where did the idea for lost come from
Lost (TV series) The series was conceived by Lloyd Braun, head of ABC at the time, while he was on vacation in Hawaii during 2003 and thought of a cross between the movie Cast Away and the popular reality show Survivor.[42] Braun later pitched his ideas at the network's gathering of executives at the Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim, describing the concept as "parts Cast Away, Survivor, and Gilligan's Island, with a Lord of the Flies element."[43] Many found the idea laughable, but senior vice president Thom Sherman saw potential and decided to order an initial script from Spelling Television. Spelling producer Ted Gold turned to writer Jeffrey Lieber, who presented a pitch to ABC in September 2003 titled Nowhere, which Sherman approved. Unhappy with the eventual script by Lieber and a subsequent rewrite, in January 2004, Braun contacted J. J. Abrams, who had developed the TV series Alias for ABC, to write a new pilot script. Lieber would later receive a story credit for the Lost pilot and, subsequently, shared the "created by" credit with Abrams and Lindelof, after a request for arbitration at the Writers Guild of America.[44] The one inviolable edict Braun made to Abrams was that the show's title must be Lost, having conceived of the title and being angry at its change to Nowhere by Lieber.[45]