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A transcript is a retrospective written record of dialogue, and like a script (a prospective record) may include other scene information such as props or actions. In the case of a transcript of a film or television episode, ideally it is a verbatim record. Because closed-captioning is usually written separately, its text may have errors and does not necessarily reflect the true Canonical transcript.

Please note that many episode scripts for earlier Lost seasons were transcribed by Lost-TV member Spooky with aid of DVR, and at times, closed captions for clarification. She and Lost-TV have generously granted us permission to share/host these transcripts at Lostpedia for the betterment of fans. Unless otherwise stated below, she created this transcript.

Disclaimer: These transcripts are intended for educational and promotional purposes only, and may not be reproduced commercially without permission from ABC. They represent one viewer's secondhand experience of ABC's LOST (executive producers J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof), and have no connection with ABC television or its affiliates.

Mr. Crabby is responsible for this transcription. It is one in the series of the Official Lost Podcasts.

Kris White: Jack is the homecoming king, Claire feels under the weather, and Juliet fills out an application for celebrity mole. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse join us to point out why this episode rocked in today's official Lost podcast, hosted by ABC.com.

[Lost theme music]

Kris White: Welcome to the podcast for Catch-22, which airs Wednesday, April 18, from 10 to 11 pm on ABC and the next day at ABC.com. We'll have executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse here in a bit to reveal why is Catch-22 and other ponderous inspired by its novel title. Of course, they'll be rehashing last week's turn of the screw, One of Us, and discussing just who they "us" might be referring to. First up though, we're joined by actor M.C. Gainey whose character on Lost has had many names, Mr. Friendly, Zeke, Bluebeard, and most recently Tom.

[Lost credits music]

Kris White: Okay guys, welcome to the official Lost podcast, we're here today with M.C. Gainey who plays Mr. Friendly a.k.a. Tom. How are you doing sir?

M.C. Gainey: I'm doing great, how you doing today?

Kris White: So I wanted to start off by asking you, I guess you actually know executive producer Carlton Cuse from a previous show.

M.C. Gainey: I do, he wrote and produced a western called "Briscoe County, The Adventures of" and I was a character called Big Smith on there and that's where I met him and fell in love with the way the man writes.

Kris White: So what was that conversation like when he approached you to be part of Lost?

M.C. Gainey: It was very brief, I said, you know, "Carlton, ten years of getting away from television, the grind of television is wearing me down, I'm just doing movies now, but if it's you, I'll do it." Not knowing what I was getting into, I just, I went to Hawaii without a script, without any idea who the character was and here I am three years later and I'm still not quite sure who he is.

Kris White: The first time you showed up on the show was so iconic when you kidnapped Walt.

M.C. Gainey: Oh yeah, out of the clear blue, this friendly bearded sort of sailor whose, you know, the rescuer turns out to be something loathsome and horrible. The off-season was really tough on me because everywhere I went people would just give me dirty looks and they were like "What are you going to do with that boy?". They were assuming I was going to something horrible, of course.

Kris White: And how much did you know about your character at that point? Did you even know what his name was?

M.C. Gainey: Let me give you an example of how little I knew about that character. Lets take you on half way through the season. I'm running through the jungle barefooted, bearded, wearing ragged clothes. I get the script and it says they found my beard in a locker. It was only at that moment that I realized "it's a fake beard". I've been running around half the season and I didn't even know I was wearing a fake beard.

Kris White: So when we first met you then as an actor, was that actually your real beard?

M.C. Gainey: No, no, I'm just saying, it was a fake beard all along, I mean I knew that it was a fake beard, M.C. Gainey knew that it was a fake beard, but the character, you know, I thought I really was a guy in the jungle who had a beard, not a guy in the jungle who was wearing a fake beard.

Kris White: Well talk about that a little more, how much actual like your character, or unlike your character are you? Are you afraid of blood?

M.C. Gainey: Oh, I'm nothing like this character. I mean I should say, I can speak pretty cogently sbout who I am, but in terms of who this character is, I can't, I don't really know that I'm much like Mr. Friendly or Tom as they call him, or Zeke, you know, or any of the other names they call him. He seems to be very loyal and I'm a very loyal person so I have that in common, but other than that, I don't really know what he's about. He seems much more socially akward then I am. In the surgery scene where I introduce myself to him, "oh by the way I'm Tom", you know there was just so much awkardness in that, that would never be me, but that's Tom.

Kris White: Well one thing that I have noticed about your career looking back, you know IMDB and other sources, is that you seem to have a propensity for playing bad guys.

M.C. Gainey: Yeah, I know. It's just that honest face, what can I tell you. You know, I got to Hollywood in 1977 and from the regional theatre and I played most of the great roles in plays, the O'Neil canon, the Williams canon, and I got here and they took one look at me and said "yeah, give him a gun" and, you know, that's pretty much what it was for a long time. You know, in those days every TV show on primetime had to have a gang of bad guys, every week another gang, it was TJ Hooker, Simon and Simon, Dukes of Hazzard, the A-Team, Night Rider, all those shows required a fresh gang of thugs and goons every week. So I, you know, I did a lot of good work in the goon and thug department for a few years there.

Kris White: Well what's the strangest role you've played. Have you played anything non-thugish.

M.C. Gainey: The strangest role I've ever played, hands down, was the naked man in Sideways.

Kris White: That's an image.

M.C. Gainey: That's the strangest, if you've seen Sideways, I was the naked man who ran down the streets, ran through the streets of Lophope, California. That was strange.

Kris White: So who do people reconize you more from now? Are they like "oh my god, you're the naked guy in Sideways"?

M.C. Gainey: No no no, I would have to say that if its not Lost, it is Con Air.

Kris White: Interesting.

M.C. Gainey: That I'm most reconized for. Con Air apparently is a film that has been seen by every adult male and female in our society. In the last two generations.

Kris White: Well getting back to Lost though, how has people's reaction changed now that Tom has been on a little bit longer and we saw him playing football with Jack and you know, he may just be a nice guy cought up in a bad situation?

M.C. Gainey: Yeah, you know what? The attitude that, strangly enough, the attitude people had toward me in the beginning when I kidnapped Walt was one of fear and "what are you going to do?", but after the campfire scene in the second year when I told them "stay on your beach and you'll be okay, ever since them I've seen Tom has sort of been a benevolent character and the public has since been very friendly about it, you know, they haven't given me a hard time since then, except that they want to know what's going to happen and maybe I've just been around so long and also since I've took off the beard I really haven't done that much to people, you know, I'm conversational when I've had them in the cages, locked in the cages, I've never put a hose on them or hit em with a stick, you know, I really have been trying to go the other way. I mean before I knew the character's name was Mr. Friendly, I was still trying to be friendly because somebody on the island should be.

Kris White: Or is it just that you're trying to keep your character from getting killed off?

M.C. Gainey: No, no, actually that wouldn't work, it doesn't matter. If you think the attitude you're going to try to keep from being killed you will certinely be killed, and you know what, when you get killed on this show, you're still coming back ten more times, so getting killed is no big deal. I've been killed so many times on TV sometimes I think I was born to be killed.

Kris White: Do you keep a running tally on how many times you've been killed?

M.C. Gainey: I don't, I used to, twenty-five years ago I used to I've been shot, stabbed, electricuted, burned alive, hanged, poisoned, stabbed with spears, shot with arrows, blown up with dynamite, killed in a snowsled flight, you know, there are very few ways I haven't been killed. Infact, Carlton killed me on Briscoe County by throwing me off a moving train over a bridge into a river, but in true Carlton Cuse fashion, I had orb from outer space in my arms when I went off the train and I came back from the dead with superpowers.

Kris White: Strangly enough.

M.C. Gainey: That's Carlton Cuse for you.

Kris White: Well on that note final question, what exactly does M.C. stand for? Is it "Mister Cool", "Michael..."

M.C. Gainey: No, you know what's really funny. If you look on Wikipedia and IMDb, it actually has my wrong name. Somebody put the wrong name on there. I didn't put it on there. It stands for my first two names: Mike Conner. Mike Connor was the first Irish govener of the state of Mississippi and I was named after him, a good Irish boy from Mississippi and when I joined Screen Actors Guild in '77, they wouldn't let me be Mike Connor Gainey, because Mike Connors was still around doing manics. So I just thought I'd use my initials, never realizing that "MC" would become the most popular cultural initials of our generation.

Kris White: It's true.

M.C. Gainey: Noy my generation, your generation. Yah, so that's what it's for, it stands for Mike Connor.

Kris White: Well it could of been worse, you could have been "D.J. Gainey".

M.C. Gainey: You know what, DJ may have been better actually because I'd have so many people shocked to see that I was white when I showed up. They'd see my name on the call sheet and they'd be like "Oh, you're M.C., oh. Oh gosh".

Kris White: That's hilarious.

M.C. Gainey: Who knew? Who knew?

Kris White: Well thank you for taking the time to join us and of course you can catch M.C. Gainey in upcoming episodes of Lost, and thank you for joining us on the Official Lost Podcast.

M.C. Gainey: Sure, my pleasure. I'll talk to you again.

Kris White: Alright, thanks.

M.C. Gainey: Bye bye.

[Podcast theme]