Lost Productions - T.O.A.S.T.T. - Part 2

Previously on Lost Productions: T.O.A.S.T.T, we learned the origin story of this never-produced TV series, which was set to be filmed during the summer and the 2001/2002 school year at SIUC.

It would have starred Morgan Thomas as Coyote (a genius computer hacker), Brittany Ann Whalen as Delilah (a slutty con-artist pyromaniac), Michelle Chapman as Sage (a technologically “reformed” psychotic assassin/serial killer), Michael DiVecchio as Sorcerer (a former agent of the gov. who’s good at making anything disappear), and Michael Meyer as Dr. Ross Gennings (the brilliant scientist in charge of the project).

The project was fully cast with two episodes written and the other ten outlined. Locations were chosen, costumes designed, even a few sets designed, some props had been bought, and a preliminary budget drawn up. There was even a read through with the main cast (possibly without Michelle Chapman though, I can’t remember if she could come to it or not since it was at the end of the semester).  It was all set and ready to be filmed. 

So what happened?

Well, during the read through, two of the actors started making fun of the scripts – the plot, the dialogue, the characters, and the general idea of the show.  I was very sensitive about my creative work in those days (pre-medicated and unstable bi-polar days), so it not only annoyed me during the read through, it actually really hurt my feelings.  Reading through the first episode was bad enough, but I knew that one had some problems.  However, I was kinda proud of how the second episode turned out and was really looking forward to filming it.

The negative comments almost got worse during the second half of the read through (in my BP mind at least, which had a very warped view of everything that happened).  By the time we were done reading both episodes I was angry and fed up.  I declared then and there that if the scripts were so bad that there was no point in filming them and I just wouldn’t do the show. I don’t really remember any of what was said, but I do remember feeling hurt, confused, and really pissed off!

A few days later, after I had calmed down, I began to realize that the guys were right. The general idea for the series – criminals as time-travellers hired by a secret government agency was not exactly cliché but had several major plot holes. The plots seemed contrived and some of the dialogue was stilted, although I still don’t think it was that bad (no worse than most of my scripts at least).  The characters were fun and had a lot of potential, but, with the exception of Sage, they were fairly obvious stock-character types.  The actors would have made a big difference in giving them dimensions, I think, but they never got the chance.

The real problem is that there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense.  Why would the government hire criminals to travel through time? That just seems like a really bad idea.

And why was the time-travel necessary?  What was the point of the missions? They weren’t making any big changes in big events, so what did the government gain from each mission? Those questions were never answered in the script and never intended to be until the last episode, because I didn’t really know the answer myself. Bad plan, Yibble, bad plan.

Also the technology involved with the super-computer and the time machine, etc. was badly explained and clearly not researched at all. It made no sense. Actually there was only a very minimal explanation of how things worked, and a lack of explanation is just as bad as no explanation at all. And if what little you explain is bad science and makes no sense than that’s just sad and jeer worthy.

I’m not good at writing Science Fiction – I’m much better at writing magic stuff, and TOASTT was way more science and not really any magic, so I pretty much screwed myself from the beginning.

And then there’s the name:

T.O.A.S.T.T.

The Organization of Assasination, Spying, and Time-Travelling.

Who would take a secret spy agency seriously (or a TV show) with a title like that?  At the time I thought it was funny.  It’s not.  It’s just stupid.  I have no idea why I really liked the acronym beyond the obvious fun you can have with titles like Burned TOAST and Buttered TOAST, but bad puns are not worth the stigma of a terrible title. And of course it has to have a double “T” at the end because of the Time-Travel part of the organization name so it’s actually TOASTT – which looks even more stupid! 

So I knew there were problems, and at some level I knew the guys were right in their general assessment of the show, but there’s no way in hell I would have admitted that to them at the time! Instead I focused on the logical problems as the “real” reason I cancelled the show.

Almost all of the modern scenes take place in an underground base. Lots of rooms with no windows and maybe some slightly futuristic looking hallways.  Okay, I could handle that.  If I can assemble a space ship out of random locations for Mind Games, then I could find places that would work for an underground base. Not a big deal.

What I couldn’t do was build the kind of set needed for the room with the time-travelling machine – or build the machine itself.  There was no space in the SPC-TV station to put up a set that big and no room anywhere else where I could build the set and leave it up for 6-9 months.  Also, my budget was very small and didn’t factor in the cost of building that kind of set because I had no clue how to do it or how much the materials would cost. My design wasn’t great either.  I knew going into the project that the time-travel room would be my biggest obstacle, but I didn’t want to admit defeat.  However, anything I would have been able to cobble together would have looked cheesy at best and horrific at worst, so it was a good thing it didn’t happen. I will admit that played a big part in sticking with my decision to cancel it, although I will be honest that I also didn’t want to apologize (which I was not very incapable of back then) for throwing a temper tantrum.

In the end it became clear that the project was too big and expensive to do well in the technical sense and both the concept and scripts needed major overhauls. 

It’s been almost 14 years since began pre-production on TOASTT, and although I have felt nostalgic towards it from time to time, I am very glad that I canceled the show before we got into production.  I have no regrets about not filming it - especially since the show that came after it was really wonderful in my opinion, and much better written.

The Legacy of TOAST

Even though TOASTT was never produced or had even one scene filmed, it has left a lasting legacy (albeit an unknown one in most cases) in some of the productions that came after it, most notably in The Gift Bearer, which is the show that I did instead of TOASTT.  I still wanted to film a show involving time travel and eventually came up with the idea for The Gift Bearer.  Elements of TOASTT are evident throughout the show if you know what to look for.

