Nowhere was the title of the series that was written by Jeffrey Lieber that eventually turned into Lost. The show as described as a realistic drama series. Lieber credits Lord of the Flies and Cast Away as his influences for the series. ABC did not like the concept and Lieber was dropped. ABC then handed the project over to J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof who made what we now know as Lost.
History
Characters
Here is a list of the original characters, their ages, a short description and which character they could have evolved into from the current cast.
| Name | Age | Possibly Evolved Into | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truman Graham | 28 | Unknown | ||
| Bespectacled and rumpled, but endearing in an adult Harry Potter sort of way. | ||||
| Zach Tyne | 19 | Possibly Jack | ||
| Had a heavily tattooed arm and surferthrash music blasting through the earphones of his iPod. | ||||
| Sarah Hill | 38 | Possibly Kate / Rose 1 | ||
| An attractive, if not beautiful, brunette thirty-eight-year old, who admires her wedding band along with her new husband. | ||||
| Paul Hill | Unknown | Possibly Bernard | ||
| Sarah's new husband, who does not survive the plane crash. | ||||
| Xander Britzke | 32 | Unknown | ||
| A wiry, thirty-two year-old from Australia. He has been married at least once. | ||||
| Piper Brightman | 18 | Possibly Shannon | ||
| The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, eighteen-year-old beauty. | ||||
| Steve Sykes | Late 40s | Unknown | ||
| Husband of Caroline Sykes and father of Alex and Tyke. | ||||
| Caroline Sykes | Early 40s | Unknown | ||
| Wife of Steve Sykes and father of Alex and Tyke. | ||||
| Tyke Sykes | 14 | Possibly Emma | ||
| Daughter of Caroline and Steve Sykes and sister of Alex. | ||||
| Alex Sykes | 6 | Possibly Zack | ||
| Son of Caroline and Steve Sykes and brother of Tyke. | ||||
| Jed Heinz | 32 | Possibly Hurley | ||
| A formidable, six-foot-plus, two-hundred- thirty-two pound man. | ||||
| Nell Woods | 26 | Unknown | ||
| A very attractive twenty-six year old woman. | ||||
| General Frank White | 50s | Possibly Locke | ||
| A grey-haired gentleman in his fifties. Worked search and rescue for aircraft crash victims. | ||||
| Ross Porter | 30 | Unknown | ||
| A Thirty-year-old, apparently quite rich man from New York City. | ||||
Footnotes
Note 1: In this depiction, Kate was written as an older woman traveling with her husband. This idea was still employed, but with the characters of Rose and Bernard.
Quotes from the writer
Quotes said by Jeffrey Lieber
| “ |
In my draft of Lost, I was working off a Lord of the Flies model, wherein a small group of people, cut off from the real world, are forced to reinvent society. What version of law and order who they create? What kind of morality would win out? Would the people who rose to power be benevolent, or is power itself corrupting? At the center of the society I imagined two half brothers, connected by their father, but raised very differently. This is their introduction. |
” |
| “ |
The biggest challenge with the show was removing, for the most part, the idea that these people would be saved any time soon. One doesn't want to have to spend every episode dwelling on "rescuers" or plans of escape. This scene that follows was my attempt to get the viewer to buy into the survivors' permanent residency. |
” |
Similarities and Differences
Similarities and differences between the two shows can only be made based on the 2 excerpts (see below) released of the original Nowhere pilot episode. There may be numerous other possibly more concrete similarities, as indicated in SAG's ruling of Lieber's involvement in the creation of the show, however to date none of these can be documented due to an absence of the complete script.
Similarities
As stated in the Chicago Magazine's article on Nowhere
| “ |
"It was easy to point out the parallels," he [Lieber] says. "I didn't feel as if I'd been robbed, but [comparing the scripts] I was able to go, ‘A equals A, B equals B,'" and so on. He compiled a ten-page digest of similarities and sent the list to the guild for a ruling. Then he waited. |
” |
- Scenes are shown of people on board a plane before it crashes. ("Pilot, Part 1") ("Pilot, Part 2") (Nowhere Excerpt 1)
- The stewardess announces the Pilot has turned on the seatbelt sign because of heavy turbulence.("Pilot, Part 1") ("Pilot, Part 2") (Nowhere Excerpt 1)
- A plane crashes and rolls before stopping on the beach. ("Pilot, Part 1") ("The Moth") (Nowhere Excerpt 1)
- Some of the passengers survive with only minor superficial wounds. ("Pilot, Part 1") (Nowhere Excerpt 1)
- Deceased passengers are found in a lake in the jungle a few days after the crash. ("Whatever the Case May Be") (waterfall) (Nowhere Excerpt 2)
- The group gathers all the salvageable items into a stash. (Sawyer's stash) (Nowhere Excerpt 2)
- The group lights a signal fire to try and get them rescued.(Nowhere Excerpt 2) ("Walkabout")
Differences
- The Flight in Nowhere was traveling from San Francisco to Sydney. Flight 815 was traveling from Sydney to Los Angeles.(Flight 815) (Nowhere Excerpt 1)
- As well as names, the numbers of the survivors are significantly decreased.(List of Oceanic Flight 815 survivors) (Nowhere Excerpt 1)