The Strange Art of Picking a TV Title
3/6/12


Title Considered:

"Nowhere"





Lloyd Braun (Former ABC Entertainment Group Chairman):

Years ago I was watching TV and a reality show came on NBC called "Lost". It was produced by Conan O'Brien, and I thought, what a great title.

A couple of years later, I was sitting on a beach in Hawaii and thinking about the movie Cast Away, which had been on ABC the night before. Wouldn't it be cool to do a show about people trapped on a deserted island and then marry it with "Survivor" and call it "Lost"?



I pitched it at an ABC retreat, and we decided to develop it. The first draft comes in six months later -- it's not from [series creators] J.J. Abrams or Damon Lindelof -- and I see it's called "Nowhere".

I'm like: "What the hell? God forbid you use the title that the network exec wanted to use!"



Ultimately, we started from scratch with J.J. and Damon. My one cannot-be-changed edict was calling this show "Lost".

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/picking-tv-titles-friends-lost-examples-297288