Kill Off Any Character You Like, So Long As It's The One Who Keeps Getting Arrested For DUI
While the big bomb dropped at yesterday's TCA press tour events involved Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse unexpectedly announcing that they're looking to identify a creatively valid "end point" to their series (and ABC president Steve McPherson's seeming annoyance over the showrunners' yapping about those ongoing discussions) and rob ABC of an opportunity to explore the mysterious fates of heretofore unseen survivors from the "cargo hold" and "wing" sections of the doomed plane (the "Holdies" and "Wingies," respectively) in syndication-padding eight and ninth seasons, we found this nugget from the TV Week's Critical Eye junketblog an even more enthralling behind-the-scenes look at the series:
Cuse: "We went to Steve McPherson last season and said, 'Okay, one of our main characters, Michael, is going to kill two of our other main characters.'
Lindelof: "And they were all: 'As long as one of them is Michele Rodriguez.'"
It's a truly special moment when both showrunners and their network boss can so easily find some common creative ground; we imagine hearty laughs and enthusiastic high-fives were exchanged on both sides when McPherson then requested, "Can you make sure it's a clear head-shot—hell, let's make it four clear head-shots—so that everyone will know that she's really not coming back, and that it's not one of those 'the evil island is just mindfucking us with wishful thinking again' things you always do?"