Almost 30 years after the release of "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back," the trilogy that put George Lucas on the map is proving to be a cash cow for Seth MacFarlane and his "Family Guy" spoofs.

The sequel to the first "Family Guy" parody comes out on Blu-ray and DVD on Dec. 22. We caught up with MacFarlane on the red carpet of a house party he was throwing on Saturday celebrating the debut of "Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side."

The first hour-long movisode, "Blue Harvest," kicked off the show's sixth season in 2007. "The first one did so well in demand that the second just seemed like a logical thing to do," MacFarlane said.

A third based on "Return of the Jedi" will be out next year, MacFarlane said. Buzz around the Web, which cites a statement by the "Family Guy creator" earlier this year, indicates that the show may already be written and will be titled either "The Great Muppet Caper" or "We Have a Bad Feeling About This."

So, we finally get to see the buxom cartoon Lois in a gold bikini? "That's in the next one; that's in Jedi," MacFarlane said.

Don't expect MacFarlane to extend his charades into the newer entries in the "Star Wars" franchise.

"I'm not as well-versed on the newer movies as much as I am on the old ones," he said. "I was a kid when the old ones came out, so they hold a special place in my heart."

Future spoofs may venture into the other sci-fi and adventures franchises that themed MacFarlane's childhood.

"Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Star Trek," he riffed, citing potential spoofs. "The difference is that Lucas gave us the rights. Lucas agreed to let us do this, and that's a rare thing. Most legal departments are much more overprotective."

Fox didn't immediately return comment regarding any financial terms of the agreement with Lucas.

And for those who don't know, Lucas also made "Indiana Jones." Don't be surprised to see an overweight Peter Griffin sporting a whip and iconic hat some time soon.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

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UPDATE: A previous version of this post said Indiana Jones wore a green hat. We think Mark needs to adjust his TV before he watches "Tample od Doom" on DVD a again.

Photo credit: TJ Milian

GUEST ESSAY: AN APPRECIATION OF "THE BIG BANG THEORY"

Writer Steven Paul Leiva drops by the Hero Complex today with an appreciation of the CBS series "The Big Bang Theory," which airs Monday nights at 9:30 p.m. (8:30 central). Leiva also wrote a Hero Complex essay last year on "The Spirit" movie that could have been. 

Even in science fiction, scientists don’t often come off well. Take Frankenstein, for example, remembering, of course, that he was not the monster but rather the creator of the monster, and thus considered by many to be, well, a monster. It's been 191 years since Mary Shelley's tale was published but since then, stories written for a whole range of media and genres have featured a plethora of out-of-control lab geniuses (those mad scientists!) who are always mucking around with the laws of nature, creating mutants and doomsday weapons and unleashing man-made plagues, etc. All of it may be nothing more than fever-dream metaphors for what scientists really do -- discover the data that generate worldviews that disconcert a large number of people -- Copernicus and Galileo telling us that we are not the center of the universe; Darwin telling us that we are not the center of life; the neurobiologists that now may be telling us that we are not even the center of ourselves.

Damn scientists, they sure know how to darken the sunny celebrations of human self-centeredness.

Of course, not all scientists portrayed in media have been mad. Some have just been cold, almost inhuman (or half-inhuman in the case of “Star Trek’s” Mr. Spock), near-robotic creatures uncomfortable with anything that cannot be reduced to an equation. Temperance Brennan in “Bones” is a good current example. A forensic anthropologist, Brennan uses her superior smarts and splendid skills not in the pursuit of expanding human knowledge, but in the pursuit of clues. She is portrayed as so obsessed with rational observation -- leaving her emotions out of it -- that she can’t see that her partner, the all-heart FBI agent Seeley Booth, is crazy in love with her. She is an indirect descendent of Sherlock Holmes (a fine amateur scientist), both in her smarts and in her lack of warm-and-fuzzy social skills. Walter Bishop of “Fringe” is another example -- and he comes with the added benefit of also being an actual verifiably mad scientist.

No, it has not gone well for scientists in their fictional representation in books, film, television, and now even on the Internet (did you see “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”?) Scientists are portrayed as stark raving mad, socially inept or just goofy. This is pretty bad for a subsection of people that have probably had a larger impact on humanity than any other career you could name. Their job description isn’t so bad either: solving the mysteries of the universe.

But then maybe that’s the problem. To solve or even attempt to solve such mysteries, you have to be a whole lot smarter than most of us. And we humble folk don’t especially enjoy looking up to the elite -- unless that status is defined by wealth, glamor and sex and comes with the potential of warping into scandal. So rather than thinking that scientists are better than us, we like to think that they are crazy, evil and/or wildly eccentric.

In the face of all that, I would like to put forth the modest suggestion that scientists, as a group, are just as sane and socially capable as any other group of people. Which makes it a wry twist, I suppose, that I would also like to propose that the hit CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” is the finest and best fictional portrayal of scientists in any current media -- and a series that is carving out a spot for itself in the annals of television comedy. 

Not that this was Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady’s purpose in creating “The Big Bang Theory.” My guess is that their purpose was to create a traditional three-camera sitcom that would generate lots of hearty laughs and big ratings. They have accomplished both those goals, however, and have done so in an era when the sitcom is no longer king. “The Big Bang Theory” has the potential to become a true classic of TV comedy, but it stands apart from most traditional three-camera shows because of what it is not...

