A conversation with Matthew Fox

“Lost,” ABC’s new series airing every Wednesday evening, deals with a group of plane crash survivors stranded on what they thought was an uninhabited island, but which may have at least one menacing being — human or not. The challenge for the survivors is, of course, to survive, and along with finding food, shelter and the usual necessities of life, they must also deal with the person-to-person dynamics that could ultimately determine whether they make it or not. The series’ stars include Evangeline Lilly (“Kingdom Hospital”) as Kate, a woman of mystery; Dominic Monaghan (“Lord of the Rings”) as Charley, a young rocker with a tragic secret; Josh Holloway (“Sabretooth”) as Sawyer, an Alpha-male type; and Matthew Fox (“Party of Five”) as Jack, who has emerged as the group’s leader.

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We seem to be fascinated by stories of people who find themselves alone washed up on a desert island, or in some out of the way place far from civilization. For example, there was the classic “Robinson Crusoe”; the film “The Blue Lagoon” about two marooned children (Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins) growing to adulthood; and more recently “Cast Away,” in which Tom Hanks played the sole survivor of a plane crash on a deserted island who had to learn survival skills, including how to make fire without matches. And now we have the new ABC series “Lost,” in which a group of air-crash survivors confront the challenge of staying alive.

So, why this fascination with these stories?

“I feel it’s because we like to believe that human beings have a way of confronting challenges and overcoming them,” Matthew Fox says. “We have this instinct, if you want to call it that, to never give up, to keep trying. It’s what we do in sports, and it’s what we do in most areas of our lives.”

Fox also feels that we admire heroes and that Jack, the character he plays on “Lost,” is a hero in every sense of that word.

“He has fears and doubts,” Fox says. “But he also has this belief in himself that there’s got to be a way to face up to whatever has to be dealt with.”

There’s also a sense that the other survivors see Jack’s heroic qualities and realize that he is the key to their survival, and this is why he begins to emerge very quickly as their leader as they begin to adjust to life on the island.

Finally, will Jack solve the mystery of that menacing “being” before it does what everyone is afraid it might do?

“He’ll try,” Fox laughs.

In Focus

Wendy Makkena (“Oliver Beene”) plays Dana Kleinman in the new CBS series “Listen Up,” which also stars Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) as Dana’s husband, Tony Kleinman, a famous sports journalist who has begun a syndicated column with commentaries about his family. Makkena says, “Dana isn’t too happy about that. She’d rather he kept family matters within the family. But she’s a loving and supportive wife of an obsessive, sometimes paranoid but always loving husband and father of her children.”

Some people might see Dana’s reaction to her husband’s writings as being a bit of a throwback to a time when wives believed their roles were to be emotionally supportive of a husband’s actions no matter how much she disagreed with them.

But Makkena has a different view, noting that Dana understands him and his motives and, yes, his needs.

“She may not like (what he’s doing in the column),” Wendy Makkena says, “but she’s not threatened by it. And she’s willing to give him the room he needs to express his feelings.”

Dial Tones

•Sandra Lee, host of the Food Network’s “Semi Homemade Cooking,” has a week-long special airing through Oct. 31 featuring fun (and maybe a bit freaky) foods for Halloween.

•Also in the Halloween mode, the History Channel airs “Witch Hunt” on Oct. 31. This is a fascinating look into the 1682 outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in the village of Salem, Mass., which in just one year saw more than 100 people imprisoned and 20 executed.

Upcoming

That boardroom on “The Apprentice” is likely to become a main set for Donald Trump’s next venture into television. This one will be a scripted series set in the Trump Tower, the Donald’s flagship piece of property on New York’s Fifth Avenue.