"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

It's hard to say. The Lost creators have definitely done a brilliant job at making something which is really popular whilst also having a great mythology and great character development and also having a relatively slow pace, similar to TP. Also, although I wasn't around in the early 1990s, I can imagine that there would have been many watchers of TP that didn't care about any of the mysteries in TP apart from the central "Who dunnit?" regarding Laura's murder and if they lost interest in this then they would likely lose interest in the whole thing. Lost however has many different mysteries and questions which means they can answer some while leaving others hanging or opening new questions which does frustrate some people although I can't see why. 

If I only was interested in TP to find out who killed Laura I probably wouldn't be rewatching it. I just love all the characters and the show's ethos and atmosphere.

Ratings plummeted when the story lost steam, DL had moved on to other works already. THere was no reason for the networks to keep it on the air.  Lost has been, from what I gather, a cash cow. 

I guess, too, that the growth of the Internet has helped maintain public interest in Lost.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I still think Twin Peaks is the best show ever created but I have to admit that Lost comes really close (and 24 isn't too far either). Or actually I don't know whether Twin Peaks stands on it's own against all the newer tv-series with higher production values as what I like in Twin Peaks is the whole package: the books, the tapes, the movie, the series, the scripts. Those things together makes the world of Twin Peaks absolutely fascinating but when looking at the series at it's own, there is a lot of stuff that isn't as great as it should be. Even some of the highly acclaimed first season is slow and uninteresting. I like the intentional "slowness" in some of the scenes but, for example, everything about the Packard sawmill is quite boring in the first season (although in the finale of the first season it starts to get a bit more interesting, I finally got interested in that story when Andrew arrived).

Comparing to Lost and other newer series to Twin Peaks I can't deny the fact that the production team has the equipment and is more capable on doing things that can hold the viewers attention much longer than most of the shows in the 70s, 80s and 90s could do. They know better what strings to pull. I know that some of the modern series overuse (and misuse) the tricks and make it hard to watch but especially with Lost and 24 that is not the case.

I actually didn't care much about Lost and 24 when they first began. I started to follow 24 when it's 4th season was aired and I did watch Lost from the beginning but didn't like that much it's first season. The second season grabbed my attention immediately and after seeing the 2nd and the 3rd seasons I'd really like to see the 1st season again.

The difference between the mysteries in Twin Peaks and Lost is that on TP the best things were laid out more intuitively whereas Lost has done it more purposefully. There are things in the beginning of Twin Peaks that were done without knowing what they mean but what starts to make sense later in the series. In Lost, there are things brought up in the first season that don't have an answer yet but, according to the creators, were made with a thought-out purpose and will be explained before the end of the series. Both styles can be honored. I takes a certain something for a man to be able to create something from his subconscious and it's also amazing to be able to think the whole thing through and start bringing these things up so that in the end it all makes sense.

Twin Peaks is disturbing and doesn't apologize what it shows. Same could be said about Lost too. They could do things easy for the viewer and let every good people live and every death to be mild and mellow but so far we've seen several very surprising deaths of characters we didn't expect dying, or at least not so soon and we've even been shown two people being buried alive (I was so sure that they wouldn't pull that off but damn it, they did!)

It has also helped Lost that they've been open about the fact that it is going to end and they've even given us the number of seasons it takes to tell the story. Twin Peaks was meant to be going and going and going. The viewers might've been thinking that the weird things are too much especially when they are not going to be sure if those things will be explained at all. In the case of Lost, people know that the answers will be given eventually. On the other hand, much of the greatness of Twin Peaks comes from the fact that they didn't manage to give up the answers. Explaining things in the end might cost a lot for Lost but it's also possible that they'll be more vague with the answers by telling us just enough and not too much.

Think about it, the tv watching public has changed over the SEVENTEEN years since Twin Peaks aired. They always said Twin Peaks was cutting edge, and groundbreaking sort of avant garde tv.

People are more excepting of odd tv shows now, thanks to twin peaks. 

Jared is probably correct. There's been almost 20 years between then and now, and think of all the shows that have led us to Lost (which is a great show). You have TP, X-Files, Buffy (I know I know -- but this show did really well with on-going storylines for the viewers which is why it's listed here), The Sopranos (and other cable shows) all of which have pushed the edge for viewers in some form or another. Strangely, and I'm generalizing here a bit, TV viewers have matured since Twin Peaks and our tastes have increased and been perfected toward the need for better shows (thank you original cable TV shows) - IMO.

Viewers have been prepped for the type of shows like Lost. TP was too different too quickly while Lost has been able to achieve success because of the type of shows over the years.

The internet helps tremendously. It keeps the biggest fans going from week to week with discussion, etc. Just imagine the discussions we'd have online now if we were trying to determine who killed Laura!! TV shows now are able to pay attention to fans through boards which helps them see what fans are thinking and what they are doing (and complaining about - like with Heroes which helped the producers retool the show a bit).

Not to mention that unlike TP, Lost writers/producers/etc have focused together, and pretty much know where they are going (esp now that there is a ending point for the series). TP lost its focus in the second season after the murderer was revealed -- Lost folks haven't lost focus too much.

It also helps that Lost is willing to lose some of its bigger characters to keep things interesting. (Still annoys me that Charlie was killed...)

Jordan .

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!