Red Dwarf: American Pilot

(thing) by Duane Dibbley (4.8 y) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Thu Jul 13 2000 at 20:26:11

There is no official American version of Red Dwarf, but NBC expressed interest and Universal did film two pilot episodes (one full episode, one promo) with Grant Naylor consulting. The cast was as follows:

Lister - Craig Bierko
Rimmer - Chris Eigeman
Holly - Jane Leeves
Cat - Hinton Battle
Kryten - Robert Llewellyn (the Kryten who stars in the UK show, but not as the first Kryten)
Kristine Kochanski - Elizabeth Morehead
First Officer Munson - Michael Heintzman (a hologram)
Captain Tau - Lorraine Toussaint (Unfortunately, all I remember about the captain in Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers was that she was a woman. I am not sure if her name was Tau. The captain in the UK show is Frank Hollister.)

This version was written by and was filmed January 22, 1992 (my birthday!). The major differences are a clean-cut caucasian Lister, and instead of an 'H' on the forehead of all holograms, there was a silver marble. The pilot didn't make the cut.

The second, shorter promo-edition of the pilot included the return of the 'H' and two recastings. In the second version, Rimmer was played by Anthony Fuscle (who?), and the new, female Cat was played by Terry Ferrel (aka Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). When this one didn't make the grade, the project was canned.

Because of problems w/ my browser and OS (I'll decline to say which ones), I can't post the script to the US pilot episode (too long). It does not appear to be copyrighted -- a copyright message is at the end of the script but appears to apply to the show itself, and not the script. The script seems to be in the public domain and were I not experiencing browser problems, I would post it here myself. If you want to read it, you can find a copy at <http://www.crosswinds.net/~mvbeast/scripts/ams.htm>.

Paraphrased from The Red Dwarf FAQ at <http://home.interpath.net/pat/rd/faq.html#USVersion>

(thing) by Snicker Furfoot (2 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Mon Jan 29 2001 at 4:39:37

Having seen the American pilot, at least the first version, I can agree that it, in fact, does NOT make the grade. The presence of Kryten disturbs the previous Odd Couple balance between Lister and Rimmer. There also didn't seem to be the sort of unapologetic cheekiness exhibited by the British Dave, nor is the American Rimmer nearly enough of a smeghead. All in all, Americans should not attempt to muck about in affairs they do not understand.

printable version
chaos

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers	Terry Farrell	I am a fish	Red Dwarf
Ace Rimmer	Kryten	It's Like, You Know...	Robert Llewellyn
Dax	Chris Eigeman	The Odd Couple	public domain
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Grant Naylor	Vanilla Sky	Arnold Rimmer
Red Hot + Blue	Hinton Battle	The Animations Of Terry Gilliam	Dave Lister
Hugh Cook	Muck	Pilot	Terry Pratchett

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