Dollhouse

Dollhouse (Joss Whedon vs. Fox)

What they changed: The premise and the characters are the same, but the stories unfold in a rather different way. We’re initially introduced to Echo through a trio of very different engagements: one philanthropic, one as a revenge date, and one where she talks down gangsters in Espagnol. Boyd is already Echo’s handler, and Topher has already caught onto Echo’s bison-like grouping with Victor and Sierra. Agent Paul Ballard also comes face-to-face with Echo in the original pilot...when Topher programs Echo to kill him.

How might the series have been different? The original pilot played more as the start of a noir series than as a proof-of-concept for an engagement-of-the-week serial (which is what the official pilot "Ghost" suggests). We probably would have leaped to Dollhouse’s underlying plot more quickly, and spent more of the season focusing on Echo’s emerging awareness. Plus, it seems the Dollhouse was originally going to be more hands on in addressing Ballard’s investigation. We see some of that noir (and slightly more classically Whedonesque dialogue) in the original pilot