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The Museum of Television & Radio’s William S. Paley Television Festival Celebrates 20 Years of Honoring Excellence on Television February 26 to March 12, 2003

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Los Angeles, CA—Celebrating twenty years of saluting television's rich and diverse programming, The Museum of Television & Radio will present its annual William S. Paley Television Festival from February 26 to March 12, 2003. Honoring programs—chosen for their artistic merit, cultural impact, or historical significance—or individuals whose work has had a major impact on television, this year's Festival showcases a diverse range of shows, from the groundbreaking 24 to the critically acclaimed George Lopez, from a reunion of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In to the long-running Spanish-language variety show Sábado Gigante. Also, the Festival will offer two special anniversary seminars with leading writers of some of television's most memorable dramas and comedies, offering discussion and insight into the demanding creative process. All Paley Festival events will be held at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

The Paley Festival, named for William S. Paley, founder of both the Museum and CBS, offers the public an appreciation of the medium's commitment to quality. During these evenings, the audience views episodes or highlights of the featured work and has the opportunity to ask questions of the cast and creative teams or the individual involved in its production. Since the first Festival in 1984, the Museum has honored more than 200 programs, including Cheers, Friends, Gunsmoke, The Honeymooners, Marty, M*A*S*H, Roots, Route 66, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, South Park, thirtysomething, The Untouchables, The West Wing, and The X-Files, along with such personalities as Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jim Henson, Bob Hope, Jane Fonda, John Frankenheimer, Jack Lemmon, Mary Martin, Carl Reiner, Gene Roddenberry, Garry Shandling, Flip Wilson, Jonathan Winters, and many more. Most of these panels are available for viewing at the Museum.

The 2003 William S. Paley Television Festival schedule is as follows:

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY SEMINAR: CREATING COMEDY
Wednesday, February 26 at 7:00 p.m.
 

The most challenging television comedy has always commented on American culture. An all-star panel of writers will discuss how comedy is produced and created with a point of view, how it can critique social conditions, and how it builds on artistic tradition and other media of the past. In Person: Judd Apatow (The Ben Stiller Show, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared), Norman Lear (All in the Family; Maude; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), Phil Rosenthal (Coach, Everybody Loves Raymond), Garry Shandling (It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Larry Sanders Show), Amy Sherman-Palladino (Roseanne, Gilmore Girls), Darren Star (Sex and the City, Gross Pointe), Larry Wilmore (The PJs, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Bernie Mac Show).

BOOMTOWN
Thursday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m.
 

Boomtown depicts a crime and its aftermath through the multiple perspectives of those who either perpetrate or protect, and then loops it into a Mobius strip of a narrative-as if life in the City of Angels were a great dramatic jigsaw puzzle and you, the viewer, were left to put it together. In Person: Laurence Andries (Coexecutive Producer), Laurie Arent (Writer), Michelle Ashford (Consulting Producer), Jon Avnet (Executive Producer/Director), Gary Basaraba ("Ray Hechler"), Chris Brancato (Coexecutive Producer), Nina Garbiras ("Andrea Little"), Jason Gedrick ("Tom Turcotte"), Fred Golan (Producer), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Producer), Fred Keller (Supervising Producer), Neal McDonough ("David McNorris"), Lana Parrilla ("Teresa Ortiz"), Albert J. Salke (Coexecutive Producer), Stephen Sassen (Producer), Joel Thompson (Writer), Donnie Wahlberg ("Joel Stevens"), Mykelti Williamson ("Fearless Bobby Smith"), Graham Yost (Executive Producer/Writer/Showrunner).

ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN
Friday, February 28 at 7:00 p.m.
 

With its barrage of one-liners, flash cuts, racy humor, political satire, burlesque, unabashed silliness, topical commentary, and oft-repeated catchphrases, Laugh-In shattered the traditional variety show format to become one of the touchstones of the psychedelic era. In Person: Billy Barnes (Special Musical Material), Chris Bearde (Writer), Ian Bernard (Musical Director), Ruth Buzzi (Cast Member), Tim Conway (Guest Star), Ed Friendly (Executive Producer), Arte Johnson (Cast Member), Dick Martin (Host/Executive Producer), Gary Owens (Cast Member), George Schlatter (Executive Producer), Alan Sues (Cast Member), Lily Tomlin (Cast Member), Jo Anne Worley (Cast Member).

CSI: MIAMI
Saturday, March 1 at 6:00 p.m.
 

