Lost is an American serial drama television series that follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a passenger jet flying between Australia and the United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life. The show was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, and is filmed primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004. Since then, three seasons have aired. The show is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions and airs on the ABC Network in the United States. Its incidental music is composed by Michael Giacchino. The current executive producers are Abrams, Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk. Because of its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming in Hawaii, the series is one of the most expensive on television.

A critical and popular success, Lost garnered an average of 15.5 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year, and won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards, also in 2005, and the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006.

Reflecting its devoted fan base, the show has become a staple of American popular culture with references to the story and its elements appearing in other television shows,[6] commercials, comic books, webcomics, humor magazines and song lyrics. The show's fictional universe has also been explored through tie-in novels, board and video games, and an alternate reality game, The Lost Experience.

In May 2007 it was announced that Lost will continue for its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, concluding with the 117th produced episode in May 2010. These three final seasons will consist of 16 episodes each, running weekly in the spring uninterrupted by repeats.


SEASON 1

Season 1 began in the United States on September 22, 2004 and featured 24 episodes that were aired on Wednesdays at 8:00. A plane crash strands the surviving passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 on a seemingly deserted tropical island, forcing the group of strangers to work together to stay alive. Their survival is threatened by mysterious entities including polar bears, an unseen creature that roams the jungle, and the island's malevolent inhabitants known as the "Others." They encounter a Frenchwoman who was shipwrecked on the island over 16 years earlier and find a mysterious metal hatch buried in the ground. An attempt is made to leave the island on a raft.

SEASON 2

Season 2 featured 23 episodes that were aired in the United States and Canada on Wednesdays at 9:00 starting September 21, 2005. Most of the story, which continues 45 days after the crash, focuses on the growing conflict between the survivors and the Others, with the continued clash between faith and science being thematic in certain episodes. While some mysteries are resolved, new questions are raised. New characters are introduced, including the tail-section survivors and other island inhabitants. More island mythologies and insights into the survivors' pasts are divulged. The hatch is explored and the existence of The DHARMA Initiative and its benefactor, the Hanso Foundation, are revealed. As the truth about the mysterious Others begins to unfold, one of the crash survivors betrays the other castaways, and the cause of the plane crash is revealed.

SEASON 3

Season 3 featured 22 episodes that were seen in the United States and Canada beginning on October 4, 2006 and on following Wednesdays at 9:00 pm. The series returned from hiatus on February 7, 2007 and was aired at 10:00 pm. The story continues 67 days after the crash. New crash survivors and Others are introduced, as the crash survivors learn about the Others and their history on the island. One of The Others and a new island inhabitant join the survivors while a survivor defects to The Others. A war between The Others and the survivors comes to a head, and the survivors make contact with a rescue team.

SEASON 4

Season 4 will feature 16 episodes that will be broadcast in the United States and Canada from February to May, 2008. In this season, the episodes will be shown consecutively without repeats. More of the Island's secrets will be revealed as the castaways continue to seek rescue after making contact with a freighter. Season 4 will feature both flash-forwards and flashbacks. Production began on August 17th.

FUTURE SEASONS AND END DATE

On May 7, 2007, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson announced that Lost will end during the 2009–2010 season with a "highly anticipated and shocking finale." "We felt that this was the only way to give [Lost] a proper creative conclusion," McPherson said. Beginning with the 2007–2008 television season, the final 48 episodes of Lost will be aired as three seasons with sixteen episodes each. Thus, Lost will conclude with its sixth season. These seasons are to be aired uninterrupted in the first half of those years.

The announcement by ABC was called "bold and unprecedented" by Lost's executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Lindelof and Cuse also stated that they "always envisioned Lost as a show with a beginning, middle, and end," and that by announcing when the show would end that viewers would "have the security of knowing that the story will play out as we've intended." Co-creator J.J. Abrams also praised the decision, remarking, "It is the right choice for the series and its viewers. It takes real foresight and guts to make a call like this. I applaud ABC and Touchstone for making this happen."

**wikipedia.org