For the past 3 years the ATX Television Festival has been giving TV fans an up-close-and-personal look at the TV business. I had heard about the festival the first year it was Kickstarted, but I had held off going. However, I kept hearing good things about the event year after year, so last year I finally decided to buy a ticket as soon as they became available—without any information on what shows would be there. Over the summer the news came out that the fourth “season” of the convention would feature a Gilmore Girls reunion—and this caused the event to sell out for the first time in its history.
The only other entertainment convention I had ever been to was San Diego Comic-Con, which I have been attending since 2010, so I was interested to see how different a much smaller festival would be. Most of ATX’s venues max out at a couple hundred people, one only holds 75 people, and the two largest hold around 400 and 1270.
One of the unique features of this festival is its use of Fast Passes. Each badged attendee gets 3 Fast Passes, which you order online the week before the festival—these guarantee you will get into at least 3 of the panels (hopefully the ones you really want to see).
When the Fast Pass purchase system initially opened, there were a lot of browser issues, but I managed to eventually get through and get three of the panels I really wanted—Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the Dawson’s Creek Writers Room, and the coveted Gilmore Girls reunion.
Cut to a week later and it was time to fly out to Texas—my first trip to this huge state. After arriving at the airport, I took a Super Shuttle to my hotel and then headed over to the Intercontinental Hotel to pick up my badge and fast pass tickets.
Day 1 – Thursday June 4, 2015
After getting my stuff, I found some SDCC friends, chatted for a while and then walked around and got the lay of the land. Unlike SDCC, there isn’t just one or two large buildings—the panels are spread across the city, with some of the venues a good 15 minute walk from one another. As I was walking I immediately noticed the Texas heat, which I found out afterwards was actually cooler than last year—I can’t imagine!
The only panel on the Thursday opening night was a premiere screening/panel for the new USA Network series Complications.
Complications
OPENING NIGHT SCREENING
Date: Thursday 6/4
Time: 7 PM
Venue: State TheaterPanelists: Matt Nix (Creator/EP), Cast: Jessica Szohr, Beth Riesgraf, Michael Horowitz
Moderator: Mark Peikert
I had already seen screeners of the first 3 episodes, which I enjoyed, but I was interested in the Q&A. So I got in line early at the State Theater and when the doors opened, I sat way up front—I didn’t mind the break-neck view of the screen since I had already seen the episodes. Matt Nix is always interesting to listen to, and the cast had great chemistry on stage.
After the panel, I met up with Jason (@thetvaholic) and some other bloggers for dinner at a hot dog restaurant, where I instantly knew what I was going to order upon seeing a menu item called “The Notorious P.I.G.”!
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s rest for tomorrow’s full day of panels.
Day 2 – Friday June 5, 2015
I woke up early on Friday and headed to the hotel lobby for my free buffet breakfast, and then headed off to the Google Fiber Space for my first panel of the day. Being new to this convention, I had no idea what the lines were going to be like, so I wanted to get there at least 90 min early (despite having a Fast Pass). Needless to say, I was extremely early, and the first person in line.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 10:30 AM
Venue: Google Fiber SpacePanelists: Dan Goor (Writer/Creator/EP), Cast: Melissa Fumero, Chelsea Peretti
Moderator: Tim Goodman
This was such a fun panel to start off with, and I was in the front row. The trio talked about the fun they have on set, and Dan Goor mentioned how he discovered Chelsea Peretti when she was a writer on Parks and Recreation. The highlight of the panel had to be when a mother and daughter were trying to leave early to get to another panel, and they got heckled by the panelists for the duration of their long walk around the back of the room to the exit.
After that panel, I left the room and immediately got back in line for the next panel in the Google Fiber Space room.
It’s Debatable.
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 12:00pm
Venue: Google Fiber SpacePanelists: Tara Ariano, Todd VanDerWerff, Dan Fienberg
Moderator: Tim Goodman
This was a really interesting Q&A with a panel of TV critics who discussed the challenges of keeping up with all of the new TV shows, how they assign shows to writers and a lot more. This is one thing that’s great about the ATX TV Festival is that you get this nice mix of celebrity and industry panels.
