Lost and Found: Sid Harth
No ‘Lost’ Left to Unravel, Fans buy It Piece by Piece
Stephanie Diani for the New York Times
Fans posed with memorabilia from the show “Lost” at a weekend auction in Santa Monica, Calif.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Carrying a presale estimate of $400, a mangled piece of Oceanic Airlines fuselage — immediately identifiable to any fan of “Lost” — came up for bids here on Saturday. Four paddles popped into the air, which was tinged with fake fog. “$1,500! $2,000!” the auctioneer shouted as offers climbed.
Stephanie Diani for the New York Times
“Anything tightly related to that plane is going to emerge as iconic — the plane is the key to the whole show,” said mr. Comisar, who is a leading collector of TV memorabilia.
Ultimately, no item proved to be too mundane at the circuslike auction of props and costumes that closed the door on “Lost,” the celebrated castaway drama that ended in May on ABC. Collectors, dealers and fans — some in costume — were on track late Sunday to snap up every item for sale: 1,174 lots, with most entries containing multiple items.
“This show is the new ‘Star Trek’ when it comes to collecting,” said Joseph Maddalena, the founder of Profiles in History, the auction house that mounted the event.
A copy of “Watership Down,” read by the actor Josh Holloway in several episodes, sold for $3,300 (including a 20 percent buyer’s fee) against an estimate of $300. A set of Oceanic Airlines-branded water bottles, seen in the pilot episode and estimated at $200, went for $1,680.
Among the top sellers was a script signed by two of the program’s creators, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof. the script, estimated at $300, brought a frenzy of bidding — over 100 people were vying for it in person, on the telephone and over the Internet — and it sold for $18,000. Hurley’s red-and-white Camaro, prominently featured in season three, was estimated at $15,000 and sold for $24,000.
In decades past, TV studios threw away old props and costumes or recycled them for new programs. As fans salvaged items, a collecting market was born. In recent years, studios, under severe financial pressure, have grown more interested in auctioning show materials.
Profiles in History said Saturday’s session totaled about $900,000 with bids coming in from 35 countries. no total was available for the Sunday portion, which stretched into the evening, although it appeared to be on track to exceed $1 million.
Several thousand people attended the auction, in a hangar at the Santa Monica Municipal Airport, although many fans came just to view an elaborately staged exhibition of the material up for sale. Set decorators and lighting designers from ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, had created a palm-tree jungle replete with waterfalls.
That fake fog billowed from “the hatch,” a set piece familiar to “Lost” fans as the steel entrance to the Dharma Initiative bunker. A woman dressed as Mother, the adoptive parent of Jacob and the Man in Black — if you didn’t watch the show, don’t even ask — took a peek inside while her four children lay on the ground and spelled out the show’s title with their bodies. (The children were all named after “Lost” characters, one coincidentally, the other three deliberately.)
“I think it’s terrific that fans have the chance to own and treasure these things,” said Jessica Holmes, 28, a student from Long Beach who was dressed as a “Lost” polar bear.
Profiles in History, which has recently suffered a black eye from selling movie posters that turned out to be fake, came under scrutiny before the sale from collector sites like thePropBlog.com for misrepresenting items. Some props described as appearing on screen had not, for instance; Profiles in History eventually issued multiple corrections and clarifications on the catalog, which the auction house sold for $55.
Some small items from “Lost” were, well, lost — taken by cast members as souvenirs. Terry O’Quinn, who played the outdoorsy John Locke on the show, has one of those narcotics-filled Virgin Mary statues from season one, for instance. Locke’s knife — the main one used for filming — was donated to the Walt Disney Company’s archives, which also has one of the show’s Dharma vans.
It is unusual for a studio to participate as fully in a sale as did ABC, which helped organize the auction into an experience worthy of charging $42 for admission (the entrance fee was waived for registered bidders). An ABC spokeswoman said an undisclosed portion of the auction proceeds would go to charities in Hawaii, where the series was taped.
“It’s definitely sad,” said Noreen O’Toole, a “Lost” associate producer, as she watched the sale from the sidelines. “But this at least is a way for ‘Lost’ to live on in people’s homes forever.”
