When LOST debuted on September 22, 2004, it took the television world by storm. The show about the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 and its passengers who survive on a strange, deserted island, captured America and was an instant hit for ABC. One has to wonder, though, if LOST would have been as popular if it was produced under its original name. Yeah, that’s right. LOST wasn’t originally titled LOST.

The network, ABC, wanted to make a show based on the movie Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, about survivors on a desert island. They commissioned someone to write the pilot script, but unfortunately, everyone hated it.

They then passed on the script to J.J.

Abrams, who at the time felt he was too busy, so they asked Damon Lindelof to help him with the rewrites. The duo worked their magic, after feeling that the script was too boring because it was about people on a ‘normal’ desert island. ABC agreed to let them make the island its own character, which was the only way to get them to work on the show, and thus they changed everything. Rewriting the entire script from scratch.

The rest is history.

Averaging more than 12 million viewers per episode, LOST has truly become a television phenomenon. Now in it’s final season, people will be glued to the edge of their seats until the finale on May 23, 2010, when all of the questions will be answered. Hopefully.

Imagine, all of that from a script that was originally titled, ‘The Circle.’

Who knew?