Nostalgia, Pt. 47

Aside from Friends, know what other seminal TV show is celebrating an anniversary (its 10th) today?

Lost.

Like...guys, remember how riveted we were when we first started discovering the Island?

Photo: GoPixPic.com.

The Island Keeps on Teasin’

Lost is over and done…or is it?

The upcoming sixth-season DVD of the Emmy-winning and -nominated show is coming out later in August, and it’ll feature an original, 12-minute vignette called “The New Man in Charge.”

If you saw the finale in May, then you know that man ended up being – Spoiler Alert! – Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and that Ben (Michael Emerson) became his No. 2.

But, in typical Lost fashion, that’s all we were told, so this vignette (not to mention whatever else is included as an extra) is a total must.

“Ben is going around to Dharma installations and closing some down,” Emerson (pictured here, at left) recently teased. “There are some good surprises. It does answer questions.”

Good, I like that….

Photo: EW.com.

Emmy Gets It Mostly Right For a Change

The Emmy Awards nomination were announced at the crack this morning, and boy, were they on point this year.

Announcer Sofia Vergara, who looked smokin’ in a tight blue little number (check her out here), and one of the season’s breakouts for her work on TV’s Modern Family, scored a nod in the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy race – sorry other announcer, Joel McHale (Community)…better luck next year.

That little bit of news, though, came at the end of the announcement, following the Amazing Event: Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are, at last, Emmy nominees.

That, to me, was the morning’s touchdown – an oh-so-hard fought for four years. I think about it and I smile.

The dearly departed Lost also got some Emmy love, receiving 12 nominations, including Best Drama, Lead Actor for Matthew Fox, Supporting Actor for the dynamic duo of Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson, and a Guest Actress nod for Elizabeth Mitchell’s nuanced reprise of Dr. Juliet Burke.

Well earned, Team Darlton & Co.!

The outpouring of love for Modern Family was terrif, no so much Fringe’s snubs. Ditto the lack of love for Cougar Town star Courteney Cox (who’s the only Friends cast member who never was nominated for that show, either).

Still, though, Emmy did me mostly proud to be a TV watcher, especially when the powers that be recognized The Good Wife’s three actresses, Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, and Archie Panjabi, who’s just exquisite.

And, can we give it up for Queen D Kathy Griffin, who’ll have another chance to add a third Emmy to her collection for her Bravo show? Or for the incomparable Betty White, who was singled out for her hosting SNL? How about we just give the hardware to the latter, already?

Photo: NYTimes.com.

No, You Di’n’t, Lost!

Are you kidding me with what you did last night, Lost?

You made me tear up. I hope you’re happy.

Photo: EW.com.

The Pilot’s Back

Greg Grunberg, who co-stars on Heroes, f.k.a. one of TV’s most exciting shows, n.k.a. TV’s most tedious show – oh how far they’ve come…in the wrong way – is yapping all about…Lost.

The actor, a familiar face to fans of the J.J. Abrams oeuvre (Abrams is an executive producer on Lost, lest you forget), has confirmed that his ill-fated Oceanic pilot will play a role in the show’s Feb. 2 season premiere.

Huh? But he got his courtesy of the smoke monster in the show’s pilot!

“Well, with [Lost], they go back and forth in time, so you have no idea when and where the last season will take place,” Grunberg said. “I may get eaten all over again. It may be a flashback. It may be an alternate new reality where I am on the same flight but we don’t crash and I don’t get eaten. Maybe I’m a ghost. You never know.”

I guess we’ll have to watch, huh – that is if President Obama doesn’t throw a monkey wrench in our plans.

Oh, btw, in the same interview with EW.com’s Michael Ausiello, Grunberg says Heroes will see the light of a fifth season.

Fine, if you must.

Photo: DharmaSwanStation.wordpress.com.

Emmys Rock, Get Mad – Again

The 61st Annual Emmys Awards offered up a few surprises when all the envelopes were opened – but not in the biggest categories of them all.

Once again, defending champs 30 Rock was named Best Comedy (yay!), while Mad Men picked up the award for Best Drama.

