FlashForward premieres tonight on ABC at 8 pm or 7pm if you’re on central time. That might be a bit earlier than you expected, so set those DVRs carefully.

FlashForward is the most anticipated series to come from ABC so far this fall. I think we all know that LOST will be ending soon and are expecting a replacement to fill our longing for unresolved mysteries. So will Flash Forward be that show?

Sonya Walger knows a thing or two about LOST. She played Penny, Desmond’s love interest on the island series. FlashForward is set, at least initially, in Los Angeles, and Walger plays Olivia, a trauma surgeon and the wife of a FBI agent. In an interview in digital spy she gave us some comparison.

“I think they’re only valid in that they’re both big ensemble shows with one big concept or premise. But after that, they part ways really quite rapidly. FlashForward is definitely not a sci-fi show. It doesn’t have the mythology of Lost. We have one major event that happens that you are asked to buy into. After that, you’re dealing with very human ripple effects – how people deal with it and how they come to terms with it. There are six-and-a-half billion people that have blacked out, so that’s potentially six-and-a-half billion stories to tell! Believe me, we’re not telling all of them. But we’re about to start [filming] episode eight and I’m so surprised by how far the ripple has been felt.”

Walger thinks any LOST fan will find something to love in her new show.

“I hope so. I think Lost is like losing a friend or a relative or someone. You can’t replace it with another one. Lost holds a very special place in people’s hearts and I wouldn’t presume to say that FlashForward will replace Lost. I think it provides a lot of the same adrenaline and fascination and entertainment. It will help ease the pain of losing Lost! I think it will appeal to the very same audience.”

The premiere episode of FlashForward airs tonight and repeats on Friday in case you just can’t catch it tonight. I’m happy to say that Barry from Inn At the Last Home blog will be providing review/recaps here on The Disney Blog.

Wow, it’s been a crazy last couple of days. So let’s get right to it.

• Disney’s acquisition of Marvel is still not official, but already it’s having an impact. Of course, it’s not always the type of impact that Disney might hope for. For instance, Super Hero Squad is a new television cartoon with pint sized Marvel Heroes. It had a wild debut with great ratings. The only problem, it’s on Cartoon Network, not Disney XD. Now Jack Kirby’s relatives want to reclaim the copyright on the Marvel characters he created. Of course, those are the core characters of the Marvel Universe. So that’s another fun lawsuit for Disney, who is still healing from the Winnie-The-Pooh fight.
• Congrats to Kristin Chenoweth for her Emmy win for Pushing Daisies, I definitely miss that show. Her acceptance speech was cute too. I hope she finds a job on Mad Men. She’d be perfect. Or Disney could bring back Pushing Daisies… that would work too.
• Also, congrats to Michael Emerson for winning for his chilling portrayal of Ben on LOST.
• Congratulations to the script writers of Pixar’s WALL-E. They won an Humanitas Award which are presented to television and film writers who celebrate humanity and liberty.
• If you work at Pixar you get cool stuff. This is a t-shirt for the Toy Story III crew. Via @LeeUnkrich’s twitter stream.
• Jason Garcia at the Orlando Sentinel looks at how Disney is scaling back the ‘Adventures by Disney’ offerings during these slow economic times. Anyone out there even think of these when planning their next vacation?
• Disneyland has a wonderful website promoting their Halloween time fun.
• You may have missed this during D23, but there was a rather large protest over health care right outside the Anaheim Convention center. Unite Here is not happy at the Disneyland Resort for how they want to handle health care going forward. I don’t see this matter ending well for the workers in the current economic climate. But it is another market for how sad the health care situation has become in America. Let’s hope something gets done, and soon.

Check out this clever fan creation. A LOST themed poster from Olly Moss on sale here. This appears to part of a project from show producer Damon Carlton. There will be 16 artist creations. Less than 200 of each are available to the public.

(via Super Punch)

Can’t wait for LOST to return to ABC in early 2010? In the meantime, how about a new series of Webisodes that will keep you involved solving some of the show’s mysteries.

Four more in the series are scheduled to be released one per month now through November at ABC.com/lostmysteries.

***beware spoilers begin IMMEDIATELY***

Oh, Losties. My heart is broken. Eight months until season 6? A WHITE Screen O’Lost? A dead John Locke? A despondant Sawyer? A sacrificial Juliet? Miles yelling, “Dad!” It’s too much to bear!

I can already feel my wordiness bubbling up. So grab some oreos and sit tight. We’ve got lots to talk about…

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I’m a day late on my recap. I know you’ve been anxiously waiting by the computer for it. Let’s just blame it on computer error and frugal living (aka we don’t have cable right now). But big thank yous to our illustrious Disney Blog editor, John Frost who is letting me post and gush a little tardy.  I’ve been writing the post in my head all day because it was such a delicious episode! It was an obvious lead up to the finale because every single character was in it! This is my FAVE. I love when we see everyone. (OK, no Desmond. But basically EVERYONE.)

There were no flashbacks or forwards…it was just present day. Well, present day 1977 and present day 2007. Only in LOST can you have two present days!

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It’s finally happened. Lost has forayed so far into time-travel and sci-fi that I can’t keep up. If you are finding my recap here at The Disney Blog for the first time, I promise I am not really a moron. I swear I’m really a Lostie. But for the life of me, I will not be able to give a good theory or a well-thought out conjecture on what is happening on The Island. If you need some geeky-goodness check out Popular Mechanics post or Doc Jensen’s recap. If you’re just wanting to gush, roll your eyes or use lots of exclamation points, then you’ve come to the right place.

Now.

Let’s begin with our George McFly-wannabe, Daniel Faraday…

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It’s a bit early in the renewal season, but apparently there were no questions for Disney/ABC executives about the strengths of their current fall schedule. Nearly every show has already been renewed for this fall.

Cast and producers for “Dancing With the Stars,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Lost,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “The Bachelor,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Private Practice,” “Supernanny” and “Wife Swap” all got the good news.

Many thought “Ugly Betty” was on its way out, but it’s also on for another season.

Among the shows who haven’t yet been selected for renewal is “Samantha Who?” and all of ABC’s midseason series. But don’t count them out yet. It’s still early. Right?