san diego

(S02E04) A high school reunion episode? Didn't I see this before? Well, yes, the idea of a plot centered around a high school reunion has been a popular staple on episodic TV, but the way Chuck used the concept was really something special.

It gave us new insights into Sarah's character and deepened her connection to Chuck. There was still plenty of action, but oh how I love that back story.

Guest star Nicole Richie -- looking pretty, but in need of a milkshake or two to put some meat on her bones -- is not much of an actress. Still, she can play a jealous skank with aplomb, and that was her role here.

As Heather Chandler, Sarah's former classmate at San Diego's James Buchanan High, Chuck discovered things about Sarah heretofore unknown. Good for us viewers, too. If you haven't watched the show yet, beware plot revelations after the jump.

(Check out part two of this four-part report)

Saturday

This should have felt like the home stretch. I should have felt like the end of it all was near. But a glance at the day's schedule reminded me I was going to be running around like a madman all day, trying to make some of the most popular panels of the weekend.

Saturday was a schedule that Rich and I had been contemplating since the schedule was released. The problem: With only two people, how would we get me from the extremely popular Lost panel in Hall H, all the way over to the other extremely popular Dollhouse panel, while Rich covered The Office? It simply wasn't possible. So, we made the decision that Rich would sit in Ballroom 20 after covering Futurama and The Simpsons, right through the oddly-placed Dean Koontz panel, and save my seat for Dollhouse. The Office would have to suffer.

I haven't been to San Diego in several decades but, like many cities, there are certain things you expect to see. Tall buildings, traffic jams (especially during Comic-Con), crowds of people, citizens and tourists alike, milling about on the sidewalks and in the restaurants that surround the city. But a herd of cows? Well, on the U.S.S. Midway museum, perhaps, but not in the middle of downtown.

Yet, here were a herd of cattle in a paid parking lot on 5th Avenue, right in the heart of the Gaslamp District. Was it a throwback to pioneer days? Did a cowboy and his herd get lost? Was it a protest by PETA? No, silly, it was a television show promotion. Which one it was is revealed after the jump.

I am, by no means, a comic book/science fiction convention novice. I have been to my share of small and medium-sized conventions...mostly all on the East Coast. Those conventions feature smaller crowds, smaller venues, and easier access to various panels and people. So, when I was asked to assist Keith in covering the San Diego Comic-Con I got a bit worried. Not because I couldn't handle the task (I am a TV Squad writer), but because I had heard so much about the convention from previous convention-goers.

So, laptop in hand, I entered the world of SDCC with a bit of trepidation, and excitement. By the end of the day I was just tired, hungry, and wondering where the hell all of these people came from.

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To use a well-worn phrase...Good News, Everyone! Your friends over here at TV Squad are heading on out to San Diego during the last week in July to cover one of the bigger, if not biggest, comic book and science fiction conventions on mainland America and the world. I speak, of course, of ComicCon.

From July 24th through July 27th you'll see us with our TV Squad T-Shirts (and underwear -- viewings of those by appointment) as we join the rest of the throngs attending the convention. At some point we may even be doing a bit of Twittering to find out where you are at the convention so you can find us in order to shake our hands (or, in the case of some of our commenters, punch and kick us) and potentially get some free stuff as well.

The economy got you down, bucko? No prospects for any future employment? Are you just sitting there in your underwear, picking large handfuls of lint out of your bellybutton, while you wait for the phone to ring for the 'Next Big Thing' in your life journey?

Well, turn that frown upside-down, my friend! Hop a plane, train or automobile to San Diego between July 24th and 27th and make your way to your destiny, courtesy of the Dharma Initiative. Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of Dharma, will be at ComicCon during that time to seek out volunteers to contribute to a brand new research project. According to Octagon, the new project will play a vital role in the Initiative's objectives. What those objectives are really shouldn't matter to you. All that should matter is that there are a number of unpaid positions available.

So, tough guy, submit your email address to Octagon and they should be responding to you shortly about their positions. And, if someone should happen to mention the Oceanic Six during your interview, just ignore them. They will be taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible.

The producers of Cavemen have made quite a few changes since the show was first picked up and while they are doing their best to keep these changes from being seen by the critics, they can't keep them a secret.

It's already well-known that the show has gone through some cast changes. Sam Huntington was added to the cast late in the game as the younger brother of caveman Joel (Bill English.)

With all the emotional goings on at TV Squad HQ, I got to thinking that we've gone way too long without putting names to faces. This doesn't just mean the writers -- I also mean you, the readers!

We'd like to get some idea of the interest level of a TV Squad meetup for fans of TV Squad. Want to meet a bunch of the TV Squad team? Meet with other readers and fans of your favorite shows? How about some chances to win some cool free TV stuff and see some of the latest gear? Well, we want to hear from you so we can start putting it together.

I've got a couple of polls after the jump. Please take the time to answer them and leave comments if you've got other ideas. We all think this would be a great idea and, if the first one is a success, we'll do another one in a different location!

