EVIL PUPPET MASTERS

I found this article mainly because Damon Lindelof was one of the television producers who participated in this roundtable discussion regarding dealing with networks, cable bosses, ratings and the FCC. It was both enlightening and hilarious, so of course, I must share it Alongside our beloved Nomad are Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies), David Shore (House), Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), and Craig Thomas (How I Met Your Mother).

I hope UrbanDictionary.com gets money for all those hits

Here’s an EXCLUSIVE first look at the FRINGE hat with the Bad Robot guy on the back. YAY for SWAG!! This is the FRINGE logo that I prefer, by the way. It looks like the letters are being electrocuted.

Hmmm…last year I got a SLUSHO shirt for my birthday. This year my birthday will roll around while I am in San Diego for Comic Con. For my BR peeps: I REALLY like this HAT *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

Photo used by permission of Rick Orci, who is perpetually obsessed with taking photos with his iPhone. Not that I’m complaining.

With all the articles posted this week about the LOST Season 4 finale, Parts 2 and 3 of which air tomorrow night, I found this piece from the L.A. Times regarding the excessive use of curse words in the LOST scripts to be highly amusing - and a refreshing something different. Having read a few scripts from that club of writers, I was aware of their fondness for the use of the “f-word” especially, but it was interesting to read Damon’s explanation - as well as Michael Emerson and Jorge Garcia giving their takes on reading said salty scripts.

According to today’s Cynthia’s Cynopsis:

Big news from the ABC camp. The network, which led the industry in making programs available for iTunes and developed one of the best HD-quality video players on the net, is at last loosening its hold on its content to allow users to embed clips of its shows on blogs and personal profiles. ABC.com’s newly-enhanced video player, coming this fall, will also feature:

* True full screen viewing
* Enhanced navigation and video search capabilities allowing users to search for series graphically, alphabetically, by genre or popularity
* Content recommendation functions
* Closed captioning
* Parental ratings information for all full episode content

This will be a big deal for LOST bloggers, who have had to stick with screencaps and poor quality vid clips up to this point.

The premiere of FRINGE on Fox may still be months away, but the moviesque trailer for the show has many a blogger intrigued by what we see…and what we don’t see. Below find some links to some of the more prolific bloggers on the interwebs and read their takes on all the hulabaloo:

Nikki Stafford’s Blog - “Fall TV Preview: Fringe”
FringeTV Blog - “Will Fringe Come With A Viral Element?”
TV Envy - “Trailer for new FOX series Fringe”
Rope of Silicon - “JJ Abrams ‘Fringe’ Trailer - Viral Sites Forthcoming”

So far, the trailer seems to have done it’s job - hooked those who are already obsessed with everything JJ/Bad Robot (*coughMEcough*) and enticed those who aren’t so sure to at least give it a shot. I have ONE beef with the show - which has nothing to do with the show itself, really. I HATE the lettering they have used for FRINGE on the posters and promos. It just looks wrong - if they were intending it to look sort of 3D…then they did it wrong. If it is meant to look off kilter and slapped together…well then I guess they did it right. What do you think?

Considering what a massive fontaholic JJ is, I’m just surprised that they couldn’t come up with a better font style. Oh well, what the hell do I know?

For the record, FRINGE is NOT about an “airplane flight whose passengers meet untimely ends” nor is it accurately described by comparing it to LOST and saying that it “has a similar airliner mystery”. I’ve already read half a dozen reviews making one or the other assumptions of what the show is about, but they are both WRONG.

The PILOT episode does indeed involve an airplane “whose passengers meet untimely ends” but that is NOT what the entire series revolves around. Leading people to believe that FRINGE is going to be like LOST because there is an airplane involved is ludicrous and is just going to confuse the masses - or turn them off thinking that JJ and Bad Robot have an airplane fetish. I do realize that part of the blame belongs to FOX, since their official description of the show isn’t really a description of the show but of the Pilot episode. But you’d think that with all the hype and the marketing blitz that a reporter could take an extra couple of minutes to make a phone call or surf the internet to verify the accuracy of their information.

A better explanation of the show - what it is and what it will be - comes from FOX’s press release:

The new event drama premiering this fall is FRINGE, a fantastical thriller from acclaimed writer/producer J.J. Abrams (”Lost”), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (”Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “Alias”). Joshua Jackson (”Dawson’s Creek”), John Noble (”Lord of the Rings”) and newcomer Anna Torv star as an unlikely trio who uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, more disturbing pattern that blurs the line between science fiction and technology.

.

Google is your friend.

