Lost L.A.
Lost LA is a public television historical documentary series that explores Southern California's hidden past through documents, photos, and other rare artifacts from the region's libraries and archives.
| Lost L.A. | |
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| Genre |
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| Presented by | Nathan Masters |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 27 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Running time | 21–27 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Release | |
| Original network | KCET |
| Original release | January 27, 2016 – present |
Hosted by writer and historian Nathan Masters,[1] each episode of Lost LA brings the primary sources of Los Angeles history to the screen in surprising new ways and connects them to the Los Angeles of today. Much of the past is lost to history, but through the region's archives, we can rediscover a forgotten Los Angeles.
The half-hour series is co-produced by KCET and USC Libraries and is broadcast by KCET, PBS SoCal and other public television stations.
Development
The show began as a series of online articles that featured historical materials from the L.A. as Subject research alliance. When the online series became successful, it was spun off into its own TV series.[2]
Funders
Lost LA is made possible by Anne Ray Foundation, a Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropy; The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation; and the California State Library.
Plot
Los Angeles is often thought of as a city without a history, an instant metropolis defined by the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. Lost LA challenges these stereotypes, offering a history of Southern California not found in other media. Unlike other history shows which only look backward at antiquarian arcana, Lost LA explains the Southern California of today and how we got here.
Episodes
Season 1 (Premiered January 27, 2016)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Wild L.A." | January 27, 2016 |
| 2 | 2 | "Before the Dodgers" | February 3, 2016 |
| 3 | 3 | "Reshaping L.A." | February 10, 2016 |
Special Summer Episode (2017)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | "Descanso Gardens" | July 26, 2017 |
Season 2 (Premiered October 10, 2017)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 | "Borderlands" | October 10, 2017 |
| 6 | 2 | "Wild West" | October 17, 2017 |
| 7 | 3 | "Building the Metropolis" | October 24, 2017 |
| 8 | 4 | "Dream Factory" | November 7, 2017 |
| 9 | 5 | "Coded Geographies" | November 14, 2017 |
| 10 | 6 | "Pacific Rim" | November 21, 2017 |
Season 3 (Premiered October 9, 2018)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "Yosemite" | October 9, 2018 |
| 12 | 2 | "Desert Fantasy" | October 16, 2018 |
| 13 | 3 | "Beach Culture" | October 23, 2018 |
| 14 | 4 | "Ghost Towns" | October 30, 2018 |
| 15 | 5 | "Venice" | November 13, 2018 |
| 16 | 6 | "Fantasyland" | November 27, 2018 |
Season 4 (Premiered October 15, 2019)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 1 | "Griffith Park" | October 15, 2019 | |
| At more than 4,500 acres, Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. Its founder, the controversial and complicated Griffith J. Griffith, donated the land to the city as a public recreation ground for all the people—an ideal that has been challenged over the years. In this episode, featuring hiker and author Casey Schreiner, viewers visit a Mexican-era adobe within the park boundaries and ride the historic Merry-go-Round, where Griffith's ideal of equal access was challenged. | ||||
| 18 | 2 | "Three Views of Manzanar" | October 22, 2019 | |
| Despite the psychological trauma of their incarceration during World War II, Japanese Americans built new lives while detained at concentration camps like Manzanar. They played baseball, planted gardens and made the honor roll. Three renowned photographers captured these scenes: outsiders Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, and incarceree Tōyō Miyatake, who boldly smuggled in a camera lens to document life from within the camp. All three trained their lenses on small yet profound moments of dignity and domesticity, documenting resilience in the face of civil injustice. This episode compares and contrasts their approaches and politics in their work. | ||||
| 19 | 3 | "Bootlegger Tunnels" | October 29, 2019 | |
| Prohibition in the United States may have outlawed liquor, but that didn't mean the booze stopped flowing. How did Angelenos keep their glasses half full in these dry times? In this episode, viewers explore the myths of subterranean Los Angeles, crawl through prohibition-era tunnels, and visit some of the city's oldest speakeasies. This episode features visits to Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet and The King Eddy Saloon in Downtown Los Angeles, and Townhouse, the oldest bar in Venice. | ||||
