Watching The Line: Paley Television Festival 2009

Every year, Paleyfest brings into perspective the perception and life of a given series. When talent and creators are making a series, sometimes they are in a bubble, especially if it is a new outing. The two presentations attended are both freshman series per se who are enjoying some success.The Big Bang Theory This half hour single cam sitcom came out of nowhere under the auspice of creator Chuck Lorre who is also the force behind "Two & A Half Men". But where that series celebrates the slacker success with talent, "Big Bang" celebrates intellectual prowess with social ineptness. The key to the series is the 5 leads: 4 guys and 1 girl. The group made up of a repressed geek, a super genius, a horny Jewish physicist, a Hindi mute and a regular actress/waitress is nothing if not specific. What the panel seemed to indicate more than anything else as it went on is that the comic timing of the cast members and many of their idiosyncracies translate to real life which makes it come off well on screen. This is none more prevalent than between Jim Parsons (who plays Sheldon) and Kaylie Cuoco (who plays Penny). Granted Parsons is nowhere near as repressed as Sheldon but you can see aspects of his own self within the character for sure. You can see the braziness of Penny in Kaylie along with her maternal instinct. More than once during the panel when people in the audience gave her a compliment as well as Lorre, she almost started to cry. It makes her come off very sweet. Lorre discussed that the first pilot they made before the second one that made it to air had Sheldon and Leonard but no Penny, Wolowitz or Rajesh. The Penny character in that incarnation was more of a party girl but testing found that the audience didn't like her at all. The four guys are innocents so you have to balance them with someone with good in her heart. Kaylie said that she tried out for the orginal one but she wasn't bad enough. Parsons came back at her covering his mouth saying: "She's not that good."Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard was actually very quiet during the panel. Initially Lorre knew him because he was on "Roseanne" as a love interest to Sara Gilbert which actually repeated itself in an episode of "Theory". We actually saw a clip before the panel began. In "Roseanne", Galecki looks young and like any wanna-be popular kid but nothing like the geeky guy he is made up to be in the series. When he first comes up on stage what is interesting and says a lot about his real persona versus the one onscreen is that he takes off his glasses which it seems that he actually needs. He seemed to want to appear cool and collected to separate himself from the character but he does laugh when they start telling stories in the middle of the panel. His casting came about when Lorre called Galecki who was doing a play in NY at the time to come in and audition. Galecki loved getting a call back from a man he had worked with in his youth. Parsons by comparison, who admits that he has not worked much in TV, was told that Lorre was casting a new sitcom but admits he had no clue who he was. He ends up making a joke about Lolliberry which Lorre reacts to by shaking his head back and forth rubbing his temples. Parsons says that when he and Galecki first rehearsed it seemed right. But this was strictly for the point that what they were performing in terms of character was so specific that it literally allowed them to be hyper-focused, according to Parsons, on the nuances.Before the panel actually began, Lorre showed an episode that doesn't air until the end of the month called "The Vegas Normalization" which has Wolowitz, Rajesh and Leonard heading to Vegas after Wolowitz gets dumped (by none other than Sara Gilbert). Prostitute etiquette ensues. Meanwhile Sheldon is locked out of his apartment and has to spend the night with Penny which creates more questions. It is the perfect balance of an episode. One really funny element of the panel which almost sounds like an episode in of itself is the story of when the talent and creators went down to Comic Con last year for a panel. Wolowitz and Leonard rented a boat with no idea how to drive it although they had found shorts. Wolowitz also found a captain's hat. Rajesh was ready to go and eventually ended up in the water. Sheldon got on the boat wanting nothing to do with it. Penny meanwhile throttles the boat up to full speed in the harbor and keesp wanting to go faster. Now take into consideration that the whole time this story is being told onstage, they are talking over each other at a mile a minute. The reactions and quips run fast. It is just as entertaining with them sitting there on stage as watching the show. That chemistry is poignant for them as friends and you see it which is rare. Kaylie makes a point which is reinforced by the boys that there is absolutely no ad libbing in the shooting of the show. There is no need for it, according to them, because the writing is so good. Parson backs this up but says that when he first came into the aspect of Sheldon and his science jargon, it was astounding in its complexity. But he pulls it off without a hitch.A guy in the audience tries to Parsons to decipher "rock/paper/scissors/lizard/spock" which he tries but to no avail. Wolowitz is then asked about his wardrobe and pants which he said he needs assistance sometimes to get off. Trying to figure how to go to the bathroom with these pants cannot be accomplished. Parsons tells the story of one day about a week ago where he had a female visitor and Wolowitz bursts into the room in some kind of blue getup. The girl says that he looks like a Little Mermaid to which Parson says "I can see his Little Mermiad". Spot on comedy again. There is of course alot of teasing going on on both sides but Kaylie, as the sole female, asserts herself. Wolowitz is a bit quiet for sure in real life and Rajesh is much more relaxed. However, you can't help projecting a little bit of their onscreen persona onto the real actors. Parsons tells Kaylie during the panel that she shouldn't be so surprised that the people like the show since they came to see them. Lorre discusses a bit about the theme song by the Barenaked Ladies (they wanted the energy of "One Week" but in breaking down universal history in 15 seconds) and his note cards at the end of the episodes (he writes them at the last minute).The actual gestation of the show was built out of co-creator Bill Prady being a computer programmer in NY. The character of Sheldon is partially based on a guy he knew who could do calculations in his head faster than a machine but could not figure out the tip for dinner because it is 15-20% and not an absolute. This idea became the basis for Sheldon. Wolowitz was based slightly on another friend of his whose motto was hit on everything and have no standards in terms of women. Wolowitz himself looks a little embarassed. Galecki said he was first considered for Sheldon but he wanted Leonard because there was the romantic dynamic with the Penny character, He seemed almost a little shy in saying this. When asked if Sheldon will ever have a romantic interest, Lorre seemed to discount it saying that Sheldon doesn't think in that way. His love is science and science absolutely. Another question revolved around seeing more of the boys' childhood and college years which intrigued Lorre but he said it might be more difficult to recreate the cast in that ideal in terms of visually. He jokingly says that it would probably be in Season 7. It was also announced at the panel that "Big Bang Theory" has been picked up for two additional seasons while "Two & A Half Men" was picked up for three. Lorre is doing something right. Even though the time frame for an individual episode is being whittled down (21 minutes and change) as long as the FCC doesn't have any problem with their material, they have the ability to try what they want. The actors seem to admit though that their characters are set in their ways and might not adjust to evolving. It is just a matter of the world and the situation changing around them.Fringe This night began with a screening of the episode "The Transformation" which was directed by Brad Anderson ("Session 9") where a man becomes a human porcupine and crashes a jet. Olivia, the central character who is also an FBI agent, must go into her own psyche and find her dead partner whom she was also having a relationship with. It is a multi-pronged psychological episode which seemed to be a favorite of show runner Jeff Pinkner who said they wanted to see it on the big screen inside the Cinerama Dome. The panel had fun for sure since they wanted to poke a little fun. The moderator from Entertainment Weekly was a bit wordy but very specific in his questions despite some of them being too self reflexive. Co-creator JJ Abrams, on the eve of the opening of the massive "Star Trek" which only earlier in the day had got a rave review from Variety, said that "Fringe" came about because he and his co-creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who also did "MI:3" and "Star Trek" with him) wanted to create a genre "X-Files" type show which could exist in both worlds but work as mythology with stand alone potential. Abrams speaks that "Lost" and similar series he admits can be maddening sometimes. With "Fringe" (for the most part), you can jump in and get the gist without having to deal with too much overarching mythology.Anna Torv who plays Olivia, the dark and brooding FBI agent who deals with the father/son team of Walter & Peter Bishop, likes the fact that her character is away from form. She has a balance, albeit a slightly odd one, between her job, her sister, her niece and her now dead fiance. You see her smile but only when she is away from work which speaks to something we haven't seen yet. Joshua Jackson as the Peter to his crazy and brilliant father Walter (played by the slicingly fun John Noble) is the man of reason but not of morality. Jackson speaks that his character may know where the line to cross is and points it out but it is not necessarily because he disagrees with it. His character is there to let air out of the situation while allowing the believability factor to shine through with a degree of complacency. When he first read the script and decided this was the right time to return to TV, Jackson said he saw a series that had the ability to reach 100 episodes in a strong fashion.John Noble shares many ticks and funny perceptions of his alter ego: Walter. He compares the aspect of this man to the 60s. Many of the youth today are enamoured or mesmerized by the 60s with its aspects of drugs, rebellion free love and the creation of the pill (his words - this got a big if not nervous laugh from the panel and the audience). But according to Noble, that is what makes Walter so identifiable: he's cool but he has not lost his childlike wonder despite his want and need to cut things. Inevitably this mode of thinking leads to a discussion of Gene, the cow who is always in the lab. It is a bit of an ode of mad scientist according to Pinkner but also a reminder that Walter is still doing his testing, no matter what anyone might say. This for him is all an experiment. This brought up the fact that they will be moving the production to Vancouver. Whether this has happened or not yet is to be seen.Also brought up in conversation by the moderator was the recent announcement of Leonard Nimoy (whom Abrams had just worked with on "Star Trek") coming in to play William Bell who is Walter's former science partner. Bell had become one of the richest people in the world while Walter was rotting in a mental institution. Abrams says these characters are not too different in the overall scheme of things. Torv says that she has done some scenes with Nimoy. She seemed genuinely awe struck though she couldn't do the Vulcan fingers. JJ demoed it for her since he seems to have it down. Abrams didn't think that they would get Nimoy. He thought the "Star Trek" aspect was just a singular occurence since Nimoy initially did not commit to that either until he saw a script. But he liked what he saw on "Fringe". After he read the set script, he agreed to do it. Abrams however won't say how many episodes Nimoy has agreed to. The place card symbols at the beginning of the commercial breaks were also discussed. It was revealed that there is a code intertwined but its meaning is still a mystery. Another point was made about Walter's manifesto and its application. Noble explains that Walter is saying "I don't know" more often than not now but that his powers of deduction are serving him well as he becomes more in touch with the real world.The final inquiry of evening involved the overarching mythology of the show and how far in advance show points are discussed in terms of the writing. Abrams says that if you look at "Lost", Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus was only originally going to be brought in for one or two episodes and is now a major character. It depends how people react in the progression of the series. He likens it to being on a road in the fog where you can see your destination way up ahead. At a certain point, you might find a better road if you are lucky enough to keep driving. That is how he rolls. What was also interesting was that there was a sneak peek of "Star Trek" going on consecutively inside the Arclight. Double fun for sure.The Paleyfest 2009 offered this reporter insights into two very diversely different series in the form of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Fringe". What stood out the most was the inherent chemistry of the different casts specifically between Sheldon and Penny in the former and the Peter & Walter Bishop in the latter. Each are different but there is just a good rhythm and humor which is what makes the best shows succeed.