lost

Due to its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii,[2] the series is one of the most expensive on television.[3] It was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber and is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions. The score is composed by Michael Giacchino. The current executive producers are Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender and Carlton Cuse.[4]

Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year. It has won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005,[5] Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the series has become a part of American popular culture with references to the story and its elements appearing in other television series,[6] commercials, comic books,[7] webcomics, humor magazines, a video game[8][9] and song lyrics. The show's fictional universe has also been explored through tie-in novels, board and video games, and alternative reality games, The Lost Experience and Find 815.

Lost will conclude in its sixth season with its 120th and final episode airing in May 2010.[10] Season six will consist of seventeen episodes.[11] Episodes from the first four seasons of the series have begun airing in off-network syndication in the U.S., distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, on G4 and Sci Fi.[12][13]
Production

Conception

The series began development in January 2004, when Lloyd Braun, head of ABC at the time, ordered an initial script from Spelling Television based on his concept of a cross between the novel Lord of the Flies, the movie Cast Away, the television series Gilligan's Island, and the popular reality show Survivor. Gadi Pollack notes that some of "the influences of Lost came from...the game Myst."[14] Jeffrey Lieber was hired and wrote Nowhere, based on his pitch to write the pilot.[15] Unhappy with the result and a subsequent rewrite, Braun contacted J. J. Abrams, who had a deal with Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios), and was also the creator of the TV series Alias, to write a new pilot script. Although initially hesitant, Abrams warmed up to the idea on the condition that the series would have a supernatural angle to it, and collaborated with Damon Lindelof to create the series' style and characters.[16] Together, Abrams and Lindelof also created a series "bible", and conceived and detailed the major mythological ideas and plot points for an ideal five to six season run for the show.[17][18] The development of the show was constrained by tight deadlines, as it had been commissioned late in the 2004 season's development cycle. Despite the short schedule, the creative team remained flexible enough to modify or create characters to fit actors they wished to cast.[19]

Lost's two-part pilot episode was the most expensive in the network's history, reportedly costing between US $10 and US $14 million,[20] compared to the average cost of an hour-long pilot in 2005 of US $4 million.[21] The series debuted on September 22, 2004, becoming one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of the 2004 television season. Along with fellow new series Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, Lost helped to reverse the flagging fortunes of ABC.[22] Yet, before it had even been aired, Lloyd Braun was fired by executives at ABC's parent company, Disney, partly because of low ratings at the network and also because he had greenlighted such an expensive and risky project.[16] The world premiere of the pilot episode was on July 24, 2004 at Comic-Con International in San Diego.[23]

Episode format

Most episodes have a distinct structure: following a recap of events relevant to the upcoming narrative, each show begins with a cold open. Often a close up of a character's eye will follow. At a dramatic juncture, the screen cuts to black and the title graphic, slightly out-of-focus, glides towards the viewer accompanied by an ominous, discordant sound. The opening credits generally appear alphabetically by last name over the scenes that immediately follow (in certain episodes, the credits run before the title as the cold open runs long). While there is a continuous story arc, each episode relates events concurrently with off-island flashbacks and later, flashforwards, centered on a particular character. The majority of episodes end with a suspenseful twist or cliffhanger, revealed just seconds before a smash cut to black and the title graphic. Others, following a plot resolution, will finish with a reflective closing scene that precedes a simple fade to black, and in particularly tragic or hear