Leonard Nimoy, who was coaxed out of retirement for "Star Trek" and then lingered in order to portray the mysterious William Bell on "Fringe," says it may be the logical time to say farewell to acting for good -- especially since the Bell role hasn't been a compelling one for him.

"I have such a great life," the 78-year-old actor said at his home last week. "I'm not looking for work."

Nimoy had invited me over to talk about his Halloween night photography exhibit at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (watch for a full story on that event and his photography career here tomorrow), which is just one of the many pursuits that Nimoy would rather focus on these days. "As an actor you're always wondering when you're going to work again, who you're going to work with, what it will be. I don't have that consuming drive," he said. Then he nodded toward an image that will be on display at the exhibit. "This is my creative outlet. This is what I do."

Nimoy was fresh from a trip to the Vancouver set of "Fringe," where he had shot an upcoming episode. He made it sound as if it might have been his final one in the role of Bell, a rarely seen character on the show but one that is, by all appearances, at the very core of the series' mythology. 

"I've done three appearances for them. I don't know if I will do a fourth..."

"They've asked me to do more, but we have to talk about where the character is going. So far my character, William Bell, and my appearances have been used to lay in information about this alternate universe and the experience of being in this other world. And that's OK, but I don't know yet what plans they have for really developing a dramatic story for the character. I'm waiting for a conversation about that."

Nimoy said that conversation will be "some with J.J. Abrams" but more so with show runner Jeff Pinkner and series creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the same tandem that came up with the script for "Star Trek," which was good enough to coax Nimoy back into Starfleet service despite his initial resistance to the idea. Nimoy said Orci and Kurtzman are "just terrific, very talented and very smart" but it was quite clear that the actor's goodwill posture toward "Fringe" was earned entirely by the "Trek" experience and that it has its limitations.

"I think they're talking amongst themselves now so they can present some kind of plan, a story arc of some kind."

The sci-fi icon surprised me when he said he signed up for the "Fringe" first-season finale without much knowledge of the series at all.

"I never paid much attention until I was asked to work on it and even then I didn't know a lot. I got the [home video] collection of the first season and [my wife] Susan and I were up in Lake Tahoe and last week we sat there about four or five hours at a time and watched them. And, wow, that show is something. They do a great production job. They have great story hooks, terrific production values and very interesting performances."

He mentioned in particular the work of John Noble, who portrays the wonderfully eccentric Walter Bishop, Bell's onetime colleague in the business of mad science.

"We just met for the first time and it was very enjoyable," Nimoy said, although he was careful not to say whether that encounter was on-screen or off.

For those of you in Southern California, you have a chance to meet Nimoy yourself and even have him shoot your portrait during a photo session. On Halloween, the Santa Monica Museum of Art will be displaying selected works from Nimoy's project "Who Do You Think You Are?" (which will be an exhibit at Mass MoCA next summer); the collection is a series of portraits where Nimoy asked strangers to reveal their secret selves. That "secret self" theme will carry into a costume contest at the Oct. 31 event and there a different price-level tickets. For more details on the event and the possibility of a photo shoot with Nimoy, go right here. 

-- Geoff Boucher

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PHOTOS: Top, Leonard Nimoy on "Fringe" (Fox) Middle: Nimoy at his home. (Christina House / For The Times)

There's no new network show that has me more intrigued than FlashForward, a drama with a slippery sci-fi premise and a series that ABC has circled (and heavily promoted) with an eye toward a "Lost"-style success. I missed a chance to see the pilot at the Disney D23 Expo so I will be watching it tonight just like everybody else -- except for Robert Lloyd, the Los Angeles Times critic, that is. He wrote the review in today's paper, here's an excerpt... -- Geoff Boucher

Every new television series bets against cancellation. But there is something unusually optimistic about launching a show whose premise is predicated upon a mystery that may not be explained until a specific, stated later date. In “FlashForward,” which premieres tonight on ABC, every person in the whole wide world passes out for two minutes and 17 seconds, during which time they are transported into the future -- to April 29, 2010, at 10 p.m. PST, to be exact -- right around the time the first season of this show will be wrapping up, if all goes well.

Lloyd also writes...

As in "Lost," fate is the main course here, raising questions endlessly restated across the eons of time-travel literature. If you know the future, or think you do, what do you, or can you, do about it? Do you inevitably, like Oedipus, fulfill the prophecy by the very act of trying to avoid it? Or is the future, as it is in Dickens -- the script makes a significant passing reference to "A Christmas Carol" -- unwritten? "Are these the shadows of the things that Will be," Scrooge asked the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, "or are they shadows of things that May be, only?"

Given the subject, it's almost appropriate how unusually difficult it is to get a fix on the show. The pilot is melodramatically eventful, though the dialogue can sound phony. But the show could go either way -- be kind of great or pretty awful, depending on what comes next, how the writers plan to explain this thing and whether we are going to have any fun on the way to the explanation. (The Robert J. Sawyer book on which the series is loosely based is probably not the place to look for clues.) It's a decent but not brilliant beginning.

