The only major difference between the unaired version of Wonderfalls and the aired version (officially titled “Wax Lion”), apart from an extra six minutes of buffer time, is the fact that two of the roles were recast, with Lee Pace replacing Adam Scott in the role of ‘Aaron’, and Tracie Thoms replacing Kerry Washington in the role of ‘Majandra’. Recasting parts from pilot to series is nothing new in the television business; it happens all the time, so it would be sensationalist for me to act like this is a novel thing. But it’s still a very important part of the pilot process – and thus television in general – so I would be remiss if I didn't cover this aspect of unseen pilots as part of the Failed Pilot Project.
Before going into any deeper discussion, it should be stated for the record that neither of the original actors were bumped for creative reasons; it’s just that neither of them could commit to filming future episodes. Yet I think the producers of this show lucked out with these casting changes, as they were able to procure actors that were better at addressing certain tones that the series would eventually achieve. I don’t want to cast a blanket “these actors are better” argument – it’s far more nuanced than that, and as I’ve said in earlier posts, I’m not the best judge of acting ability – but I do think Wonderfalls is a better show due to their presence.
While the entire unaired pilot is embedded below (there are no separate clips to be found, as far as I can tell), I have provided the time frames for the original actors appearances next to each character name, and for those of you who have already seen the series, you can skip forward to the appropriate scenes. For those of you who haven’t seen the series, go ahead and watch the pilot; it’s still an awesome piece of television, and you can find many of the other show’s episodes on Youtube as well. (Though admittedly the video quality isn’t all that great. Sorry.)
Aaron: (7:00-9:00)
Here in 2011, having Adam Scott play someone’s douchey, mean older brother doesn’t seem like all that big of a revelation. He’s made a killing off that shtick, and for good reason. But back in 2003…okay, it may not have been all that revelatory back then either. The man played Griff on Boy Meets World for goodness sakes. But I do think that the role of Aaron would have been a good one for Scott, at least based on what this one scene tells us, and Scott could have rode it to a higher level of stardom – that is, if the show didn’t end up getting cancelled. (And yes, you read that right. Aaron, one of the show’s main characters, had only one scene – and a small one at that – in the pilot. Way to introduce all your characters, show.)
Yet despite how well Scott fits the bill of the character in the pilot, I’m not sure that such a singular character trait would have been such a wise decision for the run of the series. Jay already has to face derisive comments from her mother and her sister (her father, while a bit weird here, is still supportive, something that would become more evident as the series wore on), as well as a soul-crushing job, and adding a douchy brother on top of that just seems like it would have made her little world a bit too unbearable.
Yet when Lee Pace came into the role, it seemed as if, at least in later episodes, the character was reoriented in order to be a more benevolent presence towards Jay. He is still a pretentious jackass, to be sure, but he’s also far less cold than he comes off in “Wax Lion”. (Yes, Pace is very good at being a douche in this first episode, though I’m still not sure if that’s his acting ability, or the shock I have as watching him being something other than Ned the Piemaker.) And maybe the producers always had a plan to expand that role in the future. But while Scott is a talented enough actor to have pulled off those other beats, I’m not sure if it would have been believable. Or to put it another way, Scott is so good at playing the douche, that it might have seemed incompatible to also give him a caring side like the one Pace ultimately exhibited.
In this (possibly) new role of benevolent yet snarky older brother, Aaron came to make a more substantial impact on Jay’s life than the rest of the Tyler clan was able to in the series’ 13 episodes. And as Aaron began to investigate Jay’s new found talent for communicating with inanimate objects, the stakes of the show (low-key as they were) began to ramp up and there became a noticeable uptick in the drama. Again, I can’t be sure that this wasn’t Bryan Fuller’s plan all along with the character, but I feel as if Pace arrival on the show did cause the producers to rethink the role of Aaron. And even if they didn’t, well at least we can be glad that they lucked into the right actor for the part.
Plus it led to Pace being cast in the lead of Pushing Daisies, and nobody can argue with those results.
Majandra: (10:30-12:15)
Okay, so I lied a little bit in my introductory comments: I do think that Tracie Thoms is a better actor than Kerry Washington, as least in terms of this role. It’s not that I think that Washington is bad, I just don’t think she dialed in on how to properly bounce off of Jay’s general attitude. Jay is such a spunky, willful character that for any character to be believable as her friend, they would need to exhibit an equal level of attitude. And the way Washington reads those lines in the pilot – which can admittedly be read a few different ways – she comes across more as the overly supportive friend as opposed to what Jay really needs, someone to push back against her when she goes too far. While I do think Washington’s take on the character could have led to Jay to some good, emotional moments different from what the series brought us, I think it’s more important to give Jay a friend that’s snarky as she is. Without Majandra at her side, Jay’s attitude would have come off as far more spiteful, and her character might have suffered for it, coming off as more anti-heroine then heroine.
But the one real qualm I do have with Washington’s acting, at least based on what’s on display here, is that she doesn’t really seem to be plumbing the depths of the character. Now of course getting used to a character, especially on a television series, takes time, and nobody is at their best here in the pilot. But Washington’s acting seems the most superficial, and it makes me wonder if she would have been able to pull off some of the later moments the show gave the character.
Again, this is just speculation, but I get the feeling that once the show saw how Thoms played the character – as someone who, much like Jay, used her snark to distance others and/or hide her inner feelings from the outside worlds – they decided that they would give the character these deeper emotions to play with. (She also got an extra scene added in to “Wax Lion” where she did get to play the supportive friends role, after already displaying the snark in the original scene.) And much like with Aaron – and as I suspect the show would have done with the other characters, given the chance – the show branching out and giving Majandra her own storyline gives the series as a whole a much needed sense of depth. As much as the show is centered around Jay, there are other people in her life, and if they all existed as static sketches, it would be much harder for the show to create believable drama among the core cast. But luckily, thanks to some last minute casting changes, the show was able to give us a slew of dynamic characters, thus adding to one of the most regrettably cancelled series of the past ten years.
Next Week: Inside Bryan Fuller’s attempt at animation, The Amazing Screw-On Head.
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