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The American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Inc., is the television and radio network in the United States that first aired and created Lost.

Abclogo large

ABC logo

History[]

In the 1920s, NBC and CBS were the two main radio networks available. NBC had two different networks, the Blue network and the Red network. In 1943, NBC sold its Blue network to Edward Novel, who changed its name to ABC, in 1944. The ABC network began its airings on April 19th 1958. The three letters of its acronym have earned it the nickname, "the alphabet network."

On February 9th of the same year, the ownership of ABC was transferred to UPT, and in 1953 it was owned by Capital Cities company. In 1996, ABC was eventually sold to The Walt Disney Company, which has maintained its ownership until the present day. Specifically, the network's full name is American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and is owned by the acronym-named parent company ABC, Inc. (formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc.), which is owned by Disney. Disney also owns Touchstone Picutres, and therefore also owns its subsidiary ABC Television Studio, formerly Touchstone Television, which produces Lost. Disney's Buena Vista Television is the entity responsible for the management of ABC Television Studio's and ABC's television syndication, including that of Lost.

Lost production[]

Pre-production[]

Back at the time when ABC dropped to fourth place in the ratings, behind NBC, CBS and Fox, Lloyd Braun, the chairman and head of ABC, looked for a TV-series that could beat NBC's ER. He read two versions of a script by Jeffrey Lieber about a group of castaways on an island, which he did not like. Eventually, he turned to J.J. Abrams, the award-winning scriptwriter, and creator of ABC's Alias. Abrams warned Braun that if he wanted him to re-write Nowhere, the show would no longer be about a regular island, but would be in the category of science fiction, to which Braun agreed.[source needed]

After 6 days, the pilot script was born, with the efforts of Abrams and a new writer, Damon Lindelof. Lloyd loved it, and felt "Lost" will be the savior of ABC. With Braun's green light, the episode soon became the most expensive pilot ever made - $12 million. Although Lloyd felt satisfied with its quality, his bosses such as Disney CEO Robert Iger were shocked and regarded Lost as "a crazy project that is never going to work", and moreover, "a waste of time".[1] Thus, before the shooting of the pilot episode ended on Oahu, Disney fired Lloyd, who later found employment with Yahoo! as the head of media and entertainment.

Production[]

Building23

Building 23 - Damon Lindelof's office in Burbank, CA

ABC Television Studio, formerly Touchstone Television, produces Lost for ABC. The Los Angeles office of Lost's production company Grass Skirt Productions is located at ABC at Disney Studios, and is the home base for the writers and post-production crew such as the editors, except the FX supervisor, who is now based in Hawaii [2]. The official video podcast with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse is filmed here. These offices are the home base for most of the executive producers of Lost, with the exception of Jack Bender and Jean Higgins, who are based with the film crew at the Hawaii Film Studio offices of Grass Skirt Productions in Honolulu, Hawaii. The ABC offices at the LA Disney lot are featured in the extra feature "Lost in a Day" on the Lost: The Complete Third Season (DVD).

Hawaiifilmstudio

The entrance gate to the Hawaii Film Studio

The LA office of Grass Skirt Productions is at:

LOST
500 S. Buena Vista St., Bldg 22
Burbank, CA 91521

The Hawaii offices of Grass Skirt Productions at Hawaii Film Studio, which is also used for fan mail, is at:

c/o Grass Skirt Productions
Hawaii Film Studio
510 18th Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96816

ABC Commissary[]

JacksShirtSeason1

Jack's shirt from Season 1 on display at the ABC Commissary at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida

Main article: The Walt Disney Company#ABC Commissary

Lost-related production memorabilia are on display at the ABC Commissary at the Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) theme park near Orlando, Florida. These include scripts, Charlie's checkered shoes, and outfits worn by Jack and Kate. This location is a restaurant which is a reproduction of the ABC Commissary in New York City. The displayed items rotate frequently across ABC's various programs, and are located within display cases on both sides of the restaurant.

ABC Television Studio (formerly Touchstone Television)[]

Main article: ABC Television Studio


Internet[]

ABCLostWebsite

ABC's Lost website

ABC maintains several presences on the web related to Lost. These include the ABC website, and Oceanic-air.com, a tie-in site that pre-dated The Lost Experience. However, ABC is not involved with the Lost creative team's official forums at Thefuselage.com. Therefore the canonicity of content unique to ABC's websites has been disputed by fans.

