Most Unrecognizable Pilots From Hit TV Shows

Looking back, it's amazing that X-Files became as successful as it did. On paper, the show is something of a dud, with a lonely man and detached woman chasing down every campfire tale and spooky story they can find; however, the onscreen chemistry between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson was undeniable, and they made chasing down gray-skinned aliens and running from black-suited government officials look cool. Most of the series retained the elements that made the show such a hit. The pilot episode, however, is something that even the most unflappable FBI agent would find downright alien.

To start with, the episode doesn't have the usual opening credits, nor the haunting theme by Mark Snow. In its place, the show had a disclaimer saying it was based on real events. Also, while the pilot features many of our familiar supporting characters such as the Cigarette Smoking Man, there was no Walter Skinner; in his place, we had Division Chief Blevins, a character who'd soon be replaced by Skinner and only brought back later for a dramatic reveal about a governmental conspiracy.

There was also a surprising amount of intimacy in the pilot: while the series spent a lot of effort keeping its central characters romantically separated and only teasing at their relationship until close to the end of its long run, this episode features Scully in her skivvies being examined by Mulder—and she also refers to him by his first name, Fox, whereas the rest of the series mostly had the two referring to each other by last name.

The Big Bang Theory just won't die. It regularly gets renewed for multiple seasons at a time, and the announcement of a spinoff show focusing on the young life of main character Sheldon makes it look like an honest-to-God Big Bang universe is being created. Part of what makes the series so popular is the unique cast and their solidly established characters, but the show was once very different: in Big Bang Theory's unaired pilot episode, only a couple of our familiar characters appeared, and they'd would be downright unrecognizable to later fans of the series.

The pilot episode didn't include fan favorites Raj or Howard at all. More importantly, there was no Penny. Instead, the main female character is Katie, played by Amanda Walsh instead of Kaley Cuoco. A bad breakup has left her character homeless, so Leonard and Sheldon (our only familiar characters or actors in the entire pilot) invite her to live with them. Another major difference is Sheldon: while the Leonard of the pilot is very similar to the character we came to know later, Sheldon is introduced after he's made a deposit at the sperm bank, where he was assisted by a magazine featuring women with big butts (a fetish of his). It's almost impossible to imagine the nearly-sexless germophobe Sheldon of the regular series visiting a sperm bank, let alone actively lusting after women.

Compared to the first episode filmed for the original series, the next generation of Trek has a much more recognizable pilot. All of the major crew members are present, each character has the name they'll use later, and the pilot follows the general (if not terribly original) premise of boldly going where no one has gone before. At the same time, the pilot episode is basically Exhibit A in the case of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation being wildly different from the version of the show most fans remember.

First up is the Worf of things. Worf is still in the show, serving as a visual reminder of the attempt that Starfleet has made to move on from their previous conflicts with the Klingon Empire. At the same time, he's little more than a lackey to Tasha Yar, the Security Chief played by Denise Crosby. Geordi is also in a very different role, serving as the helmsman of the ship. And while the gag of having the blind dude driving the Enterprise is pretty funny, it's weird to see Geordi, like Worf, in red instead of yellow and far away from his beloved warp engines.

There are some more minor changes, too, including Data using contractions and the show starting with the opening credits rather than the traditional cold open. Troi is seemingly presented as a full telepath in this episode, though she's later demoted to only empathic. Finally, the tone of the episode is overall strange: Picard risks the entire crew getting Riker to manually rejoin the ship to its saucer section, and the Enterprise casually fires on a planet to give some energy to a dormant alien, presumably risking countless lives. Throw in a serious and belligerent Q (very out of step with most of his whimsical later appearances), and much of this is downright unrecognizable to longtime fans.

Following the breakout success of the original show, Saved By the Bell spawned a slew of offshoots, including Saved By the Bell: The College Years, which followed our familiar cast of characters as they conveniently attended the same college following their high school graduation. There was also Saved By the Bell: The New Class, which brought back Mr. Belding and Screech to help shepherd in a new generation of teens. In between were some made-for-TV movies that sent the cast to Hawaii and marked the marriage of Zack and Kelly. In retrospect, it's easy to be jaded about all this Saved By the Bell media—but the truth is, even the original Saved By the Bell was a spinoff of sorts.

Before it all, there was Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which focused on the titular teacher (played by Hayley Mills) and lacked familiar faces like Kelly, Slater, or Zack. Interestingly, the pilot featured a collection of future stars, including Seaquest DSV star Jonathan Brandis, Beverly Hills 90210's Brian Austin Green, and even Steve Urkel himself, Jaleel White. Along with a different Mr. Belding (played by Oliver Clark), Miss Bliss and its pilot navigate some pretty heavy stuff, including the discovery that Jonathan Brandis' character has a dying brother.

The show changed quickly after that episode, leading to a season of Good Morning, Miss Bliss that brought in characters like Zack, Lisa, and Screech instead of the students seen in the pilot. Unhappy with the ratings, NBC reinvented the series yet again as—you guessed it—Saved By the Bell, complete with the cast fans would come to know and love.

Like All in the Family, perennial '70s hit Three's Company had not one, not two, but a whopping three different pilot episodes. John Ritter was still in the first episode, but he went by the name of David Bell rather than Jack Tripper. Instead of moving in with Janet and Chrissy, he lives with Jenny and Samantha. But the studio didn't love the chemistry of the cast, so they reshuffled the deck around Ritter and shot a second pilot. That episode was close, but no cigar: Ritter was now paired with second-pilot survivor Joyce DeWitt, but the producers wanted someone else for the character of Chrissy. The third time was the charm for Three's Company, with Suzanne Somers filling out the original (yet also rather short-lived) cast of a show that would last for eight seasons and help redefine the future of TV sitcoms.