The original post: /r/television by /u/kuhpunkt on 2026-03-23 11:16:55+00:00.

I know TV credits can be a tricky thing. Being a creator basically just means that you had the idea for a show and you were involved with the show at the beginning - it doesn’t mean that you are the showrunner or anything. Also creators (and even showrunners) can ultimately leave the shows they created, for a variety of reasons. Like Frank Darabont has a “developed by” credit on the Walking Dead and he kept that credit, even though he was fired after the first season. That’s just how credits work.

Or Battle Creek. It was an old script by Vince Gilligan that didn’t become a reality. Gilligan became famous for Breaking Bad, so they took his script and David Shore turned it into an actual show 10 years later. Gilligan wasn’t involved with it creatively, but since he wrote the initial script, he’s credited as a creator. Makes sense.

Lost is another interesting example. Jeffrey Lieber and JJ Abrams & Damon Lindelof are all credited as creators of the show. Lieber however only wrote one script by himself, was fired and replaced by Abrams & Lindelof - but since they used a few of his ideas (hence his “story by” credit in the pilot), he’s still credited as a creator, even though he never actually wrote for the show that people know. But at least he was involved to a degree and wrote something. And he’s a real person.

What I’m however just curious about is The I-Land, which premiered on Netflix back in 2019. It’s an absolutely terrible show, but I think it’s worth watching (just 7 episodes), because of how fascinating it is that this show exists. It’s baffling.

The thing is… the show was created by somebody named Anthony Salter. But he is not credited as a writer or anything - only as the creator. He has no “story by” or “written by” or “teleplay by” credit. The only known writers of the show are Neil LaBute and Lucy Teitler. Salter doesn’t have any kind of online profile. No other imdb entries. He never worked on any other show as a staff writer. It’s like he doesn’t exist - and yet he got to create a show for Netflix? A show that he apparently had no involvement with?

What happened there? Is he a ghost? A pseudonym? Are there any other shows where something like this happened?