For a couple years I've been meaning to attend a panel at PaleyFest. If you're a TV fan you may have seen a panel without knowing what it was from. Many of them end up as special features on DVDs. With the announcement of this year's panels I decided I couldn't let another year go by without going.

The first panel I attended was Saturday's Pushing Daisies panel. This year they moved the panels to the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight, which is a fabulous venue. They started things off by showing a clip package highlighting the characters and main storylines of the show. They often will show a new episode of the show but since they aren't coming back until the fall and don't start production until June that wasn't possible. Watching the clips reminded me how amazing this show is and how much I miss it. I'm so glad ABC picked it up for next season!

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The guests for the panel were series creator Bryan Fuller, Lee Pace (Ned), Anna Friel (Chuck), Chi McBride (Emerson Cod), Ellen Greene (Aunt Vivian), Kristen Chenoweth (Olive), and two of the producers. Chi McBride really stole the show. I'm a fan of his performances in Bob Odenkirk's dark comedies and he really lived up to that. The guy was cracking jokes left and right and even managed to make a jab at Fox, implying that if the show was on that network they would never have made it to series.

Anna Friel is British! I totally didn't know that. Her accent was delightful. She even did her Chuck voice for a bit. It was bizarre how different they are. I'm always amused that British actors tend to do a much better job impersonating Americans than it is the other way around. Kristen Chenowith was just as small and adorable as you would imagine. She also sang her super high note at the urging of McBride and then sang a short song dedicated to him that was pretty hilarious. Lee Pace was really great but didn't get to talk a whole lot. Ellen Greene was just as sweet and kind sounding as her character. Bryan Fuller was also very funny and made a lot of great insights about the show and how it came to be. He also was the creator of two other fantastic shows, Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls and he compared those to Daisies. It was nice to hear everyone talking about how great it was to work on the show and it sounds like they'll be around for awhile.

As far as news bits go, Anna Friel talked a bit about the fact that she is currently filming Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell. She had nothing but good things to say about the project. They hinted at a few future storylines for the show, including the fact that the cliffhanger from last season will be resolved rather promptly since it wasn't really intended to be a cliffhanger but ended up as such due to the WGA strike. Fuller also talked about how they would be delving into some deeper story arcs beyond the Ned and Chuck relationship and we would also find out more about Emerson Cod's past. It also sounds like they have some big guest stars lined up but they couldn't mention any names. The new season starts in September and the first season DVD will be released shortly before that.

Overall it was a wonderful evening. It was cool to see the stars and creators of one of my favorite new shows in person and be surrounded by fellow fans. It made me sad that the first season was cut short at only nine episodes due to the WGA strike but happy that a show as creative and different as this is able to thrive on TV. I think it is shows like this that help remove that stigma around television that many folks seem to have so it is nice to see people celebrating them.