What Might Have Been... Vol. II

Some more interesting tidbits about movie and TV peeples...

—John Belushi was originally slated to be in Ghostbusters before his untimely death.  I’ve heard conflicting reports that he would have either played Venkman (Bill Murray’s character) or Ernie Hudson’s character.

—Speaking of Belushi, Animal House was initially slated to be filmed on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, but school officials took one look at the script and got the heebie-jeebies, thus the plan was scuttled, so Otter, D-Day, Flounder, Bluto and the boys from Delta House wound up filming at the University of Oregon.

—Actor Edward James Olmos lost out to Christopher Lloyd as Kruge the Klingon in Star Trek III-The Search For Spock because Lloyd was taller.  D’oh!

—Seven years before becoming Dr. Noah Drake on "General Hospital", Rick Springfield nearly replaced David Cassidy on "The Partridge Family" when Cassidy handed in his notice after the show’s fourth season.  Since no one seemed to notice when they replaced the original brown-haired Chris (Jeremy Gelbwaks) with a blond Chris (Brian Forster), the producers thought it might work with Rick taking David's place too.  However, cooler heads prevailed, and they wisely decided to call it a day since the series had run its course anyway, plus it was high time for Danny Bonaduce to get started on becoming the pathetic has-been he is today.

—Actor/producer Jeremy Lloyd was a regular on "Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In" in the early ‘70s, and later co-created the BBC sitcom "Are You Being Served?", and he can be very thankful for a bout of exhaustion that probably saved his life.  He was invited to spend the evening with Sharon Tate and friends on August 9, 1969 when the Manson family came a-calling.  Fortunately for Lloyd, he was so tired that he took a nap that afternoon which lasted well into the evening and he wound up not going out that night at all.

—Actress Moira Kelly was originally cast as Kit Keller in A League Of Their Own, but an ankle injury she sustained during the filming of her breakthrough movie The Cutting Edge (where she played a figure skater) put the kibosh on that.  Subsequently, Lori Petty got the role of Kit, for which she wore a wig because her real hair was much shorter than Kit's.

—Sharon Stone was passed over for lead roles in several big-time movies, including Fatal Attraction (Glenn Close), Batman (Kim Basinger) and Dick Tracy (Madonna).