In <6jhgu1hbclbasgtd3135k2b2mhtfrsqq9d@4ax.com> Mitchell Spector wrote:
"Name" <nospam@mchsi.com> wrote:
Did anyone else catch the Apple II / II+ in the "ABC: Lost" TV
commercial during the Super Bowl? I think there was an Apple monitor
stand and Monitor III as well (with a color picture, not monochrome
green).
Interestingly that Apple II has been making a reoccurring
appearance, and been a major piece of the story, in ABC's LOST. In
the script it's not treated as a generic computer terminal, they
actually acknowledge it as an Apple II...well, more or less (one of
the characters say "I haven't seen one of these in 20 years").
It's an Apple II Plus, with a pair of Disk II 5.25 drives and
Monitor III with stand. Several weeks ago there was an episode where
they had to open it up and repair it, giving us a glance at some of
the slot cards inside. The scene was dark but I could make out some
familiar ones.
When it's powered up we see 80 columns text on a green screen
but I'm fairly sure it's not an actual Monitor III on camera. As part
of the story, the computer had the metal Apple badge replaced with a
specialized badge (a la Bell & Howell) with the "Project Dharma" name
and logo. There's also an "Execute" key replacing the right Shift. The
plot ties in an abandoned bunker constructed and set up around 1980,
which is why there's an Apple II. Pretty cool to see an Apple II on a
current television show. :)
Mitchell Spector
Uh-oh. A bunker you say? With an Apple II in it? Hmm...
"..we discovered that, at least as of a few years ago, every tactical
nuclear weapon in Europe manned by U.S. personnel was targeted by an
Apple II computer. Now, we didn't sell computers to the military; they
went out and bought them at a dealer's, I guess. But it didn't make us
feel good to know that our computers were being used to target nuclear
weapons in Europe. The only bright side of it was that at least they
weren't [Radio Shack] TRS-80s! Thank God for that."
Steve Jobs, Playboy interview, 1985