Over 20 years after “Lost” premiered, it’s easy to see how the groundbreaking ABC drama rewrote the rules of television. Where other shows were content to stick to a consistent episodic formula, “Lost” threw everything but the kitchen sink at its audience, from high-stakes action and slapstick comedy to mind-bending science fiction and everything in between. But, in the parlance of the show, there is a “flash-sideways” universe where none of this happened. As it turns out, the original series concept, developed by ABC chairman Lloyd Braun, far more grounded and less fantastical.
As recounted in an oral history of the show by Entertainment Weekly, Braun was vacationing in Hawaii when the concept that combined the survival drama of “Cast Away” with the interpersonal conflict of “Survivor” came to mind. He pitched this idea at an ABC corporate retreat, but it fell on deaf ears. “I felt like I was the only Jewish guy at a Ku Klux Klan rally,” Braun joked, but one ABC executive saw something in Braun’s pitch. After the first script they had commissioned didn’t live up to Braun’s lofty vision, J.J. Abrams was brought on board.
“I know it’s an almost impossible drill. But I believe in every bone in my body that in your hands this is a huge hit show,” Braun reportedly told Abrams. But when Abrams cracked the concept, he described it as a “weirder version” of the initial idea that felt “more Michael Crichton than it is ‘Cast Away’.” Fortunately for Abrams, Braun fell in love with the pitch, and “Lost” became the genre-bending thriller that turned into one of the most celebrated network dramas of all time.
Abrams brought magic to the island, for better and for worse
What drew Abrams to the project in the first place was the idea that the island might contain all sorts of mysteries that are impossible to understand. This sense of discovery was crucial to Abrams’ vision, and he brought along writer Damon Lindelof to turn the wild outline into a tangible script. The pair quickly bonded over their love of foundational fantasy and science fiction like “The Twilight Zone” and “Star Wars,” which prompted them to indulge the most wild concepts and turn the island into a canvas on which anything was possible.
The pilot they crafted alongside co-showrunner Carlton Cuse turned into one of the greatest pilot episodes of all time. While staying true to the basic “‘Cast Away’ meets ‘Survivor'” idea that birthed the show, it introduces a whole host of mysteries that hint at the fantastical elements that would be introduced as the series went on. By the time “Lost” reached its dramatic conclusion in the underrated series finale, some fans were burned out by the show’s opaque mysteries. But for those of us who never lost faith, “Lost” remains as an indelible portrait of a brand new era of television.
The potential for what episodic TV could produce was being discovered before our very eyes. Few series — except for maybe these shows that are like “Lost” — will ever touch the sense of discovery the show achieved in its mysteries and the internal lives of its characters. We’re lucky that J.J. Abrams completely changed the show’s original concept to make that possible.
