Michael Ausiello interviews Zach Gilford for TV Guide
Aimee Teegarden signs autographs for fans at Paley Fest 2008
This is the first moment I’ve had to try to write about my adventures at Paley Fest. It’s been an insane week and I’m still sleep-deprived! Not to mention, tremendously homesick for the gorgeous weather they were having out there in Southern California.
So, the
Friday Night Lights event was on Wednesday night, starting at around 7pm. I actually flew in that day and barely had time to drop my stuff off at my uncle’s house before I got in the car to drive up to Hollywood to meet
gollysunshine for an early dinner. Now, mind you, I’ve lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years but the entire Hollywood area changed a lot since I lived there so I’m a little amazed that I didn’t get more lost more often. But my cousin gave me a fabulous shortcut to the Cinerama Dome and so I didn’t get too lost. I was, however, late. I keep forgetting that traffic always doubles the time taken to go anywhere, so poor
golly was waiting at the restaurant for me for a while. (Sorry, again!) I guess it didn’t help that once I found the parking structure and was looking for parking that it took me a good three turns to realize that I was actually going in circles.... Yes, really.
As I walked by the front of the Paley Center, there were already a handful of people lined up to get in. I panicked a little thinking that if they’re lined up at 4:30, what will the line look like at 6pm? But it was fine. Golly and I had a nice Thai dinner and talked about...well everything!
She has some interesting stories that one!
Afterwards, she walked me to the Cinerama Dome where I picked up my tix at Will Call and then she went home.
By the time I got in a few minutes after 6pm, the whole first section was nearly full. I found a seat in the third last row of the Orchestra section, which was a pretty good seat. The Dome is a lot like a movie theater with a small stage up front, so I can’t imagine that any of the seats had a really awful view. And then I sat around and read the program for a while.
It was interesting to eavesdrop on other peoples’ conversations.
Not that I make a habit of eavesdropping ever (really, I don’t!) but it’s always cool to be surrounded by people who love TV as much as I do because, honestly, they’re just more interesting than most. (Yes, that was blatant flattery to appease anyone reading this who might have been sitting near me!)
And then...the house lights went down. Don’t you love that moment?
Excuse me, I think my Theater Geek is showing.
They started off with a speech from someone from the Paley Center. She talked about how awesome
FNL is and why we love it so. Honestly, no argument from me.
Then she introduced Michael Ausiello, who as you probably know moderated the panel. Michael spoke about the show as well, and introduced Jason Katims, who also talked a little about the show. Then house lights went down again and they showed the episode
Leave No Man Behind. (If you’ve never been to or watched a Paley event, each night begins with one or two episodes of the show, so that anyone in the audience who hasn’t seen it before becomes more familiar with it. And if you can’t remember which episode was
Leave No Man Behind, it’s the one with the famous Saracen-feeling-abandoned-in-the-shower scene.)
Once the episode ended, everyone filed out onto the stage. In order: Adrienne Palicki (Tyra), Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen), Aimee Teegarden (Julie), Minka Kelly (Lyla), Scott Porter (Jason Street), Connie Britton (Tami Taylor; she got a lot of applause), Jeffrey Reiner (Co-Exec Producer and Director), and finally Jason Katims (Exec Producer). There’s a nice pic of the panel
here.
Kyle Chandler was supposed to be there but he was filming a movie in Vancouver and just couldn't get there in time because of some last-minute scheduling issues.
I, however, have no pics from the panel at all since there was no flash photography during the session. I have some pics from afterwards, but they’re not all very good! But if I figure out how to post pics in the blog, I’ll add them.
I was going to write everything I remembered from the panel itself, but then Eric Goldman of IGN did such a stupendous job remembering every minute detail that I thought it would be better to just link you to
his writeup. No, I’m not bailing out here! I just didn’t want to blatantly plagiarize his article.
I’ll share whatever details I remember that Goldman was too much of a professional to include. Goldman obviously had a notebook and took lots of notes. I’ll bet he didn’t come straight from the airport either!
Like, for instance, the cast goofing off while Jason answered all the big, important questions about the show’s future. Scott Porter was clearly having some issues with his microphone. At some point he shifted and it actually fell off his shirt. And since it’s a mike, it was loud enough for everyone to stop and focus on him and laugh. He totally went with it though and joked, “I just flexed and it fell off!”