ABC was one of the early adopters to offer video downloads of several of its shows, including Lost and Desperate Housewives, available for purchase via Apple's iTunes Music store. Starting with Season 3, Lost episodes and clips are available for free viewing within ABC's own website.

ABC.go.com website[]

ABCFullLengthEpisodes

Full-length episodes may be viewed for free on ABC's website

The ABC website has several sections for getting content related to its programming, including video clips, full episode viewing, and mobile content. ABC's website was the first network website to offer full-length streaming episodes online, from such shows as Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Ugly Betty. Starting in July of 2007, ABC started offering HD streaming of shows, including Lost, in 1280x720 resolution. The episodes are uploaded to the website the day after they are aired on ABC, however only viewers from the United States can use this service.

The Lost section of ABC's website includes episode recaps (written by Gregg Nations[3]), promotional still gallery, store, Official Lost Podcast, Lost: Missing Pieces, and more. Prior to Season 3, it also included a diary, purportedly from survivors of Flight 815. However, since the authorship of this material was from ABC, rather than from the creators of Lost, many fans do not consider the storyline of the diary to be part of Canon. From 2007, the Lost section also included external feeds from unofficial fan forums and fan blogs, an apparent marketing attempt to capitalize on the fan universe and possibly any viral marketing potential.

On April 18, 2008 the website launched LOSTscape, a minigame where fans are able to explore and interact with iconic items from the series set within an "island landscape", and view clips from the shows in which the items are used.

Podcasts[]

Main article at Portal:Official 'Lost' Podcast.

ABC produces audio podcasts, available on the Lost website and at iTunes, where Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse discuss the show. In each podcast, released after an episode is aired, the two writers and producers discuss the previous episode, preview the next episode, and answer fans' questions.

They also occasionally provide video podcasts. The latest installments are available on the Lost website, and the backlog is available from the iTunes feed.

Official Lost Wiki[]

Main article: Lost Wiki

In October 2006, ABC "adopted" a relatively small Lost encyclopedia, a wiki system based on Wetpaint software that had existed since May 2006. The website was moved to be a part of the ABC website and re-launched as the official Lost Wiki. On October 15, 2007, ABC's contract with Lost Wiki expired. ABC did not renew it, therefore, Lost Wiki became "unofficial".

Lost Book Club[]

LOST Book Club is a feature of the ABC Lost website in 2008-9.

Main article: Lost Book Club

Lost Showdown[]

LOST: Showdown is a feature of the ABC Lost website in 2008-9. [4]

Everything happens for a reason. In LOST: Showdown, some of the most memorable happenings from the series will vie for your vote in weekly competition to determine the ultimate moment from the past four seasons. Watch the video clips and vote for your favorite moment every week until the winner is revealed on Wednesday, February 11th.

Website text retrieved January 7, 2009

The favorite moment selected through the Lost Showdown was Charlie's sacrifice, "A selfless act, Charlie sacrifices his life in order to save Desmond's in 'Through the Looking Glass.'"

Another Lost Showdown is a vote to determine the best couple in the Love Quadrangle (Jack and Kate, Jack and Juliet, Sawyer and Kate, Sawyer and Juliet).

Lost New Transmissions[]

LOST: New Transmissions [5] is an official blog hosted on the ABC Lost website, and written by Paul Terry, editor of Lost: The Official Magazine.

Lost message board[]

ABC's Lost website also hosts a message board, a discussion forum for fans.[6] (This forum is different from Thefuselage.com forums, which are operated by the creative team behind Lost, rather than by ABC.)

Inside the Experience[]

Main article: Speaker

Inside the Experience is the blog by Speaker, who was one of the official bloggers for the first Lost alternate reality game, The Lost Experience. However, occasional posts have continued through at least October 2008.

Seatingchart1

The seat numbers chart from the Oceanic website.

Oceanic-air.com[]

Main article: Oceanic-air.com

The Oceanic-air.com website is owned and operated by ABC (as indicated by the site's WHOIS listing), and not by Lost's creative team.

The site included several hidden messages and a reference to the Mapinguari. The canonic nature of some information from this site, such as unseen characters and their storyline, is marginal, as it was not part of The Lost Experience, and the authorship is from ABC rather than directly from the creators of Lost.