This slick and handsome spin-off builds on its predecessor's successful high-tech formula by emphasizing both brains and brawn and shifting to the beaches and waterways of the Sunshine State-a transition, quite literally, from night to day. In Person: Khandi Alexander ("Alexx Woods"), David Black (Executive Producer), Jerry Bruckheimer (Executive Producer), Danny Cannon (Coexecutive Producer), David Caruso ("Horatio Caine"), Rory Cochrane ("Tim Speedle"), Ann Donahue (Executive Producer), Jonathan Littman (Executive Producer), Carol Mendelsohn (Executive Producer), Emily Procter ("Calleigh Duquesne"), Adam Rodriguez ("Eric Delko"), Sam Strangis (Executive Producer), Anthony Zuiker (Executive Producer).

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY SEMINAR: CREATING DRAMA
Monday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m.
 

A panel of leading television-drama auteurs—the heirs not only to pioneers like Paddy Chayefsky, Reginald Rose, and Rod Serling, but also to serial novelists like Charles Dickens and American realists like Theodore Dreiser—will discuss how they use the medium to explore values and lifestyles in contemporary society. In Person: J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias), Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue), Tom Fontana (St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Oz), Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night, The West Wing), Dick Wolf (Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent).

WITHOUT A TRACE
Tuesday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m.

Operating under the maxim "Learn who the victim is in order to learn where the victim is," this tersely paced forensics procedural follows the urgent efforts of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad as they reconstruct the lives of the disappeared. In Person: Jerry Bruckheimer (Executive Producer), Eric Close ("Martin Fitzgerald"), Marianne Jean-Baptiste ("Vivian Johnson"), Anthony LaPaglia ("Jack Malone"), Jonathan Littman (Executive Producer), Poppy Montgomery ("Samantha Spade"), Enrique Murciano ("Danny Taylor"), Ed Redlich (Executive Producer), Hank Steinberg (Creator/Executive Producer).

SÁBADO GIGANTE
Wednesday, March 5 at 7:00 p.m.
 

A Saturday night ritual for millions of Hispanic families, this long-running variety show extravaganza celebrates Latino culture and language with three incredible hours of fun, music, games, contests, celebrity guests, and audience participation—all held together by indefatigable host Don Francisco. In Person: Antonio "Cuco" Arias (Excutive Producer), Stephen Gaymont (Director of Creative Services, Univision), Mario Kreutzberger ("Don Francisco"/Creator/Creative Producer), Vicente Riesgo (Director).

COLUMBO
Thursday, March 6 at 7:00 p.m.
 

In this inversion of the classic detective formula—a "howdunnit" rather than a "whodunnit"—the charmingly idiosyncratic Peter Falk and his famously rumpled raincoat made the shambling, seemingly inept Lt. Columbo one of the more enduring characters in popular culture. In Person: Ed Begley, Jr. (Guest Star), Peter Falk ("Lieutenant Columbo"/Executive Producer), William Link (Cocreator/Executive Producer).

MONK
Friday, March 7 at 7:00 p.m.
 

Tony Shalhoub brilliantly shifts between pathos and physical comedy as a private eye who, in the aftermath of his wife's unsolved murder, develops an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder that enables him to analyze evidence in mind-boggling detail. In Person: Andy Breckman (Executive Producer/Writer), Jason Gray-Stanford ("Lieutenant Randall Disher"), David Hoberman (Executive Producer), Ted Levine ("Captain Leland Stottlemeyer"), Bitty Schram ("Sharona Fleming"), Tony Shalhoub ("Adrian Monk").

GEORGE LOPEZ
Saturday, March 8 at 7:00 p.m.

 
Stand-up comic George Lopez's easy smile, impeccable timing, and knack for nailing the verisimilitudes of SoCal Hispanic culture keep this popular family sitcom—about an assembly line worker who's been promoted to manage a Los Angeles airplane-parts factory—firmly grounded. In Person: Robert Borden (Executive Producer), Sandra Bullock (Executive Producer), Luis Armand Garcia ("Max"), Bruce Helford (Creator/Executive Producer), George Lopez (Cocreator/"George"), Masiela Lusha ("Carmen"), Constance Marie ("Angie"), Belita Moreno ("Benny"), Deborah Oppenheimer (Executive Producer), Valente Rodriguez ("Ernie").

24
Monday, March 10 at 7:00 p.m.
 

Unfolding in real time, this ingeniously crafted suspense series not only writes its own rules for dramatic storytelling, it heightens the spy genre's nail-biting quotient by aligning the viewer's well-spent hour with the race-against-the-clock exploits of counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer. In Person: Reiko Ayleswort ("Michelle Dessler"), Xander Berkeley ("George Mason"), Carlos Bernard ("Tony Almeida"), Sarah Clarke ("Nina Myers"), Robert Cochran (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer), Elisha Cuthbert ("Kimberly Bauer"), Michelle Forbes ("Lynne Kresge"), Howard Gordon (Executive Producer), Laura Harris ("Marie Warner"), Dennis Haysbert ("President Palmer"), Penny Johnson Jerald ("Sherry Palmer"), Joel Surnow (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer), Kiefer Sutherland ("Jack Bauer"), Sarah Wynter ("Kate Warner").

