Chuck: The complete Comic-Con panel

Okay, the good folks at Give Me My Remote, who were instrumental in the save "Chuck" campaign, got their hands on the season 2 highlight real and Schwartz/Fedak/Levi sketch that started off the Comic-Con panel. So if you watch that, and then watch Jeffster! on YouTube, then watch the panel itself on Hulu, you'll be able to witness the event in order, in its entirety.

I'm glad this is out there. Fedak's acting debut was too funny to not be seen by the masses. Click here to read the full post

The Doctor comes to San Diego

I can't exactly gauge it, since I was on stage for one and in the audience for the other, but the reception "Doctor Who" -- specifically, David Tennant, Russell T. Davies, director Euros Lyn and producer Julie Gardner -- received here on Comic-Con's final morning was nearly as loud and adoring as what "Chuck" got yesterday. Some panel highlights coming up after I remind you that "Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead" airs tonight on BBC America...

Among the highlights:

• Moderator Robert Lloyd (a writer for the LA Times and an obvious fan of the series) asked Gardner to deal with the rumors of a movie right off the bat. "We are not making any announcement about a Doctor Who movie," she said. "I'm really sorry. I don't know where the rumor started. But what it's made us think is it might be a good idea to do at some point. Is this something that you want?" The crowd, predictably, roared its approval.

• They showed a teaser trailer for Tennant's farewell movie, featuring the return of several characters from earlier in the Davies/Tennant run (I won't spoil it, but it's easy to find out if you want) that looked tremendous. At the end of the panel, they showed a trailer for "Waters of Mars," the special that'll follow "Planet of the Dead." Looked like a big-budget version of the various Davies/Tennant episodes with The Doctor on a space station with some kind of monster on the loose.

• A fan asked Tennant (a lifelong "Doctor Who" fan) about his memories of when the first Doctor he knew was replaced, and whether he could understand what fans are feeling as they prepare for the transition from Tennant to Matt Smith. Tennant talked about how much he revered Tom Baker, then said, "And I never forgot him, or loved him any less, but then Peter Davison came along, and within three weeks, I thought he was the best. I think what makes the show go on forever." He suggested, to some inevitable skepticism from the room, that within a few weeks, they'd all think "Matt Smith's the greatest thing that's ever been, which he probably is... I think change is part of the show. I'm very very proud to have been part of the history, but I'm very proud that we're handing it over in good health and that it carries on!"

• And speaking of fandom, Tennant said one of his favorite personal moments from playing The Doctor came during a table read of "School Reunion," involving Elisabeth Sladen: "Suddenly, this voice from my childhood was calling me 'Doctor.' When the 8-year-old boy met the 35-year-old boy and was still being called The Doctor by Sarah Jane, that was quite special."

• Tennant's version of The Doctor will appear in an upcoming "Sarah Jane Adventures" episode called "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith."

• A fan asked about John Barrowman's claims that he's been stealing items from the set, and what any of the panelists might have taken home. They all clammed up, and then Gardner said, "I think John Barrowman just stole things off the set so he could be strip-searched on the way out."

• A fan asked whether River Song would be returning, and Gardner noted, "We are now happy viewers to season five. We don't know anything you don't know."

• Tennant was asked if he might return, as many previous Doctors have, for charity specials or other events. He thought about it and noted that the series' 50th anniversary would be in 2013, then immediately cautioned the room, "That's not me making an announcement. There's no plan. Don't Twitter that! That's not a thing! Yet!"

I'll have a separate, extremely brief, post up tonight about "Planet of the Dead," so don't talk about it here, and I'm interviewing Tennant in a couple of days when we're both at press tour. I'm open to suggested questions if they're good. Click here to read the full post

Lost: It's so hard to say good-bye to Comic-Con

As soon as I saw the final Comic-Con schedule, my heart sank, because "Chuck" and "Lost" were scheduled back-to-back -- in two different rooms, with "Lost" in Hall H, which is legendary for both its size and the length of its line. I had joked with Schwartz and Fedak that I might just bail on the "Chuck" panel 10 or 15 minutes early and let them conduct the fan Q&A portion, but thanks to some kind people and a willingness to sprint from Ballroom 20 to Hall H, I was able to stay for the entirety of "Chuck" and get into "Lost" with a minute or two to spare.

And it was worth the effort, I thought. I've seen Damon and Carlton in action before at TCA (where the above photo was taken last January), and I enjoy their podcast (more for the comedy value than for anything they reveal about the show, because they're so damn cagey), but I had always heard that, just as Reggie Jackson tended to play his best in the World Series, the Comic-Con stage was the idea venue in which to experience Darlton in action. They did not disappoint. I mentioned a lot of the good stuff on my Twitter feed, but I'll try to capture the some of the highlights after the jump...

After a few video clips (including fake opening credits for an '80s TV show about the Dharma Initiative, which is up on ABC.com), Damon and Carlton came out and said that, since this would be their final Comic-Con experience (they're not coming after the finale), they wanted to thank the fans and also to answer some long-standing questions. One of those was the famous "Are you making it up as you go along?," and they said they had a method to prove that they knew the ending from the beginning: they inserted the script pages for the final scene of the series into a vault with two keys, and promised to open it after the finale on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." (*)

(*) Said method was in service of a comedy bit, or else I'd point out that it wouldn't prove anything, unless they had locked away some notes five years ago.

From there, it was time for a mix of questions -- "We will be as honest and forthcoming as we never were," Lindelof promised -- fan videos (including a great mock opening credits sequence that made the show look like an '80s action series, complete with use of the "Magnum, PI" font (which was also used in that cool YouTube mash-up of Magnum and Han Solo) and a hilarious freeze-frame on the "Lost" logo over Hurley running one of The Others over with the magic bus.

A fan asked about recent Darlton statements that season 6 would resemble season 1 in some ways.

"You'll be seeing many characters you haven't seen since the first season," Lindelof promised.

"There was a certain feel" to season 1, said Cuse. "They were running around in the jungle. Things felt intense and surprising...We feel we have a way to do that in the final season of the show that we like, and we hope you will too."

"It's really our goal to have you watch the final season of the show and not know what we're going to do next," Lindelof added.

Paul Scheer from "Human Giant" showed up to present the guys with a painting of them giving a thumbs-up while being embraced by a polar bear, and after some hedging on the fate of Daniel Faraday, vis a vis Juliet setting off Jughead, another fan asked about flashbacks.

"We are doing something different in season 6," Carlton said. "The time travel season is over, the flash-forward season is over. We have something different planned. Hopefully, you will like it, but we are not going to commit to what it's going to be."

Jorge Garcia appeared in a mock commercial for Mr. Cluck's chicken, then appeared in Hall H itself to ask his bosses if they were going to answer every question, noting, "The last time I trusted you guys, you said Nikki and Paulo were going to be awesome."

Damon cleverly said "Everything that matters is going to be answered," which gives them a ton of wiggle room in terms of what they feel matters.

Michael Emerson then came out to heckle Garcia's heckling of Darlton, and this turned into an argument about whether Emerson didn't like him because he really wanted to play Hurley, and when Emerson (who was, as you can imagine, hilariously sarcastic) denied auditioning for the role, Lindelof played some mock audition footage of Emerson, circa 2004, dressed as Hurley. Very disturbing. Very funny.

There were several Richard Alpert questions -- Cuse promised some Alpert backstory this season -- and when a fan with a thick Boston accent asked the inevitable eyeliner question, we cut to Nestor Carbonell backstage talking to himself in the makeup chair mirror -- "Richard Alpert's not immortal. You are!" -- and, of course, applying a ton of eye makeup. Carbonell would join Emerson, Garcia and other special guests on the stage.

Getting back to Jughead, Lindelof hedged about the survival of Juliet, noting that if the plan worked and time reset, she's fine, and if not, not, but, as with Faraday/Jeremy Davies, he expects to see Elizabeth Mitchell on the show this year in some capacity.

Emerson fielded a question about the fans' nicknaming Jacob's rival "Esau" by saying, "We sometimes deal in Biblical iimagery, but we tend to dance in and back away from it. That might be too much, but I like the way your mind is working."

"You're good at this!" Damon told Emerson, marveling at how impressively he non-answered that.

After a Sawyer tribute clip, Josh Holloway came out with a prop taser and pretended to stun Lindelof to steal his key to the script vault. (It was particularly funny because the taser sound effect was a good five seconds after Lindelof pretended to spasm, and because Lindelof had a hard time not moving around as Holloway stole the key. At one point, he had to lift his head up to help out.) After Holloway stuck Lindelof's hand in a pitcher of water, he threatened Cuse by telling him, "I will shock your friend JJ Abrams again!" (This led to one of the more overt references I've heard Cuse make about how Abrams hasn't worked on the show since season one.) Then he unlocked the box and struggled to read it, so Emerson (who's a great audiobook narrator) took over and began to read the following stage directions:

"'Exterior, circus tent, night... As the flames die, we find Sylar and Parkman...' What the f--k is this?"

We got one final montage, a necrology of all the dead characters set to Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," with the biggest applause going to, in order, Charlie, Faraday and Mr. Eko. Charlie's segment was the last, and longest, because Dominic Monaghan (already at Comic-Con, having joined the cast of ABC's "Flash Forward") came on stage to wave to the crowd. He had something written on his palm, presumably "Not Penny's Boat."

And with that, the final "Lost" Comic-Con panel was over, and if we didn't know much more about the last season than we did going into it, at least we were darned entertained. Click here to read the full post

Chuck vs. the (San Diego) Comic-Con

Hey, all. Having sprinted from the "Chuck" panel to the mammoth Hall H for the final "Lost" panel, I'm going to camp out here for a while so I can see the "Iron Man 2" panel in a few hours. (Though if the movie panels in between seem particularly bad, I might bail before Tony Stark and company show.) So while my laptop battery lasts, I'm going to write up some thoughts on the day's first two panels: first "Chuck," then "Lost."

"Chuck" stuff coming up -- and full credit to Fienberg's live-blog of the panel for all quotes -- just as soon as Chris Fedak gives me back my pen...

As you might guess from the above photo (h/t to ChuckTV.net for the screencap) -- or as you might have assumed ever since the Comic-Con announcements started hinting at a special surprise from the cast -- the panel opened up with Jeffster! themselves, Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky, rocking out to Queen's epic "Fat-Bottomed Girls."

UPDATE: Thus far, this is the best version I've seen of the performance, shot by someone up close.

Actually, no: it began with a season 2 highlight reel, followed by a very funny pre-taped video with Josh Schwartz and Fedak in their office a month ago, asking Zachary Levi what he's going to do since they're going to be canceled. Levi is floored by this idea, but Schwartz and Fedak are adamant, when Josh gets a call from the NBC executives. (Fedak tells Josh to say hi; Josh: "They don't know who you are.") Amazingly, they have been renewed, and as Levi bounds out to tell the rest of the cast, Fedak and Schwartz begin to panic: they don't have any ideas for a third season, and in fact only did the "I know kung fu" gag because the assumed they'd never have to follow up on it. As Chris gets his head stuck in a Stormtrooper helmet, Josh suggests one thing they can do that they know will work: Jeffster!

The video cuts out, Sahay and Krinsky (with keytar in hand) storms the stage and the crowd goes bananas for "Fat-Bottomed Girls." So does the cast, who first sprint around to the side of the hall so they can watch themselves, then go on-stage to dance and clap along with the performance. Sahay got incredibly into it, as you might expect, with all the faux-Mick Jagger moves, and by the time I came on stage, the crowd was whipped into such a frenzy that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get in a few questions.

