William S. Paley Television Festival

Each year the Museum of Television and Radio in LA honors about a dozen shows in its William S. Paley Television Festival, named for the founder of CBS network. The idea is to honor the most innovative, creative, or groundbreaking shows of the year as well as some classics. In addition, there is a tribute to the body of work of an actor. This year it is Sally Field, but other years have included Carol Burnett, William Shatner, Angela Landsbury, and Garry Shandling.

This year's classic show is The Golden Girls, but past years have included M*A*S*H, MacGyver, and Star Trek. The new shows honored this year are Grey's Anatomy, Entourage, Everybody Loves Chris, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, Medium, My Name is Earl, House, Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother and Weeds. For an idea of shows honored other years, check out the Museum's website.

What's cool about these evenings is that for the most part, you have the entire major cast plus the executive producers, sometimes even a director all on one panel -- interacting with each other, in front of us. This is because it is considered an honor to be celebrated this way and people proud of their shows are delighted to have their hard work recognized and celebrated this way. The audience is made up partially of industry people who come, not only as fans of the show, but to get a feel for the players and for how the show is made. Sometimes you don't get the whole cast but those times are not because they don't want to come but because the show is in production and they are needed on set, or they are off with other obligations. As for the writers, sometimes you get all of them on stage and sometimes only the executive producer. But it's a rich evening of insights you never get any other way.

The audience is also made up of general public who come just because they love the show. Hence you get a mixture of questions, so that you aren't always hearing, 'how can I get a script to you'... or ... 'we love you, so-in-so'.

It's also neat to hear the excitement and enthusiasm of someone who has come to these events for years suddenly being on stage with their own show.

I had a similar experience when the show I worked on, Joan of Arcadia, was honored a couple of years ago. I wasn't one of those onstage, but I was just as excited. For this time, I got the chance to hang out in the green room... something I had never done before. I had seen others go into the roped off area for years as an audience member, but this was the first time I was allowed on the other side of the rope, with the rest of my workmates. It is something I'll never forget, or at least not until I get up there on stage with my own show.

Last night, I went to Entourage, the first of the three series I had earmarked for this year. I wanted to go to House, but the tickets were sold out before I could buy one. Tickets were only sold online this year and I was on the computer one minute after the 'box office' officially opened. Within the ten minutes it took me to navigate the unfamiliar site, House and Grey's Anatomy were gone. By the time I completed my purchase and went back to the list, Entourage was sold out. I must have gotten close to the last ticket, if not the last.

But this beats the old days when we had to go stand in line at the museum (and it would stretch around the block.) and invariably before you'd get to the front of the line, the show you want most to see would be sold out.

The Museum gives its Members (anyone can become a member, just like any museum) a head start of a week before the tickets go on sale for the general public. However, the most popular shows sell out within the hour of opening it to members, and they never get to the general public. For many years, I had someone who was a member pick up tickets for me. Last year I didn't have that, and so when I tried to buy tickets to Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal as general public, they were long gone. I made sure I had my membership for this one and still House was gone before I could buy it.

The Entourage participants were cast members -- Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, Adrian Grenier, Debi Mazar, and Jeremy Piven -- director Stephen Levinson, and creator Doug Ellin. My favorite insight was to learn that Jeremy Piven's agent character, Ari, is based on his real life agent. This of course prompted a later audience question of how the real Ari feels about being immortalized this way. Doug explained that the real Ari was a big supporter in that he was instrumental in getting the show purchased by HBO, and that he had insisted his client Jeremy Piven play him, or he wouldn't let them use the name.

Of course, there had to be a guy in the audience who asked about why a show on HBO doesn't have more female nudity. Doug of course explained that wasn't what the show was about... it's about friendship. And I agree... at its core is a strong friendship cutting through all the crap and this is what keeps us watching it.

However, the guy's remark did raise my feminine hackles and I was going to make a followup comment. Except it was too close to the end and I didn't get called on. At the end, many people rushed the stage to talk to the cast. Sometimes the guys hang around and talk to people, sign a few autographs, even take a photo or two. And sometimes, they leave without interacting. This group interacted, but while the others rushed the actors, I went up to talk to Doug Ellin. I told him my comment... that if he conceded to the wishes of guys like that and had more female nudity, then he should know that his female audience was going to want more male nudity. Doug was nodding and almost finishing my sentence before me. He said that he was thinking of saying the exact same thing in his answer, but then changed his mind.

Jeremy Piven was mobbed, which was nice to see, even if it made it impossible to have a word with him. But like a real trooper, he stayed for quite a while and signed programs for those people who wanted them.

All in all, this evening, like all the Paley festival events I've attended over the years make it so worthwhile living in LA.