Friday, November 20, 2009

"The 5000 Fingers Of TPTB"

It occurred to me today that this crazy Lost hiatus poster-buying event is a lot like the Dr. Seuss story "The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T." In the 1953 fantasy movie, crazy Dr. Terwilliker decides to enslave 500 boys to all play the piano at once, for his amusement.

In the same way, TPTB of Lost have weekly enslaved (tens-of?) thousands of fans to their computers, hitting their F5 buttons every few seconds like robots, to participate in this super-limited poster sale. Dr. Terwilliker would be in awe. But what began as a lot of fun for all, evolved into much disappointment for many. Seconds after they go on sale they are sold out. Accounts of the making of the "Dr. T" movie reveal that at one point in the filming, almost all the boys at the pianos vomited simultaneously after one boy got sick, in a horrible regurgitation domino effect on the set. Some of the fans in this poster event have felt the same way.

And wouldn't you know, the story even has a Smoke Monster of sorts. Check out the movie, it's some silly fun. Maybe more fun than making yourself sick by F5ing repeatedly for a half hour, hoping against hope to get a little Lost swag for posterity. We really do thank TPTB for this generous hiatus scheme that they dreamt up to show appreciation to their fans, they are the best TV Powers That Be ever. But maybe next time this is done by a production team, an option for a not-so-limited appreciation might also be offered as well, so as not to create such an exclusive nature within the event. JMHO. We don't know how this DCAAPB event will end though, so perhaps TPTB have something more inclusive for all fans rigged up for the ending, who knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_5,000_Fingers_of_Dr._T/

4 comments:

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

That is a crazy film, and I can't recall what grade I was in when I saw it at school. I wonder if these guys are the second group of Others back at the Temple. And here we thought pirates were on the Black Rock. Coming up next: Alpert Hears a Who.

Capcom said...

LOL! X-D

I don't know how old I was when I first saw this either, but I must have been pretty young as it scared the crud out of me for some reason.

lost2010 said...

I'm surprised I haven't seen this one. I grew up with 3 channels only and I thought I'd seen every off-beat movie ever made on Channel 12 on Sunday afternoons in my childhood.

I may have to seek this one out.

Did you get a poster, Capcom? I decided to skip the poster craze, although I'd heard somewhere that it had sort of been taken over by resellers.

Capcom said...

Hi Lost2010! You really must rent this movie, or pick it up for sale somewhere if you see it. As a warning, don't expect a great movie -- not even Dr.Seuss liked this treatment of his story, and he vowed to never let another of his stories be made into a movie again after seeing it (until he died and his second wife chose to sell-out his product to make crappy movies). But it's really freaky and hilarious if only for how goofy it is. The sets are outragious as well.

Yes, I managed to get two posters so far. I loved the Locke poster, and got one back when it was easy to get one. I somehow got thru to get the polarbear which is neat, but don't know if I'll keep it in the long run. Most of them I don't care for style-wise, and they are too dark (figuratively and literally) to put up on the walls IMNSHO. It's mostly all dark urban-style stuff. But some of them are very striking.

Yes, the atmosphere surrounding the sales has been very discouraging, but a lot of the Argies have been very nice and sharing with those who have missed out. And Zort has done great work keeping things civil on LostARGs. But I'll be glad when we all get back together on TLC again next season.