THE QUICK HIT

There are many new pilots making the television rounds like The Strain, The Leftovers and  Intruders which apparently quickly set the stage with a HUGE mystery as a means of locking in viewers' interest. When pitching these shows and discussing them with the media, the producers stress the mysteries and eventually concede that the series would not be another LOST.

Another LOST meaning that the new shows will fully explain the premise and mysteries set forth early on in the plots.

So one of the lasting legacies of LOST is the express promise to networks and viewers that a new show will not be another LOST.

It is one thing for the LOST creators-producers-writers to bristle at fans criticism of the ending of LOST, but to have people within the industry raise the question at the very beginning has to be a real blow to the stomach.

One of the tenets of Hollywood has always been to steal from successful films and shows. Success breeds imitation to outright copying. The sales pitch usually includes that the new show is "like" this one, or "has elements" of this other one . . . as a means of giving a network executive some context and level of comfort that a familiar story has a better level of success. In the early LOST materials, the creators used the same type of marketing technique to get their pilot green lit.

But to have a calling card that the quick hit opening show mystery is NOT going to be like LOST has to be the life preserver thrown to the network prior to the ship setting sail. It is ironic that a show that still finds its way into many critics Top Ten lists is now a moniker to television insiders of what is not going to happen.