Narrowly avoided casting mistakes

[radiophiler]

Even though he became the second Darrin after Dick York had to leave the cast, Dick Sargent was originally cast as Darrin on Bewitched but couldn't take the part because of a commitment to another series.
Also, Tammy Grimes was originally cast as Samatha, or as she was known as in the original script, Cassandra.

 

[KeithE4]

Schulz never liked the name and apparently took that disgust to his grave.

After complaining about it all the way to the bank for over 50 years.

 

[Stanislav]

Schulz never liked the name and apparently took that disgust to his grave.

After complaining about it all the way to the bank for over 50 years.

To be sure, the title didn't affect the marketability or popularity of the strip, but Schulz was an artist as well as a businessman, and it annoyed him that the name was attached to the strip without his approval. (Long before he had the clout to call his own shots; at the time he was new, struggling, and didn't want to rock the boat.) He thought the name "Peanuts" was both precociously silly and meaningless, had nothing to do with the content, and claimed that all his life he would encounter ignorant readers who thought "Peanuts" was Charlie Brown's nickname, as in, "Oh, it was so funny what 'Peanuts' did in yesterday's strip."

Once he had successfully established the strip, and it was nonetheless too late for the overall title to be changed (being already attached to it in the public mind), he lobbied for the Sunday strips to include "featuring Good Ol' Charlie Brown" as a "subtitle" to "Peanuts," and that the published book collections of the strip (after the first few, which, again, he had little control over) not use "Peanuts" in the titles. (Indeed, the actual titles usually featured Charlie Brown's name, and the phrase "A 'Peanuts' Book" would only appear in much smaller print at the bottom of the cover.)

Very few cartoonists have the clout to demand such things of their syndicate (who, after all, actually legally own the characters and content, not the artist -- Peanuts was always copyrighted to United Features, not to Schulz). Only someone on the level of a Schulz, Watterson, or Trudeau gets to have that much say over how his creation is presented and marketed.

 

[bpatrick]

I remember reading in The Flintstones: A Modern Stone Age Phenomenon by T.R. Adams, where Daws Butler was orignally considered to voice Fred back in 1960 before Alan Reed was picked.

Daws Butler voiced both Fred and Barney in the pilot (known then by the title "The Flagstones"), and June Foray voiced Betty. Jean Vander Pyl's Wilma was the only voice casting that survived the pilot into the regular series. Also, Butler took over Barney's voice in a few early episodes while Mel Blanc was recuperating from his near-fatal auto accident.

I think that even after "The Flintstones" became a series, Joe Barbera still wanted to replace Mel Blanc with Butler, because Butler sounded more like Art Carney (Barney was, of course, based on Ed Norton). Blanc, to save his job, adopted a more Carney-esque way of talking rather than the nasal voice he used in the early episodes.

 

[Markieo]

Even though he became the second Darrin after Dick York had to leave the cast, Dick Sargent was originally cast as Darrin on Bewitched but couldn't take the part because of a commitment to another series.
Also, Tammy Grimes was originally cast as Samatha, or as she was known as in the original script, Cassandra.

And in 1966, Dick Sargent co-starred with Tammy on "The Tammy Grimes Show", one of the all-time mega-flops in TV history, only lasting 4 weeks in 1966!

 

[Tim L]

Even though he became the second Darrin after Dick York had to leave the cast, Dick Sargent was originally cast as Darrin on Bewitched but couldn't take the part because of a commitment to another series.
Also, Tammy Grimes was originally cast as Samatha, or as she was known as in the original script, Cassandra.

And in 1966, Dick Sargent co-starred with Tammy on "The Tammy Grimes Show", one of the all-time mega-flops in TV history, only lasting 4 weeks in 1966!

Sargent starred as a Aide to the Commander Rogers Adrian character (played by Edward Andrews), in the 1964-65 ABC series "Broadside" (Think Lt. Elroy Carpenter to Capt. Binghamton in McHale's Navy)..Broadside was a "ripoff"of McHale's Navy except that the protagonists were a nearly all-female Motor pool..


A couple episodes of this series are on YouTube..Lasted just one full season but from what I saw of it, not a bad show at all..

 

[KyDXIn]

Even though he became the second Darrin after Dick York had to leave the cast, Dick Sargent was originally cast as Darrin on Bewitched but couldn't take the part because of a commitment to another series.
Also, Tammy Grimes was originally cast as Samatha, or as she was known as in the original script, Cassandra.

And in 1966, Dick Sargent co-starred with Tammy on "The Tammy Grimes Show", one of the all-time mega-flops in TV history, only lasting 4 weeks in 1966!

Oh it must have been BAD!