In her acceptance speech, 30 Rock mastermind Tina Fey thanked NBC for keeping the show on the air, even though, it’s more expensive than a talk show (yeah, she means you and your big bag of taking time off primetime, Jay Leno).

For a complete list of winners, click here, but know that I was thrilled to see Michael Emerson, a.k.a. Lost’s duplicitous Ben, win in the best supporting actor in a drama category.

Photo: NYDailyNews.com.

Lost Gets a Hawkes

This news excites me and makes me sad all at the same time.

I’m thrilled that production on the sixth and final season of TV’s Lost is moving along, but at the same time, it saddens me to think that the end of one of the medium’s most challenging, intriguing, and satisfying offerings is, indeed, quite near.

John Hawkes, best known for playing Sol Star in HBO’s Deadwood, reportedly has been cast in the final season of the ABC show as a character named Lennon.

Described as “the spokesperson/translator for the president of a foreign corporation,” Lennon is a “wily negotiator [who’s] far more powerful than his lowly position would seem to indicate.”

Sounds like trouble. And I cannot wait to see what he brings to the table.

Photo: HBO.com.

Update: Lost also has cast Japanese superstar Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) in a “significant recurring” role.

Boone Boone Pow

If Ian Somerhalder thought his trip to last week’s Comic-Con was going to be all about The CW’s upcoming drama The Vampire Diaries, he thought wrong because mostly, fans wanted to talk about Lost.

In particular, Con-ners wanted to know if the actor will be heading back to the show’s Hawaiian set next season.

“I think it’s safe to say…we sort of discussed that…it’s truly incredible that…I am going to be coming back,” he said.

I guess he’s not done with the Island, or it with Somerhalder, either.

Photo: EdiePeterson.files.wordpress.com.

Update: Click here for a few teases about the sixth and final season of Lost.

She’s Not Done with the Island

Elizabeth Mitchell, the dazzling actress who plays Juliet on TV’s Lost, revealed at Comic-Con that she will be back on the show next season (its last).

Last we saw Juliet, her story was off to an explosive wrap-up.

“I don’t have closure,” she said. “I love closure and will be happy for it when it comes. [Juliet’s story] hasn’t really reached its end yet. There are other things happening in the next season.”

That’s the best news out of the Con I’ve read so far. And the annual geek bonanza just got started….

Mitchell also will appear on ABC’s V next season, btw, which I already want to Season Pass.

Photo: LostCastNews.com.

Update: V, btw, is generating some good word of mouth, which makes me happy. Hey, it’s the small things....

The Looong Wait Until the End

Matthew Fox is promising Lost’s sixth and final season next years is going to be “amazing,” “incredibly satisfying,” “very surprising,” and “fairly confusing.”

Thinking radio silence, schmadio silence, the actor recently gave the crowd at the 49th Monte-Carlo Television Festival a glimpse at the final 17 episodes, which won’t premiere until – jeez! – next winter.

The season will begin with the aftermath of Juliet (the sure-to-be-missed Elizabeth Mitchell) seemingly detonating the Jughead bomb’s explosive core, in a development Fox said will be “very surprising – and probably fairly confusing, initially, to the audience.”

About a third of the way into the final season, Fox teased, Lost’s two timelines – in 1977 and 2007 – “are going to be solidified into one, and we will be operating in a more linear time, to the end of the series.”

Once the show moves to one timeline, he said, flashbacks will cease, and Lost will resolve its story on the island.

For more about the big finish, click here.

Photo: ABC.com.

Putting a Face with the Name

Fans of Showtime’s Dexter will recognize this guy and will be able to speak of this casting way more than I can now that Mark Pellegrino has been on Lost “in a pivotal role.”

Could Pellegrino be playing…Jacob, perhaps?

We’re gonna have to wait until the season finale to find out.

Photo: EW.com.

Cashing In Her V Card

Shall we be worried?

Lost MVP Elizabeth Mitchell has been cast in ABC’s eagerly anticipated V pilot.

She joins Scott Wolf in the project, and leaves this and other fans wondering if her character on Lost, Juliet, will be joining Boone, Shannon, and the rest of the dead castaways in Island heaven. After all, there are rumors out there that one of the show’s major characters will get it later this season.

