(Edited by Mike Vicic)

Each day of the Television Critics Association (TCA) Winter Tour, TV Tango will highlight a few panels and important events with detailed information, insights and observations. Today, we focus on HBO's session for GAME OF THRONES and cover Thursday's OWN session with Oprah. If you want up-to-the-minute live news about TCA, check out our Twitter feed since we are live-tweeting the event -- well, as often as our internet connection holds out.

GAME OF THRONES

Fantasy fans get ready! Come April, HBO will premiere GAME OF THRONES, the heavily anticipated show based on the popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” written by George R.R. Martin. Produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss GAME OF THRONES follows a violent family in the midst of a massive internal battle.  In the past David has referred to it as “THE SOPRANOS meets Middle Earth” and certainly viewers who enjoyed the unexpected violence of the former and the epic power struggle of the latter will gravitate to this and quickly become loyal fans. Not that they actually need any more, as the books have a very intense following of fans who love their favorite characters with a passion and who are waiting with bated breath for the show to premiere. “Television is filled with lawyer shows and doctor shows but relatively little fantasy shows” says Benioff, so he’s more than happy to help fill that void. Case in point, he recently received an enthusiastic email from a fan who was super excited that the series was being made. That fan? The Dean of Stanford Law School!

So how does a huge fantasy period piece like this end up on HBO? According to D.B. Weiss, “HBO was the only place we envisioned this being done and done properly. Even though they hadn’t done this genre before that was almost more of a reason to go to them.” Martin adds, “HBO is associated with quality and I wanted this to be a quality production. HBO has always been my dream for this.”

While George did pen the pilot, he doesn’t have time to write as many episodes as he’d like as his first priority is to complete the books. He does however, consult with Benioff and Weiss and says sometimes they listen to him and sometimes they don’t. While that seems like it would cause problems it’s clear that George is okay with not having full writing control because he trusts them with his vision. And from the looks of the trailer, I’d say that trust has paid off! The series is visually stunning, so much so that lead actor Sean Bean who plays Eddard Stark called the production value “incredible and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Though he’s worked on a set based in the Middle Ages before with LORD OF THE RINGS, he was very impressed with the level of attention to detail on this set and felt like he was working on a feature film each week.

Towards the end of the panel one critic compared this series to LOST and other shows that have that feeling of being event television. The producers say one advantage that they have over the other shows is that they’re not making this up as they go along. They have characters and storylines built in that can last them for hopefully multiple seasons.  I’m sure their loyal fans would agree!

GAME OF THRONES.  Photo Credit: HBO.

OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK (OWN)

With the successful launch of OWN, Oprah Winfrey’s panel (on Thursday) was by far the most popular panel of the day. The ballroom went from semi-full to standing room only as everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of Oprah.

The panel began with the 10 finalists for YOUR OWN SHOW, the competition based series that will reward the winner with a six episode run on OWN. The casting call for this show drew 15,000 applicants from all walks of life. Show topics for the finalists include cooking, healthy eating, spirituality, money/finance and travel adventures. Though it is considered the ultimate competition, producer Mark Burnett says that unlike other reality shows there was no unnecessary contrived drama, just talent.

The contestants on YOUR OWN SHOW, which premiered

Friday, January 7 on OWN. Photo Credit: OWN.

Next up was Oprah’s longtime BFF Gayle King who is taking her radio show THE GAYLE KING SHOW to TV. Gayle has the distinction of hosting the only live show on the network and for that, she’s thrilled. “Live television really is like working without a net… in a moment you have to figure out can I course correct it or should I just keep it moving? I’m thrilled that it’s live. People like seeing the imperfections, the key is to not have many.”

Though Gayle’s voice was almost completely gone, she was visibly excited to share with us a show that she feels will appeal to a large audience. Her radio listeners have always been loyal and she’s hoping they will now become loyal viewers. Gayle says she has a wide variety of tastes on a number of topics and made a point to quote Barak Obama when describing her interviewing style saying, “I think we can agree to disagree.”

Gayle King on the set of THE GAYLE KING SHOW,

which premieres Monday, January 10. Photo Credit: OWN.

When asked about her guest wishlist Gayle admitted that radio is sometimes thought of as “second class citizens” to some celebrities but she believes the Oprah Winfrey brand and the instant connection that TV gives an audience will attract big stars. For the record, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Beyonce and Josh Groban are among the celebrities on her wishlist.

Following Gayle King was another woman who isn’t new to media, journalist extraordinaire Lisa Ling. Ling’s show OUR AMERICA covers fascinating stories and interesting people who are in our own backyard, which Ling is extremely proud of.

Lisa Ling, host of OUR AMERICA, premiering in February on OWN.

Photo Credit: OWN.

Ling is known for really stepping into the shoes of the subjects she covers to the point where she sometimes finds herself in dangerous situations.  Moments that made her a little nervous included being in the middle of a sex offender colony in the woods of Florida and going on drug runs with heroin addicts. Despite the dangers Ling says, “I always go into a story with the intention of being as open as possible” and calls this show the most gratifying work experience she’s ever had.

After all the opening acts, Oprah herself came out to wrap up her thoughts on her new network. Though she took very few questions her anecdotes about her childhood and the early days of her career literally took command of the room. While Oprah has had her own show for decades, now that she has an entire network she had this to say, “I’ve never loved commercials more in my life! It’s a different way of looking at television for me… it’s been a wonderful learning curve for me.”

What more is there to say except All Hail Queen Oprah!

Oprah Winfrey celebrating the launch of her new network, OWN.
Photo Credit: OWN.