TVSquad

As I awaited the Lost panel to start in Hall H Saturday morning, I felt bad for the multitudes of people who were still standing in line outside the convention center, behind the convention center and all the way down the road behind the Marriott hotel. If you were a fan of Lost, but not of Heroes, you simply had to sit in line and then sit through the Heroes panel in order to see Lost; there was no way around it.

The Lost panel was quite a change from Heroes, as rather than the entire cast appearing on stage, only Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse made up the panel. Later, though, a "surprise guest" came out: Matthew Fox. However, nearly everything discussed came from Lindelof and Cuse.

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the "news" from Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl's statements, and b) I wanted to think about why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?

We'll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC's schedule). As you'd expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.

Just last week, Harold Perrineau was wondering why his character was killed off on Lost, wishing the producers hadn't blown Michael up with the freighter. He wasn't out of work for long. Harold Perrineau has just been cast on a new ABC comedy/drama called The Unusuals. The pilot, which could be a mid-season replacement on ABC, is an hour set in a New York City police precinct.

Harold will play Detective Leo Banks, an agitated cop who's so afraid of being shot or attacked that he's never without his Kevlar bullet-proof vest. (Does he wear it in the john?) Sounds potentially funny. The writer of The Unusuals is Bones' Noah Hawley and the executive producer is Peter Tolan (Rescue Me, The Larry Sanders Show), so there will be an emphasis on humor. Maybe not full-out Barney Miller, but still funny.

Now we'll have even more opportunities to get lost over Lost. ABC announced today that the 2009 and 2010 seasons will be 17 hours each, not 16 as previously planned.

We can thank the WGA strike, which knocked three hours off the current season. The extra hour will be added to Part 2 of the season finale airing May 29.

When all is said and done, the series will wrap with the same number of episodes that producers and ABC negotiated last year. "We were supposed to do 16-16-16, but we ended up doing 14 this season, so we owe two," co-creator Damon Lindelof told The Hollywood Reporter.

Since Lost premiered about 4 years ago, fans have been active in coming up with theories (include the now-famous time loop theory) to explain the mysteries of the show. From the start, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have debunked a few of the most popular theories (e.g., they are in purgatory) and hinted that others may be legit.

To help fans discuss theories and propose their own, USA Today's website devotes a section to fans' Lost theories. With these theories in hand, USA Today turned to Darlton (that's the common nickname for Damon and Carlton) to see if any could be accurate.

Earlier today, Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse held a teleconference with reporters and bloggers in anticipation of the show's return. They revealed, or at least hinted at, what we can expect in the season's final five episodes, elements of the season finale, and what they hope accomplish in upcoming seasons. Here's a recap:

• The title of the season finale is "There's No Place Like Home."
• When Lost returns, the show will follow Grey's Anatomy. Lindelof and Cuse aren't sure that the two dramas share an audience, but they are happy to share Thursdays with another successful show.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the return of Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty to the Thursday night lineup does make scheduling this additional hour a bit tricky. The original plan was for the two-part Lost finale to air over two nights, and have all three shows end on May 22. TV Guide's Michael Ausiello is reporting that the Lost finale has been rescheduled, making room for a two-hour Grey's Anatomy season finale.

There could be an upside to the Lost hiatus after all. On Wednesday afternoon, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reported that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are in "advanced talks" with ABC about adding another hour-long chapter to Lost Season Four. The arrangement is by no means set in stone, but it is encouraging news.

No word yet on how this extra hour might be added to the season's remaining five episodes. We could get another episode, or the finale could be an additional hour. Would a three-hour season finale be too much, even for Lost viewers? How will this affect the scheduling of the two-hour season finale? Currently, the season's last episode is split into two installments that will air one week apart. Will there be room for this bonus episode now that Lost is sharing Thursday nights with Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty?

