So some documents from J.J. Abrams’ secret lair underneath the Bermuda Triangle recently became public knowledge. These documents were not secret plans to build his own Deathstar, nor were they the measurements of his mystery box. Instead, it was the initial pitch of Lost to ABC executives. As with all things Abrams’ (and most things Lindelof), the initial description had almost nothing to do with the actual product (there was an island). This original pitch included a number of gems. They will now be presented without comment.
“THE BIG QUESTION – IS IT SELF-CONTAINED OR SERIALIZED?
Self-contained.
Seriously.
We promise.”
“Yes – the mysteries surrounding the island may serve an ongoing (and easy to follow) mythology -but every episode has a beginning, middle and end. More importantly, the beginning of the next episode presents an entirely new dilemma to be resolved that requires NO knowledge of the episode(s) that preceded it (except for the rare two-parter).”
“Yes – character arcs (romances, alliances, grudges) carry over the scope of a season, but the plots will not. Viewers will be able to drop in at any time and be able to follow exactly what’s going on in a story context.”
“This is not lip service – we are absolutely committed to this conceit. LOST can and will be just as accessible on a weekly basis as a traditionally “procedural” drama.”
“There is no ‘Ultimate Mystery’ which requires solving.”
LOL! What a bunch of jokers those guys are. Maybe this was their original goal, so says Damon Lindelof (trickster god that he is):
“So, per J.J., we made a very specific effort in this document to say we were not going to be serialized, we were not going to be genre, and we were not going to do what Alias had done. So even though I think it was our intention to do all of the above, we needed to put that in the document because the document was essentially a letter to ABC saying ‘Here’s what the show’s going to be.”
If that’s true than it turns out the ending really was just something they made up while tripping, falling and landing on one of the most successful shows in network television’s recent history. They are pioneers much like Columbus was, when he got lost and crashed into America.
Source: I09
