The Prisoner

Hey, have any of you seen the British show "The Prisoner"? It is clearly an inspiration for "Lost." "The Prisoner" is about a British secret agent who one day gets gassed, and when he wakes up he's in "the village," this small town surrounded by forests and mountains. The townspeople are all sort of weird and unhelpful. Everyone is known by a number and the everyday leader is "Number 2." The "prisoner" is named "Number 6" and while he's trying to escape the village, he's also trying to figure out who "Number 1" is (he's only referred to, but not seen until the last episode). Despite Number 6's attempts to leave the village, he keeps being re-captured and brought back by a security system in the form of a large white balloon that comes up from the surrounding waters and chases him down (it is known as "rover"). In many ways "rover" is similar to the black smoke on "Lost." Number 6 is also prevented from leaving through occasional gasings and the use of drugs. It was quite a cult show from the 70s.

Also, if the above sounds familiar, it might be because the Simpsons did a parody of it in which the Simpson family gets gassed and sent to the same resort-like village where a white balloon chases them.