Comic-Con: A destination convention for TV too

Homer Simpson, Stewie Griffin and SpongeBob SquarePants are the kinds of characters you’d expect to see hanging around the teeming corridors of Comic-Con, the annual comics, games and toys convention that gathers through this weekend in San Diego.

But what about those crooning kids from “Glee,” Fox’s live-action hit? Where exactly is the comic-book connection to USA’s crime procedural “White Collar”? Tell us again why there’s a panel devoted to “Dexter,” Showtime’s sly serial killer drama, which was adapted from a novel, but not one of the graphic variety?

Asking such questions may be beside the point at Comic-Con, which for TV executives — following in the steps of their movie brethren — has become a can’t-miss marketing destination where networks and studios jostle to hawk their latest wares while swag-toting throngs of eager fanboys and fangirls appreciatively (well, mostly) eat it all up. More than 125,000 attendees and nearly 1,000 exhibitors are expected to swarm the San Diego Convention Center this weekend. People have had to be turned away — about 400 companies hoping to set up booths were sent away this year — due to space limits, which is a key factor driving organizers to investigate possibly moving the gathering to larger facilities in Anaheim or Los Angeles (Comic-Con is booked in San Diego through at least 2012).

“The fans who come to Comic-Con get an opportunity to talk to the people who actually make” entertainment, said David Glanzer, the longtime spokesman for the convention. “There’s a benefit to listening to the people who will end up tuning in to your show.” Glanzer cited the examples of “Family Guy” and “Futurama,” two shows that were brought back by popular demand after the network canceled them. And fans’ rescue of the original “Star Trek” TV series after it was axed by NBC in the mid-1960s has attained mythic status within the sci-fi community.

“It helps us reach this audience,” Showtime Executive Vice President Len Fogge said of the convention. “They’re tastemakers. They’re online-savvy and they get the word out.” He added that, due to the spread of Twitter and other social media, “now, word-of-mouth is one mouth to 500” people, which helps enhance a marketing campaign for a relatively small investment.

Notable TV panels this year include a session on Syfy’s “ Caprica,” targeted at the same fan base that embraced “Battlestar Galactica”; another visit from Alan Ball, creator of HBO’s vampire hit “True Blood” and cast members, including Anna Paquin; and an exchange between J.J. Abrams (“ Lost,” “Fringe,” “Alias”) and Joss Whedon ( “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), who among the Comic-Con faithful count as nothing less than gods.

George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing Group, said that he and other executives at the company’s No. 1-rated broadcast network decided to ramp up their involvement this year, including its first-ever booth on the convention floor and some panels nerdy enough to please the most discriminating purist: “ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” creator Anthony Zuiker will talk about the explosion of gadgetry on TV shows, and the cast of the geek-sitcom hit “Big Bang Theory” will also hold court.

“Comic-Con helped launch that show,” Schweitzer said of “Big Bang.” “That has shrine status.”

CBS also decided, less obviously, to bring along its new remake of “ Hawaii Five-O,” which had less to do with the cop franchise itself and more with the fact that it is being overseen by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who worked on Abrams’ hit feature remake of “Star Trek.” “Fans want to keep up with the people they love from television and movies and they want to know the next big thing they’re doing,” Schweitzer said.

At last year’s Comic-Con, Fox gave a boost to the fledgling “Glee” by premiering an entire episode to a boisterous, standing-room-only crowd; this time, creator Ryan Murphy is bringing some previously unseen footage and promising to answer fan questions.

“Comic-Con is a unique opportunity to reach the biggest of those fans,” said Gary Newman, chairman of 20th Century Fox Television, the studio behind “Glee” and “The Simpsons.” “The people who will blog about our shows, the early adopters of shows, the people who care deeply about television and content — and, by the way, the people who will buy your merchandise, buy your DVDs — follow it from platform to platform.”

OK, but is “Glee” really a natural fit at perhaps the only place on Earth where a packed roomful of grown-ups can get seriously excited by the Season 2 premiere of “Hot Wheels Battle Force 5”? “I think the characters in ‘Glee’ would’ve been at home in Comic-Con,” Newman said. Fox is taking only one new show this year — the midseason animated series “Bob’s Burgers” — because its other premieres simply didn’t mesh well with Comic-Con’s sensibility, Newman said.

Some studios “try to take shows that don’t really belong there,” Newman said. “We’ve tried to stay away from that.”

scott.collins@latimes.com