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BURBANK, Calif.—Writers on the new television series "FlashForward" work in a room with the window blinds drawn tight. They don't want to risk anyone peeking into their office on the sunny Walt Disney Studios lot here.

A drama about a blackout that gives the entire human population a quick glimpse six months into the future, "FlashForward" debuts on ABC on Thursday. The main characters try to figure out what caused the blackout while some attempt to avert their own vision of the future. ABC has bet big on the show from David S. Goyer, co-writer of the "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" movies, and starring British actor Joseph Fiennes.

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ABC

John Cho and Joseph Fiennes, who play FBI agents Demetri Noh and Mark Benford, in the premiere of ‘FlashForward.’

The program uses one of the oldest dramatic techniques and attempts to stretch it to new heights—the cliffhanger. The show's goal is to leave the audience in suspense at the end of each episode and even before almost every commercial break.

Television cliffhangers are rare these days. In recent years, networks have been reluctant to launch shows with narratives that stretch from one episode to the next. Such programs don't bring in as much revenue in reruns as shows like "Law & Order" and "CSI" that wrap up neatly in an hour. Serialized episodes must run in sequence, making a lucrative syndication deal less likely, network executive say. Plus, they're more expensive to produce, with large ensemble casts and on-location shoots.

"FlashForward" aims to join a small group of hit serials like ABC's "Lost" about plane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island and Fox's "24" about a day in the life of counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland. "24" became one of Fox's biggest hits when it premiered in 2001. ABC hopes "FlashForward" can replace "Lost," which begins its sixth and final season early next year. The eighth season of "24" starts in January.

Required Reading

Executive producer David Goyer requires "Flash Forward" writers to read everything from Japanese poetry to Austrian philosophy. Here's a selection of the books that shape their vision of the show:

• "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges
• "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
• "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse
• "The World As Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer
• "The Tale of Attaf from the Arabian Nights"
• "The Myth of Oedipus"
• "Japanese Death Poems" by Yoel Hoffman
• "Philosophical Investigations" by Ludwig Wittgenstein
• "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav

These programs attract a dream television audience, says Stephen McPherson, ABC's president of entertainment. Intensely loyal fans discuss the series online, buy DVD box sets and tend to watch episodes in real time since they want to find out what happens next as soon as possible. "These shows lend themselves to a very different kind of extended experience," Mr. McPherson says.

Cliffhangers have become more intricate in response to the growing sophistication of audiences who have seen so many over the years. Also, viewers can record and replay episodes to search for clues or discrepancies. A proliferation of Web sites that publish spoilers can ruin endings by posting them before they air.

It's the "seat-belt conundrum," says Damon Lindelof, co-creator and executive producer of "Lost." Sophisticated audiences would roll their eyes at a character driving over a cliff as he tries to unbuckle his seat belt, Mr. Lindelof says.

To guard plot secrets, each "FlashForward" script has a made-up title and is watermarked so that if a page gets into the wrong hands producers can trace it to the source. Actors, cast members and producers are referred to by code names that can change weekly. (Mr. Goyer went by "John Lennon" this summer.) At casting sessions for extras, aspiring actors can end up reading fake dialogue or auditioning for roles that don't exist. Actors receive directions to on-location shots as late as midnight the night before. Temporary street signs to help cast members find the shoot use fake titles, a strategy that has led to some actors getting lost.

Other shows have used an array of tricks. "Lost" producers shot three versions of a scene in which plane crash survivor John Locke lies in a coffin. They didn't drop the shot into the finished episode until the last minute. They code name some scenes with Jewish bread. "The Bagel" was a scene in season one where 10-year-old crash survivor Walt Lloyd is abducted. The second season finale was "The Challah."

Hollywood is full of tales of scripts leaking out. Howard Gordon, an executive producer of "24," says fans rifled through the trash at an old pencil factory in Chatsworth, Calif., where "24" is shot, looking for scripts. They found a handful of pages and posted plot secrets online. Someone stole a "daily," or a version of the script handed out on set on each shoot, out of a "Lost" producer's mailbox. It ended up online, too.

If a secret gets out, producers try and manipulate the information to create confusion and suspense. The "FlashForward" creators have set up a Web site called Truth Hack, which includes the work of fictional journalist Oscar Obregon, who is investigating the world-wide blackout. His posts provide clues, and plenty of misinformation.

Showing Suspense

Some current and recent television series that teased, and won, viewers.

"FlashForward" actors typically do not know what will happen more than a couple episodes in advance. Actor John Cho, who plays FBI agent Demetri Noh, says he regularly corners writers to ask if he is the evil mastermind, a popular theory on fan blogs. Mr. Fiennes says he feels like a "junkie knocking on the production door to ask what will happen."

It is tougher today to pull off an iconic TV cliffhanger like the 1980 "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of hit drama "Dallas." Actor Larry Hagman, who played oil baron J.R. Ewing, says fans offered him $150,000 to reveal who shot his character. Unfortunately, the writers kept it a secret from him until a couple of days before the revelatory episode was shot. "I was willing to sell the information," he said in an interview. "That's what J.R. would've done."

"Dallas" creator David Jacobs says the surprise ending came about by accident. At the last minute, CBS ordered an additional four episodes of the show which meant the writers had to quickly come up with a way to stretch the storyline without losing viewers, he says. "The writers just looked at each other and someone said, 'Let's shoot the son of a bitch.' "

Cliffhangers became popular in the 1920s in silent short films that ran in installments before a feature-length movie started and often ended with the hero tied to train tracks or literally hanging from a cliff. The term first appeared in the late 1930s and referred to melodramas that left characters in physical peril.

