When A. Carlton Cuse ’81 signed on as an executive producer of an ABC television drama called “Lost,” he and the other producers didn’t think the show would make it past 12 episodes.

“Everyone thought the pilot was amazing, but we didn’t think it would keep going,” said Cuse, who was at Sanders Theatre last Monday night to screen an early premiere of the seventh episode of the show’s third season—a long-awaited episode coming after a three-month hiatus.

SECRETS AND LIES

“Lost,” which attracts over sixteen million viewers every week, is about a group of 40 plane crash survivors marooned on a mysterious island in the South Pacific.

“It’s kind of astonishing,” said Cuse of the show’s popularity among critics and viewers. However, the show’s producers came under heavy criticism by anxious viewers for their decision to air just six episodes this past fall.

“It was not a smart decision,” said Cuse. “Those six episodes couldn’t be everything everyone wanted.”

But Cuse assures even the most hard-core of fans that the rest of season three will not disappoint.

“When viewed in its totality, season three will be phenomenal,” he said.

Fans of the show poured into Sanders Theatre to watch the uninterrupted episode on the big screen. The event was sponsored by the Office for the Arts at Harvard.

“It was great to see everyone’s reaction,” said Cuse, who is also a writer for the show. “That was the first time I’ve watched it with other people.”

Fans also let out an audible gasp when Cuse revealed after the screening that a revelatory anagram appeared in the episode, one that went undetected by most of the audience. Cuse acknowledged that he and the writers often place small—but significant—visual clues in many of the episodes in order to keep viewers guessing.

“Pretty much every element has been unearthed, because people know to watch the show carefully,” Cuse said.

MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS

Cuse, who was born in Mexico City and spent time growing up in Orange County, Calif. and Boston, concentrated in American History at Harvard before moving to Hollywood and breaking into the entertainment industry. He previously co-wrote and executive produced the television shows “Nash Bridges” and “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.”

Since its premiere, “Lost” has earned a fanatical viewership with its complex characters and mysterious occurrences. When asked about the various conspiracy theories floating around the blogosphere about the nature of the island, Cuse answered with a smile, “I try not to pay too much attention to the Internet.”

However, he will make one thing clear.

“The Island is not Purgatory,” he said in response to a wildly popular theory among viewers. “I keep telling people it’s not, but they don’t seem to believe me. People try to assume there is one central theorem but it’s not that simple.”

“Simple” is not a word that could be used to describe “Lost.” “There was an overarching mythology that existed before the series started,” said Cuse, who spent three weeks in Hawaii, where the show is filmed, with the other writers planning out the new season.

“We view ourselves as making a character show first, and the mythology is sort of the icing on the cake,” he said. “We try not to have the characters obsess about the mythology because it’s hard for the audience to become attached to them.”

A PLAN IN MIND

Cuse said he leaves the obsessing to the audience. After the screening, fans had a chance to ask questions about the episode and the show in general, but Cuse remained tight-lipped about the details of season three. “There was such a clamor for answers that we made a laundry list of things we were going to tease,” he said afterwards.

In response to critics who say the show has lost its direction, he offers reassurance. “Nothing has been abandoned,” he said. “There is an explanation for everything that happens.”

According to Cuse, the creators of the show conceived an end for series from the very beginning. When asked how long the show will go on, Cuse answered frankly: “A hundred episodes is in the ballpark, but it may go on for longer than that because ABC is making a lot of money off the show.”

To this Cuse quickly added, “But we have been very careful not to negotiate the end of the show. It must be relevant to the audience watching it.”

—Staff writer Claire J. Saffitz can be reached at csaffitz@fas.harvard.edu.