"Lost" worked early on by distracting the viewer with sex and scenery and a shameless indulgence in random eerie coincidence while the writers tried to work out what the show might actually be about. (There is a nice "Lost"-style moment here when Mark [played by Joseph Fiennes] encounters a kangaroo loose on the streets of downtown, after the communal blackout.) But we have seen a lot of doctors and FBI agents on TV -- four of the main characters work for the bureau -- and spent a lot of time on the streets of Los Angeles. We may need more than parlor tricks to take us out of that all-too-familiar world.

My crystal ball remains cloudy on this matter...

THERE'S MORE, READ THE REST

-- Robert Lloyd

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Juliette Funes, a young writer for the Los Angeles Times, makes her first contribution to the Hero Complex with a piece on Anthony Head and "Merlin," a trans-Atlantic import that airs on NBC on Sunday nights.

King Arthur, "Smallville"-style?

That's one way to frame the British import "Merlin," the series now airing on Sunday nights on NBC, which takes the once and future king from Camelot and presents him as a still-learning prince, just as "Smallville" has, for nine seasons, given viewers a young Clark Kent still being forged into the Man of Steel.

“What happens if we look at Arthur and Merlin before they become the men that they become?" is how the premise is summed up by Anthony Head, who stars as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Arthur. He added: "How do they affect each other when they grow up?”

Head is familiar with the portrayal of mentor and powerful protégé in a fantasy setting -- for many fans, Head will always be known as Rupert Giles, the Sunnydale high school librarian who is the Watcher for Buffy Summers in Joss Whedon’s cult classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“It isn’t Buffy, but it has that same breadth of appeal that Buffy had,” Head said of the BBC1 series. “It’s lighthearted and somehow appeals to all ages.”

“Merlin,” based on the Arthurian legend, follows the adventures of a troubled Prince Arthur (played by 24-year-old Bradley James, a Devon, England, native) and the young wizard Merlin (played by 23-year-old Irish actor Colin Morgan). The show reaches its double-episode season finale this Sunday here in the States while Head and company are at work on Season 2 right now.

The Knights of the Round Table have been taken for a spin again and again in pop culture. Not only is there the famed 1960s Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" (and the film adaptation in 1967 with Richard Harris) and the 1963 Disney feature "The Sword in the Stone," there's sterner stuff such as John Boorman's startling 1981 fantasy "Excalibur" and 1995 romance "First Knight" with graybeard Sean Connery (Arthur) jousting with Richard Gere (Lancelot) for the love of Julia Ormond (Guinevere).

Head said more than five years were put into crafting a Camelot that was rooted in the tales of Arthur but also fresh enough to stand apart from the many previous versions.

“Because the Arthur legend as we know it has been done to death, everyone knows what will happen next,” Head said. “The point is to see how things are made up that will eventually be the legend and the story that we know.”

Amidst the unicorns, wizards, magic and mythical Camelot, the 13-episode series illustrates Arthur’s coming of age and Merlin learning to be a sorcerer while living under Uther’s ruthless laws banning all forms of magic.

“This is a great way of opening up the whole idea of Camelot and just adding a dash of sword and sorcery to color it up,” Head said. “It’s a long way away from the original Arthurian legend.”

Despite having traditional elements like Excalibur and familiar characters like Guinevere and Lancelot (who in the legend eventually have an illicit affair), the story also converges on Uther, who has usually been a fleeting figure on the periphery of Camelot stories. 

Uther plays a more pivotal role here, Head said, as the old-fashioned father and ruler dealing with a country that is falling apart. Although an antagonist, Uther gives Merlin access to Arthur, makes Morgana his wayward ward and lays the foundation for his son to be future king of Camelot.

A few heads may have to roll in the process, though. Having a profound hatred for magic, Uther has banned it from the kingdom for 20 years.

“People who turn to magic and sorcery are inevitably drawn to the dark side and are eventually pulled to the dark side,” Head said. “He wants to eradicate magic and anybody who uses magic or consorts with anybody who has to do with magic are put to death.” 

“Merlin” is the first British drama in more than 30 years to bypass PBS and BBC America and head straight for a major American network, NBC. The show has not been a ratings sensation by any means, but its steady viewership of 4 million still puts it ahead of well-regarded genre shows on cable.

“There’s much more readiness to try stuff out,” Head said. “NBC bought the show on the spot, sight unseen. When you look at that show you think ‘Why the hell didn’t anybody think about this before?’ It’s beautiful and so magical. It’s the romance of knights and armor. It’s the thing that as a child I loved knights and chivalry and things that went with it.”

Talking from the set, Head offered a little taste to what Season 2 holds, including the onset of a blossoming romance between Arthur and Guinevere.

Head was elusive about what the audience can expect, saying only that a mysterious sorceress, an antagonist to Uther who was influential in Arthur’s birth, will show up and cause mischief. He added: “It’s darker in place, funnier, and they extrapolated the family problems and problems with magic and sorcery." 

-- Juliette Funes

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PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Head in "Merlin," NBC 

 

In a dangerous and distant land, an evil ruler is threatening all that is good and right in the world. The only thing that stands between him and total domination is Krod Mandoon, a fierce freedom fighter flanked by a band of futile warriors who would serve him better off the battlefield than on it.