First off, the government agency known as the Echelon was modeled a lot after the organization in TOASTT, only it had been set up a long time ago as opposed to TOASTT, which was just starting.  The Echelon was a shadowy, secretive agency and not a lot is known about it in regards to how it began or why the agents travel through time to complete missions.  However, the questions of how and why aren’t as important in The Gift Bearer, simply because the base is not the main setting and the audience isn’t following the agents as main characters in the same way as they would have in TOASTT.  For the first ten episodes the agency doesn’t even have a name, and the audience doesn’t see the base until the very end of episode 16.  The Echelon is in the background while TOASTT was in the forefront.

In the unfilmed, original season two of The Gift Bearer we met characters directly taken from TOASTT during several scenes that take place in the Echelon base during episode “14” (that’s the script number, in actuality it would have been episode 28-30).  A lot of the agents in the base are directly taken from TOASTT including Dr. Indigo Green (known as Dr. Terri Wilson in TOASTT), Tempest, Trent, and Sage. 

There are numerous scenes with Sage and implications that she has a crush on Xavier, and a strange sort of friendship with Camilla. There’s even at reference to an agent named Sorcerer in one scene, although he never appears on screen.

Many of the traits and part of the personalities of TOASTT characters were incorporated (or influenced) into some of the main characters in The Gift Bearer, although they obviously have completely different back stories.

Minerva definitely ended up with a lot of Coyote’s traits including her genius with computers and, most notably, her aversion to people.  However, Minerva was a lot more fun and goofy, where as Coyote was much more serious…and kind of grumpy. Morgan Thomas was originally cast as Coyote and I ended up writing the part of Minerva for her.

Aspects of both Sorcerer and Dr. Ross where channeled into the characters of Xavier and Crumby. Both Sorcerer and Xavier are very talented guys who work for the government, and have a serious brooding quality as well as a sarcastic sense of humor.  However, Sorcerer dislikes the government and works with them reluctantly, whereas Xavier was raised from birth as a government agent and it takes a long time for him to turn against them.  I originally envisioned Michael DiVecchio playing Xavier since he was slated to play Sorcerer, but it didn’t work out and Xavier was played (rather magnificently) by Russell Martin.

Dr. Ross and Crumby both have a great sense of humor, and are like father figures to the main characters. Both characters are brilliant scientists who created the time machine that the government uses. However, Dr. Ross is a little goofy and Crumby is a bit more sarcastic and serious.  The biggest difference, of course, is that Dr. Ross is in charge of the whole time-travel part of the project and the time-agents are directly under his command.  Crumby doesn’t have that kind of power at all. He’s not in charge of anything at the Echelon, at least not by the time the series starts, and has to obey their orders like all the other agents. Sadly, Crumby does not have a bionic eye, a robot arm, or a prosthetic leg like Dr. Ross did.  Michael Meyer would have loved that, since he was cast as both Dr. Ross and Crumby.

The Gift Bearer is a much more complex and tightly written show that explores the consequences of time-travel as well as the thrill of it. The characters have much more substance and are more colorful and engaging.  The general concept of the series is better – instead of seeing the Echelon/TOASTT from the inside, we follow a trio of sisters who travel through time with a gold ball and a magic statue (which works better than a time machine, believe it or not).

Dialogue and snippets from TOASTT was used in various scenes through The Gift Bearer.  Even an entire episode got recycled.  The Gift Bearer episodes 5 and 6 – Roman Around and Mother Nature – where the governor of the local provence is being driven mad by his sister who is poisoning him was the basic plot used in the unfinished episode 4 of TOASTT – also titled Roman Around.  Hey, it was a good title – worth using twice.

Locations I had scouted for TOAST were used in GB. The 18^th Century fort used in several episodes of The Gift Bearer was where I had intended to film episode 9 (All for Won) of TOASTT where they go back to 17^th century France in a Three Musketeers themed mission. That same fort – Fort De Chartres – had a wonderful stone chapel that was used in episode 9 and 10 of GB and would have been used in episode 6 (Bad Habits) of TOASTT.

Costumes that I had designed for TOASTT were used in several episodes of The Gift Bearer, where the designs for the Victorian fashions in Good Mourning (episode 2 of TOASTT) were used in Negotiations and The Spider and the Fly (episodes 7 & 8 of GB). 

 One of Delilah’s designs for Roman Around (episode 4 of TOASTT) ended up being the design for Octavius’s Venus outfit in the other Roman Around (episode 5 of GB).  The basic design of Sage's costume also served as inspiration for the costumes the three sisters wore.

The monk’s robe Crumby wore in episode 9 and 10 of GB would have been worn by Sorcerer in Episode 6 of TOASTT, and the full Regency outfits worn in episodes 19 and 20 of GB were originally designed for episode 7 (Miss Matched) of TOASTT.

So some of the best bits of TOASTT found their way into The Gift Bearer. 

However, there have been other productions that TOASTT influenced, including another “lost” production called Anything but Angels which recycled two and a half of the characters and the title of the first episode (which became the title of the show). Anything but Angels had a major plot element that I really liked and eventually recycled that into the 2012 production of C2.  

 Also, Zoey Zurrell’s character in Dream Chasers was heavily influenced by the character of Delilah in TOAST, including her sassy attitude and clothing style.  Although there were obviously many differences between the two, there are also many similarities as well, including the line "bite me" which was often used by both.

I had a whole list of jokes and bits in a file for TOASTT that I liked and although I still haven’t been able to use them all, pieces have appeared up in other productions such as The Gift Bearer, Anything but Angels, C2, Twisted Tales: Little Red, and Eidolon. I still have the file and there are a couple of jokes/bits that I really want to find a way to work into another script at some point, so its legacy lives on to this day.