According to the people over at Watch With Kristin and E! Online, LOST is the No. 1 “New or Returning Show” to watch in 2008, out of a list of 21 shows. I don’t agree with Kristin on MOST things, but I’ll back up that declaration.

I must take a moment to wish the happiest of birthdays to the Man, the Myth, the LEGEND…Lost Executive Producer, Bryan Burk. He’s the hardest working producer in Hollywood and one of the NICEST GUYS ON THE PLANET. All of my amazing experiences in the LOST fandom can be traced back to three years ago when I started his fanclub. I was then, am now, and will ever be…Burky Babe #1

Happy Birthday, Bry…and get some sleep for goodness sake!

Daniel Dae Kim posted the following message and video to his MySpace:

Here’s the video that I’ve been working on with Harold for his song, “Stay Strong.” It’s a thank you card for the troops and their service to our country. It was a labor of love, and everyone involved in the making of the video volunteered their services.
Regardless of how you feel about the war, I hope you’ll agree that our troops deserve our support, especially during this special time of year.

(more…)

So, I guess the lack of new television has given the Entertainment Weekly writers time o’plenty, so they are spamming their own site with a flood of “Top ____” lists. The mockable-titled list of “Sci-Fi’s Top 25 Movies and Television in the Past 25 Years” only redeems itself by naming LOST (as No. 11) and BSG No. 2.

Our fearless leader, JJ Abrams, was ranked #29 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood. Click HERE to go directly to JJ’s write-up.

The beautiful Tania Raymonde, who plays “Alex” on LOST, can be found in the new Maroon 5 video for their song “Won’t Go Home Without You.” The vid is embedded below. Enjoy!

One of my favorite sites for entertainment industry information and articles is Zap2it. When I was clicking around on the site a few days ago, I discovered their television blog called From Inside the Box. They cover a bunch of shows, including LOST — so CHECK IT OUT.

They were even nice enough to include EPM on their Other TV Blogs list. They pimp me, I pimp them. See how that works?

You think last night’s episode knocked your socks off? I believe the phrase “tip of the iceberg” may apply. I exchanged some e-mails with the fantastic Bryan Burk last night, and I thought I’d share the last bit with y’all:

Burky says…

2 to go — including, in my opinion, our BEST season finale!

hijinx responds…

“BEST season finale”???? You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? I have pretty high standards when it comes to season finales — and up until this point, NOTHING has come close to beating the Alias Season 2 finale. You think it’s THAT good?

Burky responds…

BETTER than “Alias” Season 2 finale

Batten down the hatches (so to speak), my friends. Brain-proof the walls of your living rooms. Bryan doesn’t make a statement like that without knowing it will be backed up.

*is skert*

I have surfed around the interwebs today reading the various fanatical and critical reactions to the announcement from ABC that LOST will end in 2010. Most critics are happy with this plan for 3 more seasons, 16 episodes each, aired non-stop with no repeats, while the majority of fan reactions have been LESS than thrilled with this plan, preferring 2 more 24-ep seasons.

What the fans are probably not grasping from this (and that the critics probably ARE very aware of) is that this deal has all of the tell-tale signs of a compromise. Damon and Carlton have been inexplicably vocal about wanting the show to only go 5 seasons/100 episodes TOTAL. They know that this show, designed the way it is, NEEDS a definitive ending point, but definitive endings are not typical of prime-time television shows — especially ones as popular and endorsement heavy as LOST. Darlton made their wishes PUBLIC, so that the ball would be in ABC’s court. In exchange for a definitive ending — announced a full THREE YEARS before it would come, which is totally unheard of — Darlton gave ABC an extra year of commitment, which means an extra year of advertising dollars, etc. Both sides win.

To me, the biggest winners will be the FANS. The last thing this fandom needs is unhappy writers and/or greedy network execs. You love LOST? Then you need to support this — because THIS will give us all the answers we want and the ending that we deserve.

So why three seasons of 16 instead of two seasons of 24? Well, you can thank THIS season for that. The 6-episode mini-season TANKED with critics and fans alike. But the Feb-May run of 16 or 17 episodes (whatever the total ended up being) has been chugging right along with consistent live numbers, tons of DVR recordings, tons of streaming downloads from ABC.com and tons of iTunes downloads. If the fans are upset about the prospect of having to wait until NEXT January/February before we get Season 4, then they only have themselves to blame. Because YES, ABC WAS LISTENING when you were all complaining about the repeats. And honestly, I think 16 is a more manageable number for the LOST production team to commit to per season for the next three years.