As with most TV shows, a pilot episode was made for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was never aired on TV. The pilot was very similar to the story seen in 1.01 Welcome To The Hellmouth.
One notable absence from the cast in the pilot is Alyson Hannigan - the part of Willow is instead played by Riff Regan, who was replaced soon afterwards.
The pilot episode did not include the characters Angel or the Master. Characters in the pilot who later went on to appear in the show include Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Harmony, Jonathan (then an unnamed character), Principal Flutie and Darla.
There are a few other differences - the school is called “Berryman High”, the library is much bigger and Principal Flutie is played by Stephen Tobolowsky.
Related episodes: 1.01 Welcome To The Hellmouth
Comments on this trivia
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Puja on August 22nd, 2005 at 6:42 pm
I have one of the very grainy copies of the pilot episode. Fairly unnoteworthy. The library has a very funky spiral staircase, which Giles walks down as he does his “One girl in all the world” speech. There’s good evidence why Riff Regan never darkened the Buffyverse again and surprisingly good evidence for SMG and Nicholas Brendon being unworthy to come back. Both were extraordinarily flat. Anthony Stewart Head stole the show.
One scene which is worth watching is when Xander gives Buffy a tour of the school and introduces her to the various social groups, which was far extended in the pilot and contained some very entertaining conversation.
Puja
blutortu on May 30th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Technically, this was a “pilot presentation” (a shortened version of a proposed pilot) to give the network an idea of the look and sound of the show without having to produce a full-length and expensive pilot. It’s pretty standard in Hollywood.
Some notable differences (aside from the Riff Regan/Alyson Hannigan thing): vampire “dusting” effect was much slower and less shocking, Jonathan (!) appears in line at the Bronze=so awesome, the final showdown is in the much-less-expensive-to-film-in school auditorium stage set, and SMG’s hair is so very very tragic.
I haven’t seen it in a while, so it’s probably time for another viewing. With some creative Googling, you should be able to find a copy somewhere.