‘Lost’ Finale Lifts ABC to a big Night
Fans of “Lost” clearly came together — much like its cast of players — for one last dive into the pool of sci-fi and spirituality on Sunday night, lifting ABC to its best non-Oscars Sunday night in two and a half years and posting what are likely to be the best finale numbers for any scripted show this television season.
“Lost” averaged 13.5 million viewers, varying by only about 200,000 viewers from start to finish. Similarly, its rating among viewers ages 18 to 49 (the favored audience for many advertisers) was strong and steady throughout, starting at a 5.6 and finishing up in prime time at a 5.7. (In the finale’s last half-hour — which fell out of prime time — the figure jumped to 6.4. one point represents 1.32 million viewers.)
“Lost” provided ABC with a full night of strong ratings. the first two hours of the night, filled with a “Lost” special that mostly featured cast members reminiscing, pulled in 9.8 million viewers and a 4.0 rating among those younger adult viewers, a huge boost over ABC’s usual average for those two hours.
And a late-night special edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” featuring numerous “Lost” cast members was a huge success. the show boosted mr. Kimmel’s usual ratings by factors of about three or four. He attracted 4.88 million viewers (up from his average of 1.66 million) and 2.73 million viewers ages 18 to 49, soaring over his average of 690,000 in that category.
The almost unwavering rating “Lost” scored over such long a period of prime time is highly unusual for any television show, but it is reflective of the extraordinary loyalty of the “Lost” audience — and the show’s demands on those fans. This was not a finale casual viewers could easily drop into at the end to see how it all came out.
The 13.5 million viewers represented a bump from the 11.5 million who had been watching regularly this season, though the figure was still a far cry from the 18.5 million who watched the series premiere in 2004.
But “Lost” will almost surely go out a winner, topping every other scripted show in that 18-to-49 rating for a finale this season, unless the hit CBS comedy “The big Bang Theory” manages a higher number. (Its finale was Monday night.) “Lost” easily beat the finale for the next highest-rated drama, ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” which had a 5.4 rating among the 18-to-49 audience.
In another demonstration of its consistency (and why ABC will miss it terribly), “Lost” played almost equally as well with men as it did with women — a rarity in network television, and especially at ABC, which largely has shows that appeal to women.
For the finale “Lost” had a 5.8 rating with women in the 18-to-49 group and a 5.4 rating among men. “Grey’s” had a 7.9 rating with women and only a 2.9 among men.
Online Buzz Doesn’t Equate to Ratings
As might be expected for a series working toward its recent much-promoted finale, “Lost” below, generated the most engagement through social media of any show from February through April, according to Networked Insights, a social media analytics company.
The statistic is the modern equivalent of water cooler conversation, and is measured by the number of online interactions posted and read about a given show. “American Idol” ranked second, and there was a steep drop-off in the social media index after that. moreover, other shows with substantial online buzz did not have commensurate Nielsen ratings. only four of the 10 shows in the social media ranking were also in the top 10 for ratings. many popular shows on the social media index, like “The Simpsons,” were not even in the top 40 in Nielsen ratings.
Producers of shows can use social media data as a large-scale focus group to see what most engages viewers. In addition, advertisers’ integration of brands into shows often reappears in social media conversations even as people increasingly skip TV commercials.
“A passionate audience will talk about anything and everything that happens during the hour they’re watching — whether it’s a character or a commercial,” said Dan Neely, chief executive of Networked Insights. TEDDY WAYNE
Arts, Briefly‘Lost’ Cleans Its Attic
Still mourning the end of the television show “Lost”? Perhaps owning a prop or costume would help. Profiles in History, an auction company specializing in Hollywood memorabilia, plans to auction more than 1,000 lots, including props, costumes and set pieces, on Aug. 21 and Aug. 22 in the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in California. (Yes, it’s that big.) among the items on the block will be Hurley’s winning lottery ticket, Locke’s wheelchair, Benjamin Linus’s fake “Henry Gale” identification, Charlie’s guitar and some larger items, including the Dharma van. further information is available at profilesinhistory.com.
…and I am Sid Harth
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updated 5:11 p.m. ET Aug. 6, 2010
Courtesy Puig