| 20 | 4 | "Paul Revere Williams" | November 5, 2019 | |
| Although best known for designing the homes of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, the pioneering African American architect Paul Revere Williams also contributed to some of the city's most recognizable civic structures— all while confronting racism and racial barriers. In this episode, viewers visit Los Angeles International Airport's (LAX) iconic Theme Building, the Williams-designed Founder's Church of Religious Science, and the Pueblo del Rio public housing project. | ||||
| 21 | 5 | "Discovering the Universe" | November 12, 2019 | |
| As recently as a century ago, scientists doubted whether the universe extended beyond our own Milky Way—until astronomer Edwin Hubble, working with the world's most powerful telescope in the mountains high above Los Angeles, discovered just how vast our universe truly is. In this episode, viewers visit the underground vault of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, where paradigm-shifting discoveries are annotated by hand-on-glass photographic slides; and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. | ||||
| 22 | 6 | "Shindana Toy Company" | November 19, 2019 | |
| The 1965 Watts riots (also known as the Watts Rebellion or Uprising) left South Los Angeles in social and economic distress. In their aftermath, Operation Bootstrap, a non-profit community-based organization was formed, with hopes of facilitating change through community empowerment. This episode explores the lasting impact of one Operation Bootstrap initiative, the Shindana Toy Company, whose ethnically correct black dolls forever changed the American doll industry. We visit a doll collector, meet with former Operation Bootstrap organizers, and hear about the enduring legacy of Operation Bootstrap from a family of women who once made clothing for Shindana dolls. It's a story of community strength and economic revival—and one that, outside South L.A.’s Black community, is barely known. | ||||
Season 5 (Premiered March 19, 2022)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 1 | "Who Killed the Red Car?" | March 19, 2022 | |
| In "Who Killed the Red Car?" host Nathan Masters rides a restored streetcar with Southern California Railway Museum co-founder Harvey Laner. | ||||
| 24 | 2 | "Winemaking" | March 26, 2022 | |
| In "Winemaking" host Nathan Masters picks grapes from the oldest vines in Los Angeles with Michael Holland at Villa Adobe. | ||||
| 25 | 3 | "Prehistoric Landscapes" | April 2, 2022 | |
| In "Prehistoric Landscapes" host Nathan Masters sifts through a natural archive of climate change with Emily Lindsey (Assistant Curator and Excavation Site Director at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum)and Sean Campbell (Preparator, Rancho La Brea). | ||||
| 26 | 4 | "German Exiles" | April 9, 2022 | |
| In "German Exiles" host Nathan Masters meets with Claudia Gordon to tour Villa Aurora, a Pacific Palisades house that hosted spirited literary salons. | ||||
| 27 | 5 | "From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw" | April 16, 2022 | |
| In "From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw" host Nathan Masters visits Kristen Hayashi, Ph.D., the collections manager at the Japanese American National Museum. | ||||
Cast and characters
Historian Nathan Masters has hosted the series since its inception. Los Angeles City Archivist Michael Holland has also appeared in several episodes.[3]
Production
New episodes are produced every year, typically premiering in the Fall.
Awards
The series has been honored with numerous awards, including four Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards;[4][5][6] the Los Angeles Press Club's SoCal Journalism Award;[7] the Los Angeles Press Club's National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award;[8] and the Radio and Television News Association (RTNA) of Southern California's Golden Mike Award.[9]
References
- "New series 'Lost LA' explores untold stories of LA history". 89.3 KPCC. January 27, 2016.
- Blakemore, Erin (April 28, 2016). "LA Archives Have Their Own TV Show". Library Journal.
- "Michael Holland". IMDb.
- Carras, Christi. "Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards: The Complete Winners List," Variety (July 28, 2018).
- Schneider, Michael. "KCET Leads 2019 Local L.A. Area Emmy Awards; KTLA, KVEA Earn Top Newscast Nods," Variety (July 27, 2019).
- Schneider, Michael. "KCET Wins Most Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards; KABC, KNBC, KMEX, KVEA Take Top Newscasts," Variety (July 19, 2020).
- "WINNERS: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS CONTEST," Los Angeles Press Club website (Aug. 2018).
- "WINNERS OF THE 11th NATIONAL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALISM AWARDS," Los Angeles Press Club website (December 2018).
- "KCET and PBS SoCal Win Seven Golden Mike Awards Presented by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern CA," KCET website (January 23, 2019).