Oh, I’d miss Mitchell so – but I’d also watch V, more now than ever.

Photo: TheAdvocate.com.

Island Dweller

The wonderful Reiko Aylesworth (TV’s 24) is joining Lost with tonight’s episode, a Sawyer-centric installment titled “LaFleur.”

Aylesworth, who is due to appear in four episodes of the show’s fifth season, which is proving to be quite a trip, will play Amy, a new character we will meet “in the midst of the biggest crisis of her life.”

The actress says Amy “really draws [the castaways] into a new world.”

Sounds intriguing, and I cannot wait – especially because Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, is said to appear clean-shaven in the episode.

Photo: PhotoBucket.com.

Things That Make Some of Us Giddy

Not too long ago, Lost boss Carlton Cuse said at a panel that, “Sawyer has a lot to do this year.”

Added Cuse’s fellow boss on the hit show, Damon Lindelof, “A lot of the focus was on the Oceanic Six last year.... This year we tried to make up for lost time [with Sawyer]. [The character’s portrayer] Josh [Holloway] has been doing amazing work.”

You can say that again. I understand he spends about half of the fifth season’s premiere airing next Wednesday shirtless.

Photo: TheFaust.wordpress.com.

What Did Happen to “Them” After the Island Moved?

This tease of the upcoming fifth season of Lost, premiering on Jan. 21, really is too much, yet not enough:



Gimme more!

Destiny Calls, Indeed

The new extended trailer for Lost’s upcoming fifth season, premiering on Jan. 21, is out and about – and it teases sooo good:



Desmond and Penny get to be in bed together? Hurley’s got a gun? And why are Sawyer and Juliet holding hands?

Oh my….

They “Have to Go Baaack” – And They Are

The countdown to the fifth season of TV’s Lost, premiering next winter, has begun:

The Return of Ana Lucia Cortez

Michelle Rodriguez (pictured at right with former co-stars Josh Holloway’s sexy back and Harold Perrineau) is said to be set to reprise her fan-polarizing role as Ana Lucia Cortez in Lost’s fifth season next year.

The actress will appear in one episode, most likely the second one back.

Whether Ana Lucia will be back in a flashback or as one of the ghostly vision for which the show’s known remains to be seen.

Uh duh.

Photo: EW.com.

Sexual Memories

EW.com readers recently were asked to pick TV’s sexiest scenes.

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer’s (Josh Holloway) romp in a polar-bear-cage scene in Season 3 of Lost (pictured at right) was ranked in the Top 3.

Coming in at No. 1 was Ally McBeal having sex with a stranger in a car wash – it was “pretty hot” according to the reader who picked it...and my memory – while the No. 2 spot went to two ladies of the The L Word who killed time getting busy in a stuck elevator.

Among other fun and sexy times seen on the tube that made people reminisce are Meredith and Derek’s quickie at the end of Grey’s Anatomy’s second season, and Brian and Justin’s first encounter on Queer as Folk.

Photo: EW.com.

Update: Speaking of Lost, production on Season 5 is due to begin in 12 days, and the show’s producers are said to be looking to cast two new recurring roles. Scott Patterson (TV’s Gilmore Girls) sounds like a shoo-in for one of them, IMHO.

Emmy’s Rocking Mad

Nominations for the 60th Annual Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and it looks like someone loves her some Tina Fey and some dapper gents.

It was a good morning for Pushing Daisies’ Kristin Chenoweth and How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, too. Both were nominated this year (they made the announcements).

NBC’s 30 Rock and AMC’s Mad Men emerged as the frontrunners with 17 and 16 nods apiece.

ABC’s Lost received a much-deserved nomination in the Drama Series category, but Michael Emerson, who plays Ben, nabbed what seems to be the show’s sole acting nomination.

For quick look-see at the nominees, click here. For a detail list, click here.

The Emmys will be handed out on Sept. 21. Other Emmy Awards – including those for technical achievement – will be handed out at the creative arts ceremony (“the Schmemmys,” as nominee Kathy Griffin calls them) on Sept. 13.

Photo: AMCTV.com (Mad Men).