Season 14 of the annual ATX Television Festival is underway in Austin, TX. If you missed my recap of Day 1 or Day 2, you can find them here and here. Day 3 for me began by grabbing a bagel from the press/industry lounge and heading to 800 Congress to get in line for my first panel.
Each year, the festival gives out an “Achievement in Television eXcellence Award”, and this year’s recipient was Christine Baranski. The actress sat down with moderator Jessica Shaw to discuss her career and several of her screen, theater and TV roles—Maryann on Cybill, Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife/The Good Fight, Agnes on The Gilded Age, and Victoria on Nine Perfect Strangers. Baranski talked about how lucky she has been in her career, taught the audience how to give a proper slap, and more. She shared some interesting stories, such as the struggle she had trying to get CBS to allow her to do The Gilded Age while she was still working on The Good Fight, and how she was finally able to get it approved by writing a personal letter. She joked that she has a rider on her contracts for “great clothes, funny lines, and a lover”.
Day 3 forced attendees to make some tough choices, especially around 12pm when there were at least 5 panels I would have attended. I had managed to get a Fast Forward pass for the Elsbeth with Carrie Preston panel, which was being held at the bar in the Stephen F. Austin hotel. So my decision was already made. It was still over an hour before the panel, but I immediately headed over and started the line. I was glad I did because once they let us into the room, all but one of the chairs up front were already filled by Industry folks.
Carrie Preston was so delightful, talking about how the role of Elsbeth came about on The Good Wife and then The Good Fight, before getting her own, lighter Columbo-style spin-off. She talked about working in New York City, the show’s amazing guest stars, working with her husband Michael Emmerson for several episodes in season 2 and the shocking turn his character takes. She discussed Elsbeth’s quirky nature and wardrobe, and talked about how the character is always thinking one thing and saying another, while her body is doing a third.
After the panel, I grabbed some lunch at the press/industry lounge, and chatted with some other press folks. I decided to head up to my hotel room to drop off some stuff before my next panel. I stepped into the elevator with a couple and another woman who was wearing a mask. As I was talking to the couple about the upcoming Animal Control panel, the woman with the mask started asking us if we liked Joel McHale, if we had seen him in Community, and if we liked Community. The rapid-fire questions seemed a bit odd…until it clicked that this woman with the mask was actually Yvette Nicole Brown! While I couldn’t see her mouth, I could definitely tell she was smiling as soon as she saw the recognition on my face. She had been trying to trick us into candidly saying something negative about her co-star or show. 🙂
I headed back to 800 Congress for the Animal Control panel, which was full of energy. As it started, the cast—Ravi Patel, Joel McHale, Michael Rowland, Grace Palmer & Vella Lovell—ran down the aisles and rows, giving everyone high-fives. The room was packed and it was easy to see why. This cast has amazing chemistry, and you could tell they were truly friends and not just coworkers. They talked about the original audition process during COVID, working with the animals and with each other. Michael Rowland talked about going from stand-up to acting, and being nervous about what to do with his hands, which became a constant running joke throughout the panel. Ravi Patel’s young daughter was in the audience, calling the panelists out for cursing. Later, when she left for a bit, Ravi arranged for the audience to clap in unison upon her return. For his last question, moderator Damian Holbrook (TV Guide Magazine) had the panelists say something positive about the person next to them, which led to both hilarious, sarcastic remarks as well as some really genuine moments.
It was such a fun panel, and it’s easy to see why this series just keeps getting better and better.
Before the next panel, I headed back to the Stephen F. Austin hotel to meet up with some other press folks and see what was being offered for food at the badgeholder and press/industry lounge Happy Hours, The I headed over to the Paramount Theater for the first of the Closing Night Marquee events.
The Paramount was packed for a special 10th Anniversary discussion of Mad Men, with stars Jon Hamm & John Slattery. Moderator Noah Hawley (who had recently worked with Hamm on his series Fargo) helped facilitate this discussion with the two actors. Hamm & Slattery talked about how no-one knew what AMC was at the time, and journalists would get the network confused with A&E. They recounted behind-the-scenes stories about the production, such as having to smoke a lot of nicotine-less but still real cigarettes, and drink glasses of water with olives. They discussed working with their co-stars, particularly Elizabeth Moss as Peggy. Hamm shared a story of a particularly accident-prone day on set, and kept sarcastically raising the point of there being a 2-part 7th season rather than calling the second “half” season 8 (which meant they didn’t have to pay the actors more). During the audience Q&A, an old classmate of Hamm’s brought up a yearbook with photos from a swim team they were on, which both surprised and delighted the actor, who also talked about giving back to his school. It was a fun but short trip back to this iconic series, and made me interested in revisiting it.
The final event of the night was another big closing night marquee event at the Paramount. Bill Lawrence has created many iconic TV shows over the years and loves to work with his same group of friends whenever he can. He brought several of those friends with him to the stage to discuss their friendship, past and future projects, and more. As each of the panelists&mdah;Zach Braff (Scrubs), Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso), Josh Hopkins (Cougartown), Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso) and Charly Clive (upcoming untitled Steve Carell series for HBO)&mdah;came to the stage, Lawrence welcomed each with a hug.
It was easy to see the connection and friendship between Lawrence and these actors/writers. The panelists discussed their work on Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Cougartown, and more. Braff and Lawrence briefly mentioned the return of Scrubs that’s in the works, but didn’t give any details. Lawrence talked about Michael J. Fox coming to season 3 of Shrinking and accidently let it slip that Candice Bergen will also appear on the series. Some of the panelists tried out accents, they talked about their favorite TV shows and books, and more. There was also a self-deprecating running joke with Josh Hopkins. Whenever a particularly tough question came up, Lawrence would jokingly throw it to Charly Clive, whom he said thought she was just flying down to Austin for lunch. Charly Clive plays Steve Carell’s daughter on an upcoming HBO series, which also stars Phil Dunster.
As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of overlapping panels on Saturday. Once nice thing is that the panels usually make their way to the ATX TV YouTube channel/Podcast, so you should be able to watch/listen to them in the near future. Some of the many overlapping panels I was interested in but missed on Day 3 included “UnREAL 10th Anniversary Retrospective presented by A+E Studios”, “FINDING MR. CHRISTMAS presented by Hallmark”, “THE GILDED AGE presented by HBO and HBO Max”, “Casting a Spotlight: Unsung Actors”, “Ladies of the Law: Crime Dramas and the Women Who Run Them presented by Pluto TV”, “The Leftovers Reunion supported by Austin Film Commission”, and “Murder & Mystery with Acorn TV”.
