You may know that directorKevin Smith’s first filmClerksspawned the Clerks animated TV series in 2000, although it only ran for one season. What you may not know is that, five years earlier, the indie hit was actually adapted for a live action TV pilot, starring Jim Breuer as Randall Graves and Andrew Lowery as Dante Hicks. The pilot was never picked up as aTV series, and now you can see why, since the fullClerkspilot has now surfaced online.
The pilot also features a few more faces you may recognize.Keri Russell, three years before starring onFelicity, plays Sandra, a tanning salon employee, with Rick Gomez, best known as ADA David Vasquez from FX’sJustified, playing an ice cream parlor worker named Todd. ScreenwriterAndré Nemec, who went on to write the fourthMission: Impossiblemovie,Mission: Impossible Ghost ProtocolandTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, also plays Cliff, with Noelle Parker playing Dante’s girlfriend Veronica, Bodhi Elfman portraying a thief named Ray and Jack Plotnick rounding out the cast as a cop. It’s fairly easy to see why thissitcomwasn’t picked up to series.
Writer-directorKevin Smithhad nothing to do with this pilot, although he and producer Scott Mosier were thanked in the credits. Ironically, originalClerksstarsBrian O’Halloranand Jeff Anderson tried out to reprise their roles, but they didn’t get the job. The pilot script was written by Richard Day, who went on to write forMad About You,Arrested DevelopmentandRunning Wilde.
Everything ended up working out fine for all of the actors involved, but who knows what may have happened had this actually gone to series. Then again, the quality is so poor here it’s hard to imagine this being green lit to series. The Clerks animated series didn’t fare much better, butKevin Smithand his cast was involved in that project that retained the same type of spirit from the original film.
Kevin Smithis currently developingClerks III, which will be the final installment of this indie trilogy, with production potentially starting this year or next year. The filmmaker is also making a sequel toMallrats, entitledMallBrats. While we wait for more updates on those projects, check out theClerks.unaired pilot episode.
