I have headed back to Austin, TX for my annual TV camp experience. It’s Season 14 of the ATX TV Festival, and I have been coming to this festival since Season 4! This year I decided to head in a day early, getting up at 3am to head to the airport. Once in Austin, I checked into my hotel, headed over to pick up my badge and tote bag (this year it has the log for the FOX show Doc on the back), reunite with some TV Camp friends, and grab some dinner at P. Terry’s (great and reasonably-priced burger chain in this area).
I got back to my hotel just in time to see an ominous alert on my phone&mash;Austin was about to experience their third-strongest recorded storm. The rain only lasted about 15 minutes but as my hotel room windows rattled, it quickly became zero visibility!
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The next morning, my day started with a visit to the the Badgeholder Lounge in the Stephen F. Austin hotel. The lounge is sponsored again this year by Pluto TV and offers a place for festival-goers to meet up, grab a snack throughout day, or get a drink during happy hour events in the afternoons. This year they also had a Three’s Company photo op set up so that you could channel your best Mr. Roper and “come and knock on my door”. I reunited with some old camp friends, talked about what we were planning to see, and had a nice conversation with Clean Slate showrunner Dan Ewen, who shared some entertaining stories of working with Norman Lear, an awkward moment he had when he was new to the business, and more.
This year, with the Driskill Hotel under renovation, the Hyatt Centric has become the new home to the room for the smaller panels. While this keeps everything within a single block or so (which is great for walking around in the Texas heat), everyone is still trying to get used to where to lineup for these rooms and where they are located. I miss the larger open areas of the Driskill for folks to be able to gather and chat, and lines that are inside and out of the sun.
The first panel I attended this year was the annual “Welcome to TV Camp” with ATX TV Co-Founders Emily Gipson & Caitlin McFarland. This panel is designed to help new festival-goers learn how things work, and address any logistical questions people may have. After a short introduction to some of the other folks working behind-the-scenes, and a plug for some of this year’s merchandise, the ladies brought out festival regulars actress Adrianne Palicki and casting director Felicia Fasano (Better Things) to talk about some of the panels they would be on, and the business and festival in general.
After this I grabbed some lunch at the press/industry lounge and then headed over to 800 Congress to get in line for the panel for the Universal Television/Netflix series The Four Seasons. Hunter Ingram (Variety / TV Insider) moderated the talk with panelists co-creator/co-showrunner Lang Fisher and star Kerri Kenney-Silver. It was a fun discussion about the series. Fisher talked about working with Tina Fey, and how this project came about. Kenney-Silver talked about her personal relationship with Alan Alda (whose 1981 film the series is based on) and having Alda play her father in the series. She also shared a story about how the already big star Alda asked her to talk with his grandson about how to break into the industry, to which she thought, just get your own show when you turn 18 (The State). Kerri Kenney-Silver constantly had the audience laughing, while also being quite humble, talking about how nervous she was to work on the show. She also shared a lot of interesting and humorous stories about working with her various cast members. The panelists did a remarkable job of avoiding massive spoilers about the season in case there were folks in the audience who haven’t yet seen the series. If you haven’t seen the series, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s already been renewed for a second season!
After I left 800 Congress, I just went around the corner and got back in line, this time for the Andor panel. Kathryn VanArendonk (Vulture) moderated this discussion with creator / executive producer Tony Gilroy and writer Beau Willimon. The panelists first discussed their longtime collaboration and working as one another’s bosses on various past projects. They talked about the writing process of the series, with Gilroy writing the beginning and ending of each episode before passing it off to have the details filled in. Gilroy talks about purposely opening the second season in a way that looked like it was going to be slow, just to mess with the internet complainers. They showed clips, and discussed their favorite characters to write for, how and when certain characters were killed off, and the responsibility of making a $650M series. The panel finished things out with a light game of And/Or (aka Would You Rather?) questions and some Q&A from the audience.
Next, I headed across the street to the Paramount Theater, for the world premiere of the new Netflix series The Waterfront, from Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson. The series was also filmed in Wilmington, NC, and is inspired by events from Williamson’s own life. Netflix describes the series as follows:
Inspired by true events and set against the backdrop of coastal North Carolina, The Waterfront explores family dynamics and the lengths people will go to when their legacy is on the line.
The series follows the Buckley family, who are in danger of losing their family business, and are forced to do some criminal things to prevent their fishing empire from crumbling. In the panel, Williamson said the series was “about good people doing bag things and finding their way back to the good”.
They screened the first episode, which was quite engaging. The cast is great, and the show mixes interesting character drama, with some action, mystery and unexpected twists and turns. This is not a teen drama like Dawson’s Creek. While things get a bit violent at times, there is also a lot of humor. The first episode ends on big reveal that definitely makes you want to see where it goes next.
The panel afterwards was moderated by Wilmington resident Hunter Ingram (Variety/TV Insider), and included panelists Kevin Williamson and actors Holt McCallany, Jake Weary, Melissa Benoist, Rafael L. Silva, and Danielle Campbell. Williamson talked about returning to Wilmington, and pointed out how several of the filming locations had been used in previous shows and movies of his. The actors discussed their characters, and what it was like working on the somewhat autobiographical series. I definitely plan to watch this one when it drops on June 19.
After leaving the Paramount, I went right back in, this time for the festival’s big Opening Night Marquee Event, “Late Nights, Day Drinking, and Closer Looks with Seth Meyers presented by NBCUniversal”. Moderator Michael Schneider (Variety) sat down with the former SNL star/current host of Late Night with Seth Meyers for a fun discussion of his work. Meyers talked about moving to the Netherlands for a comedy troupe, getting his SNL job, working with Amy Poehler, and the challenges of working with Lorne Michaels. The discussion also delved into each of the various types of recurring segments Meyers does on his Late Night show—”Day Drinking”, “A Closer Look”, “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell”, “CORRECTIONS”, etc. They showed some clips and Meyers shared some fun behind-the-scenes stories before taking some audience questions.
After this, I headed across the street to 800 Congress for the annual TV Trivia Night event. I reunited with my team from the previous years—we had come in third place two years ago, but only fourth last year, just missing out on the prizes for top three. This year the event was sponsored by NBCUniversal, and they had some free swag on the tables for everyone—hats with quotes from various NBC properties, as well as small bags. The game was split into 4 themed rounds of 10 questions, which were related to things like crime shows, office comedies, and reality TV. The rounds were all TV questions related to NBC properties. There were even some special guests who popped up. When it was time for a One Chicago related question, actors Steven Weber (Chicago Med) and Marina Squerciati (Chicago P.D.) took the stage for some fun banter before reading off the question. And later actor Oscar Nuñez (The Office, upcoming The Paper) also stopped by for some comedic ranting. My team (this year we called ourselves “Scott’s Tots All Grown Up”) only missed 5 questions, and came in fourth place, once again just barely missing out on the prizes. It was a really fun night, and I always look forward to this event.
Afterwards, I headed back to my hotel to get some sleep after a non-stop day.
Most of the ATX panels will eventually make their way to the ATX TV YouTube channel/Podcast, so you should be able to watch/listen to them in the near future.