ABC posted another Lost audio podcast for the most recent episode, "Meet Kevin Johnson." Damon Lindelof rehashed last week's episode, confirmed the identities of the Oceanic Six, and discussed the remainder of Lost's fourth season. Here's a recap:

• The title of the season's ninth episode is "The Shape of Things to Come."
• We will learn more about the Black Rock and the four-toed statue, but not necessarily in a flashback.
• The name Lapidus has appeared twice on Lost. Rick Lapidus' name was on the script in "Exposé," and Frank Lapidus is the name of the helicopter pilot this season. Writer Eddie Kitsis (who wrote "Exposé") loves the name, and wanted to use it on the show.

As first reported in May 2006, Lost is getting the video game treatment. The game, titled "Lost: Via Domus" and produced by Montreal-based Ubisoft, will not be a reproduction of the survivors' adventures. Instead, the game will add a new chapter to the series.

Nicolas Eypert, who was part of the creation team of the game, revealed in interview with a French-Canadian newspaper that the game will be a complementary experience that adds to the episodes, blogs, forums, and magazines about the series. The storyline crosses paths with the action that occurred during the first two seasons of the series.

One of the most jaw-dropping TV moment of 2007 was, without a doubt, the reveal that the Jack-centric season finale of Lost didn't feature a flashback but a flash forward (and the death of loved-character Charlie)!

Even if Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (with some help from Disney's security) do their best to keep the ending of each season finale a secret, the top-secret ending scene always gets spoiled in one form or another on the world wide web. When Internet surfers read about the "rattlesnake" (that's the how the top-secret season 3 scene was named by Cuse and Lindelof), the reaction was almost as big as when the reveal aired on May 23, 2007.

Lost may only return in February (or April according to some nasty rumors!) but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy some season 4 footage. The show has pieced together a trailer that currently airs in US movie theaters. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, the trailer made its way to the net.

The trailer features scenes from past seasons as well as new footage taken from the upcoming season. The clip isn't that spoilerish but does offer a few good tidbits (and clues) to chew on while waiting for the season premiere.

We've entered Week Two of the WGA Strike, and although we're not getting any closer to a resolution, there's still plenty of WGA Strike news to report:

• The WGA-East declares that "Ellen DeGeneres Not Welcome in NY."
• Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof announces, "Television is dying" in the New York Times.
• Some soap writers are crossing the picket line to resume work.
• Today (Tuesday) was dubbed "Picketing with the Stars" as 100 actors from 30 TV shows joined the picket line at Universal Studios in a show of solidarity.
• Seventeen entertainment blogs went dark for a day in support of the writer's strike.
• Peter Chernin (president of Fox's parent company, News Corp) bragged that the strike is "probably a positive" for the company as it will most likely save them money.
• CBS News is preparing for a possible strike by 500 of their news writers.
• The Simpson's Mr. Burns tells striking writers they can't have the internet: "It's Mine!"

24 may be on the back burner for Fox because of the writers strike, but ABC says it plans to air at least eight episodes of Lost in the mid-season. Lost executive producer and co-creator Damon Lindelof was on the picket line this week supporting his writers when he told Broadcasting & Cable about the network's plans. He said the eighth episode, which is already written, ends with a cliffhanger. So it could, theoretically, cap off a shortened season if the writers strike continues through the New Year.

Lindelof didn't say whether this changes ABC's plans to run the season straight-through starting in February. I imagine that if we only get 8 episodes of Lost next season, they'll probably air in February and then in May for sweeps. Just a guess, though.

Lost's other high profile executive producer, Carlton Cuse, was also on the picket lines this week. He had a sign that said: "Do you want to know what the island is?".

Entertainment Weekly reports that actor Jeff Fahey is joining ABC's hit series Lost. The actor, best known for his roles in The Lawnmower Man and Grindhouse, is set to join new cast members Lance Reddick, Ken Leung, Jeremy Davies, and Rebecca Mader, in the fourth season of the show.

As expected, details on the character Fahey will play are under wraps. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse revealed that the actor was their first and only choice for the role.