Comic-Con 2010: Eureka/Warehouse 13 Panel & Press Room: Something for Everyone

The Syfy Channel had quite the presence at this year’s Comic-Con, and the fans who attended the panels and screenings seemed amped up and excited about each show being aired this year. I sat through the panels for both Caprica and Stargate for enjoyment, though they will be covered by other Poptimal writers. I also had the chance to not only view pieces of the upcoming seasons, but to sit and chat with some cast members from both Eureka and Warehouse 13 at a joint event.

To bring everyone up to speed, a little background. Eureka is a comedy that started out as a drama (more on that later) about a town in California populated almost exclusively by geniuses (geniuii?). They work at a company called Global Dynamics and have been responsible for most major technological advancements in the last fifty years. In an interesting twist, the shows writers have managed to introduce an alternate timeline, basically starting the show and characters over from scratch. It could have been a disaster, totally losing the audience in the process. Since it worked, however, we’ll refer to it as a brilliant idea.

Warehouse 13 is based on a group of Secret Service agents assigned to protect the supernatural objects housed in the warehouse and investigate reports of new sightings. The cast has great chemistry and the show is a nice piece of science fiction imagining – while being funny, which is harder than it might sound. Warehouse 13 and Eureka have done a crossover episode and plan to do more of the same in the future.

Colin Ferguson, the star of Eureka and one of the town’s only non-geniuses (geniuii?), sat down with us after the panel to talk about the show and what he is most excited about seeing in the future. He was also part of my most embarrassing moment of Comic-Con (okay, second most. The first has to do with James Marsters and I will recount it in detail in the recap of my overall experience). I used a voice recorder application for my best friend iPhone in order to capture interviews. While my phone sat in front of Colin during this session I received a text message. Which he read. Aloud. Thank heavens it wasn’t anything incriminating embarrassing.

At any rate, back to what you likely find far more interesting: what the man had to say about the show. The time travel… “we’re going to be dealing with the ramifications of the new timeline this upcoming season.”

The biggest thing that’s changed since the beginning of the series is that “it used to be a drama. The network would come down and say, no more funny. The directors they hired were vetted coming in and were told relentlessly, this is not a comedy. You get the drama right and then you put the jokes in only where they live. You don’t make a joke at the expense of a plot point…people are scared the comedy will invalidate everything else in the scene.”

Colin also threw out that he thinks “the show is really sweet…a guy today said this is the one show he can watch with his son…it’s a nice feeling that we’re part of something people can watch with their kids.”

He hated the costuming of the period episodes – wool, apparently itchy and miserable. Who knew?

We also had the chance to speak with Salli Richardson-Whitfield (who is beautiful). She’s super excited to have the chance to direct episode 15 this season. When asked about how she feels about the changes in her character due to the jump to the alternate timeline, she said “when they said it was going to stay like that, I thought that’s the most brilliant thing they could do to the show. And it gets me out of the office, now I can do something different.”

The Warehouse 13 stars that joined us were Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, and CCH Pounder, all of whom were charming and forthcoming and pretty much exactly as they are on the show. Eddie and Joanne play sparring partners, and their camaraderie and playful relationship was apparent as they sat across from me at the table. She rolled her eyes, he charmed her with a grin. CCH sat down and Joanne complained about Eddie sitting by her. CC said, “Hey, I’ve been sitting by him for the last hour.”

They laughed a lot and obviously enjoy being a part of this cast. When asked what they best part was, they had similar comments to Colin Ferguson. Joanne cited the shows “heart and ability to connect with the audience.” Eddie chimed in that people tell him all the time how “they watch the show, their daughter and her friends in college watch the show, their twelve-year-old son watches the show. It’s nice to be able to touch that many people.”

Watch for new episodes of both shows this fall on Syfy.

For more coverage of Comic-Con 2010, click here.

Image courtesy of imdbpro.com