A Tribute to the Fired and Recast Actors of Pilot Season
TV is a tough business: you can ace your audition, head into the pilot shoot with the whole network's support behind you, follow your director's notes to the letter, and still get fired from what may eventually be a bona fide television classic. (Just ask Lisa Kudrow, who was replaced by Peri Gilpin on Frasier after the third day of rehearsals. Luckily, she landed Friends the next year.) With that in mind, we thought it fair to pay tribute to the actors who were oh-so-close this pilot season before the network decided to go in a different direction. Godspeed, kids. Here's hoping you book a guest star arc in time for November sweeps.
Patton Oswalt
Oswalt's had a rocky time of it lately: he was only available for pilot season because his Broadway debut in Lips Together, Teeth Apart, was scuttled when costar Megan Mullally quit, supposedly citing Oswalt's inexperience. Then, after being cast in the NBC pilot Beach Lane opposite Matthew Broderick, he was swiftly dismissed after the first table read and replaced with comic Nick Thune. If it's any consolation to Oswalt, at least Beach didn't get a pickup.
Fran Kranz
The Dollhouse alum saw NBC pick up his new comedy, Friends with Benefits, but he was replaced. "I was fired," Kranz tweeted. "Too big. I kept saying I was huge but people told me it was great. Guess not." Ironically, in the Jake Kasdan-directed indie The TV Set, Kranz played an actor who sailed through pilot season with 100% support from the network.
Ian Reed Kesler
Kesler was also let go from Friends with Benefits, but he doesn't have a Twitter, so...
Ben Chaplin
Chaplin is a handsome British actor who never quite hit it big in movies (what does it say that the one thing I still remember him from is the Janeane Garofalo-Uma Thurman romcom The Truth About Cats and Dogs?), and he may be doomed to the same fate in TV. The actor was cast opposite Kathy Bates in the David E. Kelley pilot Harry's Law, but while network brass loved Bates, they quickly nixed her scene partner.
Joely Richardson
The Nip/Tuck actress shot the pilot for legal drama The Whole Truth in Los Angeles after negotiating that the series would move to her homebase of New York if it were to be picked up. That deal was made a moot point when Richardson decided to leave and spend more time with her family, who had suffered the loss of her sister, Natasha Richardson, her uncle, Corin Redgrave, and her aunt, Lynn Redgrave, in a span of less than two years.
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Comments
Wow, what a miserable way to try to make a living!
That's the picture business, son
None of these pilots sound original anyway. It's either twenty-somethings (read: WHITE twenty-somethings) living in oversized apartments in NYC battling work and love or mediocre family (read: white family) drama/sitcoms. If you want to watch TV, save Modern Family and three other shows, cable is where it's at.
Is this a white thing?
Fran Kranz is a show killer - don't see his appeal.
Going back in time:
Dame Diana Rigg was second choice to play Mrs Peel on "The Avengers" - shooting had already begun with another actress when they decided to bring Ms Rigg in for what is arguable her breakthrough role.
Majel Barrett was originally cast as the First Officer of the "Enterprise", and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, but the network didn't like the casting, so the show was completely recast (with the exception of Leonard Nimoy) for a second pilot. Barrett, of course, went on to play Nurse Chapel, the voice of the computer in every version of "Star Trek" to date, and Mrs Gene Roddenberry.
The funny thing is that I was planning to watch "Sh*t My Dad Says" just for Ryan Devlin. Go figure. I know he's not a big name, but he's a great actor. It's a shame that I won't be watching now. (Frankly, though, I can't imagine the show being that great, anyway, so I hope he finds something else.)
I would have watched Harry's Law for Ben Chaplin who I saw on Broadway. He's another not a big name but I & many others love him. It's a shame that I've no interest in watching Harry's Law now. I usually love David E Kelley's stuff but lately the shows are all stuck on lawyers. Maybe Chaplin's now been freed up to do something really exciting, like more Broadway theater.
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