Wayward Pines
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 2:30 PM
Venue: Alamo Drafthouse Ritz – Theater 1Panelists: Chad Hodge (Creator/EP), Cast: Carla Gugino
Moderator: Dan Fienberg
After a screening of a game-changing, very revealing episode of Wayward Pines, series creator Chad Hodge and actress Carla Gugino talked about the show and answered questions from the audience. Carla also mentioned her love for the cookies at the Alamo Drafthouse.
As we left the theater we were handed these cool pine tree car air fresheners with the show’s logo.
Next I tried to get into the Drunk History panel, but unfortunately (and fortunately), it was the only panel that was too full for me to get into all weekend.
So instead I headed over to the State Theater to get in line early for the FX Comedy Night event. When I got there, they were seating the Power season 2 premiere screening/panel. I went in and watched a bit of the premiere, but since I hadn’t seen season 1, I was quite lost and left the theater early.
When I stepped outside, they were offering people reserved seat tickets for the FX Comedy Night for folks to go into the theater now and fill the seats for the Power panel. Basically they would seat anyone with Fast Passes, then the reserved seats and then anyone else in line. I found this seat filling practice a bit unfair—none of the folks already in the theater were told they could come out an get a guaranteed seat to the next panel. This practice of seat filling was also done inconsistently throughout the weekend.
FX Comedy Night
The FX Comedy Night was a trio of screenings/panels. As I waited in the reserved seat line, I could see the stars of the various shows walking the red carpet line doing interviews.
Things started off with a screening of the hilarious season 1 finale of You’re the Worst, followed by a fun Q&A with the cast and creators of the show.
You’re The Worst
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: State TheaterPanelists: Stephen Falk (Creator/EP), Cast: Chris Geere, Aya Cash, Kether Donohue, Desmin Borges
Moderator: Lesley Goldberg
Then we got a sneak peek at the season 2 premiere of Married, followed by a lively Q&A with the cast and creator of the show.
Married
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: State TheaterPanelists: Nat Faxon (Cast), Judy Greer (Cast), Andrew Gurland (Creator), Sarah Burns (Cast), Brett Gelman (Cast)
Moderator: Ben Blacker
And finally we got see the first 7 minutes of the Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll premiere, followed by episode 3 and a fun, NSFW Q&A with the cast.
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll
WORLD PREMIERE
Date: Friday 6/5
Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: State TheaterPanelists: Denis Leary (EP/Actor) Cast: Bobby Kelly, Elizabeth Gillies, Elaine Hendrix, John Ales
The panel was so much fun—Denis Leary and the cast were hilarious and totally didn’t hold anything back. They told some great stories about the production and how the actors were cast without even knowing how to play their instruments. Leary kept apologizing for the sound quality on the screener, but I thought it sounded amazing—the music was excellent, and the show was really funny. I look forward to seeing more! This panel was one of the highlights of the weekend.
After the panel, I met up with some more blogger friends for dinner and then called it a night.
Day 3 – Saturday June 6, 2015
Whoever put this schedule together piled so many great panels into Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, they all overlapped, and that meant some difficult decisions but I had already made my choice during Fast Pass registration a week earlier.
Once again, my first panel of the day was at the Google Fiber Space, and since I was already up, I just got in line super early again.
To adapt is to evolve: a conversation between Noah Hawley, Bryan Fuller, and Graham Yost
Date: Saturday, 6/6
Time: 10:00 AM
Venue: Google Fiber SpacePanelists: Noah Hawley, Graham Yost, Bryan Fuller
Moderator: James Hibberd
The creators of Fargo, Justified and Hannibal provided a great discussion on the challenges of adapting existing work and characters versus coming up with something original. One of the things I really found interesting was when Bryan Fuller talked about character licencing—it’s amazing how convoluted it all gets!
Turn Down for What?! A Look at Testing + Focus Groups
Date: Saturday 6/6
Time: 11:30 AM
Venue: Google Fiber SpacePanelists: Julie Plec, Dina Hillier, Chad Hodge, Ben Wexler
Moderator: Kyle Killen
Single-season wonder Kyle Killen hosted this fascinating panel that took a look at how sample groups and polling are used to determine the fates of pilots. Killen started off with a fun slide show and talked about how polling is still primarily used today, but also some of the other ways new media outlets are testing their new shows.