UPDATE: We say San Diego because we'd do it during Comic-Con.

While you and I go on as if today is any other day, hundreds of thousands of people are auditioning for American Idol in San Diego. For some of them, today is their one chance to become a major star. For others, it's their one chance to get on television by being a very, very bad singer.

Even though the auditions episodes of American Idol are hilarious, the producers of the show probably loathe this time of year. We only get to see a handful of the extremely good or extremely bad contestants, but they have to suffer through a sea of mediocrity. Only the people with a gimmick or real talent actually get to meet Randy, Paula, and Simon.

After San Diego, auditions move on to Dallas, Omaha, Atlanta, Charleston (SC), Miami, and Philadelphia. You can find the schedule here.

Comic-Con 2007 officially began with Wednesday's "Preview Night" or, as I like to call it, "Get the Lay of the Land So You Don't Get Trampled to Death by a Grown Man in a Pikachu Costume Night."

Over the next couple of days, I'll be covering panels featuring the casts of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and a few of this coming season's most anticipated new shows - Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Chuck among others. You can keep abreast of the latest scoop by following TV Squad's Twitter feed. (You can score a free TV Squad t-shirt if you're in San Diego by finding me via our Twitter feed.) I'll also be posting photos on Flickr and wrapping-up each day with as many posts as I can churn out to keep you, gentle viewers, informed.

You see various contests and whatnot from time to time that will give a fan a walk-on role in a series. The fine folks over at Veronica Mars are the latest to offer up such an adventure. The show has partnered with US Vets to raffle off a spot in one of the final season three episodes.

Should you win, your role will be guaranteed to have some sort of interaction with Veronica, which is nice. You wouldn't want to travel all the way to San Diego only to have the boots put to you by Sheriff Lamb while Kristen Bell takes a lunch break in her trailer. The winner will also get to meet the rest of the cast and crew. Airfare will be provided from any city in the continental U.S. that Southwest serves.

U.S. Vets is a public private partnership working to reintegrate homeless veterans. You can read more about their program on their website, as well as get the form to purchase tickets for the raffle. And if you do win, could you pass along a note to the writing team? I could go for less Veronica/Logan angst, and more Mac and Wallace screen time please.

Occasionally on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert reads an excerpt from his fictional fiction book, Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure, which features Stephen as the main character, Tek. The whole thing is a joke on Bill O'Reilly's 1998 novel, Those Who Trespass (O'Reilly clearly based the bad-ass TV journalist on himself). Well, Stephen's going to one-up Papa Bear because Tek Jansen's about to be thrown in the comic book world!

During Comic-Con, the Oni Press panel made their expected announcement about an upcoming My Name Is Earl comic and then followed up with the surprising revelation that they also want to work on Tek Jansen adventures. Talks are currently in process with Stephen and his writing staff, because they'll be involved in the project, right alongside the usual Oni team.

Exciting news for those who love Stephen and "crappy, Mary Sue sci-fi" parodies.

During an introductory speech for Robert Smigel given by cartoon historian Jerry Beck at the San Diego Comic Con, the world's only insult comic dog, Triumph, popped up and went on a hilarious tirade about Beck's boring speech and the innumerable nerds who were in attendance. This is footage shot by someone who was actually there, so there's a lot of swearing and you also get to see Robert Smigel actually doing the voice and manipulating the puppet. Of course, they don't try very hard to hide that when he does his shtick on Conan, but Smigel is in the middle of a crowd and really has nowhere to hide. Beck actually posted the video on his Cartoon Brew site, but I stuck it after the jump for your viewing pleasure. My favorite part is when he tells a rather rotund attendee he must love the "Fantastic Four food groups." Click on and enjoy.

UPDATE: The video is no longer available, apparently.

Since Katie Couric has some time to kill before she starts anchoring the CBS Evening News in September, the network is sending her on a tour. This summer, Couric will hold town hall-style forums with viewers to learn more about what they want from their national news. So far, CBS is only saying that Couric is going to Denver (July 13) and San Diego.

The good news is that the meetings will not be filmed and local stations will not be allowed to cover Couric's meetings. I say that's 'good news' because, without cameras, there can actually be real conversation. The town hall forums are different from the trips that Couric will make to various CBS affiliate newsrooms to shoot promos with them for her debut.

Oprah and Bill Gates showed up at a high school in San Diego yesterday, throwing the student body into a frenzy. The two billionaires were filming a segment for an upcoming episode of Oprah, about Bill and Melinda Gates' efforts to reform schools. In 2003, the Gates Foundation gave $11 million to the San Diego Unified School District, with orders to reform three high schools. The district used the money to create six smaller schools with specialties such as business, international studies, media and science. Each school has about 400 students, compared to the 1,400 that were previously in each large school. Oprah and Bill kept the visit on the down-low, in order to keep the media-types away. They filmed segments with nine students.