 

[Stanislav]

Even though he became the second Darrin after Dick York had to leave the cast, Dick Sargent was originally cast as Darrin on Bewitched but couldn't take the part because of a commitment to another series.
Also, Tammy Grimes was originally cast as Samatha, or as she was known as in the original script, Cassandra.

And in 1966, Dick Sargent co-starred with Tammy on "The Tammy Grimes Show", one of the all-time mega-flops in TV history, only lasting 4 weeks in 1966!

Oh it must have been BAD!

That was in the midst of a bad patch of early-dying "stinkers" on ABC. Which led to Milton Berle's famous quip that they could end the Vietnam War by putting it on ABC, and it would be gone in 13 weeks. ;D

 

[KeithE4]

That was in the midst of a bad patch of early-dying "stinkers" on ABC. Which led to Milton Berle's famous quip that they could end the Vietnam War by putting it on ABC, and it would be gone in 13 weeks. ;D

Berle certainly knew first-hand. His 1966 ABC show lasted for not much longer than that.

 

[KeithE4]

I remember reading in The Flintstones: A Modern Stone Age Phenomenon by T.R. Adams, where Daws Butler was orignally considered to voice Fred back in 1960 before Alan Reed was picked.

Daws Butler voiced both Fred and Barney in the pilot (known then by the title "The Flagstones"), and June Foray voiced Betty. Jean Vander Pyl's Wilma was the only voice casting that survived the pilot into the regular series. Also, Butler took over Barney's voice in a few early episodes while Mel Blanc was recuperating from his near-fatal auto accident.

I think that even after "The Flintstones" became a series, Joe Barbera still wanted to replace Mel Blanc with Butler, because Butler sounded more like Art Carney (Barney was, of course, based on Ed Norton). Blanc, to save his job, adopted a more Carney-esque way of talking rather than the nasal voice he used in the early episodes.

Butler was already doing an Art Carney-as-Ed Norton type of voice/personality for Yogi Bear, a few years before The Flintstones. That's probably why he was Joe Barbera's first choice. Of course, Butler was already doing 90% of H-B's cartoon voices already at that time (with Don Messick and Blanc doing a few others).

 

[trusty]

I always thought it would be great to cast Jackie Gleason as Archie's brother from Detroit or Philly - even more opinionated than Archie. That way, Gleason would not have been tied down to a weekly series. I think the chemistry between the two would have been really good.

 

[bpatrick]

Carroll O'Connor once wrote to Gleason, hoping he wasn't
angry that Archie Bunker did some of the same things Ralph
Kramden did. Gleason wrote back, "I wish I could have done
some of the things you're doing." Might have been interesting
to see a one-shot meeting of Gleason and O'Connor, but as
Gleason biographer James Bacon said, regarding CBS having
"All In The Family" and "The Honeymooners" on the same schedule,
"Ralph Kramden and Archie Bunker could not have coexisted on the
same network."

 

[Stanislav]

Carroll O'Connor once wrote to Gleason, hoping he wasn't
angry that Archie Bunker did some of the same things Ralph
Kramden did. Gleason wrote back, "I wish I could have done
some of the things you're doing." Might have been interesting
to see a one-shot meeting of Gleason and O'Connor, but as
Gleason biographer James Bacon said, regarding CBS having
"All In The Family" and "The Honeymooners" on the same schedule,
"Ralph Kramden and Archie Bunker could not have coexisted on the
same network."

Or even on the same stage, IMHO. I love O'Connor, but Gleason was bigger than life in every sense of the phrase, and had been a household name and figure in America for almost two decades before any of us had ever heard of this Carroll O'Connor guy. I think if he had guested in AITF, he would have completely overshadowed the regular cast, which is exactly why Norman Lear didn't want to use "special guest stars" on the show. (A vow he stuck to, with the marvelous exception of Sammy Davis, Jr., because Davis was a huge fan of the show and bugged Lear mercilessly about guesting on it. Thankfully, Lear agreed.)

 

[KyDXIn]

Or even on the same stage, IMHO. I love O'Connor, but Gleason was bigger than life in every sense of the phrase, and had been a household name and figure in America for almost two decades before any of us had ever heard of this Carroll O'Connor guy. I think if he had guested in AITF, he would have completely overshadowed the regular cast, which is exactly why Norman Lear didn't want to use "special guest stars" on the show. (A vow he stuck to, with the marvelous exception of Sammy Davis, Jr., because Davis was a huge fan of the show and bugged Lear mercilessly about guesting on it. Thankfully, Lear agreed.)

Having Sammy Davis Jr. on AITF was great. Davis knew how to take advantage of the situation and put Bunker in his place.