Celebrating "Lost's" first 100 shows

With all this hullabaloo over President Obama's first 100 days in office, it's easy to overlook a similarly important centennial mark occurring around the same time: The 100th episode of "Lost," which bows tomorrow night. Obama may have looming financial bedlam, a rabid opposition party and sneezing pigs on his hands, but at least he doesn't have to deal with being stuck 30 years in the past. (Although a TV series about Obama trapped in the 70s with an afro and love beads would be pretty fantastic. Get on that, ABC.)

The 100th episode has long been a celebrated milestone for any TV show, as it's generally when a series is viable for syndication. That hasn't really been the case since "Golden Girls" was on the air (RIP, Bea Arthur), but the century mark — usually reached by a show's fifth season — is still a considerable badge of honor, given how rarely it's reached.

And so, to give "Lost" its well-deserved pat on the back (watch those hands, Henry Ian Cusick), here are some articles from around the Web, looking back at 100 great episodes of one great show.

First, from Zap2It.com, Ryan McGee totally steals my idea and runs down his 100 favorite things about "Lost." He breaks them down to 20 from each season, posting them one season at a time leading up to tomorrow's show. A couple examples: "35. (from season 2) The double homicide heard round the hatch. And the designated driver policy sent round the cast soon after. ... 46. (from season 3) A bus greeting Edmund Burke at roughly 50 MPH. Fate, Others’ intervention, or Sandra Bullock? You decide!" Read the whole mildly interesting (I'll get you yet, McGee! McGeeeeeeee!) list as it's posted by clicking here.

Next, those lovely industry insiders over at Variety recently opened the floor to fans chomping at the bits to ask showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof some questions. They were bombarded, of course, and out of the 188 questions, gave 10 for Team Darlton to answer at their leisure. Most of the questions stay in safe "How do you want the show to be remembered" territory, as opposed to "WHAT IS UP WITH THE FOUR TOES!? SERIOUSLY!", but it's still a worthwhile read — which you can check out by clicking here.

No celebration would be complete without cake. Luckily the folks at "Ace of Cakes" came through in a big way for fan of the Food Network show Jorge Garcia. You can read all about it — and see some pretty freaking amazing pictures of the cake — at Jorge's blog, Dispatches from the Island, by, surprise surprise, clicking here.

The 100th episode of "Lost," titled "The Variable," airs at 8 p.m. tomorrow on ABC. (Providing that Obama's 100 days press conference set for 7 p.m. doesn't run long. Seriously, what is up with this country's priorities?)

— Adam Reinhard, areinhard@greenbaypressgazette.com