Unaired Pilot Episode with different Kelly and Bud

[Movie12]

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.

[TMC]

What are some little-known facts about popular TV sitcoms?

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.



(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.



(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.



(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.



They shot a pilot episode on December 12, 1986.



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.



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



Round two

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



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.



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.