Did LOST rip off the producer of BARETTA?

Anthony Spinner, producer of such shows as Baretta and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., is pursuing legal action against ABC and Touchstone Television, claiming that he actually created Lost 32 years ago.

Spinner claims that back in 1977 he was commissioned to write an ABC pilot, called Lost. The show followed a group of castaways stranded on a tropical island after their plane crashed on the way to Los Angeles. The cast allegedly included some extremely familiar characters - a doctor as the leader, like Jack; a rakish anti-hero, like Sawyer; a sly survivalist, like Locke; a drug addict, like Charlie; a blond beauty who enjoyed showing off her body for the boys, like Shannon. There was even a tough, capable young woman who would have been in a romantic triangle with the doctor and the Sawyer-type. They would encounter the lone survivor of a scientific expedition (ala Rousseau,) and a mysterious and sinister group lurking on the island, ala the Others. And on top of all that, the story would be told with many flashbacks to the castaways' lives before they reached the island.

If Spinner is telling the truth, he has a pretty good case. But as unlikely as it sounds, it's possible that the many similarities between his Lost and the modern version are coincidental. Given the premise of a group of people stranded on a tropical island, a lot of screenwriters would come up with similar ideas. After all, doctors have been the heroes on hundreds if not thousands of TV shows before. Romantic triangles are always fun. The drug addict would inject a bit of "social relevance" (that was big in the '70s) and his forced withdrawal would provide some drama. The scantily-clad blond was required by law in every show produced in the '70s. There would almost have to be a mysterious and sinister group on the island, so the cast would have something to fight against and they wouldn't be stuck just sitting around on the beach every week. Flashbacks would be natural, just to keep things interesting.

But if it does turn out that the Lost we know today was ripped off from Spinner's Lost of 32 years ago, that would be a nice bit of cosmic irony. How appropriate that a show with so many bizarre and confusing parallel timelines was actually created three decades before it aired.


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