Why was Marcia Rodd dropped after the pilot?

[BestTVever]

Seems like proof she never wanted to be on a TV series. I know its hard for some of us to believe someone would turn down a TV series but there are many actors that did. They did not want to live tied to a sitcom.
The pilot of Maude was very successful with high ratings so you would imagine they would not want to change a thing. I can understand Bea's concern about switching up her daughter. But I think Marcia was too much a mini-mi of Maude. The softer daughter character worked better. Florida was the antagonist along with the conservative neighbor and her husband. Having a more fluid and neutral daughter worked better IMHO.
Not the first pilot to change things up. Alice changed who her son would be. Roseanne changed up DJ. The Golden Girls axed their house keeper.
There is a book about Maude, no? I am surprised this is not discussed.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

Seems like proof she never wanted to be on a TV series. I know its hard for some of us to believe someone would turn down a TV series but there are many actors that did. They did not want to live tied to a sitcom.
The pilot of Maude was very successful with high ratings so you would imagine they would not want to change a thing. I can understand Bea's concern about switching up her daughter. But I think Marcia was too much a mini-mi of Maude. The softer daughter character worked better. Florida was the antagonist along with the conservative neighbor and her husband. Having a more fluid and neutral daughter worked better IMHO.
Not the first pilot to change things up. Alice changed who her son would be. Roseanne changed up DJ. The Golden Girls axed their house keeper.
There is a book about Maude, no? I am surprised this is not discussed.

She was a castmember of a TV series, 13 Queens Boulevard, she appeared in all 9 episodes. Doris Roberts who did not appear in the backdoor pilot was originally cast in the role of Vivian but Lear was impressed by Rue McClanahan performance in an All in the Family episode and made the change. Producers have to consider a lot of things when putting a show together, there may have been feedback from the network suits, or audience feedback from the pilot filming or Lear himself may have decided her performance was too similar to Bea's.

[TVFactFan]

It was reported that the actress was determined to stay in New York and did not wanna move to California

[ProcolHarum]

Personally I liked Adrienne Barbeau better.She ruled as Carol.