
The Paley Center for Media announced the full schedule for this year’s William S. Paley TV Festival, which will take place March 4-17. The highlight is a Freaks & Geeks/Undeclared reunion moderated by Judd Apatow that will feature alums from the two cult series. Hot shows/perennial fan favorites The Walking Dead, True Blood, Glee, Supernatural and American Idol will hold panels. In an intriguing pairing, David E. Kelley is slated to moderate the panel for USA’s White Collar. Here is the schedule:
Opening Night: The Walking Dead (Friday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m.)
Moderator: Mike Schneider, LA Bureau Chief, TV Guide Magazine
- Frank Darabont: Writer / Director / Executive Producer
- Gale Ann Hurd: Executive Producer
- Robert Kirkman: Executive Producer/Creator of comic book
- Andrew Lincoln: “Rick Grimes”
- Sarah Wayne Callies: “Lori Grimes”
- Jon Bernthal: “Shane Walsh”
- Laurie Holden: “Andrea“
- Jeffrey DeMunn: “Dale”
- Steven Yeun: “Glenn”
- Emma Bell: “Amy”
True Blood (Saturday, March 5 at 7:00 p.m.)
Moderator: TBA
- Kevin Alejandro, “Jesus Velasquez”
- Marshall Allman, “ Tommy Mickens”
- Alan Ball, Creator / Executive Producer
- Chris Bauer, “Andy Bellefleur“
- Kristin Bauer von Straten, “Pam De Beaufort“
- Nelsan Ellis, “Lafayette Reynolds”
- Ryan Kwanten, “Jason Stackhouse”
- Todd Lowe, “Terry Bellefleur”
- Joe Manganiello, “Alcide Herveaux”
- Stephen Moyer, “Bill Compton”
- Anna Paquin, “Sookie Stackhouse”
- Jim Parrack, “Hoyt Fortenberry”
- Carrie Preston, “Arlene Fowler”
- Alexander Skarsgard, “Eric Northman”
- Sam Trammell, “Sam Merlotte”
- Rutina Wesley, “Tara Thornton”
- Deborah Ann Woll, “Jessica Hamby”
White Collar (Monday, March 7 at 7:00 p.m.)
Moderator: David E. Kelley
- Matt Bomer, “Neal Caffrey”
- Tim DeKay, “Peter Burke”
- Willie Garson, “Mozzie”
- Tiffani Thiessen, “Elizabeth Burke”
- Marsha Thomason, “Diana Barrigan”
- Sharif Atkins, “Clinton Jones”
- Jeff Eastin, Creator / Executive Producer
- Jeff King, Co-Executive Producer
- Marc Goffman, Co-Executive Producer
Hot in Cleveland (Tuesday, March 8 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: TBA
- Valerie Bertinelli, “Melanie Moretti”
- Jane Leeves, “Joy Scroggs”
- Wendie Malick, “Victoria Chase”
- Betty White, “Elka Ostrovsky”
- Sean Hayes, Executive Producer
- Suzanne Martin, Executive Producer / Creato
Parks & Recreation (Wednesday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: Michael Ausiello, Founder & Editor in Chief, TV Line.com
- Amy Poehler, “Leslie Knope”
- Rashida Jones, “Anne Perkins”
- Aziz Ansari, “Tom Haverford”
- Nick Offerman, “Ron Swanson”
- Aubrey Plaza, “April Ludgate”
- Chris Pratt, “Andy Dwyer”
- Rob Lowe “Chris Traeger”
- Adam Scott “Ben Wyatt”
- Jim O’Heir, “Jerry Gergich”
- Retta, “Donna Meagle”
- Greg Daniels, Executive Producer
- Michael Schur, Executive Producer
Eastbound & Down (Thursday, March 10 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: Lynette Rice, Senior Writer, Entertainment Weekly
- Danny McBride, “Kenny Powers”/Writer/Executive Producer
- Steve Little, “Stevie Janowski”
- Jody Hill, Writer/Director/Executive Producer
- Adam McKay, Executive Producer
- Ana de la Reguera: “Vida”
- Katy Mixon: “April Buchanon”
- Plus additional members of the cast & creative team
An Evening with Jimmy Fallon (Friday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: Chris Hardwick, Host, Web Soup; The Nerdist.com
- Jimmy Fallon
Freaks & Geeks / Undeclared (Saturday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: Judd Apatow
- Judd Apatow , Executive Producer Freaks & Geeks ; Creator / Executive Producer Undeclared
- Paul Feig, Creator / Executive Producer Freaks & Geeks / Director, Undeclared
- Linda Cardellini, “Lindsay Weir” Freaks & Geeks
- John Francis Daley, “Sam Weir” Freaks & Geeks
- Martin Starr, “Bill Haverchuck” Freaks & Geeks
- Samm Levine, “Neil Schweiber” Freaks & Geeks
- Seth Rogen, “Ken Miller” Freaks & Geeks / “Ron Garner” Undeclared
- Busy Philipps, “Kim Kelly”, Freaks & Geeks
- Jason Segel, “Nick Andopolis” Freaks & Geeks / “Eric” Undeclared
- Joe Flaherty “Harold Weir” Freaks & Geeks
- Jake Kasdan, Director / Consulting Producer Freaks & Geeks
- Jay Baruchel, “Steven Karp” Undeclared
- Monica Keena, “Rachel Lindquist” Undeclared
- Carla Gallo, “Lizzie Exley” Undeclared
- Timm Sharp, “Marshall Nesbitt” Undeclared
- Christina Payano, “Tina Ellroy” Undeclared
- Jarrett Grode, “Perry” Undeclared
- Kevin Rankin, “Lucien” Undeclared
- Plus additional members of the casts & creative teams
Supernatural (Sunday, March 13 at 3:00 p,m,)
Moderator: Maureen Ryan, TV Critic, AOL
Panelists appearing schedule permitting
- Jared Padalecki, “Sam Winchester”
- Jensen Ackles, “Dean Winchester”
- Misha Collins, “Castiel”
- Jim Beaver, “Bobby Singer”
- Eric Kripke, Executive Producer
- Sera Gamble, Executive Producer
American Idol (Monday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m.)
