Lost: When Cult Fandom Went Mainstream

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http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/lost/...ent-mainstream

In hindsight, it would have been strange if Lost didn’t develop a passionate cult fanbase.

Think about the factors at play. It was a serialized television show that took place on a possibly supernatural island filled with mystery. It brought serious philosophical ideas to the forefront to the point that some characters were even named after philosophers and other deep thinkers. The characters were both likeable and believable but also on occasion represented larger archetypes for themes like science and faith to battle amongst one another.

Lost was a fandom-creating slam dunk like other famous show such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On paper it looks like a fictional representation of a type of an intellectual property that would create a small, rabid fanbase.

It’s not weird that Lost created that rabid fanbase. What’s weird is that it wasn’t small. It was huge. It was mainstream. The story of the Lost fandom is really the story of how cult fandoms abandoned their cult status and went mainstream with an assist from the burgeoning internet.

The origins of Lost are well known at this point. ABC executive Lloyd Braun wanted to create a TV show that was similar to the Tom Hanks movie Castaway. A group of plane crash survivors become stranded on a deserted island and have to suddenly deal with one another’s ****. It would be like Gilligan’s Island by way of The Real World.

This was, of course, a not good idea so ABC did what it always used to do with not-good ideas and asked J.J. Abrams if he wanted to take a pass at it. Even before he was the Ruler of the Pop Culture universe, Abrams was an important figure on television, bringing ABC zeitgeisty hits like Felicity and Alias. ABC brought Abrams the script and then also sent him a like-minded, nerdy individual in Damon Lindelof. Abrams and Lindelof found that they shared many of the same ideas of where the series should go by including elements of the supernatural, philosophy and mystery. They created a series bible and ABC promptly ordered the most expensive pilot ever produced because sometimes the network television industry is insane. Just like what, we had Lost. Or in the parlance of every episodes closing cut-to-black moment: BOOM. LOST.