Three of the first panels on the first day of Comic Con, that took place last week in San Diego, were for shows on the USA Network: Covert Affairs, Psych and the special Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe movie.
Bruce Campbell (Photo Credit: Rueben)
Starting the big day was Burn Notice Executive Producer Matt Nix, who introduced actor Bruce Campbell to the stage where he was greeted with thunderous applause from the over-capacity audience. The discussion held between Matt and Bruce had the excited crowd in stitches as they talked about the filming of the Sam Axe movie, which they filmed on location in Bogotá, under the leadership of Burn Notice lead actor Jeffrey Donovan, who was the director.
There was a lot of honest ribbing between Bruce and Matt as well as jokes aimed at Jeffrey, including a laugh-out-loud behind-the-scenes documentary called ‘The Fall of Jeffrey Donovan” that is on the DVD for The Fall of Sam Axe movie.
Among the interesting tidbits shared with the audience by Bruce and Matt were that Burn Notice will be back for a season 6, Evil Dead will be made (and Bruce joked that he’ll be the old guy at the end but that’s probably it), Bruce compared the making of The Fall of Sam Axe to the Bad News Bears but with explosives and all the cool gadgets created by Michael, Sam and Fiona on Burn Notice all come from Matt.
The season finale of Burn Notice will air on September 8 at 9 PM on the USA Network. Mark your calendars!
Anne Dudek, Christopher Gorham & Piper Perabo (Photo Credit: Jennifer Schadel)
The cast – Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Anne Dudek, Peter Gallagher, Kari Matchett and Sendhil Ramamurthy– and the creative minds – Doug Liman, Matt Corman and Chris Ord – for Covert Affairs then took the stage after a special Comic Con inspired video was shown to the audience, depicting Annie (Perabo) hooked up to a lie detector, being questioned about her real reason for being at the event. It was really quite comical; then a sneak peek of upcoming episodes as well as a recap of the episodes to date were aired.
Peter Gallagher, Kari Matchett & Sendhil Ramamurthy (Photo Credit: Rueben)
Some of the discussions held during the panel included talk of how difficult it was for Christopher to shoot the scene in which his character – Auggie – loses his sight; how adaptable Piper is to the languages for which her character – Annie – can speak; that the audience will get to see more of Jai (Sendhil’s character) as the season progresses; and the laser cane used by Auggie doesn’t really exist, but it is made from two real objects.
As the panel came to a close, the audience was treated to a blooper reel that is included on the DVD for the first season that is now available.
There are only two more episodes of Covert Affairs, with its season finale set for August 9 at 10 PM on the USA Network.
Dule Hill, James Roday and Maggie Lawson (Photo Credit: Jennifer Schadel)
The final USA Network panel was for the comedy-drama series Psych, which started out with show creator Steve Franks flanked by two others to sing the theme song for the show. They were quickly joined by lead actors Dule Hill and James Roday and then by the rest of the cast, including Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson, Timothy Omundson, Corbin Bernsen as well as Executive Producers Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze.
In anticipation for the show’s return, a preview of last season and a sneak peek at the new season was shown to the audience. Then the actors talked about how their characters have changed over the seasons, including that James thinks Sean is taking baby steps in growing up; Timothy thinks that Lassiter doesn’t want to like Sean, but he secretly does; Maggie shared that for Jules, Sean is her number one in life while Lassiter is her number one at work and she believes that Jules whole-heartedly believes that Sean is really a psychic.
Timothy Omundson, Kirsten Nelson & Corbin Bernsen (Photo Credit: Rueben)
Chris and Kelly then had the chance to list all of the great guest stars who will appear in episodes this coming season, including (in no particular order): Malcolm McDowell, Polly Walker, Joey McIntyre, Kristy Swanson, Corey Feldman, Buffy alum Tom Lenk, Kurt Fuller, Brad Dourif, Danny Glover, Michael Trucco, baseball legend Wade Boggs, Diedrich Bader, Anthony Anderson, Jason Priestley, Jennifer Finnigan, Tony Hale, Cary Elwes, Jaleel White, Keenan Thompson and the legendary William Shatner.
As the panel came to a close, the new promo ad for the return of Psych was aired, showing the cast performing the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” acting out scenes from the Simple Minds music video. That really brought the house down.
Make sure to tune into the USA Network this October for the return of Psych.
Rueben's Ramblings 
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