We’re like, “That’s fucking insane, that’s fucking awesome. And this writer of ours, Bryan Oh, who’s been on all of our shows, came up with it.Īppelbaum: We put it to the staff, “Everyone come in tomorrow and pitch the ending - pitch what this is all about that’s different than the BBC version.” And, Bryan said, “I just keep having this whole thing in my head, it’s like, you know life on Mars, ground control to Major Tom.” He’s like, you know, “If it’s life on Mars, how about that this is all about the first manned mission to Mars and that the final image of the show is there being life - a human foot stepping down on the red planet and there will be life on Mars.” And all this stuff has been kind of while they’re in stasis their memories getting scrambled. Then everything would be driving to that, so we wouldn’t have polar bears and not be able to explain polar bears, you know? Everything that we did was once we figured out what the ending was. So, literally, the first week when the writers were assembled we had to figure out what the ending was.
And, we were like very, very cognizant of that and also cognizant of the fact that in with the age of the Internet, anybody can go and look up the Wikipedia of the BBC version and know exactly how it ended. So, they hadn’t really figured out everything, which, of course, is why some people remain dissatisfied with the finale, because it didn’t answer all the questions. Because, we’d all heard about “Lost” they had no idea that it was going to become a cultural phenomenon. Rosenberg: The most mission-critical moment was in the beginning. Josh Appelbaum, Jason O’Mara, Michael Imperioli,Ĭhris Pizzello/AP/REX/Shutterstock “That’s Fucking Insane, That’s Fucking Awesome” They weren’t thrilled about it, but they went about their business. They felt like I had been imposed on them by the network. O’Mara: I had a meeting with, and I don’t think they were convinced that I was their guy. Kelley, and, that BBC version was so amazing. So then, we rewrote the pilot, which was wildly intimidating because again, it was David E. Rosenberg: was such a believer in Jason O’Mara. I’m changing everything.” I didn’t have a choice, because I had a holding deal with the network at the time. O’Mara: I spoke to Steve, and I said, “What’s going on, are you picking up the show?” And he said, “I’m getting rid of everything except you and the title.” I said, “What?” He said, “Yeah.
Life on top ready to rock full#
So we said, “Oh, it’s full of really good actors, but just kind of not gelling in a particularly good way.” And, we said, “We’ll do it, but you have to let us re-cast everything and set it in New York City.” And, he was like, “You can re-cast everybody except Jason O’Mara.” McPherson brought us in, he’s like, “You guys want to take this over?” So we looked at it and it was honestly, I can happily say this on the record, it was terrible.
We were vaguely aware of the BBC original. Kelley wrote it, Tommy Schlamme directed it, and Jason O’Mara starred in it. They had shot a pilot with as good an auspice as you can get in television: David E. Rosenberg: Steve McPherson at ABC was obsessed with.
Life on top ready to rock series#
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