'Lost' reading list: the show's creators discuss literary influences, from Stephen King to Flannery O'Connor

Ever since Sawyer was shown reading “Watership Down” in Season One of “Lost,” an abundance of  carefully placed works of literature have been featured on the show  (in gym bags, on book shelves, in episode titles), spawning “Lost” book clubs and blogs filled with eager readers combing for clues to the fate of the stranded Oceanic Flight 815 survivors. 

The unpredictable nature of the show left fans hungry for answers week after week and the referenced books have provided plenty of theorizing and heated discussions, even as the show moves towards its conclusion.

Executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse grew up reading a lot of the same authors (Stephen King, John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut) and have acknowledged literature’s influence in the way they have shaped the show.

“It’s a nod to that process," Lindelof (who is also co-creator) explained last year. "We pick the books with a great deal of meticulous thought and specificity and talk about what the thematic implications of picking a certain book are, why we’re using it in the scene and what we want the audience to deduce from that choice." 

A&E snags David Hasselhoff, Dee Snider and Bob Saget for new series

David Hasselhoff, Dee Snider, Bob Saget, Tony Danza, cops and addicts will populate A&E's new season schedule, showing the cable channel's ongoing attraction to strong, sometimes manic personalities.

Essentially taking a page from its own playbook for new character-based reality and scripted programming, the network is repeating what works -- spinning off "Intervention" in a series that will follow "sober companions" -- and expanding further into proven genres like cop procedurals and family dysfunction.

Along with a dozen returning hit series, including "Dog the Bounty Hunter," "Hoarders" and "Billy the Exterminator," the network plans to launch eight new unscripted series this year and has a handful of scripted dramas in the pipeline, including a miniseries based on the bestselling Robin Cook novel, "Coma," from action filmmakers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.

Just-announced series will follow Hasselhoff as he becomes a stage dad to his two aspiring singer daughters, Danza as he steps into the classroom as a teacher in Philadelphia, and Saget as he hits the road and drops into people's lives. Snider, best known as the frontman for hair-metal band Twisted Sister, joins Gene Simmons as another of the network's rocker-dad-with-wacky-family stories in "Growing Up Twisted."

A&E and Discovery race to land Sarah Palin's Alaska-themed reality show

Two cable networks are bidding on the reality show Sarah Palin is pitching about Alaska.

According to Variety, it's come down to A&E and the Discovery Networks, companies that recently butted heads over the launch of two shows on Discovery's TLC that appeared to knock off A&E's highly rated "Intervention" and "Hoarders."

A&E and Discovery are said to be finalizing their bids and a decision could be made in the next few days. The trade reports that the show, which is being produced by Mark Burnett, could cost the winner about $1 million an episode. Burnett and Palin did pitch the project to the major broadcast networks, but they ultimately all passed.

Entertainment Weekly's initial report on the project described the show as "a travelogue-type documentary in which the former vice presidential candidate gives viewers an intimate look at her home state of Alaska."

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Sarah Palin addresses National Tea Party Convention in Nashville Feb. 6. Credit: Ed Reinke / Associated Press

A&E vs. TLC: Which is more obsessed with obsession?

Uh oh. TLC's become obsessed with people with unhealthy obsessions. That's A&E's turf!

TV's history of copycat shows is littered with the short-lived and the canceled -- remember those "Lost" copycats? "Invasion," "Surface" and "Threshold"? We barely do! But a pair of TLC shows premiering in the next few days have hit rival cable network A&E especially close to home.

On Sunday, TLC will premiere "Hoarding: Buried Alive," a series expansion of the one-hour special it aired in October, "Hoarders: Buried Alive," about the most compulsive of pack rats. The theme and title is, well, a mite close to A&E's "Hoarders," which happens to be its second-most watched show, launched in August 2009.

Then on Wednesday, TLC's got "Addicted," a series featuring interventionist and former addict Kristina Wandzilak as she takes on the cases of those struggling with serious addictions. (The first episode revolves around Amanda, 31, who is addicted to heroine, crystal meth, pills and alcohol.) Again, it's not dissimilar to A&E's "Intervention," also about, er, interventions. "Intervention" won the Emmy in 2009 for best reality series, is now in its eighth season, and continues to reign as A&E's No. 1 rated program.

Asked about the, uh, programming coincidence, A&E VP of communications Dan Silberman would only say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."