We opened with a little Jeffster! chat, as Sahay joked that people would probably pay him not to sing in the future; someone in the cast -- I think it was Adam Baldwin -- then slipped him a twenty to confirm the theory. Levi sang the virtues of all the fans who were so passionate about helping to save the show -- Wendy Farrington, who came up with the Subway Finale Footlong campaign, was in the audience and got singled out (and got to pose with the cast for pictures afterwards) -- and Schwartz listed a bunch of media and/or blog types (Mo Ryan, Fienberg, Ausiello, Joe Adalian, Televisionary, Give Me My Remote, ChuckTV.net and me) for their own efforts on behalf of the show.

Schwartz and Fedak were predictably non-commital on what's coming up next season. Schwartz said details on Subway's involvement within the story is TBD, and later said, "Something very emotional and traumatic is going to have happened between Chuck and Sarah" -- and, as the crowd groaned, added -- "But it's gonna be really really good. Is that vague enough?"

Zachary Levi did get dispensation to reveal one thing about the nature of Chuck's new kung fu powers. Since spoiler-phobe Schwartz okay'ed it, and because it's going to be so long till the season three premiere (though Schwartz said several times that they might come back sooner than March, depending on NBC's needs), I'm going to say what it is, but not till the end of the post. So if you don't want to know about that -- or about a couple of other vaguely spoiler-y things -- stop reading before you get to the italics.

There's a new official site, ChuckMeOut.com, that's going to be the place for all "Chuck" news, behind-the-scenes info, etc., that went live this morning. Fedak also talked a little about the season 2 DVD (which right now is tentatively set to come out in early 2010, I guess because they want it to be close to the season three premiere) and said that one of the features would be Baldwin/Casey teaching How to Be a Spy.

I tried not to ask a lot of questions, since I knew the Jeffster! performance would take up some time and the event was for the fans. Schwartz and Fedak kept up the running gag from the clip by acting as if every suggestion the fans offered would be used in the season to compensate for their own lack of plans, and Fedak borrowed my pen to dutifully jot down ideas like:

• Chuck's powers now come with the catch that after he uses them, he can't walk for a half-hour;

• Chuck's dad may have also programmed him with language and other skills. The crowd started throwing out language suggestions, and when several screamed out "Klingon!," Levi (who had the crowd predictably eating out of his hand) said, "Chuck already knows Klingon! Duh!"

• Someone asked if there would be a musical episode, preferably featuring Jeffster! "Now there will be," Schwartz said.

There were also a lot of running gags on the panel: Baldwin took great pleasure in discussing, and eventually goading Josh Gomez to reveal, his bright pink boxer shorts. Baldwin also played into the crowd's predictable "Firefly" love, joking that his internal monologue whenever Casey grunts is "Joss Whedon," and, when a fan asked if there would be "Chuck" action figures, noting that he already had his own action figure. (Levi then did a pantomime of a Chuck action figure beating the snot out of a Jayne Cobb action figure through the use of his kung fu grip.)

Again, not a lot of news (save for the stuff below), but this was largely an excuse for the cast to shower its love on the fans, and vice versa, and everybody seemed to have a good time. Frankly, it seemed like the crowd was livelier for the "Chuck" panel than for the "Lost" panel that followed (though that may just be the hugeness of Hall H swallowing up a lot of the noise).

Anyway, a few things you won't want to read if you're 100 percent afraid of spoilers. Since I'm posting this, it's okay to discuss them in the comments. Stop reading if you don't want to know. Seriously, stop. Now. Stop.

Okay. We all good?

So, the nature of "Chuck-Fu," as one fan dubbed it earlier at the Con: the kung fu abilities and other physical stuff is there, but there's a glitch in the program that means they don't tend to last for very long in any circumstance. Fedak added that the software was designed to be installed in cold, remorseless Bryce Larkin, not big ball of emotions Chuck, and this will also cause problems.