After that panel, I booked it over to the Intercontinental Hotel to try to get into a panel in the tiniest of the venues, which only holds 75 people. I did manage to get in, but it was hot, cramped and standing room only. And the black curtains on either side of the thin, vertical rectangular room just made things feel even more claustrophobic.
Conversation with Kevin & Julie
Date: Saturday 6/6
Time: 1:30 PM
Venue: SFA Assembly RoomPanelists: Julie Plec; Kevin Williamson
Moderator: Carina MacKenzie
It was interesting to hear about the early careers of Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec—I had no idea they had even worked together, let alone to the extent at which they had. I stayed for most of the panel, but once they got into The Vampire Diaries and The Originals—two shows I don’t watch—I decided to leave to get some air.
While it may be nice to provide a more intimate feeling, the room way way too small to be practical, and the long instead of wide layout made it very difficult to even see from the back rows (unless you were standing like I was).
Dawson’s Creek Writers’ Room Reunion
Date: Saturday, 6/6
Time 3:00 PM
Venue: Paramount TheaterPanelists: Kevin Williamson (Creator), Anna Fricke, Gina Fatorre, Jenny Bicks, Paul Stupin, Rob Thomas
Moderator: Julie Plec
The Dawson’s Creek Writer’s Room panel was one of the ones I was really looking forward to. While I haven’t seen the show since it originally aired, the panel was filled with so many amazing writers who have gone on to work on many other great shows.
It was fun to hear their thoughts and justifications on some of the show’s storylines, and to see who on the panel was actually #TeamDawson. (Grr, don’t get me started about that finale!)
Gilmore Girls Reunion presented in association with Entertainment Weekly
CLOSING NIGHT EVENT
Date: Saturday, 6/6
Start Time: 7:00 PM
Venue: Paramount TheaterPanelists: Amy Sherman-Palladino (Writer/EP), Daniel Palladino (Writer/EP) Cast: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Liza Weil, Keiko Agena, Danny Strong, Jared Padalecki, Matt Czuchry, Jackson Douglas, Todd Lowe, Liz Torres, Yanic Truesdale, John Cabrera
Moderator: Jessica Shaw
The Gilmore Girls Reunion was easily the biggest thing this festival has ever seen, and I don’t think the festival organizers were ready for it. While they tried to prevent people from lining up too early, they should have realized this was a fruitless effort. People were definitely trying to form a line well before the 2 hour limit they had stated.
Fortunately I had a Fast Pass, but still lined up as soon as possible—there were probably 50 people in front of me in the line. However, the regular attendance line was enormous. It was extremely hot outside and a couple people even fainted. After this, they started handing out water and Pop Tarts to those in line.
It was practically 7pm before the line even started moving, and when I got into the theater I was shocked to find it practically full. After all, I should have been 50th person in the room—I was expecting to be in like the second row! It seems that they had reserved almost the entire bottom floor of the theater for VIPs, press and the cast. Plus they had sold tickets to the balcony seats separately. It was really disappointing to see how many of the fans who paid to go to this convention were not even going to get in to see the main event!
There were many things that could have been done to fix this. First, they should not have sold separate tickets and reserved so many seats. The seats should have first gone to the people who paid for the entire weekend and then if there were any available sell them to others. Second, there were two entire rows reserved for the cast who only used these seats for the first 30 minutes while they just had the Gilmore ladies on stage—they should have just had the cast wait backstage instead of taking up seats! Third, they should have utilized the State theater next door to seat another 400+ people and simulcast the event in there. And Fourth, they could have offered some other counter programming for the folks who could not get in—there was absolutely nothing else scheduled for Saturday night.
Rant over, the event itself was a lot of fun. First they just had the series creator and Gilmore ladies on stage, and talked with them for 30 minutes. Then almost the entire cast came out and talked for another hour. It was fun to hear the stories and see all the cast reassembled—though Melissa McCarthy was not present. They also had a nice tribute to Edward Herrmann during the panel, and left an open chair for him on the stage.
