LOST Conference Call Details


Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune has an excellent write-up of the lost conference call held yesterday by executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. She’s broken everything up into “not spoilery”, “mild-to-medium” spoilers and “Heavy Duty Spoilers”.

A couple of “not spoilery” topics:

No LOST spinoffs planned.

There are 34 episodes left after this season is over.

and this interesting tidbit:


On what books “Lost” fans should be reading to prepare for the next two seasons: “Continue reading the Bible,” Cuse said.

For more spoilers, check out the article.

Survivor: I Promise…

Spoilers Ahead
A couple of rules of Survivor –


  1. If you go on a reward, don’t talk about the reward

  2. Never Trust a Deal Made During a Challenge

  3. Don’t Purposely Tick Off Your tribe mates

  4. Never Get Comfortable



All four of these rules were broken on tonight’s Survivor.

Ozzy talking about how great the challenge reward was didn’t win him any friends. I’m not sure if that helped end up leading to his downfall, but it couldn’t have helped.

What was Jason thinking? Getting a “guarantee” from your opponents during a challenge is no guarantee of any kind. Yau-Man can tell you that in great detail.

James making a lot of noise in the morning before an immunity challenge wasn’t smart to do either. Things like that add up.

Ozzy got comfortable, and didn’t work hard enough to make sure that he really was safe. That’s why he ended up getting voted up, much to his surprise, and to the surprise of his supporters. I think it’s one of the biggest blindsides Survivor has seen.

I have to say, Cirie is playing an excellent game. She’s engineered at getting at least three people getting voted off, and without people really stopping to realize she’s the one behind it. Parvati will probably take the biggest hit for Ozzie’s departure.

Should be interesting to see what happens next.

What did you think of tonight’s show?

Hell’s Kitchen Episode 3

You know, I like Gordon Ramsay. Not for his antics on Hell’s Kitchen, which are pretty much way over the top, but because of the BBC version of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. He’s tough, but he cares about helping people out of tough spots.

If you missed the show, you can watch it before reading further.

So, say what you want about the guy, but some of Gordon’s soft touch came through last night when Jason had a meltdown trying to remember the menu. Gordon actually talked him back into the dinner service, but Jason still blew it in the end.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like there are only about four people on that show that even come close to making it to the end. The rest of them don’t look like they’re going to make it.

Lost Franchises


In an article posted on Variety.com, the producers of LOST say they spend a lot of time preventing the LOST Franchise from going too crazy:

A year later, after getting rid of those novelizations, the “Lost” team came up with the idea for “Bad Twin,” a book discovered on the show by one of the characters. Created for the show and distributed in bookstores, the novel wasn’t about what was happening on the show, but it tied into the world of “Lost.”

That’s become the mantra for all of “Lost’s” extracurricular activities, be it mobisodes or videogames: The other platforms can’t be considered canon, or required for “Lost’s” TV audience.

“Our criteria is, everything you need to know about ‘Lost’ is contained in the mother ship,” Cuse says. “There are definitely large segments of the audience that want more. And the ancillary media platforms give us opportunities to put out stories that might be interesting to some but not all.”

Via Variety.com

A 14th Episode of LOST This Season?

According to TV Guide, Lost might be getting a 14th episode this season, rather than just the 13 we’ve already been promised:

According to one of my 815 snitches, Team Darlton is in advanced talks with ABC to produce — wait for it, wait for it — an additional hour of Lost this season!

That’s clearly good news for LOST fans. I think it’s also a sign that the original plan for this season was a lot harder to tell in just 13 episodes, and they really needed that 14th episode to cram everything in.

Thanks to Andy for the pointer to this!

Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop

Mike Peters and Steve
I attended “The Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop” last weekend. The workshop is this the only humor workshop held in the US. It’s held only once every two years. I met quite a few people, and everyone was great!

Keynote speakers were Garrison Keillor, Martha Bolton, Matt Sloan & Aaron Yonda, and Mike Peters.

Sorry about the photo, but that’s what I get for bringing the cell phone camera, and not my regular camera!

A “Lost” Surprise

Juliet

Minor spoilers ahead

Communication with the past, warning about things that you may or may not be able to change, universe course corrections… I’m talking about “Lost”, right? Nope. I’m talking about “Frequency”.

We were catching up on some old movies while we’re waiting for new episodes of LOST (and other shows… new Earl this Thursday!), and decided to rent “Frequency”, which I’ve never seen. Much to my surprise, one of the characters in the movie is none other than Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays “Juliet” on LOST. It was a pretty good movie, a little predictable in places, but fun none the less. If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out.