Sci Fi Bytes: Nuggets, anecdotes, trivia, and more from the worlds of sci fi and fantasy television.
In 1963, ABC produced a pilot for an action / adventure series that would have focused on the historical figure Alexander the Great along with his general and closest friend Cleander. The series would have done a Maverick-style switch-off of its leads, with one episode focusing on Alexander and the next shifting to Cleander. It was an interesting idea and the pilot was not bad, but what does it have to do with sci fi TV you might ask? Well, it just so happens that the two actors cast in the lead roles were William Shatner and Adam West.
Shatner would go on to play the captain of the starship Enterprise two years later, while West would don the cape and cowl of Batman for the iconic superhero series. But if Alexander the Great had been picked up to series and lasted more than a season, both Star Trek and Batman would have had a very different look. Neither actor would have been available for the lead roles which would have led to different faces being associated with James T. Kirk and Bruce Wayne / Batman. ABC decided not to pick up the pilot, in part because the network execs were less than impressed with the final product, and because it would have certainly been an expensive series to produce. It was later aired on the network in 1968 as a movie-of-the-week, probably to capitalize on the popularity of the two leads who had moved on to their more iconic roles by that time.
If you are curious about the pilot, you can find it on YouTube and it is also available for streaming on Prime Video if you have Amazon Prime. It is somewhat cheesy as you would expect from a TV production from that era, but it has its moments and it can be good fun at times. And who wouldn’t pay the admission price to see Shatner and West in togas? It is mostly interesting because those two hold the lead roles, though West does not have much to do in the pilot. Shatner would later say that he was quite disappointed that it was not picked up to series. But West had a different view, claiming that it was one of the worst scripts he ever read and one of the worst productions he was associated with.
As an additional note, Jack Lord was one of the actors considered for the role of Captain Kirk, though Shatner would be the final choice. If the Shat-man had not been available, and Lord had sat in the command chair, that would have had a significant impact on Hawaii Five-0 which Lord went on to star in for twelve seasons. Lyle Wagner, who would later go on to co-star in the 70’s Wonder Woman series, was one of the actors that was considered for the Batman role before West was brought onboard. If events had gone a little differently, think of the ripple effect this pilot would have had on the television landscape.
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