When then-fledgling network Fox decided to launch a prime-time lineup in spring 1987, the very first show that aired was Married…With Children. (Directly after it? The Tracey Ullman Show.) Writer/filmmaker Kevin Pang recently tweeted the script for the unaired pilot, which was filmed on December 12, 1986, and featured different actors playing the Bundy kids: Hunter Carson as Bud and Tina Caspary as Kelly. Comparing this episode to the pilot episode that actually aired on April 5, 1987, switching in David Faustino and Christina Applegate (respectively) was the right move. Although each of the characters was fully formed from day one (if not moment one—after all, the show opens with Bud attempting to fake-kill Kelly before heading off to school), Applegate and Faustino had the right amount of sour attitude to make them far more believable as the offspring of the charmingly dysfunctional Al and Peggy. Watch both versions of the pilot—whose scripts ended up nearly identical—below.
Unaired Pilot:
Unaired Married with Children - Pilot from The Salfordian on Vimeo.