AMERICAN DREAMS
Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m.
 

Set in early 1960s Philadelphia, this drama about a starry-eyed teenager and her quintessentially middle-class family evokes the clash between the innocence of party dresses, tuna casseroles, and American Bandstand and the turbulent era ahead. In Person: Jonathan Adams ("Henry Walker"), Dick Clark (Executive Producer), Ethan Dampf ("Will Pryor"), Arlen Escarpeta ("Sam Walker"), Will Estes ("JJ Pryor"), Vanessa Lengies ("Roxanne Bojarski"), Gail O'Grady ("Helen Pryor"), Jonathan Prince (Executive Producer), Sarah Ramos ("Patty Pryor"), David Semel (Coexecutive Producer), Gregory Sill (Music Supervisor), Brittany Snow ("Meg Pryor"), Philip Toolin (Production Designer), Tom Verica, ("Jack Pryor").

LIFE WITH BONNIE
Wednesday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m.
 

With its improvised moments of subtle amusement, antic farce, and quiet poignancy, Life with Bonnie emphasizes spontaneity and closely observed behavior over the rapid-fire zingers and pratfalls of more traditional sitcom fare. In Person: Chris Barnes ("Marv"), Samantha Browne-Walters ("Samantha Malloy"), Mark Derwin ("Dr. Mark Malloy"), David Alan Grier ("David Bellows"), Bonnie Hunt (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer/Director/"Bonnie Malloy"), Don Lake (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer), Marianne Muellerliele ("Gloria"), Anthony Russell ("Tony Russo"), Charlie Stewart ("Charlie Malloy"), Holly Wortell ("Holly").

TICKETS
Tickets will go on sale to Museum Members on Saturday, February 1, 2003. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning Thursday, February 6, 2003. Ticket prices are $17 per event for individual Museum Members and $20 per event for the general public ($17 for senior citizens and students with valid ID). Museum Membership may be purchased with Paley Festival tickets at the Museum or by calling tickets.com at (888) 464-2468.

Tickets can be purchased as follows:

·At The Museum of Television & Radio, 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills (corner of North Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica)

  • February 1 to February 6: Daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (For Museum Members only)
  • From February 7 to February 9: Daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • From February 12 to the Festival conclusion: Regular Museum hours (Wednesdays through Sundays 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.)
·By Telephone or Internet (subject to service charges)  
  • Via Phone: Call tickets.com toll-free at (888) 464-2468, Mondays through Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. beginning February 1 for Members and February 7 for the general public
  • Via Internet beginning February 7: www.tickets.com 
·At the Directors Guild of America, DGA Theatre Complex at 7920 Sunset Boulevard (one block west of Fairfax)  
  • Tickets for all events are available at the DGA only on Festival evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Please note: There is a four-ticket limit per person, per event. All seating is general admission; seats cannot be reserved. For sold-out evenings, tickets may become available at the Directors Guild ticket table five minutes prior to starting time. There are no refunds or exchanges. Events and participants are subject to change.

FESTIVAL HOTLINE
Information about the Paley Festival is available through the recorded Festival hotline: (310) 786-1010.

SPECIAL THANKS
The Museum thanks American Airlines, Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Budget Rent a Car Beverly Hills, and Panasonic for their generous support of this year's Paley Festival. Street banners provided by William Morris Agency, Inc.

The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, is a nonprofit organization founded by William S. Paley to collect and preserve television and radio programs and advertisements and to make them available to the public. Since opening in 1976, the Museum has organized exhibitions, screening and listening series, seminars, and education classes to showcase its collection of over 120,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. In 2001 the Museum initiated a process to acquire Internet programming for the collection. Programs in the Museum's permanent collection are selected for their artistic, cultural, and historic significance.


The Museum of Television & Radio in New York, located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6:00 p.m., until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, and Friday evenings until 9:00 p.m. (theaters only). The Museum of Television & Radio in California, located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5:00 p.m. and until 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays. Both Museums are closed on New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Suggested contribution: Members free; $10.00 for adults; $8.00 for senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under fourteen. Admission is free in Los Angeles. The public areas in both Museums are accessible to wheelchairs, and assisted listening devices are available. Programs are subject to change. You may call the Museum in New York at (212) 621-6800, or in Los Angeles at (310) 786-1000. Visit the Museum's website at www.mtr.org.