Total cut-up!
The actresses all looked absolutely gorgeous. Is there some unwritten rule that if you’re appearing at Paley Fest you must wear a gorgeous dress? Everyone looked great but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t comment on the dresses.
(Yes, I do watch a lot of
What Not to Wear!)
I adore Jason Katims. I’ve been a fan since his
Roswell days. So, it cracked me up to learn that he’s one of those guys who says “you know” every three words. It cracked me up because I have a tendency to do the same.
What’s interesting though is that he only does that when he’s obviously thinking about what he wants to say--like trying to answer Michael’s question about the
FNL DirecTV deal without actually confirming or denying anything and jeopardizing the deal in progress. But when he’s passionate about something--like talking about Connie and Kyle Chandler’s acting process--he barely said “you know” more than twice in three minutes. Awww.
When Zach responded to what it was like to work on a show on the bubble, his full response was something like, “I’m used to it with this show. First you do the pilot and you hope it gets picked up, then you’re waiting for the back nine, then you’re waiting for the second season....” Everyone reiterated how appreciative they are of the fans and the fan support.
This has been mentioned before but I wanted to reiterate that Jason Katims took full responsibility for the Tyra-Landry murder plotline. As much as people would like to blame Ben Silverman, it was all him. He thought it was the best way to get Tyra and Landry together. And for me at least, the ends justify the means.
The plan is for Season 3 to start up with the current football season over. In other words, no Smash. Katims said that he would try to resolve Smash's storylines somehow though. I sure hope so!
Connie talked about working with Kyle Chandler and how they created the relationship we love so much. They get along really well, which helps, and every morning they sit and have coffee together. They also vowed that Eric and Tami would never cheat on each other because "their relationship isn't about that." To this, Katims says, "Uh oh."
(He was kidding.)
Michael talked about Zach Gilford and Kyle Chandler in that famous bathtub scene. Michael was clearly raving about it (understandably so!) and Zach was clearly embarrassed. You could see his blush way in the last row. Then he talked about how he was so afraid of messing the scene up and then gave all the credit to Kyle. Makes it easy to understand why he was picked to play Saracen!
Too adorable!
Taylor Kitsch (Riggins) is clearly the cast clown. He's the one who cracks up the most on camera. At some point, Scott said, "Taylor really stepped it up this season," which everyone applauded. Then, to even that praise out, everyone started ragging on him. Next time, Taylor, you'll want to be there to defend yourself!
Someone else brought up Scott Porter's "motorcycle dance" in the movie
Music and Lyrics. He obliged and even threw in a few extra booty shakes for the heck of it. There are no words to describe this motorcycle dance, but there is
video.
There were a lot of questions afterwards, including one or two about Taylor. Unfortunately, I don't remember them all. I had a dozen questions and didn't get picked to ask any.
After it was over, everyone rushed the stage to take pictures and get autographs. Most of the cast and crew stayed to sign autographs and say take pictures. I lucked out and got seven people to sign my
FNL Season 1 DVD. Unfortunately, I forgot a Sharpie (came from the airport, remember?) so they're in ballpoint pen. Oh well. I also asked Ausiello to sign my program and he took one look at my ballpoint pen and said, "Oh, this won't do" and borrowed someone else's Sharpie. (Thanks Michael!)
I did get to ask two of my questions at the end though. I asked Zach a friend's question: "Have you ever done anything on camera that you wish you hadn't?" He said something about how most of those things are edited out in production, luckily. I also got to talk to Jason Katims and told him I'd been a fan since his
Roswell days and asked him if he'd learned any lessons from trying to save that show that he was able to use to save this one. He said...uh, I don't remember exactly, something about every show being different, and then I think he got called away.
Once the stage cleared, I figured it was time to pay for parking and head home. (Since I'd been traveling, I'd been up for about 22 hours straight at that point.) On the way out they asked us to fill out these surveys and if you did you would get one of the footballs that
FNL fans had sent to NBC to save the show. I did get a couple of those and the first person to PM me (with an address to which to send the football) will get one free! You didn't think there'd be free swag at the end of this blog, did you?
All in all, a great night. And as I walked out of the Paley Center, there were already folks lined up for the
Buffy Reunion panel scheduled for the next night! Mind you, these are people who already had tickets--they were in line overnight for good seats! Now that's dedication!
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't cancel!
