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ATX Television Festival Season 10 – Day 6

Jun 16, 2021 Posted by in Features | Comments

The sixth day of the ATX Television Festival Season 10 kicked off with another live episode of The Daily. Actor Brett Dier (Jane the Virgin) gave a guest weather report, then festival co-founders Caitlin McFarland & Emily briefly discussed yesterday’s programming, previewed today’s events and showed another installment of “Adventures in Austin! with Caitlin & Emily” where they headed to the Alamo Drafthouse to talk “Community and Beer with Family Business” with guests Danneel Ackles and Gino Graul. Finally, they actor Jake Borelli (“Dr. Levi Schmitt”) joined them via Zoom to talk about Caitlin’s pre-festival 17-season binge of Grey’s Anatomy and his recent re-watch, what it was like joining this long-running series, and all the reality shows he watched during lockdown.


Later in the day there was a live Happy Hour, where Caitlin & Emily were joined by special Zoom guests TV writers/producers Liz Tigelaar & Julie Plec to share their memories of previous festivals, talk about what they’ve been watching, and some of the projects they are working on.


This was followed by two ATX Award discussions with Michael J. Fox and Angelica Ross, and panels for two Apple TV+ shows, Central Park and Mythic Quest


ATX Award in Television eXcellence: Michael J. Fox

This year’s ATX Award in Television eXcellence (the ATX equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement award) was awarded to five-time Emmy award winning and four-time Golden Globe winning actor, producer, activist, and New York Times best-selling author Michael J. Fox. Denis Leary led this fun conversation with his colleague/friend. Leary opened up the conversation by stating that they were probably going to break his past cursing record from the Rescue Me Reunion panel (and they definitely F-ing tried).

The two discussed Fox’s recent memoir “No Time Like the Future”, and how it’s crazy that people their age are already getting Lifetime Achievement awards. Fox shared stories about working with Charles Grodin on The Michael J. Fox Show, working on Family Ties, and his Emmy-award winning work on Rescue Me. Leary joked about the people who got fired to launch Fox’s TV and movie careers (Matthew Broderick and Eric Stoltz). They also discussed the second stage of Fox’s career that kicked off with Scrubs. Leary brought up the debate over TV vs movies, how they are different (or not), and how the quality of TV has surpassed that of movies. They also discussed the massive and overwhelming amount of TV released these days, and some of the shows they have discovered. Leary also talked about how TV excites him because he gets to play the same character for a long time, and also build relationships with the people he works with. Fox agreed, bringing up his recent meetings with Justine Bateman, and an actor from Spin City. Leary mentioned how streaming as given new life to older shows, and how new firefighters in training see him and think he’s actually Tommy Gavin. Fox also talked about getting addicted to watching old game shows on BUZZR like it was porn, which made him think of his own mortality as he watched all these people on TV who were likely dead now. They closed out by talking about how lifetime achievement awards usually mean the end of a career, when the person can barely function anymore as they head off into the sunset, but not Fox, this is just the middle of his career.


ATX Breakthrough Award: Angelica Ross

For its very first very first “Breakthrough Award”, ATX chose to honor actress Angelica Ross. Actor/singer/writer Sheryl Lee Ralph sat down with the trans actress for a discussion about her career, the challenges she’s faced, her advocacy work, and her work in TV—which includes shows like Claws, Transparent, Pose and American Horror Story. Sheryl Lee Ralph also shared stories about her own career and challenges, including getting cast as a trans character.


Central Park

The cast and creators of Apple TV+’s animated musical series Central Park gathered to discuss the delightful series and give a preview of the upcoming second season, the first half of which kicks off June 25. Series creator/showrunner/EP Loren Bouchard leads this discussion with stars Leslie Odom Jr (“Owen Tillerman”) Josh Gad (“Birdie”) & Tituss Burgess (“Cole Tillerman”), and consulting producers Kelvin Yu & Steven Davis.

Bouchard kicked things off with a recap of the premise of the series, and Gad discussed why they chose to set it in New York/Central Park and make it a full-blown musical. Odom Jr talked about getting to sing many different musical genres on the show, how these songs bring joy to the viewer, and what it’s like voicing the always good-natured, vulnerable Owen. He also talked briefly about the show’s drive for representation and the recasting. Burgess talked about portraying a child, singing as an 11-year-old, and voicing this self-assured young boy.

Kelvin Yu talked about the long-lasting timelessness of animation. Loren and Josh talked about how they decided to add a villain into the mix after the results of the 2016 election, and how Stanley Tucci and Daveed Diggs have elevated Bitsy and Helen and made them three-dimensional. Gad also praised Odom Jr’s ability to deliver lines in unexpected ways.

Bouchard hyped up the second season, rattling off an impressive list of guest songwriters for season two, as well as some amazing guest stars, including Patti LuPone, Billy Porter, and Catherine O’Hara—who sings a Danny Elfman song! Kelvin Yu said he is in constant disbelief with who he’s talking to on Zoom. Whenever Bouchard tried to turn the discussion deeper and more serious, the panelists always found a way to add humor into their responses. They closed things out with the cast talking about how they spread the word about the series, and Gad mentioned that Emilio Estevez reached out to him to say how much he enjoys the series (and then afterwards said that he made that up).

Festival attendees were able to watch the first 2 episodes of the new season early via VOD, and I have to say the second season is just as great as the first, and the musical numbers feel even bigger. I can’t wait to see the rest of the season!


Mythic Quest

The cast and creators of Apple TV+’s workplace comedy Mythic Quest to discuss the series in this hilarious panel moderated by Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson. The panelists include co-creators/executive producers Rob McElhenney (“Ian”) & Megan Ganz, executive producer David Hornsby (“David”), writer Ashly Burch (“Rachel”), and actors Charlotte Nicdao (“Poppy”), F. Murray Abraham (“C.W. Longbottom”), Danny Pudi (“Brad”), Imani Hakim (“Dana”) & Jessie Ennis (“Jo”).

The panelists started off by talking about their Animal Personality Test results. Then Megan Ganz talked about doing the standalone episodes in the middle of the season. Rob McElhenney discussed the collaborative nature of the writing room, and working with his sister. David Hornsby said that he did actually shave his eyebrow since he had to do his own makeup at home and couldn’t cover it up. F. Murray Abraham talked about returning to filming in person after being home for a bunch of episodes, and how he wants his character to find love. Ashly Burch and Imani Hakim talked about getting to step out of the tester’s box and do scenes with the rest of the cast this season, and the relationship between their characters. Ashly also talked about the gaming research she did as her character went from testing to programming. Danny Pudi & Jessie Ennis talked about the Predator-off and matching each other’s looks and actions. Charlotte Nicdao talked about Poppy being a terrible leader and turning into a tyrant, filming the teleprompter scene, and shooting Poppy’s breakdown in the quarantine episode.

The writers talked about how they changed things up in the second season and mixed up the pairings to make things interesting and fun. They shared a fun story about how the DuckTales monologue came about. All of the panelists talked about what they stole from the set at the end of season two. Rob McElhenney & Megan Ganz discussed how their relationship compares with the relationship between Ian & Poppy. The actors also talked about the nastier sides of their characters, while the writers dodged the question of which character is their favorite to write for. Finally, the panelists all described which character in the office they most identify with personally.

Following the panel, there was a pop-up live Zoom chat for attendees with some of the ladies of Mythic Quest.

 

Virtual Festival Badges and Day Passes for Season 10 are still available. To purchase a Badge, Pass, or learn more, visit atxfestival.com/attend.

Sales of the ATX TV Festival Boxes will end tonight, so pick one up now if you want one.