The Count Dracula Society has spoken. Lost dominated the competition when the nominations were announced this morning for the 35th Annual Saturn Awards, voted on by members of The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. The ABC network series racked up eleven nominations in all, including Best Network Television Series, along with Heroes, Supernatural, Life on Mars, Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
The Saturn Awards were founded in 1972 by Dr. Donald A. Reed and The Count Dracula Society of USC. They were conceived as a means of fighting back against an Academy Awards establishment they saw as ignoring or undermining genre movies. Robert Zemeckis, who went on to direct the Back to the Future trilogy among other works, was a member during his undergraduate days. Television was later added.
Okay, so they’re not exactly The Golden Globes. Much like The Razzies they hand out real hardware to real stars and car covered by legitimate news outlets but haven’t exactly grabbed a network television contract. One can tell by looking at their website that they’re still, at heart, a group of well versed fans trying to make a statement.
Their gradual acceptance likely lies in the widespread sympathy to their general point. Their pain is perhaps felt especially acutely this year as The Dark Knight famously failed to gain a Best Picture nomination. The Saturns nominated The Dark Knight for eleven awards, the same number as Lost.
Lost’s acting nominations went to Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Michael Emerson, Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell. Alan Dale, Sonya Walger and Kevin Durand were also nominated for their guest starring portrayals of Charles and Penny Widmore, and First Sergeant Martin Keamy respectively.
So what about Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Jin and Sun? Even given the incredibly number of nominations Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim were left off the list, perhaps simply demonstrating what a uniquely strong ensemble cast the series has. Still, eleven nominations and Terry O’Quinn couldn’t get one of them? Now that’s a snub!
Other notable snubs included Twilight actors Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, as well as Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Lost previously won Best Network Television Series in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Heroes won in 2006.
-Henry Jenkins, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Guest Columnist, BuddyTV
