Lost is what Alias could have been…

Many of you know that I am a pretty big fan of the show Alias. Alias was created and was produced by JJ Abrams. Lost was created and is produced by JJ Abrams. Alias contains elements of science-fiction/ fantasy and is a drama. As is Lost. Alias has been off the air for two years now. There are a few factors that lead to the end of Alias, Network interference and schedule changes. Now these are not the only reasons that the show ended, but compared to Lost (which has not faced theses challenges) these two are significant.
Alias premiered in 2001, just after the attacks on 9/11. As a spy-fi drama the series thrived in an atmosphere of espionage and covert activity. The first season and part of the second season dealt with Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) working to bring down a terrorist organization; SD-6. In the DVD special features there are interviews with the producers where they state that the network (ABC) wanted this story line to arc sooner than the writers had anticipated and as such the plot line changed. This lead to the writers not creating the stories in the manner they had envisioned. They had to rush some of the storylines that they were preparing to use.
This happens quite often, as networks are concerned with ad revenue for the shows they purchase/ produce and they want to continue to draw the target demographics in the same high number of viewers. The real killer of a TV series is schedule. Alias had multiple changes to the time that it was aired. First on Sunday nights then moved to Wednesdays and then finally to Thursday nights. Another issue was that twice the series went on hiatus. Once was to be able to go continuously without repeat episodes for the fourth season and then during Jennifer Garners maternity leave. While this sounds good for the fans, it makes it difficult to attract new viewers as they are never sure when the next episode is airing. Also, when the show that replaces you in the timeslot is a hit, then it makes it even harder for people to remember the first show.
This happened to Alias, Desperate Housewives was the show. It took the Sunday timeslot in fall 2004 and when Alias was to return in January 2005 it was moved to another timeslot. Lost on the other hand when they took their hiatus to come back with no repeats was blessed with the writers’ strike. So when the episodes aired there was not too much original programming out there. This was a good thing because it allowed the fans to watch as well as new viewers to get caught up.
Lost is a great program I started watching it this year. I am a fan. But I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like had Alias premiered second and Lost first. Would things have been different or was the five year journey what was meant to happen? Who knows. But, I will always have time to pop in an Alias DVD and catch up with Sydney Bristow, her father and the CIA.