Comedy Central’s new snarky epic series, “Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire,” starring Sean Maguire ("Meet the Spartans"), premiered last night and has high hopes of creating a weekly 10 p.m appointment on Thursdays with aficionados of the absurd. It's the first time Comedy Central has dipped into fantasy, but the show’s creator and co-writer Peter Knight ("Big Wolf on Campus") hopes that Krod will attract the "South Park" crowd with its unapologetic potty humor and "Daily Show" fans with spoofs that are so stupid they are smart, a la Monty Python. Try to imagine the cast of "The Office" on horseback carrying swords -- that basically sums up the show, which also feels a lot like a ribald television version of "Groo the Wanderer," the feckless warrior created by cartoonist Sergio Aragonés. 

“I hope that the one thing that people get out of it is the fun in the things that are not expected,” Knight said. “This is more than being a fantasy show or a spoof.”

Like all of Knight’s favorite hero tales, the premise is simple: Krod unites a team of miscreants to rally against the cruel Chancellor Dongalor (played by Matt Lucas from “Little Britain USA” and the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland" film by Tim Burton) who has assassinated Krod’s mentor, the great General Arcadius (Roger Allam, “V for Vendetta”), in an attempt to rule the world. That is, if he can figure out how to wield the awesome power of the Eye of Gulga Grymna, a terrifying weapon that strangely resembles the Death Star.

As for the show’s hero, Krod is mostly out of his element when it comes to saving the day.

“He’s a little surprised that he’s the chosen one because he’s rather ill-equipped,” Maguire said. “He’s just a little shy of getting the job done.”

Inspired by the 1982 John Milius adaptation of Conan the Barbarian, Knight fashioned an old-school hero with modern problems. Though Krod is destined to save the world, he can’t cope with his pagan girlfriend’s promiscuity. And because he’s a nice guy, he can’t bring himself to fire a team that causes more problems than it solves.

“He has a quality that I find very likable in people, where you get the sense that people might go a little further if they did a little pruning,” Knight said.  “There were times when all you feel like is that you’re like Krod, when life throws more at you than you can handle.”

Krod is surrounded by equally confused companions. There’s Aneka, Krod’s pagan warrior girlfriend who uses sex as her ultimate weapon; Bruce, an out-and-proud sidekick; Loquasto, a half-human, half-swine servant and Zezelryck, a would-be wizard who can’t produce spells.

The names, you may have noticed, are completely ridiculous.

Knight’s inspiration for Krod was a boy he knew in school who was so nicknamed because it’s “dork” spelled backward, he said. The subtle names Dongalor and Longshaft also bring with them a whole package of, um, manly gags.

“Urologists watching this will think, ‘Oh, God, I see where they’re going with this!’” Maguire said. “Just give it a quick look before you dismiss it,” he added. “It’s not as silly and stupid as you might think.”

-- Alicia Lozano

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.

Photos courtesy of Comedy Central

"Fringe," the new show from J.J. Abrams, premieres Tuesday night (8 p.m., Fox) and Abrams has been pledging for weeks that it will be easier to follow than some of his other shows, which he believes left some viewers feeling, well, "Lost."

How does "Fringe" compare to his past work?

Is it too derivative of shows such as "The X-Files" or his own baby, "Alias"?

Here's the lowdown from Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara, who has a mixed-bag review of the show:

The poor airline industry. As if rising gas prices, increased security measures and constant cost-cutting were not enough, now there’s another J.J. Abrams pilot. Travelers who have finally shaken the anxiety-provoking images of cult-inducing “Lost” can look forward to a whole new set of phobias thanks to the opening moments of Abrams’ new show “Fringe.”

As lightning crackles around an international flight to Boston, a wild-eyed passenger injects himself with something one can only hope is a tranquilizer and then next thing you know ... well, I don’t want to spoil anything for the 19 people who haven’t seen the pilot online, but it results in the assemblage of every law enforcement agency in the country donning hazmat suits.

Because comparisons are unavoidable, it must be noted up front that this is not the same sort of jaw-droppingly, what-the-heck-kind-of-show-is-this pilot that “Lost” had. Frankly, we know what kind of show this is going to be. “Fringe” stands for Fringe Science, which includes everything from mental telepathy to reanimation, so much of your enjoyment will depend on how much you still miss the “The X-Files.”

While “The X-Files” told us the truth is out there, “Fringe” posits the equally vague notion that “Everything is Part of a Pattern.” So, if you’re the type of person who needs every little thing, or indeed any little thing, to make sense in a pilot, then you should probably watch “Fringe” in solitude, preferably with the door closed, so the rest of us can enjoy it for what it is — an uneven, but promising jumble of horror, thriller and comedy that is not afraid to reference SpongeBob and “Altered States” in practically the same scene.

Let the games begin.

Choire Sicha, writing for Show Tracker, the wonderfully obsessive blog about television, has the scoop on a new "Battlestar Galactica" made-for-TV movie to be directed by Adama himself, Edward James Olmos:

Months before its final 10 episodes begin airing in January, we now know for certain that "Battlestar Galactica" will live on -- in the form of a two-hour special on the Sci Fi Channel to air in 2009 after the series concludes.

The unnamed feature will be directed by the show's costar, Edward James Olmos, and written by "Battlestar" writer and former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" brain Jane Espenson. The stand-alone will document the Cylons' attempts -- those of two agents in particular -- to grapple with human survivors, both those aboard ships and those left alive on planets, shortly after the Cylons' destruction of human home worlds. So it's a flashback, but not all the way back.

