"Lost LA" on PBS, Season 3.

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.

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.

Rigler Creative’s longtime partner KCET, which has rejoined the PBS family, chose us to produce and develop season 3 of the network’s flagship show Lost LA. Hosted by USC public historian Nathan Masters, Lost LA seeks to reclaim and grow public awareness of powerful moments in the life of California and the nation itself. By marrying archival materials to innovative forms of documentary storytelling, Lost LA brings history to life.

In this third season of the show, Lost LA and Rigler Creative have illuminated lost moments in history in such locations as a reconstructed Native American village in Yosemite, a former rock-mining ghost town in Central California, and the ruins of a long-forgotten utopian community in the Mojave Desert.

Along the way, we’ve interviewed tribal elders, cowboys, historians, ageless surfers who lived the Endless Summer, and a biologist who is working to save the Salton Sea. We’ve gone from the faux-retro art installations of remote Bombay Beach to the Neutra-designed masterpiece of Palm Springs. We’ve combed the vestiges of the Original Muscle Beach (in Santa Monica, not Venice) and talked with the last holdouts of the Beat Generation. And along the way we’ve found that not only does uncovering the past reveal forgotten histories, it inspires who we are today.

The half-hour series is co-produced by KCET and USC Libraries and is broadcast by KCET, PBS SoCal and other public television stations.