Lost celebrates its 15th anniversary: How it helped usher in the Peak TV era - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 09-21-2019, 08:41 PM

https://www.usatoday.com/story/enter...ng/2371920001/

Lost premiered on Sept. 22, 2004, kicking off a first season that won it the outstanding drama series Emmy. It would go on to inspire many failed copycats, from The Event to FlashForward -- "a quest that remains unfulfilled, a sign of the high bar set by the original," says Bill Keveney. The ABC drama, he adds, "smartly explored science fiction, religion and philosophy despite the crushing demands of broadcast TV, averaging 24 episodes its first three seasons. Despite that burden, Lost sparked with creativity well into its run, shocking viewers – in a wonderfully satisfying way – with the introduction of flash-forwards at the end of Season 3 and offering a brilliant treatise on time travel the next season with 'The Constant,' my favorite episode. The stretched seasons resulted in some wheel-spinning just to keep up with a rapid-fire production schedule, and eventually led executive producers (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) to force a restructuring of the traditional broadcast model, opening creative opportunities for programs that would follow. They negotiated a reduction in the number of episodes per season (from 24 to 16) and announced a series end date three years in advance, a revolutionary move in a medium that would typically grind advertising dollars out of a popular show long after it was creatively exhausted."

ALSO:

From Heroes to Once Upon a Time to Manifest: Here are all the shows that tried to recapture Lost's magic
Lost stars look back on 15 years of awkward fan encounters
Here's Daniel Dae Kim's interesting theory about the Smoke Monster
Every episode of Lost, ranked

How Lost changed the way we watch TV

Genre shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Battlestar Galactica existed before Lost. But Lost, which celebrated its 15th anniversary on Sunday, showed that a genre show could be a breakout mainstream success on network TV. "The first way that Lost changed everything was in how it opened up the world of genre television, and showed audiences, studios and critics how compelling genre storytelling could be," says Jessica Mason. "Looking back now, we know that Lost is a science fiction/fantasy show. There’s magic and weirdness and (spoilers for later seasons) time travel and cosmic beings fighting over the soul of the world. It’s not just kind of genre, it’s high fantasy in a modern setting with major allegorical overtones. But in 2004, neither audiences, nor the studio knew what Lost was."

Lost will forever be frustrating and wonderful and dopey and endlessly brilliant

The ABC drama, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this week, was so groundbreaking that it might be the most significant show of the 21st century.

09-21-2019, 08:41 PM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,062	Lost celebrates its 15th anniversary: How it helped usher in the Peak TV era https://www.usatoday.com/story/enter...ng/2371920001/ Lost premiered on Sept. 22, 2004, kicking off a first season that won it the outstanding drama series Emmy. It would go on to inspire many failed copycats, from The Event to FlashForward -- "a quest that remains unfulfilled, a sign of the high bar set by the original," says Bill Keveney. The ABC drama, he adds, "smartly explored science fiction, religion and philosophy despite the crushing demands of broadcast TV, averaging 24 episodes its first three seasons. Despite that burden, Lost sparked with creativity well into its run, shocking viewers – in a wonderfully satisfying way – with the introduction of flash-forwards at the end of Season 3 and offering a brilliant treatise on time travel the next season with 'The Constant,' my favorite episode. The stretched seasons resulted in some wheel-spinning just to keep up with a rapid-fire production schedule, and eventually led executive producers (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) to force a restructuring of the traditional broadcast model, opening creative opportunities for programs that would follow. They negotiated a reduction in the number of episodes per season (from 24 to 16) and announced a series end date three years in advance, a revolutionary move in a medium that would typically grind advertising dollars out of a popular show long after it was creatively exhausted." ALSO: From Heroes to Once Upon a Time to Manifest: Here are all the shows that tried to recapture Lost's magic Lost stars look back on 15 years of awkward fan encounters Here's Daniel Dae Kim's interesting theory about the Smoke Monster Every episode of Lost, ranked How Lost changed the way we watch TV Genre shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Battlestar Galactica existed before Lost. But Lost, which celebrated its 15th anniversary on Sunday, showed that a genre show could be a breakout mainstream success on network TV. "The first way that Lost changed everything was in how it opened up the world of genre television, and showed audiences, studios and critics how compelling genre storytelling could be," says Jessica Mason. "Looking back now, we know that Lost is a science fiction/fantasy show. There’s magic and weirdness and (spoilers for later seasons) time travel and cosmic beings fighting over the soul of the world. It’s not just kind of genre, it’s high fantasy in a modern setting with major allegorical overtones. But in 2004, neither audiences, nor the studio knew what Lost was." Lost will forever be frustrating and wonderful and dopey and endlessly brilliant The ABC drama, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this week, was so groundbreaking that it might be the most significant show of the 21st century.
	Last edited by TMC; 09-28-2019 at 08:18 PM.