The principle of the pilot episodes is to sell a filmed product to a production and to give an idea of the series that is more or less faithful to what it could give afterwards. It’s a bit like baking a tiny piece of pie and giving it to your banker and saying, “so you’re financing my pastry for me, you bastard banker?” “. But during this adventure, small or big changes are operated, and sometimes certain actors or actresses are released and replaced because they did not convince.
1. Daenerys Targaryen dans “Game of Thrones”
Today it may seem unlikely, but in the first filmed pilot of Game Of Thrones it was not Emilia Clarke who played Daenerys but Tamzin Merchant. Don’t worry, we changed all that very quickly and in the end we got the version we all know, but the famous Tamzin who decided to shoot her version of the series all alone in her garden. It’s not phew.
2. Willow in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
If today we could not imagine someone other than Alyson Hannigan playing Willow Rosenberg, during the first episode shot, it was Riff Regan who interpreted the character, but the producers found that his way of playing the shy girl was going to make her unbearable. You can see it in this video, the quality of which may blind you, but that’s all I found.
3. Captain Kirk in “Star Trek”
A lot of people would vomit blood if they were told that originally it wasn’t William Shatner who played the commander of the Enterprise (the notorious Captain James Tiberius Kirk) but Jeffrey Hunter who played a certain Captain Christopher. Pike. But the first pilot didn’t convince and Hunter decided not to come back to film a second one, and presto, the story was written.
4. Catelyn Stark dans “Game of Thrones”
It’s not just Daenerys who changed her face between the pilot of Game of Thrones and the series because the character of Catelyn Stark was not spared either. Before we cast actress Michelle Fairley to play Mother Stark, we filmed a whole episode with Jennifer Ehle, who decided not to stay to raise her children. All these crushed dreams because of the kids, it’s really sad.
5. Jenna in “30 Rock”
The character of Jenna played by Jane Krakowski was originally played by Rachel Dratch. Known for her work on Saturday Night Live (with Tina Fey), the character of Dratch was simply moved from the project by order of the chain since he did not correspond to the rest of the team according to them. Tina Fey then made him participate in the series in the form of cameos on several occasions. It’s as if you were going to play your first football match with a team of friends and the following week you learned that they were playing again but that they replaced your position (and only this one) with someone else. There’s reason to have it bad.
6. Phoebe in “Charmed”
At the start of the series Charmed we had filmed an episode with Lori Rom as Phoebe but we quickly replaced her with Alyssa Milano. Needless to say that the series would have been quite different and that the power of three would have necessarily been different.
7. Eleanor Waldorf dans “Gossip Girl”
It is really very difficult for me to imagine Eleanor Waldorf played by Florencia Lozano and not by Margaret Colin. No I’m kidding, I’ve never watched the series and I’m pissed off. But for the record, the first actress was just a little too young to be the mother of a 16-year-old character and we decided to give the role to Margaret for that.
8. Danny Tanner in “The House Party”
Before the brave and late Bob Saget played the perfect father of the perfect American family in the series that revealed the Olsen sisters, it was actor John Posey who played him in a very first pilot. The show wouldn’t have been the same unless he had worn a Bob Saget mask in every scene.
9. Sookie St. James dans “Gilmore Girls”
You probably know this role played by actress Melissa McCarthy, but you may not know that before the series revealed it, it was Alex Borstein who played her in a pilot episode. Without this change, we might not have met this wonderful actress and the balance of the world would have been turned upside down.
10. Tara Thornton dans “True Blood”
If you know the character with the sweet features of Rutina Wesley you could have seen Brook Kerr and you probably wouldn’t have bothered as you wouldn’t have been aware that someone else could have played the part . And that’s sad. So it’s not so bad in the end.