You can't have one without the other...

June 10, 2011 6:08 AM

Ever wish you could watch the pilot episode of Married... with Children with different actors portraying the roles of Bud and Kelly? Of course you have. Why wouldn't you?

Here's the pilot as aired, featuring Christina Applegate and the lovely David Faustino. Via Splitsider's The Lost Roles of Married... with Children.

posted by item (23 comments total)

Think how different TV history would have been if Michael Richards' audition for Al Bundy had been successful.
posted by Trurl at 6:18 AM on June 10, 2011

It was freakishly close to the aired pilot, in my opinion.
posted by Deathalicious at 6:40 AM on June 10, 2011

Yeah, hardly seems any different.

Damn, Ed O'Neil and Katy Sagal look young.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:43 AM on June 10, 2011

Is this going to be as surreal as watching the pilot for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and witnessing Nick Brendon act around the alternate, awful Willow?
posted by adipocere at 6:44 AM on June 10, 2011

Speaking of surreal Married With Children trivia, I find this story (nytimes.com) from 2007 hard to top.
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 6:48 AM on June 10, 2011

Oh man. For a second, I opened another window to check my email, covering the window with the video. My brain responded by asking "Wait, what is Leela doing on Married With Children?"

Brain, you are not the swiftest.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 6:59 AM on June 10, 2011 [6 favorites]

Brain, you are not the swiftest.
posted by evidenceofabsence


sorry
posted by edgeways at 7:03 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Slight derail: On a Three's Company DVD that we own, there is a version of the first episode that had different actors playing the roles of Janet and Chrissy (or was it just Janet and/or Chrissy?). The apartment was darker, and Mrs. Roper's role seemed a bit meaner, less flamboyant and lovesick.

Anyone else see that episode and get totally freaked out?
posted by bitteroldman at 7:23 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

“Today, people are becoming accustomed to not thinking about life,” he said. “The television is training them to not think about which party is in Parliament, about which laws are being passed, about who will be in charge tomorrow. People have become accustomed to living like children, in the family of a very strong and powerful father. Everything is decided for them.”

From the NYT piece linked by Dr. Eigenvariable above.

I know it's talking about Russia, but it sure hits home for me.
posted by emhutchinson at 7:27 AM on June 10, 2011

XQUZYPHYR, everything about that pilot was surreal. The different library set, the way that Gellar and Head didn't seem particularly into it, the remarkably dead on performances of Carpenter and Brendon, and so forth. The bad Willow was so whiny and draggy, she would have been killed off in the first season. I'm always fascinated by the last minute casting changes and like thinking about how they would have changed the show.
posted by adipocere at 7:42 AM on June 10, 2011

A world of TV & film without Christina Applegate? That doesn't sound like a thing.
posted by i_cola at 7:52 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Buffy unaired pilot part 1
posted by Bonzai at 7:56 AM on June 10, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'd like to see the unaired pilot of The IT Crowd, with Joel McHale and Jessica St. Clair. Richard Ayoade stays the same.
posted by pinky at 8:02 AM on June 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh my god, I'd never seen that terrible Willow before! I love Alyson Hannigan, but I don't think it's just fandom talking when I say that was so, so bad.
posted by troublewithwolves at 8:12 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

I never like Married With Children, but Ed O'Neill is brilliant on Modern Family. He nails a certain type of California man I haven't seen portrayed well before.
posted by msalt at 8:14 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

The unaired pilot of the American IT Crowd used to be on Youtube, I guess the lawyers found it. It's definitely on the interwebs somewhere since it has leaked. It was really dreadful.
posted by inthe80s at 8:26 AM on June 10, 2011

That whole series of Lost Roles posts on the Splitsider blog is interesting. I think it's fascinating the way he jumps from one hypothetical consequence to the next eventually concluding that television as we know it would not exist if one role in a sitcom had been cast differently.
posted by TedW at 8:35 AM on June 10, 2011

Buffy unaired pilot part 1

bored now.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:19 AM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Buffy unaired pilot was kind of meh, done very, very cheaply, and directed by Joss himself.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:22 AM on June 10, 2011

There was one odd scene in the Buffy unaired pilot where Giles gave exposition while going down a spiral staircase in one continuous shot. I think that he paced himself to talk only when facing the camera.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:23 AM on June 10, 2011

I think there was a UK remake of Married...With Children. With Russ Abbott. It wasn;t really a success.
posted by mippy at 10:05 AM on June 10, 2011

I think the unaired pilot for Buffy is great. The only thing I miss from the aired version is the part when Giles and Buffy run out of the library after their big thing about how she's a vampire slayer and their town is full of zombies and succubi, and Xander steps out from behind some shelves with a huge pile of books in his arms and goes, "WHAT."
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 11:25 AM on June 10, 2011

bitteroldman, interesting -- there are actually two unaired pilots for Three's Company:
#1 #2

The second seems close to the aired series, but still lacks Suzanne Somers. Writer for the first was Larry Gelbart! No, he never wrote another.
posted by dhartung at 12:30 PM on June 10, 2011 [1 favorite]