THE GOODBYE CHARLIE TOUR (PART ONE)

June is almost over. so I thought I'd take one last look at our TV Crossover Hall of Famer for the month, Charlie Pace.

We've come to know the characters of 'Lost' so well because of the flashback concept which has filled in their personal backgrounds and informed the motivations for their actions on the island. The flashbacks have also been a way for us to keep in touch with characters we have lost over the last few seasons - since the end of the first season, we've seen Boone, Libby, Shannon, and Arzt return in the flashbacks of others. (But not in the flashbacks of the Others.)

In this season's finale, we lost Charlie Pace, but it's always pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that we may yet see him show up again in somebody's flashback - perhaps onstage with his band Driveshaft; seen on a TV screen in the background, perhaps giving an interview on a show similar to 'Entertainment Tonight'. Dominic Monaghan has said in an interview that he's open to the idea of coming back for such an appearance.

This being "Inner Toob", a blog dedicated to Toobworld, the Great Link, the Tele-Mosaic, we don't limit ourselves to the notion that Charlie Pace would only re-appear in flashbacks for 'Lost'. Who's to say that his life didn't intersect with those of TV characters in other shows? (Aside from the copyright lawyers, of course!)

This is just an exercise in wish-craft, a theoretical look at some of the shows in which Charlie might make a cameo in some character's flashback. (If some fanficcer comes along and nicks the idea for his own rip-off story, that's their own lookout.)

For Toobworld, no TV show is ever cancelled. We may not be able to view them anymore, but that does not mean that their stories are no longer unfolding within the TV Universe. So I could have chosen any number of shows no longer on the air in which Charlie Pace could make an appearance. (Within reason - we'd have to take into account the Toobworld timeline, for instance. I don't think we'd see him pop up on 'Star Trek' or 'Gunsmoke'.)

I usually like to suggest TV series which are still in production, feeding the fanboy's dream that some enterprising producer might learn of it and deem it an idea good enough to steal.

Otherwise, I'd come up with flashback ideas in which Charlie would appear on such shows as 'Touched By An Angel', 'The X-Files', 'Diagnosis Murder', 'Sex And The City', 'Lou Grant', 'Slings & Arrows', 'Queer As Folk' (UK version), 'Murder, She Wrote', 'Taxi', 'Keen Eddie', 'Alien Nation', and 'The Twilight Zone'. I'd have his alternate dimension doppelganger appear in "episodes" of 'The West Wing', 'Studio 60', 'Stargate SG-1', 'Sliders', and 'Jericho' (now returning to the Master Sked anyway).

Zoinks! If I had my druthers, I'd bring Charlie Pace back full-time and make him a regular member of Rube's team of Reapers on 'Dead Like Me'! (That's for you, Michael.)

The only show I'd avoid would be 'The Hetty Wainthrop Mysteries'. It might be awkward for Charlie to run across Geoffrey Shawcross..... (That's also for you, Michael.)

So let me get my notes in order, maybe fire up a fattie with Vietnam Joe, and I'll be back tomorrow with Part Two.....

BCnU!
Toby OB