Season Finale

Last night, Len and I headed over to the Warner Bros. lot to watch the season finale to Human Target. If you didn't watch it, I hope you recorded it. It rocked.

We spent a lot of time talking to Chi McBride (who plays Winston) after the screening. He saw us coming and threw open his arms for a hug to "Mr. & Mrs. Len." He's fabulous & Len's been having a blast writing his character in the 6-issue HT miniseries he's writing (Issue #3 came out this week.) Neither Jackie Earle Hailey nor Mark Valley were there last night. We think Jackie's out promoting "Nightmare on Elm Street." Len saw Mark two weeks ago when they each were filmed for the HT Season One DVD extras.

Lee Majors and Tim Ohmudson (not sure I spelled that right) were guest stars in last night's episode, and they were also at the screening. Armand Assante, also in the episode, was not. I remember seeing Armand Assante sitting at a table with Lou Diamond Philips at Hugo's in West Hollywood 20 years ago when I was a law clerk at the Writers Guild, west. He does not look the same at all.

Tim Ohmudson is almost unrecognizable, very different from Det. Lassiter (a.k.a., "Lassie"), his regular gig on Psych. Len and I now have an invitation to visit the set of Psych if we get up to Vancouver in September. Len's been invited to be a GOH at a new convention there and our friend good friend Gillian Horvath is working on Sanctuary, so we've got several reasons to consider the trip. There's a good chance Len will go. I'll have to get my passport updated to accompany him or visit Gillian on my own. Tim said he's leaving Friday for the drive to Vancouver where they start shooting a week from Monday. I've done that drive. It's long but beautiful.

We are waiting with fingers crossed that Human Target gets picked up for a second season. If it does, Comic-Con will be a lot more fun in July.

The Human Target

While Len and I feel we are slowly moving human targets these day, "The Human Target" is actually a television series which premiers on Sunday night at 8 p.m. (7 Central) on your local Fox (not Fox News) channel. I've seen the pilot, and it is great fun with terrific casting. I may be prejudiced, but the critics and test audiences agree.

The Len Wein (with artist Carmine Infantino) character debuted in DC Comics back in 1972--it was Len's very first new character creation--and had a 7-episode TV series almost 20 years ago starring Rick Springfield with great production design by comic book artist great Michael Kaluta. (I remember we had a party the night it premiered, and the sewer backed up. Was that a night to remember.)

The new series stars Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earle Haley. We had a great time when we met them at Comic-con last summer (Len's between Jackie and Mark in the photo above), and Len's 6-part comic book mini-series which ties into the show starts coming out at the beginning of February. While we, the walking wounded, thought we'd throw a viewing party, we've been invited to the official cast and crew party on Sunday evening. I'm thinking about bringing along a Sharpie, getting the cast to autograph my cast, and auctioning it for the Hero Initiative (which benefits older comics creators) when it comes off. It seems appropriate, or at least a fun idea.

Please do tune in. It will help pay for a new house if it succeeds. The second episode runs on Wednesday following American Idol, and its regular spot will precede American Idol on Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. My doctor decided to wait another two weeks before making a decision about surgery. While I'd rather not have surgery, if it will speed up the process of getting better, I'll deal with it. It's rough having both of us function at less than full capacity at the same time.

Comicon 2009: Saturday

Saturday promised to be a busy day, and it was. I went off to have breakfast with Ginjer Buchanan, an old friend who is an editor in New York. This was her first Comicon. She was attending because one of her authors wrote the novels upon which True Blood is based.

After spending two and a half hours catching up with gossip, she went off to author-wrangle and I stopped at Horton Plaza where I picked up a black pant-suit for an upcoming event. Now I've got to find some silk shells to wear with it. I dropped that off at the room, changed my clothes, and went off to catch Len interviewing his old friend Doug Moench, one of this year's Comicon guests. Doug told a very funny story about working with Dino di Laurentis on Red Sonja. Apparently, the producer does not read English, so all of Doug's drafts were being translated to Italian. It took Doug a while to figure out that when Dino had a meeting with him and insisted there were not to be vampires in Red Sonja. Since Doug had not written any vampires in the script, he began to wonder who was rewriting his work. Then he realized that he did have a scene with leeches, and that leeches were being somehow translated as vampires. It was very funny. And I thought humor didn't translate well.

Len finished the panel and we ran off to the Human Target events, which started with a press conference where the cast, writers, and Len were shuttled in front of a variety of TV and print reporters and asked pretty much the same questions by each of them. Then we went to the room where an audience of some 3000 people were being shown the Human Target pilot, which got a great response. Len, three of the writers, and the three stars were then called up on stage for questions for about half an hour. Then we were shuttled off to the Warner Bros. signing area on the show floor. The plus-ones got to watch from the holding area upstairs.

Here's the photograph I got of Jackie Earle Haley, Len, Mark Valley, and Chi McBride as we were waiting in the back areas of the convention center to get to the Warner Bros. signing booth.

Comicon 2009: Friday Evening

The Warner Bros. Television cocktail party was held on the 4th floor terrace of the Hilton Hotel on the bay. It was a lovely evening with good food and a pretty sunset.The casts of shows like The Big Bang Theory, Dexter, and Heroes, along with writers and directors were there. There was also a good showing of folks from upcoming shows, like The Vampire Diaries and the reason we were invited, The Human Target. I met Mark Valley and Jackie Earle Haley (and Jackie's wife Amelia), chatted with Jim Parsons (above), and hung out with Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and his wife, and Brian Lowry of Variety.Len met Jackie (together, above) at the Watchmen premier. Len had written the Watchmen video game and Jackie voiced Rorschach for the game and played the role in the movie. He has a newly created character in The Human Target. He's a terrific actor whom I remember fondly from Breaking Away. He and his wife are really lovely people and we had a good time talking with them.

Tomorrow will be Len's busy day. Not only is he doing The Human Target panel and press conference, he's interviewing Doug Moench and doing the Ben 10 panel.

I'm planning to run over to the antique shops at Ocean Beach and get back to take pictures at the press conference and panel tomorrow. Things were so much easier before they built the baseball stadium down here (right next door to our hotel) and the antique shops were within walking distance of our hotel. But urban renewal and Ebay have combined to eliminate the shops, so now only a few remain in far-flung locations. Pity.

Comicon 2009: Friday

Today's the day I actually braved the crowds and went over to the convention center to catch The Big Bang Theory panel. I did cheat a little bit by imposing on my friendship with Bill Prady to ask for guest passes, so we could have decent seats without having to sit in line for hours. I met up with Bill's assistant and got our passes and one for actress Chase Masterson.
The cast, along with co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady put on an hysterical panel. It was preceded by a clip reel of scenes which relate to Comicon attendees. A huge favorite is "Rock, Paper, Sissors, Lizard, Spock" which JimParsons was asked to do live. He can't. Apparently, every one of the 12 or so takes will be available on the Season 2 DVD set, due out in September.

Jim did a great job answering the question about how Sheldon would respond to being nominated for an Emmy Award (as Jim was last week) and what he'd do for an acceptance speech when he wins. Here's the response:



And now, it is time for me to walk over to the Hilton for the Warner Bros. Television reception where I'll see the folks from TBBT and meet the folks who are bringing Len's baby The Human Target to the small screen this winter.