TV Characters That Were Cut After The Pilot

So why, exactly, is the first episode of a television show called a "pilot?" Despite a commonly-held theory that it's an aviation-adjacent term — going along with TV shows being on the "air" — it's actually related to the scientific process of using a pilot study to test the viability of further research. So the pilot of a TV show is a way for a network to gauge the future success of a potential series. As such, pilots are often used to work out a new show's kinks. 

Going through the effort of fully producing an episode allows everyone to see what works and what doesn't, and changes of varying degrees are made before the series continues. Sometimes viewers are part of this process, where a show will air its test pilot far in advance of the full series' plan start date so that audience feedback can be implemented before the show returns later to begin its actual run. In other instances, pilots are only for internal use, and the first episode that makes it to air is actually the refined draft of that episode. 

In both aired and unaired pilots, there have even been examples where characters that were originally intended to play a major role in the series don't work out and are deleted from the show entirely. Sometimes their departure is explained in-universe, while other times the show simply pretends they never even existed. 

Characters that disappear after pilots don't always just magically vanish as if to have never existed. There are times when a show's creative team goes through the effort of having the character's departure written into the show. A fascinating example of that came by way of the police procedural dramedy "Psych," which introduced a love interest for one of the show's main characters in the pilot only to immediately take her away — and have that be a major plot point.

In the pilot episode, Detective "Lassie" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) has a romantic entanglement with his partner, Lucinda Barry (Anne Dudek). He's technically still married at the time, though he and his wife are separated. "Psych" creator Steve Franks later told Entertainment Weekly that the test audiences for the pilot had missed the detail about the separation, and thought that Lassiter was straight up cheating on his wife with Lucinda — which gave the audience a negative first impression of him. Not wanting the audience and Lassiter to get off on the wrong foot, the show explained that Lucinda was transferred due to the exposure of her protocol-breaking relationship with Lassiter. 

Instead, the second episode introduced Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) to be Lassiter's new partner, allowing something of a fresh start between Lassiter and the audience. While Lucinda was never seen again, a Season 7 Easter egg implies that she passed away at some point via a shooting range tournament named in her memory. 

The first live-action version of the iconic DC Comics speedster The Flash to make it to the screen was the 1990 TV series of the same name. It only lasted for a single 22-episode season, but it deserves its due for helping to pave the way for the many DC TV shows that followed. The actor who played Flash/Barry Allen, John Wesley Shipp, later played the father of the Arrowverse's Barry Allen — and, eventually, directly reprised the role of Barry Allen himself from the universe of the 1990 TV show in the Arrowverse's various multiverse events.

As for the original show, Barry was partnered with his most well-known and longest-lasting love interest from the comics — Iris West (Paula Marshall) — in the pilot episode. But Iris was gone after that, making way for Tina McGee (Amanda Pays) to take over as Barry's female co-lead for the remainder of the series. At the time, Tina was a fairly new character in the "Flash" comics, and was initially the love interest of the Wally West version of the character. 

As for why Iris had to go, Shipp said he didn't know for certain but could only theorize, telling Comic Book Bin, "I think she appeared much younger than me. Maybe they felt that the chemistry wasn't right." Iris West was played by actor Candice Patton when she made her return in the Arrowverse. 

This is one of the more unusual and more drastic examples of hemorrhaging characters from a pilot episode. But unlike the rest of the characters on this list, the actual original "Star Trek" crew did eventually get to come back after their post-pilot deletion — even though it took an astounding 56 years for that comeback to be fully realized. The show's original pilot, known as "The Cage," was rejected by NBC, who then ordered another one. 

During the retooling process between those two episodes, most of the Enterprise crew from the first — Capt. Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), Number One (Majel Barrett), and Dr. Boyce (John Hoyt) — were nixed entirely. Only Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) made the cut when the new and much more familiar crew of Kirk, Bones, Sulu, Uhura, and Scotty was formed for the second go-round. That's the one that NBC preferred, and the first batch was essentially fired. Though they made small appearances in various "Star Trek" media over the years, it wasn't until 2022's "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" that Pike and his crew finally made their proper return. 

"The Cage" has been listed as the first episode of Season 1 of the original series in various box sets and streaming services over the years, and is also technically the pilot for "Strange New Worlds," effectively making it an entry point for two different TV shows that premiered over 50 years apart. 

Superhero TV shows were doing very well in the mid-2010s — so much so that even NBC got in on the action with its own take on the DC comics antihero "Constantine." With connections to the CW's Arrowverse, actor Matt Ryan played the role of occult detective and demon hunter John Constantine, drawing elements from both the original comics he appeared in as well as the 2005 Keanu Reeves film adaptation. Playing a major role in the original pilot episode is the character Liv Aberdine (Lucy Griffiths), who was very clearly positioned to be a major part of the series going forward.

That is, until she wasn't. Fans were confused when it was announced that neither Liv nor Griffiths would be returning to the show after that first episode. During a press tour for the show, showrunner Daniel Cerone and executive producer David S. Goyer explained that the writers' room realized they had erred in building the show around Liv. They realized that Constantine needed a better foil — and decided that someone with psychic powers would have a much more interesting dynamic to play off Constantine being a manipulative con artist. 

So Liv was out, and in her place from the second episode was Mary "Zed" Martin (Angélica Celaya), who — unlike Liv — was an existing comic character. The ending of the pilot was then tweaked to make it clear that Liv and Constantine were parting ways, explaining why she's never seen again.

Those who were watching "Law & Order" as it was originally airing were likely pretty confused when they got to the sixth episode — "Everybody's Favorite Bagman." Suddenly there was a district attorney they had never seen before named Alfred Wentworth (Roy Thinnes) who seemed like a pretty big deal. Yet he hadn't been so much as mentioned previously, and then in the next episode, he was gone again, never to return. 

So what's the deal here? Well, "Everybody's Favorite Bagman" was originally filmed as the show's pilot, and actor Roy Thinnes was going to be a series regular as D.A. Wentworth, the show's main district attorney. But scheduling issues caused him to pass on the show full time, so both he and Wentworth were gone, and his role was filled by D.A. Adam Schiff (Steven Hill) instead. It wouldn't have been as big of a deal if that episode had aired first, as it was intended — but when it was episode 6 of Season 1 instead, it was jarring to have a major character appear out of nowhere and then disappear again just as quickly. 

Thinnes returned to the "Law & Order" universe multiple times, but always in one-off appearances and as an entirely different character — only ever playing D.A. Wentworth that first time.