Television Classics

From Hitchcock to a snow globe, some moments that left viewers wondering.

Everett Collection

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

1955-65

After directing films for three decades, Alfred Hitchcock applied the same suspense and twisted endings to this series which he hosted. Evil often prevailed in the end, a revolutionary shift in the traditional TV landscape.

Everett Collection

The Fugitive

1963-67

Accused of killing his wife, Dr. Richard Kimble flees Lt. Philip Gerard and searches for the one-armed man who he believes committed the murder in this nail-biting series that marked one of the first times a serialized TV drama ended each episode with a cliffhanger.

Everett Collection

Dallas

1978-91

The 1979-80 season finale became a moment in television history. An unseen gunman shoots oil baron J.R. Ewing, who is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. At the start of the next season, 83 million people tuned in to find out "Who shot J.R.?"

Aaron Spelling Prod./Everett Collection

Dynasty

1981-89

With almost every main character at the wedding of Amanda Carrington and Prince Michael of Moldavia, a military coup breaks out. Revolutionaries open fire, leaving about 60 million viewers wondering until the next season who survived.

NBC/Photofest

St. Elsewhere

1982-88

In one of the most talked-about cliffhanger resolutions, Tommy Westphall plays with a snow globe in the series finale. Inside, viewers see a replica of the St. Eligius hospital where the show takes place, leading them to believe the entire series took place in Tommy's mind.

Paramount/Everett Collection.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

1987-94

Trekkies held their collective breath in the third season when Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard was captured and turned into a member of a fictional race of cybernetic organisms or cyborgs.

The cliffhanger was a natural fit for TV shows trying to get viewers to return each week. "In a movie, the audience is already captive and you don't have to vie for their attention to keep coming back," says Glenn Kessler, co-creator and an executive producer on FX's drama "Damages."

Almost every cliffhanger fits into one of three basic categories: a character is in jeopardy, a character does something unexpected, or something shocking is revealed. Mr. Gordon, the "24" producer, says he favors cliffhangers that reverse preconceived notions. In the show's first season, for example, Jack's wife, Teri Bauer, believes she is searching for her teenage daughter with another concerned parent. The man turns out to be a kidnapper impersonating a suburban dad. The writers dreamed up the cliffhanger and then wrote the story to lead to its crescendo. "We try to find the last possible thing that can happen, the most surprising thing that can happen and then we retrofit the story around that," Mr. Gordon says.

Serialized shows are increasingly taking advantage of changes in how viewers watch television, namely that more viewers record episodes, network executives say. By 2014 as many as 42% of all U.S. homes with a television are expected to record programs, up from 26% in 2008, according to forecasts by Magna, a unit of IPG Mediabrands.

"Battlestar Gallactica," a critically acclaimed but low-rated series that aired on NBC Universal's SyFy channel until it ended last March, used DVD sales to fuel its following and released a special-edition DVD just days after one broadcast. "You-gasp-and-you-tremble-and-you-reach-for-the-next-disc is just as good as you-gasp-and-you-tremble-and-you-wait" for the next episode, says co-executive producer Jane Espenson.

Shows like "Damages," "Lost" and "24" drop clues, or "Easter eggs," as TV writers call them, into episodes that flash on screen for mere seconds. Writers say they know fans will record shows and watch again to hunt for clues.

In the first episode of "FlashForward," a kangaroo hops across the wreckage on a Los Angeles street. The kangaroo is a clue that will return in upcoming episodes, the writers say. The writers also stick clues in props that viewers who pause scenes can spot. "FlashForward" features a giant, messy bulletin board in the office of Mr. Fiennes's character, FBI agent Mark Benford. In the first episode, Mark posts a card on it that says "D. Gibbons." D. Gibbons is a shady character not fully revealed until the 18th episode, writers say. A version of the board hangs in the writers' room to help them track clues.

Mr. Goyer, who wrote comic books as well as movies, and his wife, Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, began talking about turning Robert J. Sawyer's 1999 novel "Flashforward" into a television show eight years ago. HBO helped them develop the series but dropped it before production began. A spokeswoman for HBO says the cable channel decided "FlashForward" would be a better fit on a broadcast network. ABC picked up the project.

Cliffhangers require writers to work farther in advance than typical television shows. They plot out the narrative arc of an entire season to set up the suspense and then resolve it, Mr. Goyer says. Changes may come up as long as the momentum continues to build to the overarching cliffhanger that takes viewers into the next season. They completed seven scripts before shooting started on "FlashForward" in July.

On a hot August afternoon, nine writers on "FlashForward" sat around a small conference table with a pile of highlighters and colored pens to write an episode that wouldn't run until the winter. The walls of the room were covered in dry-erase and corkboards with index cards color coded to correspond to the show's 10 series regulars. The cards are filled with scribbling of character attributes like "self doubt," or plot developments like "goes to kitchen" and "bored, drinking, masked killer."

They needed to write a cliffhanger ending for episode 10, which isn't slated to run until December—right before a three-week break for the winter holidays. "If we're going to be off the air for that long, we want to build up and have a lot of very dramatic stuff happen in this episode," co-creator and executive producer Mr. Goyer said.

It would call for top-secret plot developments. Those are posted on a corkboard hanging in the writers' room that Mr. Goyer calls "the megaboard." At night it is shuttered behind another board and locked.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal