Comic Con ’08 Schedule: Thursday, July 24, 2008

The official Comic Con schedule for Thursday, July 24th has just been released, and there are plenty of interesting TV-realted panels to keep me busy. The TV panels on Thursday include:

• PREVIEW NIGHT (Wednesday) Fringe – Screening Only (full panel on Saturday)
• Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns
• Kings
• 30th Anniversary Battlestar Galactica Panel
• Knight Rider
• Torchwood
• The Middleman
• TV Costume Designers
• True Blood
• Dexter
• Comedy Central TV Funhouse with Robert Smigel

My schedule is a little TBD right now, but the panels in bold are the ones I’m hoping to attend.
Panel descriptions, times and room locations after the jump.

6:00–7:30 and 7:30-9:00 Fringe Pilot Screenings—Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present two exclusive premiere screenings of the pilot episode of Fringe, the highly anticipated new FOX series from J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind the upcoming Star Trek feature, Mission: Impossible 3 and Alias. When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, The Pacific) is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: He’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter (Josh Jackson, Shutter), in to help. Under Special Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, The Wire), our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth. Fringe also stars Kirk Acevedo (Oz), Blair Brown (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd) and Jasika Nicole (The Mastersons of Manhattan). From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe premieres September 9 and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on FOX. (Please note: we will clear the room between screenings. Seating is limited. Pick the screening time that works best for you!) Ballroom 20

10:00-11:00 Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns—Behind the scenes at PBS’s hilarious new primetime toon, based on the famous radio show Car Talk, direct from Car Talk Plaza! Catch a sneak peek of a new episode, plus Q&A with the creators: Tom Sito (The Lion King, Osmosis Jones), Bill Kroyer (Tron, Garfield the Movie), Stephen Silver (Kim Possible), Floyd Norman (101 Dalmatians), Helen Jen (TMNT), Tom Minton (Pinky and the Brain), and executive producer Howard Grossman. Extra bonus feature: a special message for Comic-Con from the real Tom & Ray, the Tappet Bros! Room 2

10:00-11:00 Kings: Exclusive Sneak Peek Screening and Q&A with Cast and Executive Producers—Kings is a contemporary re-imagining of the timeless tale of David and Goliath, an epic story of greed and power, war and romance, forbidden loves and secret alliances, and a young hero who rises to power in a modern-day kingdom. Be the first to see an exclusive sneak peek from the two-hour pilot. Moderated by Greg Grunberg (Heroes), the panel includes a Q&A with creator/executive producer Michael Green (Heroes), director/executive producer Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), executive producer Erwin Stoff (I Am Legend), and the cast: Golden Globe winner Ian McShane (Deadwood), Chris Egan (Resident Evil: Extinction), Susanna Thompson (Star Trek: Voyager), Sebastian Stan (Gossip Girl), and Allison Miller (Seventeen Again). Room 6B

11:15-12:15 30th Anniversary Battlestar Galactica Panel—Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek/Apollo), Bear McCreary (BG composer), producer Tom DeSanto (Transformers, X-Men), Dr. Kevin Grazier (science consultant), and surprise guests present an in-depth discussion of the Battlestar universe from the classic to the re-imagined and beyond, including BSG trailers and Q&A. Room 6B

11:45-12:45 Knight Rider: First Look at the New Series and Q&A with Cast and Executive Producers—On the heels of NBC’s hit sequel movie based on the iconic 1980s television classic, Knight Rider has been reinvented as a supercharged action series showcasing the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand). Be the first to see exclusive footage from the new series. Moderated by Television Week deputy editor/columnist Josef Adalian, who participates in a Q&A session with executive producer/showrunner Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and The Furious, Las Vegas); executive producer David Bartis (Heist, The OC); and the cast: Justin Bruening (Cold Case), Deanna Russo (NCIS), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars), Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica), Yancey Arias (Kingpin), Bruce Davison (X-Men) and Smith Cho (Blades of Glory). Room 6A

1:00-2:00 Torchwood—Writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), executive producer Julie Gardner (Torchwood), writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), and actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Naoko Mori and Burn Gorman discuss their creative process and experience on working on BBC America’s highest-rated show ever—Torchwood— followed by a Q&A session. Ballroom 20

2:00-3:00 The Middleman—Creator and executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost) and The Middleman actors Matt Keeslar (Dune) and Natalie Morales (CSI: Miami) discuss the bizarre world of The Middleman. Based on the graphic novels by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, The Middleman follows the surreal life of twenty-something Wendy Watson as she gets recruited by a top secret agency to fight comic book-esque criminals under the guidance of her straight-laced boss, The Middleman. Room 5AB

4:00-5:00 TV Costume Designers— Characters created by writers and comic book illustrators are made real for the screen via the artistry of costume designers. Meet the women and men who are the costume designers on this year’s most popular television productions. Panel moderator Jacqueline Saint Anne (Quantum Leap), past president of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, hosts costume designers Shawna Trpcic (Firefly), Roland Sanchez (Lost), Amanda Friedland (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), and Cynthia Bergstrom (Buffy, The Vampire Slayer). Room 4

4:30-5:30 HBO’s True Blood—Based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is created by Alan Ball, creator of HBO’s Emmy-winning series Six Feet Under. The series takes place in the not-too-distant future, when, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, vampires no longer need humans for their fix and can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts. With their integration into a small Louisiana town causing a stir, a love story ensues between Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin, the X-Men films; Academy Award winner for The Piano), an innocent waitress with the unusual ability to read minds, and vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer, The Starter Wife). The series also features Ryan Kwanten (Summerland), Rutina Wesley (How She Move), Sam Trammell (Judging Amy), and Nelsan Ellis (The Inside). True Blood debuts September 7 exclusively on HBO. Room 6CDEF

5:45-6:45 Showtime: Dexter—Showtime presents exclusives from the set of the highly anticipated third season of Dexter. Moderator Kristin Dos Santos (E!) presides over this revealing interview and Q&A session with the top stars and executive producers of Dexter, featuring Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Clyde Phillips, and John Goldwyn, plus a special guest! Room 6CDEF

Nighttime Programs

7:00-9:00 Comedy Central TV Funhouse with Robert Smigel—Robert Smigel (Saturday Night Live) and Dino Stamatopoulos (Morel Orel) reunite to discuss the most groundbreaking show to ever hit (and subsequently disappear) from basic cable. Join the guys to relive the glory of the best show you barely remember. Room 6CDEF

For a full list of all Comic Con panels on Thursday, click here.