Jacob's Foot: A Goodbye to The Official LOST Audio Podcast

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="It was an awesome podcast, DL & CC"][/caption]

Welcome to LOST finale week here in The Foot! It's sad yet exciting. Now, it's time to praise the podcast.

Today is all about the official LOST audio podcast with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse though. Their final podcast is available. The podcast debuted in late November of 2005. It was the days when I barely understood how iTunes work. I don't even remember why I was surfing around for podcasts in the iTunes music store but I was.

I stumbled upon a podcast for the show with Damon and Carlton either in November 2005 or December 2005. I was thrilled. I had already purchased a book that took the readers behind the scenes of season one. I'm the kind of guy who craves all of the behind the scenes action in regards to the creative side. I always wanted to know what television writers thought of each individual episode. The Official LOST Audio podcast provided that but it was also so much more.

Damon and Carlton always answered fan questions. They also had a sense of humor. There was Carlton's banjo playing and the joke that Damon never wore pants. The podcast is where I learned about the Joop joke. This was pre-end date when the show's future was a mystery and Eddie Kitsis joked that should LOST be canceled, Joop (the monkey from the old Hanso commercials) would spin around in a chair and reveal all of the secrets of LOST.I laughed plenty of times. In fact, the style of their podcast and their friendly banter inspired me to create my own podcast in January of 2008 and I'll admit, right here in The Foot, that I adopted their style of banter and incorporated. I not only love LOST the show. I loved this podcast. Just as I re-watch the show all the time, I re-listen to podcasts for things I forgot.

For instance, I'm positive Carlton forgets this completely but he revealed what the statue was in the season two finale podcast. He didn't give its name but he described the statue as we eventually saw it! The Frogurt jokes began on the podcast, I believe, which eventually morphed into Frogurt's debut in the mobisodes and he eventually showed up in "Because You Left" and was killed in "The Lie." He later re-appeared in "LA X."

One of the best running jokes of the podcast was the zombie season--season seven. There was Ezra James Sharkington. I loved the increasing jokes in the later seasons about Kate's horse and Kate's plane. In the early days, a former writer of the show, Javier Grillo-Marxauch, did a podcast commentary for Ana-Lucia's first flashback.

I loved listening to DL & CC discuss the creative process of the show. Their excitement for Nikki and Paulo's episode was contagious. Perhaps that excitement is one of the reasons I enjoyed the episode the night it aired unlike most of LOST nation. They played coy well, too. They never spoiled anything besides episode titles and whose character would be the focus. I'll always remember "The Brig" podcast because it's the podcast that announced the end of LOST.

The podcast made the journey of LOST an even funner experience, a richer experience. I wonder if I'm going to have as much fun watching a TV show as I had watching LOST. Who knows how many times I've used something in a podcast for my own musings on an episode and for my own musings about the coming episodes. It was an invaluable resource for a guy like me. I wonder will any other shows ever branch out into the podcast format. On the most recent BS Report, a podcast hosted by Bill Simmons on ESPN.com, Carlton discussed the interactive nature of the show. Carlton, on the last podcast for his show, remarked that he felt blessed to be able to do the podcast. He would always rally Damon because LOST is a blessed show. It's rare that network shows are able to end things on their own terms. Other shows might have enough time to wrap up a story and provide the fans with some sense of closure but it's mostly rushed and the story doesn't end on the creator's terms. But LOST was. The final podcast was basically their way of saying goodbye to the fans. They thanked the fans for caring about them and the show so much. They thanked us for listening to the podcast for 5 years. They expressed their gratitude for being able to end the show on their own terms and to be able to have a proper goodbye for their crew, cast and the fans. For any die-hard, insane and obsessed LOST fan like myself, the podcast is amazing. Five seasons are accounted for. The older ones have interviews with the cast where they talk about individual episodes. There are interviews in the older podcasts with Jean Higgins, Jack Bender and Michael Giacchino.

Now, it's time to talk about the final one ever. It was great. Damon and Carlton spoke a lot about "Across The Sea" because it's now the most polarizing episode in the history of LOST. They even did an audio commentary for it. They pretty much stopped pre-hashing a bit ago. They did some fan questions. Would I have liked one more banjo song? Yes. Would I have liked one more "Damon doesn't wear pants" joke for nostalgia's sake? Yes. But they made it up with the surprise ending. I won't ruin it.

Anywho, it was a fantastic podcast. If you've never listened to it before, lostpedia has every single one available to stream. I'll continue listening to the old ones on my good ol ipod. Also, Kris White is the unsung hero of the podcast. He was there for every single one (video too). I believe the video podcasts are not over yet but I wouldn't write about them anyway. The audio podcast is near and dear to me which is why I needed to write this.

Well, I shall return Wednesday or late tomorrow night with the good ol write up for the penultimate episode of the series, "What They Died For."