Pilot show cast changes

There's a different kid playing D.J on the pilot episode of Roseanne because Michael Fishman wasn't available.

 

Different D.A. than Adam Schiff (Steven Hill) on the pilot episode of Law & Order. As I recall the pilot episode was filmed something like two years before it aired midway through the first season.

 

How many of these have been uploaded to YouTube? - or at least clips? I'd love to see more of this kind of material.

 

I just watched the Star Trek episode "Court Marshall" last night where Joan Marshall plays the prosecuting attorney. An old flame of James T. Kirk with a VERY different look from what you see above.

 

Buffy The Vampire Slayer the original Willow Riff Regan

Replaced by Allison Hannigan

Good call Joss!

 

Yes, Father Mulcahy was played in the film by Rene Auberjonois, an unknown actor when Robert Altman cast him in the film.

 

Big Bang Theory unaired pilot:

The Big Bang Theory Unaired Pilot - YouTube

 

In the pilot episode of "Leave it to Beaver", Ward is played by Max Showalter instead of Hugh Beaumont, and Wally is played by Paul Sullivan instead of Tony Dow.

 

I did not know that. Did it ever air?

 

The original Gilmore Girls pilot had two different actors as Sookie and Dean respectively.

 

I know Alex Borstein was the original Sookie, but didn't know there was a different Dean. Is this able to be viewed anywhere?

 

While Max Showalter/CaseyAdams is generally more interesting onscreen that dull Hugh Beaumont, I have to agree with the producers' decision. Showalter comes off as very weak -- not allowed for a '50s TV dad.

The other interesting thing about the pilot is that the Eddie Haskell-prototype was played by 13 year old Harry Shearer:

 

When "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E" first debuted as a backdoor pilot in "The Moonglow Affair" on the established "Man from U.N.C.L.E" series, Mary Ann Mobley played the young, inexperienced April Dancer while Norman Fell played her mentor Mark Felt, an older agent up against mandatory retirement policy (which was ignored). Turned into a series, they decided Mobley was pretty but too demure so they got a slightly younger Stephanie Powers to play her as more hip. Felt was changed completely to a much younger British agent played by Noel Harrison and the two were portrayed as having a brother/sister type relationship. It didn't help that it was too campy, Powers and Harrison were unenthusiastic about the series and in an age of butt kicking women like Emma Peel and Honey West, April Dancer was too often a damsel in distress.

 

A bootlegged copy does indeed exist among collectors.