Does anyone know if the episode of the original unaired pilot episode is available to watch anywhere online? I like to see it. I'm surprised it was never released on the Season 1 DVD set as a bonus episode.

What are some little-known facts about popular TV sitcoms? (https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-little-known-facts-about-popular-TV-sitcoms/answer/Peter-Wade-5)

Shockingly, on the iconic TV sitcom Married… with Children, Christina Applegate and David Faustino were not the original Kelly and Bud Bundy! The Fox Broadcasting Company even shot the first pilot episode with different actors, but it never aired on national television.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-6f41e389f93602fffa65f4427bfdb679

(Applegate and Faustino in the roles that made them famous)

Kelly Bundy

Producers really wanted Applegate after she read beautifully for the part during auditions in 1986. But she didn’t like the script and turned them down. She was 14 at the time.

That was a gutsy move, because Applegate was hardly famous. Her filmography at the time only consisted of a few bit parts in a couple of movies and a dozen single-episode appearances in various television shows.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b4837db344a49a21336668fc872aa15a

(Applegate appears in one episode of Silver Spoons the year before becoming uber-famous)

Instead, it was unknown actress Tina Caspary who was originally cast as Kelly Bundy. Interestingly, one of her only credits was also a single episode of Silver Spoons. This is what Caspary looked like at the time of her audition for Married… with Children.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-29d5cbcb0cbf628d6a070e3597a31c92

(Caspary in Can’t Buy Me Love (1987))

For us fans of Married… with Children, can you imagine Kelly Bundy without long, blonde hair?

Bud Bundy

David Faustino was 12 when he auditioned for Married. But he never even got a callback. Instead, it was actor Hunter Carson who was cast as Bud Bundy.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c2f40fdb367f41ae7c9fa9df2305ba2d

They shot a pilot episode on December 12, 1986.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b3567c98a8d2a9f9371de065d172137a

But Ed O’Neill and Katey Sagal, who famously played Al and Peg Bundy, felt a distinct lack of chemistry with the child actors. Producers noticed it too.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-4264c5a56ce9fd2b8129f3bf60954ac5

They decided not to air the episode and recast the children’s roles.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f03f23d421eb284e73977a6d87b7c5be

Round two

Producers approached Applegate again, now 15 in 1987. Thankfully, she liked the rewritten script and accepted the part.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f4a9b97e240f7cf62694a72bd11acb95

And Faustino, now 13, had a different agent who told him to audition for the part. Faustino didn’t tell the agent he had already auditioned in 1986 and been rejected.

Even funnier, producers didn’t recognize him when he auditioned again. They loved Faustino the second time around and cast him as the Bud Bundy we know today.

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-80cb7de47a15589f1dd3893226b98e12

And the rest was television history. It’s interesting to note that Hunter Carson grew to be 5’10” in his teen years. Faustino was notably short at 5’3”. I cannot imagine Bud Bundy’s character being anything but diminutive.