Lost producer Carlton Cuse revealed that the original scripts for the series were littered with f-bombs. The series ran for six seasons on ABC from 2004-2010. With 121 mysterious, thrilling episodes, the show was known for its puzzle-box plot and its crazy twists. Centering a group of castaways after their plane crash-landed on an uncharted island, the show became a runaway hit for the network. The show ushered in a new era of event television and is seen by many as the beginning of the current prestige era of television we are in now.
The show starred Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lily, Josh Holloway, and Dominic Monaghan as part of a huge ensemble cast that saw frequent guest visitors with season-long arcs. While it eventually may be said by many to have gone off the rails, Lost remained relatively popular throughout its six seasons. The show’s divisive finale, and its many reveals, has not kept the show out of the cultural conversation either.
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During a ten year anniversary event for the show’s final season at NYCC, producer Carlton Cuse revealed all the secrets about the profanity-laced scripts. Since the show aired on network television for the entirety of its run, they were not able to air the profanity the way many shows are now. Cuse said that, despite the network’s restrictions, the screenwriters made it work. By including profanity in the descriptions and in the moments where it would be usually used, it could emphasize to the actors where those moments were when that type of emotion was needed.
The one thing was language, it felt sometimes a little restrictive that you have a very limited vocabulary of exclamation words in network television. It’s funny, if you read the scripts, they’re full of F-bombs. What we ended up doing, because we couldn’t say certain things on screen, we wrote them into the descriptions. So it’s like, “Oh and then they see a fucking hatch and oh my fucking god, what the fuck is in that thing.” So we tried to convey the intensity in the scripts in order to get the actors to try to convey the intensity when all they could say was, “Damn.”
Cuse’s reveal that writers put profanity into the script so as to spur on the performances of its actors is a clear indicator of where a lot of the show’s emotion comes from. It seemed as if the actors were paying attention to where the profanity was, even if they couldn’t say it. Much of Lost’s appeal was in the harried performances of its actors as they dealt with the increasingly crazy things that happened to them on and off the island. The lack of profanity did not deter them from giving it their all.
While f-bombs may not be allowed on channels like ABC, more and more television has moved to cable and streaming networks where language, and a lot more, can air freely. However, Lost most likely would not have survived in this era where streaming reigns supreme. After running for a mystery-filled six seasons, much of which was spent not revealing much at all, the series ended. Many shows on streamers don’t get to run for six seasons, let alone two or three. However, co-creator Lindelof might have felt more at home on a streamer, where they could’ve let the f-bombs fly. Lindelof only wanted the show to run for three seasons, while ABC wanted ten, another indicator of the changed landscape of television, one that Lost may or may not have survived in.
Source: NYCC
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