Lost – A Cultural Phenomena
By Gunner Glam
As a mainstream cult television show, Lost has generated a dedicated and thriving international fan community.
Studio Brow wants to share our thoughts on such a fan oriented series that was mystery and suspense mixed with humor and romance.
During its run from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010 Lost fans, sometimes dubbed Lostaways or Losties, have gathered at Comic-Con International and conventions organized by ABC, but have also been active in developing a large number of fan websites, including Lostpedia and forums dedicated to the program and its related incarnations.
Because of the show’s elaborate mythology, its fan sites have focused on speculation and theorizing about the island’s mysteries, as well as on more typical fan activities such as producing fan fiction and videos, compiling episode transcripts, shipping characters and collecting memorabilia.
Anticipating fan interest and trying to keep its audience engrossed, ABC embarked on various cross-media endeavors, often using new media.
Fans of Lost have been able to explore ABC-produced tie-in websites, tie-in novels, an official forum sponsored by the creative team behind Lost (“The Fuselage”), “mobisodes,” podcasts by the producers and an official magazine and an alternate reality game (ARG) The Lost Experience.
An official fan club was launched in the summer of 2005 through Creation Entertainment.
Due to the show’s popularity, references to the series and elements from its story have appeared in parody and popular culture usage.
These include appearances on television, such as on the series Veronica Mars, Will & Grace, Bo Selecta, The Sarah Silverman Program, My Wife and Kids, Chuck, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Notes from the Underbelly, Little Britain,30 Rock, Fringe, Scrubs, Cougar Town, How I Met Your Mother and The Office.
Cartoons such as Family Guy, American Dad!, South Park, The Simpsons, The Venture Bros. and a commercial for KFC Hawaii also have Lost references.
Red vs. Blue, a comic science fiction machinima, seemed to have poked fun at it in one of the endings to the series, episode 100.
Lost is also featured as an Easter egg in several video games, including Dead Island, Divinity II: Ego Draconis, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, World of Warcraft, Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham City and Singularity.
Similarly, several rock bands have published songs whose themes and titles were derived from the series, such as Moneen (Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do), Veil of Maya (Namaste), Cosmo Jarvis (Lost), Senses Fail (Lost And Found and All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues), Gatsbys American Dream (You All Everybody and Station 5: The Pearl) and Punchline (Roller Coaster Smoke).
Weezer named their eight studio album Hurley after the character, which is featured on the cover.
After the episode Numbers aired on March 2, 2005, numerous people used the eponymous figures (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) as lottery entries.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, within three days, the numbers were tried over 500 times by local players.
Likewise, in the same period, over 200 people in Michigan alone used the sequence for the Mega Millions lotteryand by October that year, thousands had tried them for the multi-state Powerball lottery.
The issue came to attention after a Mega Millions drawing for a near-record US$380,000,000 jackpot on January 4, 2011 drew a series of numbers in which the three lowest numbers (4-8-15) and the mega ball (42) matched four of the six numbers.
The number 42 is also the “Mega Number” in Hurley’s “Mega Lotto” ticket.
The players who played the combination won $150 each (or $118 in California).
Also recipient of numerous awards, Lost won the 2006 Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Drama.
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