Lost: The Complete Series Seasons 1 - 6

Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. The story is told in a heavily serialized manner. Episodes typically feature a primary storyline on the island, as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a charact's life.

　　Lost was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof who share story-writing credits for the pilot episode, which Abrams directed. Throughout the show's run, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse served as showrunners and head writers, working together with a large number of other executive producers and writers. Due to its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii, the series was one of the most expensive on television. The fictional universe and mythology of Lost is expanded upon by a number of related media, most importantly a series of short mini-episodes called Missing Pieces, and a 12-minute epilogue titled "The New Man in Charge."

　　A critically acclaimed and popular success, Lost was consistently ranked by US critics on their lists of top ten series of all time. The first season garnered an average of 15.69 million US viewers per episode on ABC. During its sixth and final season, the show averaged over 11 million US viewers per episode. Lost was the recipient of hundreds of US award nominations throughout its run, and won numerous industry awards, including the Emmy Award for US primetime Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Award for Best Drama in 2006 and a US Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series.

　　Overview:

　　The first season begins with a plane crash that strands the surviving passengers of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on what seems to be a deserted tropical island. Their survival is threatened throughout the season by a number of mysterious entities, including polar bears, an unseen creature that roams the jungle (the "Monster"), and the island's malevolent, and largely unseen, inhabitants known as "the Others". They encounter a French woman named Danielle Rousseau who was shipwrecked on the island 16 years prior to their crash. They also find a mysterious metal hatch buried in the ground. While two characters try to force their way into the hatch, four other survivors attempt to leave the island on a raft that they have constructed. Meanwhile, flashbacks centered on individual survivors detail their lives prior to the plane crash. The other seasons follow.

　　Conception:

　　The series began development in January 2004, when Lloyd Braun, head of ABC at the time, ordered an initial script from Spelling Television based on his concept of a cross between the novel Lord of the Flies, the movie Cast Away, the television series Gilligan's Island, and the popular reality show Survivor. ABC had also premiered a short-lived series about plane crash survivors in 1969 called The New People with the opening episode by Rod Serling. Gadi Pollack notes that some of "the influences of Lost came from...the game Myst." Jeffrey Lieber was hired and wrote Nowhere, based on his pitch to write the pilot. Unhappy with the result and a subsequent rewrite, Braun contacted J. J. Abrams, who had a deal with Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios), and was also the creator of the TV series Alias, to write a new pilot script. Although initially hesitant, Abrams warmed up to the idea on the condition that the series would have a supernatural angle to it, and collaborated with Damon Lindelof to create the series' style and characters. Together, Abrams and Lindelof also created a series "bible," and conceived and detailed the major mythological ideas and plot points for an ideal four to five season run for the show. The development of the show was constrained by tight deadlines, as it had been commissioned late in the 2004 season's development cycle. Despite the short schedule, the creative team remained flexible enough to modify or create characters to fit actors they wished to cast.

　　Awards:

　　Capping its successful first season, Lost won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and J. J. Abrams was awarded an Emmy in September 2005 for his work as the director of Pilot. Terry O'Quinn and Naveen Andrews were nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category. Lost swept the guild awards in 2005, winning the Writers Guild of America Awards 2005 for Outstanding Achievement in Writing for a Dramatic Television Series, the 2005 Producers Guild Award for Best Production, the 2005 Director's Guild Award for Best Direction of a Dramatic Television Program, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards 2005 for Best Ensemble Cast.

　　It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Drama Series three times (2005–2007), and it won the award in 2006. In 2006, Matthew Fox and Naveen Andrews received Golden Globe nominations for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Best Supporting Actor respectively, and in 2007, Evangeline Lilly received a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series. Lost was nominated for the 2005 British Academy of Film and Television Award for Best International. In 2006, Jorge Garcia and Michelle Rodriguez took home ALMA Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively, in a Television Series. It won the Saturn Award for Best Television Series in both 2005 and 2006. In, 2005 Terry O'Quinn won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in a television series, and in 2006, Matthew Fox won for Best Lead Actor. Lost won consecutive Television Critics Association Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, for both its first and second seasons. Consecutively as well, it won in 2005 and 2006 the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program. Malcolm David Kelley won a Young Artist Award for his performance as Walt in 2006.

　　In 2005, Lost was voted Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year. The show won a 2005 Prism Award for Charlie's drug storyline in the episodes "Pilot," "House of the Rising Sun," and "The Moth". In 2007 Lost was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." The series was nominated for but did not win a Writer's Guild Award and Producer's Guild Award again in 2007. In June 2007, Lost beat out over 20 nominated television shows from countries all over the globe to win the Best Drama award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival. In September 2007 both Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, the award going to O'Quinn. Lost was again nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008. The show also garnered seven other Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Michael Emerson. In 2009, Lost was again nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, as well Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Michael Emerson at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, of which the latter won.

　　In 2010, the 6th and final season was nominated for twelve Emmy Awards at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof for the show's series finale, "The End," Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Matthew Fox, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Elizabeth Mitchell, it won only one Emmy (Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing) out of its twelve nominations for a series total of 11 wins and 55 nominations in its six year run.