Three confirmed cast members are Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol), and Dean Stockwell (Cavil, Cylon model No. 1) -- all Cylons. Shooting will begin promptly in Vancouver, Canada, and Sci Fi promises female regulars are being cast as well, with more names coming soon.

"Razor," the "BSG" event-movie that aired last November, was a successful test. "Not only did it do well on the air, it did phenomenally well in the international and DVD market," said Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming for Sci Fi.

You can read the rest of the post here.

Olmos, of course, directed "American Me," one of the essential films about Los Angeles, and he has also helmed three episodes of "Battlestar," including the great 2004 episode "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down," which (despite the somewhat loopy title) was a fantastic one, bringing the conniving cougar Ellen Tigh on board the Galactica.

Snap Judgment: "True Blood" (HBO, airs Sept. 7)

As a genre, vampire tales are pretty long in the tooth — the “modern” idea of undead bloodsuckers dates back to the 1700s and before that practically every civilization under the sun had moonlight marauders who drank from the soft neck of humanity. But, hey, when you have a great premise, why not take one more bite?

I took a long plane flight east yesterday and made two important discoveries. One, is that US Airways now charges for coffee. (Dinging people for carry-on bags, maybe I can understand that, but for coffee?) The second revelation was “True Blood,” the new HBO series that premieres on Sept. 7.

I got an advance copy of the first two episodes from HBO and the show is simply fantastic. It’s the handiwork of Alan Ball, the Oscar-winning writer of “American Beauty” and the creator of “Six Feet Under,” and he will be asked a thousand times between now and the first episode whether he considers himself in competition with “Twilight,” the big vampire romance film on the dark horizon.

I have a suggested answer: “The Sopranos” came on the air a few months before “Analyze This” hit theaters in 1999 and a lot of people assumed that the little HBO show would suffer by going against a big film that, at first glance, seemed way too close for comfort, plot-wise. Hmmm. How’d that turn out?

This show, like every great HBO series, tracks a complicated tribe beset by the world around it, be it a Jersey mafia family, Utah polygamists, a quartet of single women in Manhattan or Depression-era carnies in a Dust Bowl war of good vs. evil.

This time the tribe members are vampires and the people who love them, all living in the not-too-distant future. Instead of villagers with torches, this time around the hordes at the castle gate are from Jerry Springer's America where groupies (“fangbangers”) covet vampires for their sexual prowess and cruel-eyed poachers try to catch them, drain their blood and sell it as the ultimate vitality drink.

Jeph Loeb is, right now, one of the most important people on the planet in terms of helping craft what genre fans will see and read to get their fix of fun.

Executive producer on "Heroes," one-time exec on both "Smallville" and "Lost," one of Marvel Comics' main men and author of the current Red Hulk and upcoming Ultimatum story lines, this guy is a fanboy sculptor.  And he has more in mind.  At Comic-Con, we spoke at length about the current glut of popularity among genre movies and DVDs and projects in general, and about how he goes about being one of the most influential creators around.

-- Jevon Phillips

"Smallville" is one of the shows that, along with "7th Heaven" and "Buffy," helped define the WB early on.

The pop culture fervor surrounding the show has mellowed, but turnout from "Smallville" fans still caused the third biggest room at Comic-Con to overflow.

Justin Hartley, who portrays Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow, was introduced as a recurring main character this season. He and Allison Mack received the bulk of the attention, though new season actors Sam Witwer (Davis Bloome/Doomsday) and Cassidy Freeman (Tess Mercer) were also involved.

The crowd was fed a teaser sampler for the upcoming season, with guest stars galore and cheers for Green Arrow's appearance. Speaking of guest stars, it was let out of the bag that incredibly popular comic book writer Geoff Johns would be writing an episode and would be introducing the Legion of Super Heroes in the show.

The practice of asking for a panelists' name placard was in full swing as four of the panelists were asked to give them away (and sign them) during the Q&A session (moderated by executive producer Jeph Loeb).

The talk was mostly of spinoffs, a pretty sure sign that not only were fans expecting the series to end soon, but were looking towards other storylines to explore.  Green Arrow's possible show was a definite topic of interest.

The Chloe Chronicles webisodes are still going on, so along with her art interests and the show, Allison Mack (Chloe) is pretty busy. It was revealed that she'd like to direct an episode of the show, and though she received a handshake onstage, the deal may still be in the works.

-- Jevon Phillips

If you sit in on a Joss Whedon panel, you're sure to be entertained.

Whedon brought along Faith-ful "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" companion Eliza Dushku and "Battlestar Galactica" captain Tahmoh Penikett to a panel introducing the world to "Dollhouse," which is set to debut in early 2009 on Fox. The character, Echo, who can have personalities imprinted on her to be whatever/whoever the mysterious agency known as 'the Dollhouse' needs, is based in part on the craziness and the randomness of Dushku's own life.

"Some of the things I might bring [to the part] are feist, fun and fury," says a pumped Dushku.  She was elk hunting when he wrote the pilot ("Sorry PETA, it's part of life") and defers everything to Joss, and supportingly describes him as a "career brassiere" who "makes the words party on the page."

Viewership may have fallen, and audience support may have waned, but at Comic-Con, NBC's "Heroes" is still as big as as it ever was. It's also still humble. 

