EVIL PUPPET MASTERS

Don’t everyone freak out - this does not mean that there are “problems” with the show. FOX pushed back its entire line up of show premieres by at least a week - which kind of sucks because I always liked that FOX would premiere stuff in August while other networks were pushing premieres to late September/early October *sad face*

Anywhoo - FOX will now air the 2-hour Pilot episode of FRINGE on Tuesday, September 9th at 8 p.m. (Eastern/7 Central). Be there or be pissed off that you missed the boat on what will be the #1 new drama on television this Fall!

Photo property of FOX, Warner Bros. and Bad Robot

First off, I want to direct y’all to a blog that will be THE place to find out anything and everything about FRINGE. As much as I’d like to say RIGHT HERE, there is just no way that I will have the time. So, for all your FRINGE obsession needs, be sure to bookmark or grab the feed for the following blog:

http://fringetv.blogspot.com

It is being run by this nice guy named Edward, who in the past couple of months has started that blog, a forum, a Facebook group, a Wiki and even a Flickr account for FRINGE fans. He is made of AWESOME.

From FOX, we have a few new links as well:

Official FOX Site — Though they misspelled Bob Orci’s name - UGH - it’s ROBERTO…not ‘Romberto.’ It’s fixed now
Programming Information — Which for now has a breakdown of the characters, actors and premise for the show. Go check it out.

But the BESTEST thing to pop up yesterday for FRINGE were these two sneak peeks - SQUEE!

The premiere date is now in the sidebar. FRINGE will air Tuesday nights on FOX at 9/8 Central, following HOUSE.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (and as ganked from SciFiWire) - we will be getting our FULL serving of LOST episodes as originally contracted last Summer. ABC announced that we will get 17 hours of LOST in Season 5 and 17 hours in Season 6, rather than 16 per.

So here is the math:

Pre-Strike Deal: 16 hours per remaining three seasons (4-6) = 48 hours

Post-Strike Season 4 actual hours = 14 (was 13 until Darlton fought for the extra hour for the finale)

Difference = 2 hours

This announcement essentially means that we will get those missing hours - one in S5 and one in S6.

Post-Strike Episode Division: 14 (Season 4) + 17 (Season 5) + 17 (Season 6) = 48

Now all is right with the world

In case you have been living in a cave (like me) for the past week or so, ABC has given LOST another hour for the Season 4 Finale. The season finale will now be airing on Thursday, May 29th from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.. Due to Grey’s Anatomy also getting an extra hour for its finale, THERE WILL BE NO LOST ON MAY 22nd!

As has happened before, they are actually calling the LOST S4 finale a “three-hour finale” - which just means they’re going to leave us dangling precariously over a precipice at the end of the May 15th episode Sneaky devils.

If you haven’t heard already, LOST will be getting an additional FIVE episodes, post-strike, for a total of 13 episodes this season. Of the original EIGHT finished before the Strike, we will see through 4.07 before we get a FIVE-WEEK break. LOST will then resume on April 24th (moving to its new time slot on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. EST) with episode 4.08. Assuming they are still planning on running the episodes week-to-week with no break, that would put the Season 4 Finale on May 29th.

From Variety:

…
Paramount is pushing back the release of “Star Trek” from Dec. 25 to May 8, 2009.
Par also is moving DreamWorks’ Ben Stiller summer comedy “Tropic Thunder” from July 11 to Aug. 15.

Move was part of a major reshuffling to the studio’s release calendar, as well as DreamWorks’ release calendar.

Studio insiders said “Star Trek” has the potential to gross more in May than in December.

All the majors are likely to revisit their 2008 and 2009 release skeds in the wake of the writer’s strike now being over. There’s an abundance of films slated for release this year, and particularly comedies. It’s likely that Par won’t be the only studio pushing back films to 2009.

“Star Trek” has no competition in its new slot–at least not so far. One week earlier, 20th Century Fox bows “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

…

That should give the boys some breathing room…

As has become tradition, ABC will air a LOST retrospective of Seasons 1 through 3 before the S4 Premiere. This one is called “LOST: Past, Present & Future” (heh - “future”…get it?). It will air on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 8 p.m. (EST), with Episode 4.01 “The Beginning of the End” airing right after it at 9 p.m. (EST).

Taking a glance at ABC Medianet, I noticed that ABC is reairing the LOST Season 3 Finale - “Through the Looking Glass” - on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 from 8-10 p.m. (EST). From what I’ve heard about the Season 4 Premiere, we are all going to want a refresher beforehand. 4.01 picks up right where TtLG ended, at least with respect to the island story

ABC announced their midseason schedule and gave us all a collective WTF? by putting LOST on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. (EST). Season 4 begins on January 31, 2008.

THANK GOD!!! ABC prez Steve McPherson announced at the Upfronts today that LOST will be on earlier when it comes back for Season 4. That 10 o’clock time slot was KILLING ME and preventing me from being able to stay up and read the boards as long as I wanted to. It sucks to be responsible.

But anyway, according to that Zap2it article, Steve said the Tivo/DVR numbers for “live plus 7″ had DOUBLED with the timeslot shift. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that LOST just isn’t a show that you can watch at 10, then go to sleep at 11. There has to be time to Google and Wiki!!

It’s a good thing that Doc Jensen is married and I am married or else there would be some serious proposing going on I’m going to have to give him a category now, since I post his articles so much…

Doc asks EVERY QUESTION that I had in my head or had read elsewhere in conjunction with ABC’s announcement regarding LOST ending in 2010 — directly to Damon and Carlton — and THEY ANSWER (almost) EVERY ONE. Run, don’t walk. Vague spoilers, but y’all can handle it.

Noteworthy phrase:

“Rattlesnake in a mailbox”

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.

The rumors that were being bandied about last week are now confirmed — LOST will end in 2010. The summation below is from SciFiWire:

The series will wrap after the production of 48 additional episodes that will be divided into three, shortened 16-episode seasons. The final episode, the show’s 119th, will air during the 2009-’10 season….

No official word on when Season 4 will commence, though the rumor that is most prevalent is that we won’t get more LOST until Jan/Feb 2008. ARE ALL YOU WHINERS HAPPY NOW??!!??

According to this press release from ABC, we will start getting new episodes of Six Degrees starting Friday, March 23rd, where it will air at 9:01 p.m. (Eastern). Check back for more information regarding the episodes soon!

Lost fans across the Pond won’t have to wait too long to get Episode 3.07 “Not in Portland” — Sky One announced that Lost will return on February 11th at 10 p.m.. They are also airing a special on February 9th at 10 p.m. — check the article for details.

WARNING! One casting spoiler contained in the article for a future episode!