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Published On: Dec 18, 2007 06:04 PM
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Published On: Dec 18, 2007 06:04 PM
"lost" starts on Australian television tonight - expected effects on fear of flying!
I've watched all 14 episodes so far and I'm hooked! But how will fearful flyers react? And any impact on the fear of flying business?
The two biggest television shows of the American
season start this week in
Australia.
Desperate Houswives, from the ABC network which was clever enough to pick it up when other networks without any vision or guts rejected it, rated its head off on Monday when it began its season run on the Seven Network in Australia. It was probably helped by enormous advertising around town on billboards as well as promotions during other high rating programs, such as the Australian Open tennis final when it showed a key opening scene where the narrator shoots herself. Because it was shown at 930pm when children were still watching, the next day's radio talk back was full of complaining parents concerned about the impact on their children of this unexpected suicide.
But the controversial promo. achieved its aim, and DH scored the highest ratings ever for a season premier.
The Seven Network has also been hyping Lost (also on ABC-TV in the US) and hoping it will also achieve very high ratings, even if it doesn't come close to DH, and is up against E.R. on another channel.
Lost starts with a suited young man opening his eyes, revealing himself lost in a dense jungle. Picking himself up, he makes his way through the jungle to a beach setting, where we view through his eyes the devastation of what is clearly a recent plane crash. There are dazed people wandering about, bits and pieces of plane, a still rotating engine, and fires and debris strewn all over the place.
The quality of this opening scene matches anything you will see in a
cinema release
blockbuster, and apparently this pilot episode (which was intended to be run as
two episodes over one two-hour setting) cost US$11 million. It was filmed on the
Hawai'ian island of Kauai which I visited a few years ago, and contains some
inland forests and plains used in Jurassic Park. (Flyers landing at the airport
overflew the movie set and were warned it was only a
movie!)
The show has some ties to Australia, featuring Australian actors and locales, with the doomed flight commencing its journey from Sydney on its way to LA. The inflight aircraft breakup is actually shown in later episodes rather than the first, and it is probably every fearful flyers worst nightmare. There have been some comments about the veracity of the events which are shown, passed by those employed in commercial aviation, and these need to be taken into account by fearful flyers who might believe that the portrayal they see (or choose to avoid seeing) is aligned with reality. It's not.
We don't know after 14 episodes what the involvement of the plane is in the series - and if the crash is what it seems to be. Nonetheless, the series has recreated, using a real Lockheed L-1011,
the
remnants of a plane crash which must be the nightmare of many fearful flyer's
lives.
Already I have had one client mention the series to me, and how it will be avoided, although its promos can't be avoided when other programs are watched.
Anyway, I expect sooner or later after Lost starts that I will get a few calls from the media asking me about fear of flying and if the series will either increase or decrease fears in the community. Of course, what the show is really about is the danger posed to the survivors by themselves and the others on the island - as well as whatever mystery beast lives in the jungle - or what created it!
It's like Lord of the Flies meets Survivor! Enjoy - if you can!
Desperate Houswives, from the ABC network which was clever enough to pick it up when other networks without any vision or guts rejected it, rated its head off on Monday when it began its season run on the Seven Network in Australia. It was probably helped by enormous advertising around town on billboards as well as promotions during other high rating programs, such as the Australian Open tennis final when it showed a key opening scene where the narrator shoots herself. Because it was shown at 930pm when children were still watching, the next day's radio talk back was full of complaining parents concerned about the impact on their children of this unexpected suicide.
But the controversial promo. achieved its aim, and DH scored the highest ratings ever for a season premier.
The Seven Network has also been hyping Lost (also on ABC-TV in the US) and hoping it will also achieve very high ratings, even if it doesn't come close to DH, and is up against E.R. on another channel.
Lost starts with a suited young man opening his eyes, revealing himself lost in a dense jungle. Picking himself up, he makes his way through the jungle to a beach setting, where we view through his eyes the devastation of what is clearly a recent plane crash. There are dazed people wandering about, bits and pieces of plane, a still rotating engine, and fires and debris strewn all over the place.
The quality of this opening scene matches anything you will see in a
cinema release
blockbuster, and apparently this pilot episode (which was intended to be run as
two episodes over one two-hour setting) cost US$11 million. It was filmed on the
Hawai'ian island of Kauai which I visited a few years ago, and contains some
inland forests and plains used in Jurassic Park. (Flyers landing at the airport
overflew the movie set and were warned it was only a
movie!)The show has some ties to Australia, featuring Australian actors and locales, with the doomed flight commencing its journey from Sydney on its way to LA. The inflight aircraft breakup is actually shown in later episodes rather than the first, and it is probably every fearful flyers worst nightmare. There have been some comments about the veracity of the events which are shown, passed by those employed in commercial aviation, and these need to be taken into account by fearful flyers who might believe that the portrayal they see (or choose to avoid seeing) is aligned with reality. It's not.
We don't know after 14 episodes what the involvement of the plane is in the series - and if the crash is what it seems to be. Nonetheless, the series has recreated, using a real Lockheed L-1011,
the
remnants of a plane crash which must be the nightmare of many fearful flyer's
lives.Already I have had one client mention the series to me, and how it will be avoided, although its promos can't be avoided when other programs are watched.
Anyway, I expect sooner or later after Lost starts that I will get a few calls from the media asking me about fear of flying and if the series will either increase or decrease fears in the community. Of course, what the show is really about is the danger posed to the survivors by themselves and the others on the island - as well as whatever mystery beast lives in the jungle - or what created it!
It's like Lord of the Flies meets Survivor! Enjoy - if you can!
Posted: Thu - February 3, 2005 at 02:31 PM |