Well, the 2017 NYCC has come and gone. As I’ve said in the past, their ticket purchasing process leaves a lot to be desired. I queued up for buying them, and within 10-15 minutes, I was able to purchase.  I was only able to get Thursday and Friday tickets. Sunday was also available, but I opted not to. I spent most of Thursday walking the convention retail floor, but went to a couple panels. Friday was mostly panels. Here are reports on the panels I attended, and be forewarned, they may contain spoilers:

I Know That Voice: The series

John DiMaggio funded an excellent documentary of the same name, which was released in 2013. It interviewed dozens of voice actors, the ones who speak for cartoons, animation, and even commercials. It’s a great doc, and well worth seeing, especially if you love those things.

John, along with other panelists Nolan North, Jess Harnell, and Rob Paulsen, talked it up, basically saying that there’s enough recorded material from all the interviews that they could piece them together and make a short series with it all.  Amazing stuff.  I helped fund the project, and have downloaded and watched the interviews. They’re right – there’s more than enough. DiMaggio’s putting out feelers to see if any of the streaming services would be interested.

The World of Philip K. Dick – The Man in the High Castle and PKD’s Electric Dreams

Amazon is producing an anthology series based on PKD’s short stories, much like The Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. I missed most of this discussion, unfortunately. Ronald D. Moore of Battlestar Galatica fame is an executive producer.

Season 3 of The Man in the High Castle is underway, and should premiere in March of 2018. Rufus Sewell (Obergruppenführer John Smith) commented that people are recognizing him as the Nazi commander in inappropriate places in public. They were light on spoilers, but did show a clip that hints at what’s to come:

Robot Chicken:

`More of the same, and they showed clips of the 1/2 hour special dedicated to The Walking Dead (and Talking Dead).

The Orville

Seth MacFarlane wasn’t at the con, but appeared via Skype, and someone made the ‘symmetry on the viewscreen joke’ from the pilot episode. Actors Adrienne Palicki(Kelly Grayson), Penny Johnson Gerald (Dr. Claire Finn), and Scott Grimes (Gordon Malloy) were there, as well as Producers David A. Goodman and Brannon Braga were there, all fielding questions. People complimented them for the recent episode on gender, and MacFarlane mentioned they’re still trying to fine tune the balance between comedy and drama. The show has gotten better and is doing well in the ratings, but there was no word from Fox about getting a full season commitment. They have an order for 12 total episodes.

Family Guy

They aired an upcoming episode, which was a trio of interpretations of an event on the show, as seen by a famous director. I won’t spoil which ones, but each really captured their styles. Carrie Fisher leant her voice to the episode, and it was her last appearance on the show. Adam West did, too, and they said they’d recorded enough of him that he’ll be in perhaps half of the season’s episodes. They were considering tribute episodes.

Seth MacFarlane appeared via skype, as before, but Alex Borstein (Lois), Seth Green (Chris), Mike Henry (Cleveland) and Patrick Warburton all fielded questions. It was hosted by writer/co-executive producer Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, and all the cast members told us the way they memorized her name – mostly singing it in their own styles.

Pacific Rim Uprising

The sequel to Pacific Rim is coming in early 2018. It takes place 10 years after the end of the first film, and stars a mostly new cast, including John Boyega.  The trailer they showed us can be found here: