USA 2010 Comic Con Panels

Today the USA Network held three TV show panels at Comic Con: Burn Notice, While Collar and Psych.

Burn Notice was first up with the following participants:

Chris Vance (panel moderator): Mason Gilroy

Tim Matheson: Larry Sizemore (also has directed several episodes)

Bruce Campbell: Sam Axe (AKA Chuck Finely)

Matt Nix: Creator, writer, director, executive producer

Alfredo Barrios Jr. Writer, executive producer

The intro to the panel was a Michael Westen "voice over video" in the style of the show on how to smuggle your friends into Comic Con.  It was very funny.

The biggest news to come out of the panel is that they will be doing a Burn Notice prequel with Bruce Campbell.  It will cover his last mission as a Navy Seal, and how he ended up in Miami.  That news got a big rise out of the crowd when announced by USA.  Bruce Campbell's joking response was "USA finally got their sh!t together". 

There were some spoilers for upcoming episodes that slipped:

I was shocked to hear that they shoot each episode in only 7 days.  The panel gave a lot of credit to their second unit and the fact that the cast is usually prepared so they don't need a lot of takes for that.  There was some discussion about the relationship between Larry (Tim Matheson) and Michael.  They described Larry as the Devil on Michael's shoulder and Sam as the Angel. 

Matt Nix held nothing back as the audience asked about how they decided on Miami as a location for the show (it was USA Network's idea) and was it a mistake to give Fiona an Irish accent in the pilot (yes).

Bruce Campbell (Sam) is my new hero.  An audience member asked what he considers a good movie.  After jokingly remarking any movie with himself in it he said one of his favorite movies was one that most people in the room probably had never heard of: Bridge over the River Kwai.  Further remarking about the film he said William Holden was "a man" who could kick Ben Afflicks's ass, it was a movie that had a score, not a soundtrack, was shot in 70mm and unlike most movies today had a theme.

The second panel was for White Collar with the following participants:

Willie Garson (panel moderator): Mozzie

Sharif Atkins: Jones

Marsha Thomason: Diana Lancing

Tiffani Thiessen: Elizabeth Burke

Tim DeKay: Peter Burke

Matt Bomer: Neil Caffrey

Jeff Eastin: Executive Producer, writer

Jeff King: Co-Executive Producer

The intro to the panel was a very funny video where the cast was planning on stealing footage of the new Tron film at Comic Con and were going over their disguises for the caper--critical as most of them have been in SciFi and fantasy series, so they would be readily recognizable to most attendees.

There wasn't much that came out of this panel.  An audience member asked if Kate was really dead.

The third and final USA panel for the day was the Psych panel with the following participants:

Andy Berman: (panel moderator) Writer

James Roday: Shawn Spencer

Dule Hill: Burton 'Gus' Guster

Corbin Bernsen: Henry Spencer

Kirsten Nelson: Karen Vick

Maggie Lawson: Juliet O'Hare

Tim Omundson: Carlton Lassiter

Kelly Kulchak: Executive Producer

Chris Henze: Executive Producer

Steve Franks: Executive Producer, Writer, Director

According to Executive Producer Kelly Kulchak this season is going to be 85% cooler than previous seasons.  The intro was a clip with Gus and Shawn pestering Curt Smith of Tears for Fears with their rendition of "Shout", followed by the three of them live on stage finishing the musical number.

Starting in the fourth season the show switched from Super 16 to Sony Red HD cameras.  We saw a preview clip of an upcoming episode starring Freddie Prinze Jr that looked pretty funny.  He is just one of a great selection of guest stars we will see this season:

Freddie Prinze Jr

Adam Rodriguez

William Devane & Carl Weathers

C. Thomas Howell

Nestor Carbonell (Richard from lost)

So what's the deal with the pineapples?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexF 

Some of the intro videos sound fun.  It'd be nice to have those bits as easter eggs on upcoming season DVD/BR sets.
 

I totally agree as they were a lot of fun.  Unfortunately they don't let you tape any of the video segments.