I knew this wasn't going to be your normal PaleyFest panel when I arrived over two hours early to the Arclight only to see that the line for the Dome wrapped all the way around the theater. In contrast, I had arrived at the Apatow panel an hour and a half or so early and was at the front of the line when the doors opened. My excitement rose as they finally let us in the theater and we, the lucky ticket holders, walked past the standby line containing folks who had been waiting since the previous
evening just for a chance to get into the sold out panel. Even though I had to sit in the balcony, I knew it was going to be an unforgettable evening.

Follow up:

After a very humorous clip of Sarah Michelle Gellar in All My Children, writer and executive producer Marti Noxon introduced the musical episode "Once More With Feeling" in place of Joss Whedon, who was running late. Even though I attended a OMWF sing-a-long last summer it was still amazing to see the episode on the big screen in the Dome. Sadly, no one sang along. After the episode, it was time to introduce the panel of guests. The full panel included Marti Noxon, Joss Whedon, producer and writer David Greenwalt, Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Nicholas Brendon (Xander), James Marsters (Spike), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenburg (Dawn), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), Amber Benson (Tara), and Seth Green (Oz). Previously announced guests that were sadly missing were Alyson Hannigan and Eliza Dushku.

Joss started things off by talking about the reason why he was late. He is currently working on a musical starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion that will be released on the web in some form. He didn't go into specifics. Seth Green and Nick Brendon were both very funny and made comments and jokes throughout. Everyone looked really great. It's kind of crazy to see Michelle Trachtenburg all grown up, having watched her grow up since she was on The Adventures of Pete & Pete and of course, Harriet the Spy. Apparently Seth Green and Nick Brendon are the real geeks of the bunch as they were the only ones (besides Joss) who knew what was going on with the Buffy Season 8 comic. On that note Joss said that Oz will definitely appear in future issues and while the comic stories are currently "canon" he would gladly throw that out the window if the cast were to reunite in one form or another to make another show or movie. As to the possibility of that, the cast all seemed to dance around that throughout the evening, even when asked the question by the panel moderator.

I was also pleased to see Gellar really comment on the show and the character of Buffy. She seemed genuinely grateful to the fans and to her fellow cast members. I'm glad that she is no longer trying to distance herself from the show, which is what she has been doing in various ways for the past several years. The darkness of Season 6 was discussed and Noxon and Gellar both commented on how they were frustrated at times to the point where they thought they had lost the character of Buffy completely. I guess I'm in the minority that actually enjoyed that season.

The audience Q&A session was pretty brief, mostly due to some seriously asinine questions, including the lead-off question which asked each panel member their favorite movie and what music they were listening to. The answers took up most of the time. While it's interesting to hear, I (and I'm sure most of the audience) wanted to hear about Buffy and other Whedon related projects. The real kicker was the last question, where they emphasized it was the last question so it really needed to count, and then the person didn't even ask a question, just gushed to Joss and the rest of the cast, and they counted as a question and ended the evening. Despite these minor qualms, I was overjoyed to see all these fine folks in person and hear them talk about the show.

Joss also gave props to the writers in attendance, which included hot off of Cloverfield Drew Goddard, my personal fave Jane Espenson, and David Fury. I'm still a little bummed Eliza Dushku and Alyson Hannigan didn't show up but I'm still glad I was there. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime kind of evening. Perhaps in another ten years I'll have the chance to do it again.