When the cast -- the entire cast -- came on stage to huge applause in Hall H, many of the actors were also filming the crowd with personal cameras. Greg Grunberg was one, and he also visited with a few fans at the back of the line for the panel, many of whom weren't getting in.

And speaking of growth, one of the first things moderator and executive producer Jeph Loeb said to the assemblage was that the show was in "236 territories around the world," and that it was popular because of the Comic-Con fans. "And we came here to thank you."

Loeb, being the cheerleader that he is, then led a section-by-section cheering contest. Then he offered this promise for the new season: "Each and every one of you ... you will want to talk about it."

After the cast filled the stage, Loeb jabbed at other ensembles, making sure the audience knew that everybody from the cast showed up, not just one or two stars.

Those who asked a question during the "€œLost"€ standing-room-only session were well-rewarded.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof (who was wearing a convention-appropriate "SAVE SNAPE" T-shirt) and Carlton Cuse bought a bottomless box of goodies for fans — think something like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag -- all direct from the set of the ABC series.

But perhaps even more important than swag, the Comic-Con crowd was privy to a secret video — which will be available online soon, no doubt. The clip showed out-of-uniform Dharma Initiative scientist Marvin Candle (or Edgar Halliwax, depending on which of his videos you're watching) urging those watching the video to reconstitute the Dharma Initiative, but all was quickly cut off by an unknown video recorder.

Here's a rundown of "Lost" fans'  burning questions and the prizes that went with them:

Q: When the hatch imploded and the sky turned purple did the island move then? Like it did when Ben moved it (more recently)?
Damon Lindelof: No. But something happened and that's an excellent question.
Prize: an Oceanic Airlines bottle of water

Q: Are Jin and Locke dead?
Carlton Cuse: Jin and Locke will still be on the show in some form. You'€™ve not seen the last of either of those characters. You know, dead is a relative term. In the timelines of those characters there'€™s still a lot of story to be told.
Prize: Jin's panda bear doll.

Q: Is "Lost" coming back next year? 
DL: We’re doing 17 hours in February 2009 and 17 hours in 2010.
Prize: A '€œLost'€ calendar.

Q: Favorite episode and favorite season?
CC: 'The Constant' would be my favorite episode. I think in terms of favorite seasons, the first one was so amazing and we were trying to figure everything out; yeah, just the excitement and terror of it.
DL: The Season One finale with the raft launch and all of that stuff. It was back when the show could be hopeful before it degraded into despair. And for favorite season? Season Four; everyone worked really hard. You will be rewarded for hanging in until Season Six.
CC: For us it was a huge advantage to get an end date to the show; it really reinvigorated us.
Prize: Apollo bar and an Apollo T-shirt.

Q: I just wanted to slap you around for the Jin and Sun episode -- you guys are naughty.
DL: For slapping us around, here are some "Heroes" DVDs. It'€™s a much better show than ours. Enjoy!
Prize: "€œHeroes" DVD box set

Q: Are we going to get a (Danielle Rousseau) flashback? Will you definitively say in front of 6,500 of us that there will be one?
CC: We will say this: You will see Rousseau's story. But to use the word flashback would be disingenuous. We’re going to do flashbacks and flash-forwards next season, but we’ll mostly be doing something different.
DL: Danielle Rousseau will be in Season Five.
Prize: “Lost” luggage tags

At this point, someone asked a question about whether production would continue under “the new SAG contract,” to which Lindelof replied that he wasn’t aware there was a new one yet -- there isn’t -- but reassured shooting would continue regardless. For asking the question, the guy received the best worst prize of the lot: Photographs of the actors who played short-lived Nikki and Paulo. “Who wouldn’t want that?” Lindeloff asked. “Yes, two SAG actors,” said Cuse.

Q: Do your own mothers not know how the show will end?
CC: They like to be in the dark.
Prize: A life jacket signed by all the writers.

Q: Where is our special guest?
DL: The actors [are] scattered all over the world at the moment, so it’s almost a Herculean task to get any of them out here.
Prize: Signed box set of all seasons of the show.

Q: What happened to [the dog] Vincent?
DL: Vincent made it and will appear in season five. Safe to say he’ll make it to the end of the show.
Prize: Polar bear doll

Q: Are Jack and Kate your one true pairing and will they end up together?
CC: There it is. Someone who asked a real question, a ballsy question that gets right to the heart of the story and the mythology -- we can’t answer it.
DL: Sir, we can not tell you the answer to that question. Obviously we’re very invested in that relationship.
Prize: Jack Shepherd autographed doll … delivered by surprise guest Matthew Fox.

Q: Will Kate ever see Sawyer again?
DL: Not if Jack has anything to say about it! No, yes, Kate will see Sawyer again
Prize: A signed “Lost” poster

Q: Now that the island has moved, what happened to the survivors and Daniel Faraday?
DL: You refer to the Zodiac boat and the non-line speakers, right? Sadly, there is a monsoon a comin’ for some...
Prize: An authentic Faraday tie. “For those of you wondering why Faraday is wearing a tie on the island, stay tuned,” Lindeloff said.

Q: Flash-forwards, how are you going to limit yourselves?
DL: When Season Five starts, you won’t know where and when you are. The way we’re gonna tell stories is gonna be different too.
CC: We organized a bit differently; if we were constrained by FF and FB that that was not gonna be the best way to tell our stories.
Prize: Hanso foundation hat.

