LEADERSHIP IN A SERIES

Fox posted part of a GQ interview with television icon Tom Selleck.

Selleck, 70, is a recognizable actor with a string of popular series.

Selleck said he had his struggles early on, and credits working with James Garner for showing him how to be a TV star the right way.

The then 34-year-old Selleck "had done the leads in several pilots, but nobody saw them because they didn't sell, and I did this thing on 'Rockford,' and I watched Garner, because I'd been on a lot of shows where everybody was walking on eggshells and there were battles about who was coming out of their dressing room first,” he told GQ. “[Rockford] understood that leads in a show like a television series involved leadership, probably: When you're not feeling so good, put on a happy face, it's infectious—these things sound kind of corny and stupid, but this is our life.”

Selleck took his experience on "The Rockford Files" and put it to use the very next year on "Magnum PI," the show that made him a star, and again on "Blue Bloods."

“We all like each other, and we don't have anybody stir the pot on 'Blue Bloods,'” he explained. “I like to think I've set some of that example. I'm older than most of the actors. I play the patriarch, and it's a rare opportunity to show a positive example.”

Most television series has a central lead actor who is the focal point of the show. As such, it is this lead actor who has considerable clout in how his or her show is run. But in LOST's ensemble cast, there were no major stars in leading roles. 

Now, the show producers may have decided early on that secondary actors would give the show more "reality" and connection to the viewers. The writers probably preferred to have 10 main characters to 1 in order to flesh out more back stories. The actors may have had some subconscious relief that they did not have to carry a big budget television series on their own shoulders.

 But in all the articles about the show, I don't recall one mentioning that the actors took a leading role in the direction and creation of the series. Michael Emerson clearly stated that he had no idea where the show was going from episode to episode. He merely got his script, memorized it and worked through the shoots.

Which may be the reason why LOST seemed to take sudden right turns without much explanation. The actors had no idea what was going on except that more mysteries and plot twists were being written for them. But if the show did have one strong lead character, such as a Garner or Selleck, he or she would have asked questions like "why are we doing this," or "what does this mean in the overall structure of the plot?"  Like the show's own filmed serial, there appears to be more fractions than actual leaders.

Fans will think that Jack was the lead character in the show, but in reality he was supposed to die after the pilot episode. Kate was originally thought as going to be the lead, and perhaps counterbalanced by Locke's character. So early on in the process, the producers had little idea who would become fan favorites or leading characters.  As such, the producers and writers held all the control in the series' direction.