'Lost' exclusive: ABC sets the record straight about the series finale's plane crash images

[underpants]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/05/lost-exclusive-abc-sets-the-record-straight-about-the-series-finales-plane-crash-images.html

You know those Oceanic 815 plane crash images that ran after Jack's (Matthew Fox) eye closed and the "Lost" logo appeared on our TV screens? Some "Lost" fans and TV critics have wondered if they were a last Easter egg from the producers, a clue meant to lead us to conclude that no one survived Oceanic 815's crash landing — and therefore everything we've seen over the last six years never really happened.

Well, ABC wants to clear the air: Those photographs were not part of the "Lost" story at all. The network added them to soften the transition from the moving ending of the series to the 11 p.m. news and never considered that it would confuse viewers about the actual ending of the show.

"The images shown during the end credits of the 'Lost' finale, which included shots of Oceanic 815 on a deserted beach, were not part of the final story but were a visual aid to allow the viewer to decompress before heading into the news," an ABC spokesperson wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

So let's review: Christian told Jack that he was dead and everyone else in the church was too — some had died before Jack, as we already knew, and some died long after. The sideways flashes then were a step in everyone's after-lives, a way to reconnect before moving on permanently. While there still may be unanswered questions related to that religious and spiritual conclusion to the "Lost" story, the photographs were really just a nostalgic, transitional touch added by ABC executives — and not executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

Love or hate it, that's the final answer.

[CBGLuthier]

1. and Communism was just a "red" herring

[Aristus]

2. I only ever watched the first episode and half of the second before losing interest in the show.

But the whole series sounds like "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", based on the description of the ending...

[petronius]

3. So they actually thought people were going to watch Lost and then stick around for the news?

How naive - everyone knows that ~115% of the people who watched Lost ran immediately to the internet to talk about Lost...

[underpants]

4. That is why the time slot behind LOST has always been a dead zone

people either are on the internet, calling friends, or talking about it with the people they watched it with.

The same thing has happened with several great series recently
The West Wing
The Sopranos


the inverse happened in the 90's
They basically had people eating soup on between Cosby and Cheers and then Friends and Seinfeld...and those shows stayed on waaaaaay beyond their time

[fujiyama]

5. Kinda tough though to get into any of those dramas late into the series

especially LOST and to a lesser extent, The Sopranos. I only saw a few episodes of the WW but I think it was a similar case with continuity and character development.

I think with sitcoms it is a lot easier to watch individual episodes, since they aren't usually serialized the same way. That's probably why they kept those you listed around longer past their shelf life (and because they're cheaper to produce and a lot easier to write than complex dramas). I'm not dissing comedy writing - but it's easier to write a fairly predictable sitcom which doesn't rely on the sort of plot twists and emotional attachment to the characters as dramas often do.

Some have speculated that for that reason, LOST may be not be as successful as most sitcoms when syndicated. And that makes sense. I've found it tough to watch serialized shows once syndicated since they aren't always shown in order.