Q: How does this show end?
CC: It ends well, we hope -- we can’t answer that.
Prize: A six pack of Dharma drinks

Q: Do you ever come up with stuff like, let’s make Kate a dude, or do you have it all planned out from the beginning?
CC: You can’t have It all planned out. We actually try to write ourselves into corners every day. What we try to avoid is filming that without knowing the answers. We try to puzzle our way out of situations.
Prize: DryErase eraser signed by CC and DL

Q: How old is Richard Alpert and how many toes does he have?
CC: That’s a really good question. He is quite old. We’ve hinted that people age differently on the island and people heal. That is hopefully an engaging mystery that will keep you tuning in. You will learn more about Richard Alpert.
DL: You’re gonna see his toes too.
Prize: A T-shirt that says: “I asked a Richard Alpert a question and all I got what this lousy T-shirt.”

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Carlton Cuse, from left, and Damon Lindelof. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

Correction: Danielle Russo was misspelled. It has been corrected to read Rousseau.

Though it's still early in the convention, the autograph area can sometimes be a lonely place for celebrities.

Tens of thousands will walk by with either a look of worship, a slight tinge of recognition, a glance of bewilderment as they try to figure out who that person is, or even a quick peek of pity for those stars who may have burned brightly, then fallen out of orbit because of time or fickle crowds.  The list includes former wrestling stars, obscure artists, semi-popular film and TV stars, and recognizable names and faces that give us pause -- maybe even stirring a memory or two.

Erin Gray is probably one of the latter.  A '70s and '80s star for her work in "Buck Rogers" and "Silver Spoons," she frequents the convention circuit looking to give back to fans.  In a pretty empty session, she had time to take a few minutes for a few questions.

We'll keep you updated on who sets up camp in the open space.

-- Jevon Phillips

Maybe you've seen the bus ads for True Blood, a faux beverage that gives vampires an artificial substitute for the red stuff they crave.

It's a promotional stunt for "True Blood," the HBO series that launches Sept. 7 and, along with "Twilight," promises to make this fall an especially bloody season.

At the panel for the show, Alan Ball, the creative force behind the series, was asked if there would be an actual beverage bottled up to cash in on the curiosity about the advertisements.

"Yes," said the creator of "Six Feet Under," "and it's going to be a combination of V8, valium, vicodin and Viagra."

The show uses vampires as a metaphor for any "outsider culture," Ball told a packed ballroom, many of them fans of the "True Blood" novels of author Charlene Harris, also a panelist.

Relationships and sex are big aspects of the show, Ball said, and he said there were mortals who seek out the blood-suckers because of their prowess in the sheets.

"They're a pretty amazing catch," Ball said, pointing out that they are forever young but have hundreds of years of experience as far as satisfying their partners. "There's a name for the people who try to sleep with them: fangbangers."

On inevitable comparisons to "Twilight": "I think there's room for everything in the world. I don't feel any sense of competition at all."

-- Geoff Boucher

Photo: Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer from "True Blood," courtesy of HBO

John Barrowman is clearly comfortable in front of a crowd.

The star of the British sci-fi series "Torchwood" went to school in San Diego and, back in town with a sizable contingent of his family, the actor bellowed, stood on his seat, sang and playfully groped his fellow cast members during a panel in Ballroom 20 on Thursday at Comic-Con.

"I thought I told you to never turn my mike off," he told the tech crew when they muted his microphone during a transitional moment.

Barrowman was asked by a fan during a question-and-answer session whether he would consider "rocking the blond hair" and donning the star-spangled superhero Captain America. Barrowman was emphatic that he would like to do just that if Marvel Studios calls.

"He's one of my favorite superheroes. ... My dad is probably sending the studio an e-mail right now," the square-jawed actor said, nodding toward his parents in the front row of the huge ballroom.

"Torchwood" executive producer Julie Gardner piped up and said she would "intercept that e-mail" to hold on to her action hero.

The rowdy panel like "Torchwood" was laced with sexual innuendo and flirtation and the crowd was delighted with the steady stream of wisecracks by Barrowman about his character, Captain Jack, and his sexual preferences.

The highlight was tender ad-lib moment: A young woman asked if Barrowman and fellow cast member Naoko Mori (who played Tosh until her death this past season) would sing a duet of "Sun and Moon" from "Miss Saigon." The pair starred in a stage production years ago and, after a bit of fumbling to remember the lyrics, they performed it to the delight of the crowd.

I was lucky enough to be the moderator of this panel, and it was pretty easy — all I had to do was stay out of the way of the Captain and his crew.

— Geoff Boucher

Photo: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) and Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato) star in the BBC series "Torchwood," courtesy BBC America.

This post in from Christie St. Martins, blogger extraordinaire of Funny Pages 2.0:

Every year, I check out the fall line-up and pray that maybe I'll get something to fill in the gap between my lost and beloved "Star Trek" series and of course the lulls between "Battlestar Galactica" seasons and their often questionable TV-made movie attempts. Every year, I see a few potential hopefuls that are always squashed for me by cynical bloggers getting the scoop before I see the pilot. You know that, OR I find out that the sci-fi show I was excited about was produced in Canada. Either way, every year I lose a little more hope.

