CraveOnline: Are you committed to sticking with the book’s ending?
Damon Lindelof: The ending in the book, I don’t want to say whether we’re going to do that ending or not do that ending on the show, but I can say that the ending in the book is not the ending of the series. I think we’ll be moving past the ending in the book fairly quickly in terms of the life of the series. So the idea of the story that we’ve talked about for the series “The Leftovers” definitely extends beyond the ending that’s currently in Tom’s book.
Have you thought about how many seasons you’d like it to go?
It’s definitely a thought. I don’t think I ever would have taken on another serialized drama like this if I didn’t have some sense of what that was. I do think it’s kind of arrogant to say before anybody has even seen the show, “I only want to do 40 episodes of ‘The Leftovers.’” But I do feel like the number of episodes in this show is more akin to “Breaking Bad” than it was to “Lost.” “Breaking Bad” did as many seasons as “Lost” but almost half as many episodes, just slightly more than half.
“Lost” really hit its stride when you set the end date. Is it difficult to keep something open ended?
Yeah, I do think that another way of looking at your question is what is a serialized drama in the context of a show like this? “The Sopranos” for example was a serialized drama but it wasn’t all hinging on one central mystery being unveiled. A year could elapse between seasons or two weeks could elapse between seasons or six months could elapse between episodes. So there was not a sense of immediacy to it and then in the final episode of “The Sopranos” the questions that were in play weren’t “are you going to resolve the grand mystery of life and the universe and everything?” It was just is Tony going to get shot in this restaurant or isn’t he?
So I do think that the format of this show and the desire of this show is to not be a cliffhanger-y based show, that the finales feel more like the endings of books in a series versus “Oh my God, who shot J.R.?” It’s hard for me to tell you, not having seen the finale of season one. But we’ve planned it and I do think that the first season of “The Leftovers” has a sense of completedness to it but also a sense of wow, I would really like to see what happens next. We’re just trying to balance that.
Were you a fan of Tom’s previous books?
I’ve read most of Tom’s books and a number of his short stories. Bad Haircut, certainly Election, Abstinence Teacher, Little Children I love and he just released a great collection of short stories that I read over the holidays. I’ve been reading Tom before and that was what attracted me to “The Leftovers” which was in The New York Times Book Review, I saw that Stephen King of all people was reviewing “The Leftovers.” It just felt like that was the moment that the stars aligned.
Did your relationship with him meet or defy your expectations?
I guess I have a sense of all authors as being non-collaborative and very precious and super intellectual, like most of the things they say go way over my head and they have patches on the elbows of their blazers. I don’t know if Tom owns a blazer like that but I’ve found him to be incredibly collaborative, really generous considering there’s nothing more personal than sharing your story with someone else.
I know this is what you’re supposed to say but I do think that traditionally the author gets pushed aside and the person who’s adapting it says, “I need to basically be alone in this room with your wife. You’re not going to want to know what’s happening in here.” But I want Tom to watch and participate.
How deeply populated is this universe? Should we be watching the minor characters and expecting them to blow up?
I do think that the jumping off point for the show is this family, the Garvey family. But that there are characters in the show who are extras in the pilot because they have one or two lines, that will be carrying entire episodes on their back sooner rather than later.
One of my favorite shows is “The Simpsons” and I love the idea that Springfield has gotten to the point where everybody who walks by them, even if they’re just shopping in a mall, is someone who’s had their own episode at one point or another. It really lends to the rich texture of that universe.
How long were you planning the October 14 date for leaving Twitter? Did people pick up on that?
If anybody picked up on it I don’t know because I’m not on Twitter. No, honestly, I was sitting around with the writers. It was our first week of working together and I was in a place of feeling like Twitter was really consuming me in an unhealthy way. It was right around the time that “Breaking Bad” was ending and I was just saying I just need to quit. I just need to quit, I just need to stop.
As writers rooms often do, everyone started pitching on collaboratively the best and most dramatic way to do this. If I was going to leave, I had to do it in an incredible fashion. And then it wasn’t me. Someone said, “Hey, October the 14th is in two days! You should just quit on October the 14th and your last tweet, you should cut it off right in the middle so it seems very abrupt. And then don’t tell anybody, but later on it will become apparent.”
That said, me leaving Twitter was not a marketing stunt for the benefit of “The Leftovers.” It was just a happy accident. I have no intention of coming back.
