named Maya.

They were just high on the excitement of it all. Joking around, high-fiving each other, working the crowd. A couple of the guys wore tee shirts under their other shirts. Masi wore one that said "Hayden is my Hero", while Greg wore one that said "Milo is my Hero". Though I think my favorite tee shirt was Jack Coleman's, reading "I'm just a paper salesman" (if you're hip to the show, you get that). It's amazing to see what a difference a year can make in someone's life. At last summer's Con, they were just showing a preview for the show, and no one had any idea who most of these people were. Now? Mega stars! I couldn't be happier for them, really. Because everyone behind this show deserves success, because they actually put out a great show. Not just a show that has fans because it's about super-heroes and nerds feel they have to watch it no matter how good or bad it is (there's probably still an internet campaign going to bring "Birds of Prey" back...). Give it up for Lost for raising the bar for television. Now everyone wants to do highly episodic, character-driven, mystery-fueled cliffhangers shows and seem to actually be hiring, in most cases, GOOD WRITERS to work on them. Heroes was a product of this movement, and, in my opinion, the best example.

Lots of highlights at the panel, many of which I can't now recall. A personal favorite moment was when one of the mics went out and Masi actually crawled under the table, up to the front of the stage (on hands and knees), fixed it, then crawled back. There was a moment when Greg took off one of the two tee shirts he was wearing to give to an audience member to give to his wife. Lots of laughs, lots of cheer-inducing moments. But the big moment was the special surprise guest. They took some time to talk about this new mini-series coming up in the spring, something called "Heroes: Origins". I believe the idea is to introduce six new heroes into the Heroes universe, and then viewers will get to vote on which one gets to join the regular show. Anyway, they're having different well-known creator-types come in to write and direct them. And they said they already had the first one picked, and he was backstage. The cast themselves didn't even know about this, or who this was supposed to be, so we got to see them all lean back and crane their necks and try to see who it was before he came out. And we got to see their reactions and hear things from them like "no way!" when he started coming out. And out walks Kevin Smith. Yeah, big crowd reaction. Good stuff. He sat down for just a minute to talk about the offer and what he was doing, without giving anything away. And, of course, he did it in his usual Kevin Smith style. He talked about how they first called him up and offered him a chance to do a Heroes episode, and he told them, "Yeah, great. Can I do an episode about the two gay guys? (The what?) You know, the gay couple? The Japanese guys?" Lots of laughs at Hiro and Ando's expense there. He talked about his wife giving him crap for watching Heroes when it first started, and then she got all into it, and he'd said, "See? Who's the fag now, huh?" You had to be there. It was funny. But he got out of the way quick and let the focus be where it should, on the Heroes themselves. Great panel that got us all very hyped for the upcoming season. And they had a little giveaway going, too, a free handout of a Comic-Con exclusive DVD cover that, I guess, you would replace your actual DVD cover for the season 1 DVD set with when it came out (which it since has). I wanted to get some goodies for my pal Martin, who couldn't make the Con, and he'd asked for something Heroes-related, so there it was. Sadly, I couldn't find where people were getting the "Vote Petrelli" buttons I kept seeing.

After that things got Galactic, and the Battlestar panel began. Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick were there (love those guys...), and this time, female cast appearances only. They brought on Mary McDonnell (President Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck...who's also going to be a Bionic nemesis on the new Bionic Woman show, by the way) and Tricia Helfer (Number Six). And a surprise, as Lucy Lawless showed up, too. To surprise us by saying she'd be back for the next (and final) season. The good news out of this panel was that while we have to wait until January for the final season to start, we've got a mini-series coming out in the fall to tide us over, one we got to see clips from that looks pretty damned cool. So...we got SOME info. But frankly, just wasn't that great of a panel. You would think that having all the hotties...uh, ladies...from the show there would be a good thing, but it really just broke down into a lot of just them giggling and being unable to talk much during the fits. They were cracking each other up just fine, but the rest of us were kind of left out. So since I'd been sitting in Room 20 WAY too long, it just seemed like a good time for Russ and I to head out, before that one ended, and hook up with the others before the Joss thing happened.

We went back out to the "sweet spot" and I made a cell call. My old pal Mike Taylor was to be showing up for Saturday, and we hadn't got to see each other yet with all my paneling. Mike's a guy that I lost track of almost 20 years ago, and we by sheer chance happened to bump into each other at LAST year's Galactica panel. We've been in touch and emailing ever since. He'd emailed me his schedule, so I knew this was a good time to track him down, so I buzzed him and he was on his way up to where we were. It was right then that Russ pointed out that Seth Rogen was walking by across the way. You have to understand that I've been ranting to people about Seth Rogen (and Judd Apatow) for like the past month before the Con, just because I've been watching my DVDs for Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, and I went out and saw Knocked Up in the theater. Judd and Seth are like my two biggest creative heroes right now. So there was Seth walking by, obviously coming from a "Superbad" panel (I hadn't even realized there was one) since he was with costar Jonah Hill. They seemed to be walking over to the latest addition to the upstairs of the Convention Center, a new bigger tarped outdoor autograph area. I could have gone and talked to Seth and Judd both. Damn. And I thought maybe I MIGHT try it after a while, but, as it turns out, I didn't. That's cool. I'd be busy with celebrity meetings the day after (foreshadowing...).