You would think, with the success of the box office for the last eight years for graphic novel film adaptations that they would really try to up the ante for prime-time television. "Heroes" sure, thank you Fox, but guess what? We rather patient and loyal geeks have to wait months and months with only awful reality TV ("So You Think You Can Dance," excluded. Whatever. Mock me all you want, it's great.) to keep us company.

This brings me to the potential ray of light in my sad geekless televised world, "Fringe." "Fringe" is the fourth TV series created by  J.J. Abrams, of most recent "Lost" fame, that aims to explore mysteries of the paranormal as well as the relationships between the characters while steeped in yummy mythology. I was even one of Abrams loyal viewers with "Alias." (Yeah, I loved "Felicity" too, but this isn't a sleepover so I'll keep my mouth shut. Sort of.) Although, I am not particularly proud of the "Alias" years. After the fourth person died, but didn't really die, because, oh look, they are back in Sydney's life again, it was just a bit too much. Then "Lost" came around, oh happy day! Plane disaster stories. Delicious.

I'm excited to be moderating several Comic-Con panels this year for the first time and by "excited," of course, I mean "paralyzed with fear."

Here's the press release about three of them, all for the BBC, which is coming to Comic-Con in a big way with "Torchwood," "Dr. Who," "Spaced" and their new show, "Primeval":

The BBC is coming to Comic-Con 2008 with its first ever BBC AMERICA booth plus an army of creators and stars from international hit series Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval and Spaced. The booth on the exhibition floor will promote BBC Video, associated merchandise as well as BBC AMERICA’s Supernatural Saturdays, home of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval.

Thursday, July 24 kicks things off with a panel featuring Britain’s most successful sci-fi franchise. The Doctor Who panel includes the BAFTA winning executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat and executive producer Julie Gardner. It is followed by a Torchwood panel - BBC AMERICA’s highest rated television show ever - with actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori and executive producer Julie Gardner.

Friday, July 25 sees a panel for the clever and edgy comedy Spaced with creator-stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow), and director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The panel will be moderated by Drew ‘Moriarty’ McWeeny, West Coast editor of Ain’t It Cool News. Created for fanboys and fangirls, Spaced will be available for the first time in North America in a DVD set on July 22 and on sale at the BBC booth. Later that evening, there will be a special screening of three episodes as chosen by the fans, log on to www.spacedinvasion.com to get involved.

BBC AMERICA’s newest sci-fi hit, Primeval, will also be represented with a panel on Friday, July 25 featuring actors Douglas Henshall, Juliet Aubrey and Karl Theobald discussing their onscreen battle to save humanity from prehistoric creatures invading the present day world.

The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval panels will be moderated by Los Angeles Times writer Geoff Boucher. Boucher, who has written about Hollywood and the music industry for a decade for The Times, is also the lead blogger on Hero Complex, which has insider coverage of genre films, graphic novels, science fiction and all the other heroic pursuits in pop culture.

BBC AMERICA’s booth (#3629) on the exhibition floor will host various signings on Thursday and Friday related to all four programs. Fans will be able to purchase DVD sets from BBC Video and merchandise from a range of licensees

Update: The press release came over from the BBC with some dates scrambled, they are corrected in the text as it appears above.

- Geoff Boucher

photo of John Barrowman, left, with guest star James Marsters on "Torchwood" by Todd Anthony  BBC Worldwide

These days, every major genre film and hit show has a significant presence on the Internet, but that wasn’t the case when "The X-Files" became a spooky sensation in the 1990s. David Duchovny said that, like his character Fox Mulder, the relentless faith of true believers is astounding to behold.

" 'The X-Files' was said to be the first Internet show," Duchovny said over coffee on a recent morning in Los Angeles. "We had chat rooms and fan sites and all that. Look, I’m usually five or six years behind whatever is hip. So it was around 2000 that I started doing e-mail and finally started understanding what all that was about."

And what was it about? The answer is religion, apparently.

"My initial response — and I still hold this to be true — is that it takes the place of some of the functions of a church in a small town: A place where people come together, ostensibly to worship something. But really what’s happening is you’re forming a community. It’s less about what you’re worshiping and more about, ‘We have these interests in common.’ Someone has a sick aunt and suddenly it’s about that, raising money to help her or sharing resources to make her life easier. That’s what it was about with 'The X-Files' on the Internet."

Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson are back on autopsy and trench-coat duty on July 25 as "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" pulls the FBI tandem away from the complicated conspiracy plots of the old series and puts them in the "monster of the week" mode of investigating an isolated supernatural threat.

Duchovny said that he has come to view the most loyal fans of the show as celebrants of self, not of celebrity.

"When I was at Comic-Con it felt the same as the small-town church thing. I’m not denigrating 'The X-Files,' but that fellowship isn’t essentially about the show. The fans came to Comic-Con to honor us but I think they’re honoring us because we inspire them to have a certain kind of fellowship. Now, I’m not saying we’re not worthy of that kind of honor. I want to be clear about that.”

Oh, that’s very clear; essentially, his point is that "The X-Files" is bigger than God and religion, right? "No, no! You’re going to get me in trouble. I didn’t say bigger than God. I said 'The X-Files' is equal to God."

-- Geoff Boucher

Photos: David Duchovny, Karen Tapia-Andersen/Los Angeles Times; Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Diyah Pera / 20th Century Fox