Sitcom Ideas That Never Happened (but could have)

Sometimes creators know exactly what a show will be when they have the idea, and other times it’s not so easy. The other day I talked about failed concepts that made it on the screen but didn’t work out. Sometimes ideas never even see the light of day. For instance, Empty Nest was supposed to be about a couple dealing with there daughters taking off for college. It was changed to the Richard Mulligan led show (but the original pilot was made, as a backdoor pilot in The Golden Girls). It’s funny to hear the original pitches for our favorite shows and wonder what could have been.

When a sitcom is being conceived lots of ideas come and go. Premise, setting, and often an entire character is conceived, even cast, before the creators realize the character is stupid and is cut before the pilot is even filmed. But it’s funny to think what these shows might have been like had the idea been realized rather than abandoned. 

Here are some examples :





The Cosby Show

Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner went to Cosby for the show, and his first idea wasn’t quite what we’d get. Cosby believed that both parents should have blue collar jobs. The father be a limousine driver, who owned the car, and the mother an electrician. It was Cosby’s wife who suggested he change it so that the Huxtable’s would be upper middle class. Also, if you thought Rudy was an odd name for a girl you weren't far off. At first Rudy was supposed to a boy, Jaleel White even up for the role, until Keshia Knight Pulliam one Cosby over. 







Home Improvement

When Tim Allen began making his sitcom it was first called Hammer Time. That really didn’t last long. What was supposed to stick was Stephen Tobolowsky. He was supposed to play the tool time co-host Glen. When Tobolowsky couldn’t become available they created Al to fill in. Of course, Al would end up sticking and we never met Glen. Oh and did you know Frances Fisher was originally Jill?









Frasier

When Kelsey Grammar wanted to do the show he didn’t want it connected to Cheers in anyway. The main character was to be a wealthy, Malcolm Forbes like paraplegic publisher who suffered a motorcycle accident and operated his business from his apartment. Uh yeah, no. Thankfully wiser heads prevailed and we got the sitcom we loved. Also Frasier wasn’t going to have a brother until someone noticed just how much a resemblance to Kelsey Grammar that David Hyde Pierce had.








Perfect Strangers & Full House 

While the show was always supposed to be about an immigrant coming to America, it started out a little differently then what we got. In fact Louie Anderson was cast as the immigrant’s American cousin. They started working on a pilot but then they realized Anderson was wrong for the role. Also I don't think it's a secret John Posey was supposed to be Danny Tanner, before Bob Saget became available. Thankfully. 







Three’s Company

This show was based on the British show “Man About the House”. The first concept had the show set in New York, where Jack Tripper would be a chef in a French restaurant and the two women in his life were a secretary and a high fashion model. That obviously didn’t work. The second concept was closer to the show we’d get, but still far off. It had “David Bell” as a an aspiring film maker who also happened to cook. The women were completely different, even the names, but the show was changed to California. Then there was a third pilot, where David Bell became Jack Tripper and one of the women was now called Chrissy. Yeah there is more to this story but suffice to say this show had a tumultuous history right from the get go.  We love the show we know and the pilot closely matches “Man About the House”‘s pilot so close it’s almost a scene-by-scene remake.




Friends

The show creators had a solid idea of what this show was and who the characters were. Then the network stepped in. Sure sometimes network notes work, it's  how we got Elaine on Seinfeld, but this was just lame. They suggested an additional character - a friendly cop named Pat who would advise the gang. What? Forgetting the fact they were adults, wouldn't they have parents for that? Even NBC realized the idea sucked and it was dropped. 

Modern Family

Since this show is a mockumentary, the obvious question is simple- who in the heck is filming this family day in and out? We never find out during the course of the series. I also how the character simultaneously ignore and acknowledge the cameras. But when the show was being conceived there was supposed to be another character, the filmmaker! A Dutch filmmaker named Geert Floortje who lived with the Pritchetts and developed a crush on Claire. Thankfully the idea was dropped, and the focus was on the family, where it belonged! 

Plenty other changes made in the pilot stage I could mention. Tracy Gold was the second person to play Carol on Growing Pains, The Professor on Gilligan and Carol Brady were supposed to be different actors, The first pilot of Just Shoot Me had no David Spade, and of course the first pilot for Big Bang Theory was so different it feels like an alternate universe. Leonard and Sheldon seem like different people plus no Penny, Raj or Howard instead it's two women named Katie and Gilda and a darker vibe which never would have worked. Thank goodness for wider heads! 

You can't help but wonder how different these shows we loved would have been if these changes had been kept!