How The Unaired Buffy Pilot Almost Killed The Show Before It Started

After the much-derided "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie debuted in 1992, creator Joss Whedon almost gave up on his original vision. The writer had conceived of "Buffy" as a way to subvert expectations by having the typically helpless blonde become the hero of her own story. Unfortunately, Whedon was beyond disappointed by the film, talking on record about how the project was taken away from him and turned into a campy comedy. In recent years, there's been renewed interest in the "Buffy" movie, which certainly differs in tone from the TV show that came to define the character in popular culture. But the movie did at least give us the first draft of Buffy Summers

After that first iteration hit theaters, Gail Berman of Sandollar Productions thought the subversive vampire slayer might make for a good TV show, and contacted Whedon thinking he'd be uninterested in revisiting "Buffy." But to her surprise, the writer was eager to tell the character's story the way he'd always intended. He would ultimately do just that. The "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show became a cult classic that many a '90s kid fell in love with. Using the "high school is hell" metaphor as its foundation, Whedon built a show that combined heartfelt emotion with outright horror, working in a comedic tone alongside the standard teen drama narratives. It made for a series that, on paper, shouldn't have worked but did.

Bringing the show to air, though, proved to be nothing short of an ordeal. After pitching the series to the newly-launched WB network in 1996, Whedon landed an offer to make a pilot. But this initial attempt to bring "Buffy" to TV screens not only didn't make it to air, it almost killed the show before it had even started.

Due to budgetary issues, The WB could only commission a 25-minute pilot presentation, forcing Whedon to cut his pilot script down to accommodate the shorter run-time. That was just the first issue the show creator ran into, however. Amy Pascale's "Joss Whedon: The Biography" details how troubled the "presentation" production was, with Whedon summing it up as a "nightmare" due to working with a crew that didn't seem to like him very much — sounds familiar.

But if you watch the unaired pilot, which you can easily do online, you don't get a sense of the tension that was percolating behind the scenes. In fact, the 25-minute episode is pretty similar to the show's actual pilot "Welcome to the Hellmouth," which debuted on the WB on March 10, 1997, and featured much of the same story beats, characters, and dialogue.

For instance, both the unaired pilot and the actual series opener begin with a couple breaking into Sunnydale High School, known as Berryman High School in the "presentation." In both episodes, this setup serves as a way of defining Whedon's aspirations, subverting expectations by having the girl reveal herself as a vampire and kill her male companion. Meanwhile, Buffy was played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, accompanied by Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris. And straight from the world of coffee commercials, Anthony Stewart Head was also in evidence as Rupert Giles, Buffy's watcher and de facto father figure.

Story-wise, the pilot also followed a similar narrative to that of "Welcome to the Hellmouth," with Buffy rebuffing Giles' attempts to have her embrace her destiny as the Slayer, before ultimately being drawn into it anyway when she's forced to save Willow from the clutches of a hungry vamp. But there were also significant differences between the unaired pilot and the official series opener.

The biggest difference between the unaired pilot and the show itself was that one of the main characters in "Buffy," Willow Rosenberg, was played by Riff Regan in the former. The actress was recast after the show was commissioned, with Alyson Hannigan taking over the role. Similarly, Stephen Tobolowsky played principal Flutie in the "presentation" but was replaced by Ken Lerner when the series actually debuted on The WB.

There's also nothing in the unaired pilot about what would become season 1's big bad, The Master (Mark Metcalf). Similarly, neither Buffy's mom, Joyce, nor Angel, who would be played by Kristine Sutherland and David Boreanez respectively in the show proper, featured in the "presentation." Interestingly enough, according to "Joss Whedon: The Biography," Boreanez did film some scenes for the unaired pilot which were ultimately cut. The whole thing ends in the high school, too, and not, as in "Welcome to the Hellmouth," in a crypt.

Overall, the unaired pilot is basically the plot of "Welcome to the Hellmouth" minus a lot of the connective tissue and the scenes setting up The Master. The tone of the whole thing is classic "Buffy," too. And yet, it seems neither Whedon nor the WB were all that impressed.

The unaired pilot isn't going to go down as one of the best "Buffy" episodes, mainly because it isn't an episode at all. When Whedon delivered his original pilot in the form of the "presentation," The WB executives were less than impressed. According to Amy Pascale in "Joss Whedon: The Biography," execs were "underwhelmed" and didn't pick up the show for the 1996 fall season. Instead, they opted for "7th Heaven," which, in retrospect ... fair enough.

Adding insult to injury, WB chief programmer Garth Ancier is quoted as saying:

"The pilot was not great. And we had some better pilots that year. The discussion was, 'Do we make our bet on another show from Stephen Cannell [21 Jump Street, The A-Team, The Rockford Files]? Or do we make our bet on Joss, who we believe in as a writer, even though this pilot will have to be thoroughly trashed?'"

Ultimately, the network decided against commissioning "Buffy" and that seemed to be the end of Whedon's dreams of reviving his original vision for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Considering the show creator himself wasn't even a fan of the pilot presentation, it's not that hard to see why "Buffy" was overlooked. When asked by IGN if the "presentation" would ever make it to DVD, Whedon responded "Not while there is strength in these bones," adding his perspective that the unaired pilot "sucks on ass." But, as we all know, that wasn't the end of "Buffy," who would, like so many of the eldritch beasts it featured, rise from the dead.

Put simply, the only reason "Buffy" made it to air and became the cult classic we all love is because nobody wanted to watch a soap opera starring Shannon Sturges, Robyn Lively, and Jamie Luner. Despite the lukewarm reaction to Joss Whedon's 25-minute pilot presentation, some at the WB were intrigued enough by the characters that they remembered "Buffy" when it came time for mid-season replacements. That included then-president of The WB, Susan Daniels, who after canceling the one-hour soap opera "Savannah" in February of '97, tapped Joss Whedon to fill the gap.

In the wake of "Savannah" — which according to Garth Ancier had a "rough season creatively" — being canceled, "Buffy" would finally have a place on The WB. The network commissioned the show for a full 12-episode run, but not before Joss Whedon reshot his pilot episode. According to Amy Pascale's book, The WB ordered several changes before they'd agree to air "Buffy," including recasting Willow.

Having failed to wow The WB execs with his pilot presentation, and almost killing off his own show, Joss Whedon had now been given the green light to introduce Buffy Summers to the world in the way he'd always envisioned. That wouldn't be the end of his troubles with The WB, however. The network would make further controversial decisions as the show went on, such as choosing to shelve some episodes of "Buffy" in 1999. Still, the important thing is that we all got to see "Buffy" as she was supposed to be seen. Unfortunately, in light of reports of Whedon's toxic on-set behavior, loving "Buffy" has become complicated. Instead of being grateful to the show creator, then, maybe we should be thanking Shannon Sturges, Robyn Lively, Jamie Luner, and the failure of "Savannah" for giving us "Buffy."