Also, as Ryan McPartlin discussed Captain Awesome finding out Chuck's secret identity, Schwartz added that "Awesome will start to be submerged into the spy world as well."

And in other spoiler minutiae, "The Buy More will still be a part of the show," per Fedak, and Corina, the rival spy from season one's "Chuck vs. the Wookie," will be back, and that Morgan will again try to seduce her.

UPDATE #2: After the panel, Mo Ryan got more out of Schwartz and company about the limitations of the Chuck-Fu. Click here to read the full post

Dollhouse, "Epitaph One": To have and have not

So the big TV event of the day at Comic-Con was the screening of "Epitaph One," the 13th episode of "Dollhouse" season one, which Fox the TV studio produced to help the foreign/DVD sales, but which Fox the network hasn't bought because they already paid for 13 episodes (counting the original, scrapped pilot).

Now, I suspect many of you who care enough about "Dollhouse" to be reading this entry have already illegally downloaded the episode since it leaked last week, or perhaps you were in Ballroom 20 to watch it with me and 4500 of my closest friends. If not, and you intend to watch "Dollhouse" season two in the fall, I strongly recommend at least renting the DVD after it comes out on Tuesday, both because "Epitaph One" is easily the strongest episode to date, and because it's going to be crucial to how season two plays out. Really, it's one of the most important DVD extras ever.

After the jump, I'm going to discuss the episode -- and the weird implications it will have on the series -- in abstract, relatively spoiler-free terms, including some quotes from Joss from the panel. Because the episode has now been screened via legal means, I'm going to say that it's okay to spoil the episode in the comments, so read anything after the initial post at your own risk. Thoughts coming up just as soon as I enjoy some shellfish...

So, "Epitaph One" begins in 2019, in a nightmarish future where a small band of would-be heroes (including Whedon favorite Felicia Day, plus Sepinwall favorite Zach Ward) stumble across the abandoned Dollhouse. Using the imprint chair, they figure out how the larger Dollhouse organization is responsible for the state of the world, while at the same time we get to see some major developments in the future for all the series' regular characters as the larger global scenario played out.

Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by David Solomon, "Epitaph One" takes the moral implications of the Dollhouse to their horrific extreme, and its vignette-laden narrative plays to every actors' strengths: Eliza Dushku doesn't have to do too much heavy lifting, Enver Gjokaj gets to show off several very different personas, etc. I'm really glad I got to see it, and on a big screen in a room full of so many enthusiastic fans.

What concerns me, though, is that "Epitaph One" is such a game-changer for the series -- revealing so much about what the show is really about, and what the future has in store for all the regulars -- that it's somewhat alarming to think it's only going to be on the DVD, especially since Joss said they fully intend to follow up on it over the course of season two. We'll check in on some of the 2019 characters, Whedon intends to explore the parameters (logistically and morally) of what can be done with the imprinting tech, along similar lines to what's discussed in "Epitaph One," and the new season is even going to be shot in the same more immediate (and inexpensive) visual style as this episode.

But while I expect a lot of the show's fans to care enough to seek out the DVD, my guess is that less than half of regular "Dollhouse" viewers who will have seen "Epitaph One" by the time season two begins. Whatever the percentages, we're heading for a scenario where some of the audience will be awash in this huge bath of new information, while others will have no idea who the 2019 people are, or about what we glimpsed of, say, Echo's future. I talked briefly with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen after the panel, and they said there will likely be some repetition of information from "Epitaph One" to explain things to the viewers who didn't see it, but I can't imagine that explanation being nearly as powerful as simply watching "Epitaph One" itself.

Joss also said that those of us who watched "Epitaph" shouldn't automatically take all the flashbacks as gospel, as they're presented as memories, and memories aren't always what actually happened.