So Mike showed up and we got to catch up for a while and hang out up there overlooking the bay and yet another perfect San Diego day. By the way, you know what's hilARious fun? Ever sit between two people with just polar opposite views on things? There was Russ, there was Mike. Russ was talking about Watchmen, and Zach Snyder directing it, and what an amazing job he'd done with 300. Mike had to point out that he HATED 300. You could see Russ twitch. That discussion led to Frank Miller, and the Dark Knight Returns came up. Mike hated that, too. Russ...huge B5 fan that thought the spinoff series "Crusade" was a horrible piece of crap. Mike? Thought Crusade was a great show, and a much stronger show than B5 ever was. Like I said...comedy.

So got some hang-time with Mike, but soon it was time go get ready for the Joss thing, so we said out good-byes. And I'm sure we'll be seeing each other at next year's Con, too, which is actually right on schedule with how often (and where) I end up seeing a lot of my other friends, too. Once a year in San Diego. Hey, including friends like...Joss Whedon (see what I did there?). A.T. and Tony did their line thing, Russ and I went and did our own line (which seemed to go much faster than their line...hmmm...), and we all made it in for a meeting with...the master. I mentioned Scott McCloud before? If I can get both him and Whedon in each year, it's a great thing, but I have to get some panel time with at least one of them each Con, just to get me creatively inspired enough to make it through the year to come. So Joss was back, but, sadly, not really for any new project. Which was cool by me...I'd rather have a panel with Joss just talking about writing and creating and the business and all that. Which is pretty much what we got. He talked on a lot of different subjects. And, of course, he had to deal with some wacky audience questions. Why is it at every panel there's someone who wants to get the celeb to either sing or dance? And the celebs never do it (because, I'm sorry, they're celebs, not your personal whores), so it's a waste of everyone's time and pretty annoying. Some chick tried to get Joss to do some dance, which, of course, he didn't. Wonder if it was the same chick who tried to get Boreanaz to sing at a Bones panel I was at a couple years back? Anyway, Joss was Joss, entertaining and enlightening as ever, and I really enjoyed the apology he made...stating that he was sorry that it had been so long since he'd made any stories for us, and that he planned to turn his life toward fixing that, now. The big announcement--big for me, at least--was that the long-discussed "Ripper" series he had planned to make with the BBC, starring the Giles character from Buffy, looks like it's finally going to happen. Not as a series, though, but as a film, but I'll take that. I've been looking forward to that for a long time. Great to see Joss, as ever, and I plan to keep doing it, year after year, as long as he keeps showing up.

That ended our Con day, and we ended up going out to dinner by Tony's place at one of our old favorite haunts...Oggi's Pizza and Brewing Company (which Russ still insists on calling "Stuft", since that was its old name (it was "Stuft", right, not "Stuffed"?) before they had some radio contest to rename it for some reason a few years back). Tony's pal (whose name I still can't remember) joined us, and we had great chow and lots of pitchers. And we had a waitress who we're all probably going to remember for the rest of our lives. Just one of the most perfect faces I've ever seen. And we all soon realized we were so enthralled because she looked like the younger sister of Morena Baccarin (whom Firefly/Serenity fans may recall as the most beautiful space ho to ever boldly go...well, you know...). Classic Tony moment here. Someone had mentioned to her the actress similarity, and she didn't know who it was. So when she came back with some more pitchers, Tony whips out the iPhone, pulls up IMDB on the internet, and says here, this is the actress they were talking about. And Apple employee Tony got exactly the reaction he was aiming for. "Oh, wow, is that one of those iPhones?" Always on the job, that guy. No wonder they pay him the big bucks. Or we assume they do, based on his house...

Speaking of his house, we all headed back there to end up our night with cigars and more beverages on the back patio, while Wendy (wife o' Tony) was readying things for the next day's birthday festivities for their son, Christopher. This was the chance for both Tony and pal (both of Apple) to pass the iPhones around to us all. Wow. I had idea just how totally badass those things were. If it wasn't for the price point that I just can't justify meeting right now, I would totally have one. People talking smack about them are just doing so for the sake of smack-talk. They don't know what they're talking about. These are the real thing, and the future of what we're all going to be carrying. Get yours today. And now I'll wait for Tony to send me my check...

And for all our good times had thus far, there was still one more day of Con adventure coming!
One with shocking celebrity moments! Stay tuned!