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Narrowly avoided casting mistakes

S

Stanislav

We've all read of hit shows in which one of the main characters was originally intended to be played by an actor that makes you think, "WHAT?!?" Cases in which, had the original choice held, the show in question probably wouldn't have been nearly as successful (or, in some cases, may have never advanced beyond a failed pilot).

I've heard of many such situations, but cannot recall them all, so I'm looking for y'all to add to the list and comment. The ones that spring immediately to mind are:

Mickey Rooney as.....Archie Bunker? Yes, Rooney was Norman Lear's first choice to play All in the Family's lovable bigot. Rooney declined the offer, fearing that the show was too controversial and doomed to fail. And it might well have failed without the sublime talents of Carroll O'Connor. (And the superb supporting cast -- see footnote below.)

Bing Crosby as.....Lt. Columbo? The crooner was one of two suggested leads (along with Lee J. Cobb) proffered by the writers of Columbo. Can't even begin to imagine how that would have turned out. (Instead of habitually whistling "This Old man, " would Columbo have hummed "White Christmas" or "Swinging on a Star?")

Call Reiner as.....Rob Petrie? Reiner actually essayed the Petrie role in the Dick Van Dyke Show pilot (then titled Head of the Family) before wisely recognizing Van Dyke's talent and relegating himself to the supporting role of Alan Brady.

Geneviève Bujold as.....Captain Janeway? The French-Canadian actress had filmed just a few scenes of the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager when all concerned, including Bujold herself, realized that she had been terribly miscast, unable to master the authority and gravitas needed for the role of a starship captain. A second round of auditions was hastily arranged, and Kate Mulgrew ended up in the Captain's chair for 7 seasons of wandering around the Delta Quadrant.

All of these examples involved people of immense talent who were, nonetheless, absolutely wrong for the role in question.

Footnote on All in the Family: It's not just the lead role(s) that lead a show to success or failure, but also the supporting cast. A few years ago, TVLand showed both pilot episodes of All in the Family. The first lacked Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, and Mike Evans, with the roles of Michael, Gloria, and Lionel portrayed by other actors. The second pilot, using the exact same script (with the small, but important, change of Archie's surname from Justice to Bunker), utilized the cast we know and love, and had yards more energy and chemistry than the first. It's not hard to see why the first pilot failed, and the second succeeded.

Some other examples, with your comments?
 
Stanislav said:
Mickey Rooney as.....Archie Bunker? Yes, Rooney was Norman Lear's first choice to play All in the Family's lovable bigot.
Click to expand...

According to the 1981 book "Up The Tube", about Fred Silverman and 1970s television, Jackie Gleason was also offered the role, but turned it down.
 
Stanislav said:
Call Reiner as.....Rob Petrie? Reiner actually essayed the Petrie role in the Dick Van Dyke Show pilot (then titled Head of the Family) before wisely recognizing Van Dyke's talent and relegating himself to the supporting role of Alan Brady.
Click to expand...

Somewhere I had read that Johnny Carson was also considered for the part of Rob Petrie.
 
The role of Ted Baxter was originally offered to Jack Cassidy, who turned it down because he didn't want to commit to a series.
In movies, the original "Dirty Harry" was conceived as a vehicle for Frank Sinatra.
 
The original choice for Mike Brady on "The Brady Bunch": Gene Hackman.

Gilligan could have been played by Jerry Van Dyke.

Jack Cassidy as Ted Baxter would have been very similar to the character he played on the show "He & She" a couple years earlier (can't remember the name, but he played the egotistical actor who played Jet Man.)

Regarding Jackie Gleason as Archie Bunker, there was some concern that The Great One was so much bigger than life that people would have seen Gleason and not the character.

This one isn't about different casting, but a different direction for the characters: On "The Cosby Show", Cliff Huxtable was originally supposed to be a plumber, and Claire was supposed to be a chauffeur.
 
I don't think the "Golden Girls" would have been nearly as successful if the producers had had their way with their original casting assignment, which led Bea Arthur to comment to Rue McClanahan "I am not interested in doing 'Maude and Vivian meet Sue Anne Nivens!'"
 
cowboybud said:
In movies, the original "Dirty Harry" was conceived as a vehicle for Frank Sinatra.
Click to expand...

Frank might have been a bit old at the time but his detective persona would likely have worked well in the DH role. It's difficult to imagine Sinatra doing a non-variety TV series though.
 
Ernest Borgnine was also in the running to play the "Archie Bunker" part. Don't know if he turned it down or was eliminated. [Although with the last name of BorgNine, he would have fit right in on Star Trek: Voyager.]
 
Jack Cassidy did play Ted Baxter's brother on one "MTM" episode.

As for Bing Crosby turning down "Columbo," I've read it was because
Crosby prided himself on his clothes and didn't want to be identified
with a sloppily-dressed cop.

And how can we forget that John Wayne was offered the role of
Matt Dillon when "Gunsmoke" moved from radio to television? The Duke
didn't want to be tied down to a weekly series so he suggested a protege
named James Arness. And as I'm sure most of you know, Wayne introduced
the first episode on September 10, 1955.
 
bpatrick said:
And how can we forget that John Wayne was offered the role of
Matt Dillon when "Gunsmoke" moved from radio to television? The Duke
didn't want to be tied down to a weekly series so he suggested a protege
named James Arness. And as I'm sure most of you know, Wayne introduced
the first episode on September 10, 1955.
Click to expand...

And to bring this back around to radio: The REASON John Wayne was considered when Matt Dillon moved from radio to tv was because the great voice of the radio drama was the short, rotund William Conrad. He wasn't the "visual" they wanted. We watched Cannon every week though, didn't we?
 
