Bad time for the blog to be down, as we begin two weeks of the TV Critics Association winter press tour, which began with a blur Friday at the Langham in Pasadena, Calif., with a dozen or so presentations on the first of two full days slated for cable.The swirling surrealism of the event was set Thursday, where amid weird candies from Pop Rocks and an open bar were offered at an 80s Party sponsored by th National Geographic Network.
They’ve got an 80s series coming up, so had Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (pictured) there signing books and some of the guys from the U.S. Olympic hockey team from 1980 (who, the series would make you believe, set the tone for geopolitical politics for the decade to come including the election of Ronald Regan).
But there were other familiar faces there: Jack Osbourne, who is producing a reality series about police dog trainers in Indiana, whom he met when he was there resuming his police work he began on the one-season reality show “Armed and Famous” (they apparently got real badges).
Some 70s jazzercizers were there in leg warmers doing dance routines to the relentless 80s music, and Howard Stern’s wife Beth was there talking about her new series about pampered animals.
It may have been too late in the night to talk to Billy Campbell about his role in “Killing Lincoln,” his second consecutive role as a politician who is shot. His quotes were fantastic, but I haven’t had a minute to transcribe it because of the avalanche of other things going on. Give me a day to catch up won’t you? If you want to follow the action in real time, follow my twitter account @rcatlin.