# Aired pilots that were greatly different from the eventually aired show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [March 14, 2021, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868 "2021-03-14T05:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/1 "2021-03-14T05:20:29Z")
My friends were discussing _Forever Knight_, and I told them that I had seen the pilot movie that had all of the same main characters played by different actors, including Rick Springfield as the title character “Nick Knight”. Are there other _aired_ pilots that are vastly different from the shows that were eventually broadcast? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/2 "2021-03-14T05:26:13Z")
Probably most famously Star Trek had two. The first one was the Jeffrey Hunter episode Captain Pike. The second one with Marjel Barrett as the executive officer and a smiling Spock. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/3 "2021-03-14T05:31:47Z")
Aired pilots only, please. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/4 "2021-03-14T05:37:13Z")
Both the Star Trek pilots were aired. The first one was altered when originally aired the second pilot was aired as episode three which didn’t make much sense. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/5 "2021-03-14T05:40:35Z")
Let me try to clarify: I am talking about when the pilot for a series airs, then later a show based on that pilot, but is substantially different from that pilot in some way, airs. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/6 "2021-03-14T05:45:01Z")
Nevermind (not really what the op wanted) .[11 TV Pilots That Are Drastically Different Than The Show You Know](https://screenrant.com/major-changes-tv-series-pilots/) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/7 "2021-03-14T05:48:36Z")
I saw _The Seinfeld Chronicles_. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/8 "2021-03-14T06:45:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Probably most famously Star Trek had two. The first one was the Jeffrey Hunter episode Captain Pike. The second one with Marjel Barrett as the executive officer and a smiling Spock. Not quite correct. All of these details are true of The Cage, the first pilot - later edited into the 2-parter The Menagerie. The second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, had already discarded Barret’s Number One, and promoted Spock (as well as giving him Number One’s emotionless mien). ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/9 "2021-03-14T07:01:34Z")
The pilot for Cagney and Lacey featured Loretta Swit as Cagney. When they opted for it as a show, they had Meg Foster as Cagney. Then they went with a third actress playing Cagney after the first season, Sharon Gless. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/10 "2021-03-14T07:19:28Z")
Wasn’t the change to Gless because the studio didn’t think Foster was “feminine” enough? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/11 "2021-03-14T08:07:24Z")
Danny Williams was played by Tim O’Kelly in the _ **Hawaii Five-O** _ pilot “Cocoon.” Test audiences apparently didn’t care for him, since he was replaced with James MacArthur once CBS bought the series. Lew Ayres was “The Governor,” a role that would later go to Richard Denning. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/12 "2021-03-14T08:14:11Z")
I’ll say > **[TV Legends Revealed | Why Did CBS Replace 'Cagney and Lacey's' First Cagney?](https://www.cbr.com/tv-legends-revealed-why-did-cbs-replace-cagney-and-laceys-first-cagney/)** > > Look back with us to an uglier time, when TV executives feared "Cagney and Lacey" seemed like it was about two lesbians. > In a shockingly candid (and also gross) interview with TV Guide at the time, an anonymous CBS executive explained their reasoning, noting that the stars were: > > [T]oo tough, too hard and not feminine. They were too harshly women’s lib. The American public doesn’t respond to the bra burners, the fighters, the women who insist on calling manhole covers ‘people-hole covers.’ These women on “Cagney & Lacey” seemed more intent on fighting the system than doing police work. We perceived them as dykes. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/13 "2021-03-14T08:15:18Z")
_Happy Days_ premiered as an episode of _Love American Style_. There was no Fonzie, I don’t think there was a Ralph Malph (Haven’t seen it in a while), Richie and Potsie were a lot less kid-friendly, Joanie was a different actress, and older brother Chuck was a fairly important character. Do we consider the pilot for _The Simpsons_ to be its first episode or its trial run on _The Tracey Ullman Show_? They are very different. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/14 "2021-03-14T18:53:31Z")
For varying degrees of “greatly”: Ib the pilot episode fopr The Magician, Bill Bixby’s character was namesd Tony Dorian. When the show got picked up he became Tony Blake. In the Magnum PI pilot, Rick had his own club, called Rick’s Cafe Americain, and affected this Rick Blaine/Bogart persona. He did keep the name - I guess if I were christened "Orville Wilbur Wright’, I’d find a nickname, too, ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/15 "2021-03-14T19:06:57Z")
It should also be noted that the second _ **ST: TOS** _ pilot differed in many ways from the series that followed. The uniforms were different, the instrumentation was different, the bridge was different. There was a male communications officer, and the Yeoman was Gary Mitchell’s love interest, not Kirk’s. There was Dr Piper instead of McCoy. The phaser rifle was seen for the first and last time, and Piper dispensed pills, not hypo-sprays. And neither Shatner nor Nimoy had nailed their characters yet. I’m sure there were other points of difference, but these are the first that come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/16 "2021-03-14T19:07:09Z")
NCIS was introduced in two episodes of JAG. If memory serves me correctly in the first aired episode the Jethro and Tony characters had different personalities than in the rest of the series. I never saw Forever Knight mentioned in the OP, but of the other cases mentioned or linked I’m only seeing recasting and character refinement as the changes. None of them seem to be all that great or drastic after an aired pilot. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/17 "2021-03-14T19:11:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > NCIS was introduced in two episodes of JAG. If memory serves me correctly in the first aired episode the Jethro and Tony characters had different personalities than in the rest of the series. I saw a rerun of the pilot after I had watched the series for a while. I remember Jethro and Tony heading to their first crime scene in the forensics van. They were cracking jokes and laughing, which amazed me. I was used to seeing Gibbs as a real hard-ass boss. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/18 "2021-03-14T20:41:02Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > Probably most famously Star Trek had two. The first one was the Jeffrey Hunter episode Captain Pike. The second one with Marjel Barrett as the executive officer and a smiling Spock. > > Not quite correct. > > All of these details are true of The Cage, the first pilot - later edited into the 2-parter The Menagerie. > > The second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, had already discarded Barret’s Number One, and promoted Spock (as well as giving him Number One’s emotionless mien). Sorry I confused a couple of things. Where No Man Has Gone Before was filmed as the 2nd pilot but aired as the 3rd episode which makes for some bad continuity problems. Bones had already been established as the doctor in two episodes and then Paul Fix is the doctor in this one then never to be heard from again. Also the interior of the Enterprise is different, the uniforms aren’t quite right, and there are some crew members that seem important who don’t ever return. But I did confuse Marjel’s role with what she did in The Cage. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/19 "2021-03-14T20:50:25Z")
I saw the first Big Bang Pilot, in Italy. In it both Sheldon and Howard were smitten with Penny.if I remember correctly she was a brunette. The othe characters weren’t introduced. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868/20 "2021-03-14T20:55:30Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > I saw the first Big Bang Pilot, in Italy. They aired it in Italy as a pilot? Interesting. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aired-pilots-that-were-greatly-different-from-the-eventually-aired-show/937868.md?page=2)