Moderator: TBA
- Panelists To Be Announced
Community (Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: TBA
- Joel McHale, “Jeff Winger”
- Chevy Chase, “Pierce Hawthorne”
- Gillian Jacobs, “Britta Perry”
- Danny Pudi, “Abed Nadir”
- Donald Glover, “Troy Barnes”
- Yvette Nicole Brown, “Shirley Bennett”
- Alison Brie, “Annie Edison”
- Ken Jeong, “Senor Chang”
- Dan Harmon – Creator / Executive Producer
- Joe Russo – Executive Producer
- Anthony Russo – Executive Producer
- Neil Goldman – Executive Producer
- Garrett Donovan – Executive Producer
- Russ Krasnoff – Executive Producer
Glee (Wednesday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: TBA
- Ryan Murphy, Co-Creator / Executive Producer
- Dianna Agron, “Quinn Fabray”
- Chris Colfer, “Kurt Hummel”
- Jessalyn Gilsig, “Terri Schuester“
- Jane Lynch, “Sue Sylvester”
- Jayma Mays, “Emma Pillsbury”
- Kevin McHale, “Artie Abrams”
- Lea Michele, “Rachel Berry”
- Cory Monteith, “Finn Hudson”
- Heather Morris, “Brittany Pierce”
- Matthew Morrison, “Will Schuester”
- Mike O’Malley, “Burt Hummel”
- Amber Riley, “Mercedes Jones”
- Naya Rivera, “Santana Lopez”
- Mark Salling, “Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman”
- Jenna Ushkowitz, “Tina Cohen-Chang”
- Plus additional members of the cast & creative team
Closing Night: Raising Hope (Thursday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m)
Moderator: TBA
- Greg Garcia, Creator / Executive Producer (schedule permitting)
- Lucas Neff, “Jimmy Chance”
- Martha Plimpton, “Virginia Chance”
- Garret Dillahunt, “Burt Chance” (schedule permitting)
- Shannon Woodward, “Sabrina”
- Plus additional members of the cast & creative team
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.


These Paley panels get worse every year…
‘Count’ me out.
Three of the funniest current comedies (Community, Parks and Recreation, Eastbound & Down) and the reunion of the cast of two cult classic shows, including lots of people who’ve starred in much bigger things isn’t precisely my idea of “worse”.
Just because something is “current” doesn’t make it good.
My guess is your name is already on the Shit My Dad Says Panel too?
All of a sudden since Apatow is popular Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are suddenly on peoples radar? Where were the “fans” when the shows were cancelled?
There is a panel included as an extra on the DVD box set for Freaks & Geeks, which shows there was some critical praise at the time. These shows got actually little support from the networks at the time, with lots of schedule change and the fact that they mostly talked to a small devoted crowd. Besides, September 2001 wasn’t the best of time to launch a new sitcom.
The audiences for F&G or Undeclared were motivated but as Apatow described them, they’re people who own all the Pixies albums and Mr. Show on tape, not the target audience for a network show. But they are people who are willing to watch a movie with that tone, hence the success of most of his productions.
F&G, Undeclared, and a bunch of other critcal darlings that got cancelled or died out (Party Down, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Wonderfalls) all have new fans thanks to internet based tv streaming. All the broke 20somethings/recent college grads I know have killed their cable tv bills and are just working off of their laptops.
But yeah. Its not about these 2 shows (although both were pretty great and very well written/executed), its about the people involved and how they have bigger names now.
Hey-
The Freaks and Geeks loyalists cannot be accused of not showing up for the protest call, the rally cry was loud. The industry cannot be faulted either, the show got two of the five Emmy Nominations for writing for less then a full season of air time. It was not a buried treasure only to be discovered in the Apatow afterglow. Sadly, the high school class of 1984 is not a group that appeals to the masses. It didn’t appeal to us when living it. That is why we were stoned for four years.
Seriously. It was when these shows got cancelled a decade ago that I first realized most of America was too stupid to appreciate quality writing.
No Charlie Hunnam? Shame.
Man. Anyone know where we can see these panels after the fact?
ety3, there are plenty of clips from last year on non-premium Hulu. Not sure how long it takes them to put them up, though.
Eastbound and Down was a disappointment last season. Mexico was a bad idea…it forced jokes that came naturally the first season. Hopefully, returning Kenny Powers to NC will return the series to the amazing comedy of the first season