On A Paley Horse I Ride

Last week marked the kickoff of the William S. Paley Festival, which brings together the creative minds behind hit TV shows for a screening of their work, followed by a panel discussion. Organized by the Museum of Television and Radio and taking place at the Director’s Guild of America – which, in spite of the fact that it looks like a place that only plays movies with titles like “Pulp Friction” in the lo-res photo above, is the greatest theater I’ve ever been in – the whole event’s kind of like the upscale version of Comic-Con. And even though Friday night traffic was bad enough that I might as well have been making the trek to San Diego, it wound up being well worth the soul-crushing hours of staring at an LCD license plate frame blinking “TELL YOUR GIRLFRIEND I SAY THANKS.”

Friday night’s panel was for THE OFFICE, which featured a screening of a “classic” episode (it was from two weeks ago but I guess everything’s relative), a rough cut of this week’s episode and a ten-minute blooper reel that reinforced how bizarrely satisfying it is to see TV characters swear. About twenty members of the cast and crew were present for the Q&A, which went about as well you’d expect a conversation with twenty people to go. But since Dwight Schrute was one of them, it’s hard to complain.

Saturday night was the deceptively romantic-sounding “An Evening With George Lucas”, during which the moderator forbade people from asking STAR WARS-related questions. While I realize this was done in an effort to keep the conversation focused on the scenes that were screened from the YOUNG INDIANA JONES series of yesteryear, I have to wonder if she realized she was committing an act of nerd sacrilege that would be considered on par with pantsing the Pope. While I remember liking the series when I was a kid – it followed Indy at ages 10 and 16 through globe-trotting adventures with historical noteworthies – I have to admit that the Forrest Gump treatment of Indy left a little to be desired. Even Lucas himself admitted the footage was an awful lot of Indy sitting slack-jawed as he watched history unfold. While the idea of finding an exciting means of teaching kids history is a noble one, it seems a little misguided to do so with a character famous for dealing in myth. It’d be like using the STAR WARS universe to teach people about trade pacts and taxation without representa–

Oh, wait.

Luckily, from what Lucas had to say when the moderated conversation inevitably turned to STAR WARS and – by extension – its upcoming live action and animated small-screen offerings, it sounds as if there will be plenty of action and entertainment coming out of Skywalker Ranch for years to come.

I’m going to go ahead and count Monday night as part of the weekend, especially since it wound up keeping with the theme of seeing childhood heroes in flesh and blood. Thanks to my boss’ Philharmonic tickets, I got to check out Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese co-hosting a retrospective on the works of Bernard Herrman – who was responsible for a number of Hitchcock scores – with John Williams conducting. Following the intermission was a look back at the Spielberg/Williams collaboration, with the orchestra playing live to scenes projected from INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE and E.T. Since that stubby little alien’s pretty much the reason I’m down here doing what I do, it was pretty awesome to see Williams bringing the score to life with Spielberg on stage.

Speaking of what it is I do, the image you see projected on the screen above is a sneak peek at a spec spot I’m working on with Phil Broste. He’s putting together a fantastic CG model for a really fun, FX-filled spot. What’s it for? You’ll have to check back to find out…

For those of you in town, the Paley Fest is going on through next week with panels on DEXTER, HEROES (ugh) and THE SIMPSONS still to go. Guess which one I’ll be at.