I agree with most of the comments above. Jack Cassidy would have done fine as Ted Baxter...he could definitely summon up the requisite pomposity when he needed to.

Jackie Gleason would have done a good job as Archie, but it would have been difficult for the viewer to separate him from other Gleason characters...especially Ralph Kramden.

RE: Columbo. If you've ever seen the original TV movie that spawned the series (Prescription: Murder, if I remember correctly), Falk played Lt. Columbo a little differently - with a mean edge...it was a much better character after it evolved a bit.
 
Chuck Douglas said:
bpatrick said:
And how can we forget that John Wayne was offered the role of
Matt Dillon when "Gunsmoke" moved from radio to television? The Duke
didn't want to be tied down to a weekly series so he suggested a protege
named James Arness. And as I'm sure most of you know, Wayne introduced
the first episode on September 10, 1955.
Click to expand...

And to bring this back around to radio: The REASON John Wayne was considered when Matt Dillon moved from radio to tv was because the great voice of the radio drama was the short, rotund William Conrad. He wasn't the "visual" they wanted. We watched Cannon every week though, didn't we?
Click to expand...

True. Conrad didn't fit the visual stereotype of a Western hero. He did, however, continue to play Matt Dillon on radio until 1961. Now a detective, that's another story, especially given that Cannon came along when offbeat detectives were becoming fashionable.

BTW, there was a radio version of Have Gun, Will Travel that started a year after the television series. John Dehner played Paladin on that version.
 
bpatrick said:
Chuck Douglas said:
bpatrick said:
And how can we forget that John Wayne was offered the role of
Matt Dillon when "Gunsmoke" moved from radio to television? The Duke
didn't want to be tied down to a weekly series so he suggested a protege
named James Arness. And as I'm sure most of you know, Wayne introduced
the first episode on September 10, 1955.
Click to expand...

And to bring this back around to radio: The REASON John Wayne was considered when Matt Dillon moved from radio to tv was because the great voice of the radio drama was the short, rotund William Conrad. He wasn't the "visual" they wanted. We watched Cannon every week though, didn't we?
Click to expand...

Conrad didn't fit the visual stereotype of a Western hero. He did, however, continue to play Matt Dillon on radio until 1961. Now a detective, that's another story, especially given that Cannon came along when offbeat detectives were becoming fashionable.
Click to expand...

William Conrad had the great voice, but certainly the wrong look for a western hero. He appeared in small parts in many 40s era films, but always as a heavy...no pun intended.

As mentioned, when Cannon came around, TV was playing with the detective genre a bit, and getting away from the young handsome hero type. There was the blind detective (James Franciscus), the old detective (Barnaby Jones), etc.

QM liked to have fun with Conrad's size. In one episode I recall, he's chasing a criminal in a fire-house. The suspect jumps down that hole-in-the-floor pole-chute thing (I have no idea what they call it). Cannon tries to follow, but gets stuck.

I remember seeing him interviewed a year or two after the show ended. His biggest complaint was trying to pull his body out of that low slung Lincoln Mark IV they made him drive. He said he often hit his head, and claimed to truly hate that car. Provided by Ford, naturally.
 
Lkeller said:
I agree with most of the comments above. Jack Cassidy would have done fine as Ted Baxter...he could definitely summon up the requisite pomposity when he needed to.
Click to expand...
...on the other hand, Baxter wasn't that far afield from Cassidy's role on He & She, egotistical actor Oscar North, which had a name obviously patterned after Batman's Adam West and character traits allegedly cribbed from Star Trek's William Shatner. Not only did Cassidy feel he'd played the part already, he didn't want to have his career tied down to another potentially off-or-on situation as He & She found itself in...

...BTW, Joyce Bulifant was the original choice to play Carol Brady; apparently, Sherwood Schwartz changed his mind after a few tests and picked Florence Henderson before actual filming started, but insisted that Henderson keep Bulifant's hairstyle (or so Bulifant has said since)...
 
When developing Married...with Children, Ron Leavitt and Michael Moye's original choices in the lead roles were Roseanne (Barr) and Sam Kiniston. Even when they did the pilot, after eventually casting Ed O'Neill and Katey Sagal, different actors played the roles that Christina Applegate and David Faustino eventually took. Of course, Roseanne got her own sitcom by '88, and Kiniston did make a memorable appearance on the show, playing a guardian angel in a "It's a Wonderful Life"-themed episode.

Monkee Mickey Dolenz was Garry Marshall's original choice to play The Fonz, before eventually casting Henry Winkler. Speaking of Happy Days...Don Most was the original choice to play Postie, but Marshall ended up creating the Ralph Malph character for Most, after casting Anson Williams as Postie. The episode of Love, American Style that became the pilot for Happy Days had different actors playing the roles of Howard, Joanie, and Chuck Cunningham...in that episode, no Ralph or Fonzie.
 
ALLY McBEAL was planned as a TV vehicle for Bridget Fonda.
Lyle Waggoner was one of the first choices for Batman.
Billy Gray was supposed to played "Tagg" on ANNIE OAKLEY (the part went to Jimmy Hawkins).
Jay North was first choice as "Packy" on FURY (Roger Mobley got the part).
Sharon Tate lost out as one of the PETTICOAT JUNCTION girls because she'd posed for a nude photo.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was the odds-on favorite to play Perry Mason until Raymond Burr auditioned.
Both Van Heflin and Van Johnson were considered as Elliot Ness on THE UNTOUCHABLES before the producers even got to Robert Stack.
And here's an obscurity...GUESTWARD HO, a 1960 sitcom about a dude ranch starring Joanne Dru and Mark Miller (father of Penelope Ann Miller), was to have been Vivian Vance's first post-I LOVE LUCY starring series.
 
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