Deep down, most of us harbor a universal fear of flying. This is especially true for anyone who’s seen ABC’s genre-defining TV show Lost, a series based around the idea of an ordinary passenger plane crash-landing on a mysterious island in the South Pacific.
Debuting on the mainstream network in late 2004, Lost quickly became known as the 2000s’ successor to The Twilight Zone or The X-Files, seamlessly blending action, adventure, mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy into one supremely entertaining package.
Earning positive reviews throughout its six seasons on ABC, Lost forever changed the way viewers interacted with their favorite TV shows — not to mention triggering millions of fans’ fears over the safety of international air travel.
Over 20 years since the show’s debut, series star Sam Anderson recently revealed that people still seem scared to fly with him whenever he’s booked on the same flight as they are.
Making his first appearance in Lost’s second season, the 79-year-old Anderson portrayed Oceanic Flight 815’s tail-section survivor Bernard Nalder.
A mild-mannered dentist often seen as the heart and soul of the survivors’ main camp, Anderson’s Bernard also became known for his heartfelt on-screen relationship to his wife Rose (played by L. Scott Caldwell).
Looking back at his time on the series, Anderson said that people familiar with the show expressed nervousness whenever he or his fellow co-stars were making their way onto a plane.
In an interview withVariety, the Growing Pains actor said, “Sometimes, Scott and I would be traveling on the same flight and as we walked on, we’d see people’s faces like, ‘Get me off this plane; it’s gonna crash.'”
As for the series’ polarizing conclusion, Anderson also told the media outlet he was just as confused as everyone else. As Variety put it, fans were still “badgering him about whether or not the characters were dead.”
Humorously, Variety went to say that “Anderson says he himself would get confused” and that he “had to ask his then 14-year-old son (who said no.)”