Oceanicflight815.com[]

Oceanicflight815

Oceanicflight815.com's front page

Main article: Oceanicflight815.com

Oceanicflight815.com is an official ABC-operated website that is designed as a puzzle known as a "webmaze". This site was discovered by navigating through Oceanic-air.com: If the row numbers on the seating chart are clicked in the order of the Numbers, a Season 2 promo was played, after which the browser is redirected to the previously-unknown website Oceanicflight815.com. The site also features the "zombie season" joke script page.

ABCmedianet.com[]

Main article: ABC Medianet

ABCmedianet.com is ABC's official distribution point for press release content.

Programming[]

ABC Enhanced TV[]

Main article: ABC Enhanced TV

ABC Enhanced TV is ABC's viewer-interactive programming.

Lost's influence[]

Lost (along with Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, among others) is often credited with helping to "revive" ABC in its maiden, 2004-05 season[7]. Prior to that, ABC had been falling behind other networks with unpopular derivative shows and low ratings. Thanks to Lost and other new shows of that season, ABC was revived as one of the stronger networks and has remained so since. The success of Lost (as well as Fox's 24) also spawned subsequent attempts at various networks at serial dramas with continuous storylines[source needed], especially those with flashbacks and an element of mystery, such as ABC's own The Nine[8] and Daybreak, even though serial dramas tend to be less popular, and therefore less profitable, in syndication. Recent serial drama attempts include Six Degrees, Ugly Betty, Kidnapped, Vanished, Brothers and Sisters as well as NBC's Heroes, [9] which also includes an ethnically diverse cast, science fiction roots, and even an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) reminiscent of The Lost Experience.

New media[]

Lost has been notable for also being at the forefront of "new media" and unorthodox approaches and extensions to the episodes themselves.[10] These include alternatives to traditional broadcasting such as iPod and cellphone downloads, streaming downloads, and video on demand (VOD [11]), as well as creator commentary such as the official podcasts and the official discussion forum The Fuselage, ancillary metafiction (Bad Twin), and original content released during broadcast hiatuses such as the international alternate reality game The Lost Experience between Seasons 2 and 3, and the mobisodes (Lost: Missing Pieces) released between Seasons 3 and 4. Disney CEO Bob Iger has noted that these new corporate strategies are possible partly because fans of Lost are "unusually engaged." [12] [13] The contracts completed for the creation of the latter with the Screen Actors Guild, especially regarding residuals for new media distribution, were the first of their kind. There have also been various merchandising efforts to tying into the show. There has also been a accompanying unofficial fan ecosystem of blogs, forums, websites, and even columns from mainstream media that has emerged[14], partially dedicated to the relatively unusual task of fan theories and analysis, and actual content has even referenced these fan media, such as the Desmond's "snowglobe" quip ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1") and the self-referential The Final Episode parody screened at CES. Internationally, many broadcasters have launched dedicated websites for Lost, and even the marketing for Lost: Series 2 Part 1 (Region 2) was accompanied by a "viral marketing" website (whatislost.com).

Current[]

Boston Legal, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, FlashForward, Good Morning America, Grey's Anatomy, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Lost, October Road, Ugly Betty, The View, and Wife Swap.

Former[]

Alias, Charlie's Angels, Commander in Chief, Dharma & Greg, Fantasy Island, Full House, Home Improvement, NYPD Blue, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Drew Carey Show, Who's the Boss?, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Schoolhouse Rock!, Monday Night Football, American Bandstand, Donny and Marie, The Dating Game, Family Feud, Full House,The Newlywed Game, The Lawrence Welk Show, Kung Fu, Batman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, Max Headroom, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, China Beach, Moonlighting, Taxi, The Partridge Family, The Odd Couple, McHale's Navy, The Love Boat, Leave It to Beaver, Mork & Mindy, The Addams Family, Barney Miller, Bewitched,Diff'rent Strokes, Home Improvement, Roseanne, Soap, Three's Company, The Wonder Years, Baretta, Matlock, The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, Twin Peaks, Ryan's Hope, The Fall Guy, Zorro, Maverick, Politically Incorrect, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Mickey Mouse Club, and Battle of the Network Stars.

See also[]

Employees[]

ABC employees with relevance to Lost include:

External links[]

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