As with most TV shows, a pilot episode was made for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was never aired on TV. There are apparantly grainy copies of it floating around on the internet somewhere, if you want to download a copy, but I’ve never watched it.
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.
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.
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