After the panel it was dinner time, and back to the hot dog place to meet up with some local podcasters. No P.I.G. for me this time, just some delicious waffle fries.
Day 4 – Sunday June 7, 2015
The final day started as usual with the hotel breakfast buffet. Then I headed to the Intercontinental to get in line to buy my ticket for next year as soon as they opened. Afterwards, I headed to check out the Suits panel.
Suits
SEASON 5 PREMIERE
Date: Sunday 6/7
Time: 10 AM
Venue: State TheaterPanelists: Cast: Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, Gene Klein
Moderator: Jim Halterman
The season 5 premiere of Suits was so much fun. The cast was a lot of fun on stage. I was really enjoying the Q&A when I got a text saying the line for the Dawson’s Creek script reading was starting to get long, so I immediately left the theater and got in that line, and I was lucky that I did!
Dawson’s Creek Script Reading presented by Kevin Williamson
Date: Sunday 6/7
Time: 12 PM
Venue: State Theater
I just barely made it into this panel—I was literally one of the last people to be let into the room! It was a really fun time—various actors who were at the ATX festival for other things stepped in to read the various roles from the Dawson’s Creek pilot, with some gender-bending fun.
Kevin Williamson narrated and the cast included Mae Whitman (“Dawson”), Patrick J. Adams (“Joey”), Abigail Spencer (“Pacey”), Kerr Smith (“Jen”), Louanne Stephens (“Grams”), Derek Phillips (“Mr. Leery”), Stacey Oristano (“Mrs. Leery”), Arielle Kebbel (“Tamara”), Kristian Bruun (“Bessie”, “Nellie”, and “Professor”), and Nick Wechsler (“Bodie” & “Mr. Gold”).
I’m not sure why they had this in the State theater—they could have easily filled the Paramount next door, which didn’t have anything scheduled at this time.
The Leftovers
Date: Sunday 6/7
Time: 2 PM
Venue: SFA BallroomPanelists: Damon Lindelof (Writer/Creator/EP), Mimi Leder (Director/EP); Cast: Ann Dowd, Chris Eccleston, Carrie Coon
Moderator: Ben Blacker
Earlier in the day I got a notification from the ATX app that Chris Eccleston had been added to the panelists for The Leftovers panel. So that made my decision to attend this panel an easy one. Plus I was a Lost fan, so I was excited to hear Damon Lindelof in person.
The panel started off with an audience question from a “fan”—which happened to be Julie Plec. They they got into a more serious and interesting discussion about the series. I was surprised by how down to Earth Chris Eccleston was.
The room this panel was held in was layed out a bit oddly—it was a small rectangular room with some couches in the front and then many rows of chairs. The panelists were on a slight stage, but it wasn’t high enough. It was difficult to see even from a few rows back. This room would have been more practical had they gone wide instead of thing and long.
After the panel was over, there was time to go talk with the panelists, so I headed up to meet the “Doctor”.
What a way to end the festival!
Afterwards I headed to the airport, and caught the Tony Awards during my Jet Blue flight home (CST primetime is so convenient!)
Watching Broadway performances the way they were meant to be seen! #TonyAwards #JetBlue pic.twitter.com/hppNaRMmZr
— Kyle Nolan (@kyool) June 8, 2015
Overall I really enjoyed the experience and will be going back again next season—I already bought my ticket. The small event feeling is nice—you see the celebs just walking around and they are happy to talk and take pictures with the fans.
I hope that ATX can figure out what exactly it wants to be—it seems to be trying to be both small and intimate but also grow like SDCC, which is impossible. Some of the venues are just way too small or impractical, and they scheduled some really popular panels in the smallest venues. I hope they can work out some of the major issues they had this past season for next year. Some ways they could improve things would be to be more consistent with line policies, more proactive in letting people know if they will get into a panel so they don’t wait in the hot sun for nothing, utilize the larger venues whenever possible, schedule counter-programming against the big closing event or even simulcast the major events in multiple venues, and give those who paid for the whole weekend first dibs at all panels. They did take a survey after the envent, and I hope they listen to the responses.
