10 Ways Buffy The Vampire Slayer Was Almost Totally Different

A show's pilot episode is the most important episode in a television series portfolio. It has to capture the essence while having enough wriggle-room for the show's creator to change things later on without causing plot inconsistencies. More often than not, the pilot you see on tv is the pilot that was made for pitching to studios, but there are some instances where the aired pilot is completely different from the original. That was the case with Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

For one, the original pilot was dramatically different from the one we got, Sunnydale High lacked it's ironic name in leu of being called Berryman High and the principle was played by a completely different actor.

Another major difference was the absence of two important characters. Firstly Jesse, the third goofy friend of Willow and Xander, didn't exist for any vampires to kill, which meant the dark tone of the show was heavily missing as the stakes were not so high. Secondly, Buffy's main love interest and lead character of the Buffy spinoff show Angel could not be seen lurking in dark corners in the original pilot, which makes sense seeing as for most of the first season Whedon didn't really know what to do with David Boreanaz. (More on that later.)

The biggest difference however was in the character of Willow. Alyson Hannigan made history with her interpretation of Willow the witch, and it's hard for us to understand that someone else originally had the role, but unfortunately that was the case. Whedon clearly saw the importance of her character though, because a total recast was done and we were blessed with the Willow we know and love.