calldapplwondery83 said:

The Powers That Be (TPTB) are Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff. If it's ever "official" it's from these guys. I believe that they make many of the plot decisions on the show. JJ has pretty much given full reign to these two. They sit in the offices in LA behind shuttered and locked closed doors.

Other players that are of equal importance would be Jack Bender and Bryan Burk. I think these are the on-island guys who make things happen on the show in Hawaii.

The main Writers are Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. Brian K. Vaughn also scripts quite a few episodes. I know Lost used to have a slew of guest writers and director in the first 2 seasons, but now stick with some of the same ones to keep the tone.

The writing process, from what I hear is odd and challenging as they don't know future plots (no one does except for TPTB, Bender and probably Birk). And are given "the skeleton" of the episode and write around that. I think they stick to the same writers now is that the writers KNOW what's happened and oft times the guest writer would have to get up to speed with everything. I think I read that either Anthony or Edward know the actual end and Matthew Fox Knows it was well.

Didn't Matthew Fox only sign up for the rest of the show because he was told how it would end?

calldapplwondery83 said:

Not that I know of. I don't think they knew the end until just recently, at least it was announced they did recently. Fox (or as they call him Foxy) has been a huge advocate for the show and is in it for the long haul (I predict that his character will make it to the end of the show). The only thing I know about his character is that his Character was supposed to be killed in the Pilot, instead they killed the pilot of the plane.

superspaceboy said:

I've heard that as well, but I find it hard to believe. I mean, I have no idea if he was any famous before Lost, but an actor like him, with the looks and everything - it just does not seem likely to me that he was originaly only hired for the pilot. Hope I made myself clear. But what do I know anyway.

From lostpedia.com:

In the commentary track on the Season 1 DVD, the producers explained that the character of Jack as the de facto leader of the survivors was intended to be killed off in "Pilot, Part 1" by the Monster, with Kate becoming the de facto leader. However, ABC executives and advisers to the producers convinced the writers and producers to keep him alive. They reasoned that killing him off, while a novel idea, generated feelings of betrayal, bewilderment, and anger in the audience. Instead, the pilot was written in and killed in Jack's place. Fox's portrayal of Jack as such a likable and noble character that audiences can relate to only helped solidify his survival and importance to the show.

* Michael Keaton was originally cast to play Jack. He left the production after it was decided that he wouldn't die in "Pilot, Part 1".

calldapplwondery83 said:

Lostpedia is awesome and a great place to look up LOST Stuff.

A few other tidbits..

Sun's Character was written entirely for Yun Jin Kim after she tried out for Kate's Character

Josh Holloway also went for the Jack Character and Jorge Garcia Tried out for Sawyer

This was Evagaline Lilly's first acting gig and she almost didn't make it out for the Pilot because of her work visa.

Daniel Dae Kim is American and barely knew any Korean before joining the show. He has an american accennt, which is weird to hear him talk as it is with Naveen Andrews who is British.

superspaceboy said:

he played a doctor on an episode of seinfeld!

Anxiety said:

wasn't he in spiderman too as one of doc oc's assistants?

ZombieKitten said:

was he? all i know is i recently saw sarah silverman on a seinfeld rerun too. she's not a cast member of lost, but she totally should be.

Anxiety said:

and so should Matt Damon.....

Anxiety said:

Elina Lowenstein as well then, who was the gymnast Jerry fantasised about.

ZombieKitten said:

yes! i remember that well. who was the other big indie actress from the '90s? the one who was in "grace of my heart"? she was on seinfeld too.

neither of them were on lost, however. (stated so as not to jack the thread )

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 2,3 and 4 and quite possibly 5 too!!!!!

superspaceboy said:

How do you know this? Source? Desmond's story is almost too intricate to have been made up later on. I just realised recently that the reason he got kicked out of the army and sent to prison was because he "couldn't follow orders" (this was said in season two) AKA because he was time travelling as we saw in The Constant in season 4. That kind of detail simply cannot be accidental




Wrong. There was always the concept of "fake Henry Gale" and "the leader". The writers were toying with the idea of the losties having caught the leader of the Others and when they saw how awesome Michael Emerson was, instead of killing off Henry Gale like they orginally planned, they merged the two characters into one. So the concept of Ben was always planned.



I tend to think it might have been. A show so centered around flashbacks, it's hard not to imagine the writers considering flash forwards early in the process. They've said the end date reinvigorated them but they never said that's solely what inspired the idea of flashing forward.

This season is said to be told in a linear style with no flashback noise so it'll be harder to tell what we're watching. But that's unconfirmed.



I loved Nikki/Paulo's episode too, although I was annoyed that Paulo found all those important things first instead of Locke and Eko. I agree with you here but again, there's no way to tell whether they planned it from the beginning or not. They planned Ben from the beginning so why not Nikki and Paulo? They toyed with the idea of secondary characters coming forward with Dr Arzt in season one so why not season three? People don't have enough faith that these people know what they're doing!



Yeah, season three sucked. There were some good episodes but as a whole it's way too inconsistent. I thought season 2 was bad but rewatching it all has made me realise which is truly better quality. I think the strike was a curse and a blessing. We missed the stories of the freighter people, a lot of main characters didn't have as much screen time like Locke and Sawyer, the whole of season 4 seemed to revolve around Ben and Widmore and of course it was shorter. But it also allowed for things to really get going, no filler episodes like in season 3. Every episode was incredibly important to the overall story (except maybe the Juliet flashback, zzzzz.)

And no, Damon and Carlton are not the only writers. I have a picture of all the writers, there's about 14 or so, including Damon and Carlton. JJ Abrams left in season 2 I think, because he wanted to do movies.

Someone else was wondering when season 5 starts, end of January, I think. We will find out Danielle's back story and Ana Lucia is coming back for an episode as is Keamy and Gault.
[Edited 10/6/08 19:57pm]

Anxiety said:

He was also a recurring agent on 24.

Anxiety said:

Rouseau's lost lost crazy sister who's looking for the black rock. Or maybe she's also in the loony bin with Hurley.

Anxiety said:

You can jack this thread anytime!

purplesweat said:

[Edited 10/7/08 9:42am]

superspaceboy said:

EW!

purplesweat said:

superspaceboy said: