Celebrated US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger not only scored an invite to Tuesday’s Presidential Inauguration, he also has an open invitation to visit the set of Lost, the ABC series revolving around the miraculous survivors of a plane crash.
“We would love to meet Sully,” Carlton Cuse told TVGuide.com when asked if he and fellow Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof might invite the pilot to visit the show’s production base in Hawaii.
Sullenberger has been commended for his ability to safely land Flight 1549 in New York City’s Hudson River, and without any casualties among the 155 passengers and crew members on board. That he was able to do so, Cuse notes, is rather ironic given one of the “extras” on the Lost Season 4 DVD set.
“It’s funny,” says Cuse, “because there’s a special feature which has somebody trying to debunk the Oceanic 6’s story” about surviving the plunge of Flight 815. “There’s this aviation expert basically saying, ‘A water landing is impossible. That part of their story doesn’t hold up. You could never land a plane on the water.’”
Just got my new issue of TV Guide and Evangeline is on the cover!!! There’s a really great interview with her and I’m uploading the scans to Lost-Media as I type this!!!
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Lost fans will find themselves watching the upcoming Season 5 without interruption, sources tell TVGuide.com.
Of course, going interruption-free has always been the plan for the series’ final three seasons. Season 4, however, was compromised by last winter’s WGA strike. And looking ahead to this season, ABC has yet to confirm any scheduling plans. One insider speculates that the network may decide to maximize their May sweeps payoff by “stretching out” Season 5 with a week off or two, rather than have the finale air mid-month.
But as original cast member Jorge Garcia (Hurley) shared with us in a Friday interview, “This season, I think, is going to run straight through. Last season, they skipped a week before the finale and had a clip show, so we might do that. But for the most part, it should run straight through.”
In May 2007, Lost producers revealed their plan to wrap up the supernatural saga with three more seasons totaling 48 episodes, each of them airing without interruption, à la Fox’s 24.
That idyllic scenario, however, was waylaid out of the gate when the winter 2007-08 WGA strike forced a five-week midseason break upon Season 4. Even with that, the episode total came up two hours shorter than hoped.
Similarly, a strike by the Screen Actors Guild (to be voted on in early January) could send up in smoke the dream of an intact Season 5.
To make up for last season’s shortfall, the next two runs will each contain 17 episodes, with Season 5 kicking off Wednesday, Jan. 21. The three-hour return event will feature a one-hour catch-up special followed by the season’s first two new episodes — “Because You Left” and “The Lie.”
What else did Jorge Garcia have to share? Watch for the next scoopy bit from our conversation to surface in Tuesday’s Mitovich Mega Minute. The complete Q&A will go up closer to Lost’s premiere date.
