8 TV Shows That Made Dramatic Changes From Their Pilot Episodes
6. Star Trek: Captain Kirk Was Almost Captain Pike
It's hard to believe that NBC didn't snap up Star Trek: The Original Series the moment Gene Roddenberry pitched it, given what a juggernaut the sci-fi show would become, but the network sent him back to the drawing board the first time around.
The original pilot, entitled The Cage, had much in common with the show that was eventually picked up, but with a number of key differences. Chief among them, there was no Captain Kirk, with Jeffrey Hunter's Captain Pike instead leading the Enterprise.
Leonard Nimoy's Spock was among the cast, though his personality was somewhat different, rooted in youthful energy, rather than stoic gravitas. He wasn't the second in command either. That role went to a character simply known as Number One, played by Roddenberry's other half and eventual wife Majel Barrett.
NBC didn't reject the pilot outright. They invited Roddenberry and his team to submit a revised version with more action and faster pacing, which they did in the form of Where No Man Has Gone Before the following year. This episode was picked up by the network, but The Cage wasn't binned entirely. Elements of it were incorporated into the first season's two-part episode The Menagerie.