"What we intend to do is honor what you've seen here today," he said, "but also to question the veracity of what you've seen here today." He also said that "The future will inform where we go with the show," but, "it's not going to inform the show so much that it becomes a post-apocalyptic-sometimes show... We're going to use it to take the show slightly on a new tack, but it's still what we wanted to do had we not done the future -- which was twist the knife."

Again, I think "Epitaph One" is an incredible hour of television -- and, more than "Man on the Street," or "A Spy in the House of Love," or any of the episodes from the stronger second half of "Dollhouse" season one, makes me think Joss actually did know what he was doing with this premise, even if the execution of the early episodes was disappointing -- but I don't think it was a good idea to do such a monumental, series-altering episode as one that everyone involved had to suspect might never air on Fox. (At the time it was produced, "Epitaph One" was being made only for the DVD.) Of course, the counter-argument would be that Joss and company couldn't have known that they'd be renewed, and "Epitaph One" would have functioned as a brilliant series finale had Fox not ordered more. Better to have it, and the complications it now creates with renewal, then for Joss to have commissioned another standalone episode where one of Echo's assignments goes awry.

As Joss joked when a fan asked about how the show would deal with all the issues raised in "Epitaph One" during season two, "We talked about a lot of things, when we accidentally forgot to get canceled."

What did everybody else think? Do you think the show can easily bring non-viewers of the episode up to speed early next season? Click here to read the full post

Comic-Con day 1: Chuck poster, Dexter, and lines. Very long lines.

I wound up making slightly more than a cameo on day one of Comic-Con. Parking and getting my credential proved so relatively easy that I got on line for the "Dexter" panel, then spent an hour with Fienberg wondering if we had even a prayer of getting in, given that the line snaked around for-ev-er. Luckily, we did, and just before they started showing a trailer for "Dexter" season 4, featuring the great Jean John Lithgow as this year's very special guest. (You can read some of the highlights of the panel -- and the line -- on my Twitter feed.)

As I suspected, both the availability of outlets and Internet connectivity is spotty at best, so whatever blogging gets done will happen on an irregular basis. Based on the experience with the "Dexter" line, and what Dan has been telling me about the lines in general this year, I suspect my plan each day is going to be to park in a given room all day (most of the TV panels tend to be in the same place), so in theory I can try to blog during the panels I don't care about. (I'm hopefully going to spend a lot of Saturday in the famously huge Hall H, where the things I'm really looking forward to -- "Lost," Mike Judge's "Extract," "Iron Man 2," Kevin Smith -- will be sandwiched around a bunch of horror/sci-fi movies I don't care about, so maybe I'll do a lot of catching up then.)

I obviously won't be able to blog, or even tweet about, the "Chuck" panel as it's going on on Saturday (from 10-11 a.m. local time), but Fienberg has promised to liveblog it on his blog the same way he did today for the "Twilight" press conference.

And in the meantime, the "Chuck" guys wanted me to give you guys the first look at the special poster they had made for Comic-Con. (Click on it to see the full-sized version.) I think it looks suitably awesome, and I'm especially happy that they drew Jeff holding his keytar. Click here to read the full post

Comic-Con/Press tour preview - Sepinwall on TV

Today's column previews my travels to California for Comic-Con and the TV critics press tour, and goes into more detail about how I'll be covering both events.

I don't expect to do more than cameo at Comic-Con today, if that, but I'll be parked at the convention center for the next three days and will report what I can, when I can. As for press tour, keep in mind that all the actual press tour blog posts will be NJ.com-only, just like my newspaper columns, though I'll be linking to them here.

Still not sure how much review blogging I'll be able to do when I'm out there. I have posts set to go for the final two chapters of "Torchwood," and will hopefully have stuff on the next episode of "Hung" and Sunday night's "Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead," but beyond that, there may be a whole lot of "What did you guys think of this thing I watched but don't have time to write about?" posts.

Starting to get anxious about the "Chuck" panel, since it'll have more panelists and more audience members than the New York event. I remain open to suggestions. How do you think the crowd will respond to some puns? People like puns, right? Click here to read the full post