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5 early publicity photos that don’t match the shows they’re promoting
These promotional materials are an interesting look at the early stages of five classic series.
Some shows are perfect right out of the gate, but most take at least a few episodes, if not seasons, to find their footing. Early on, a series can also look different from what it will eventually become due to costume variations, set changes or even cast members dropping out.
Here are five images created for classic TV shows that don’t quite match the look and feel most people associate with these series.
1. Star Trek
Yes, that’s Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand in Star Trek. But even casual fans will notice how different she looks in this early publicity shot. Her shirt is similar to the costumes worn in the unaired pilot “The Cage” and early season one episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” By the time she made her first appearance as Yeoman Rand in “The Man Trap,” Whitney’s costume had changed to red and her beehive updo had an intricate braid.
Image: The Everett Collection
2. The Flintstones
Most of the characters in this early Flintstones artwork look enough like their final forms to be recognizable. But the little boy on the right never made it into the show at all! When it came time for Fred and Wilma to have a baby in season three, a boy was considered but a girl was ultimately chosen for marketing reasons. There was a Little Golden Book published a few months after the show premiered, however, that featured Fred, Wilma and their son, Freddy Jr.
Image: The Everett Collection
3. The Big Valley
Speaking of forgotten TV sons, Eugene Barkley is perhaps the most overlooked character in any classic TV show. Even more than Chuck Cunningham! This promotional photo shows Charles Briles as Eugene hamming it up with costar Linda Evans. While this picture does technically correspond correctly to The Big Valley at the time it was taken, Eugene would only appear in a few first-season episodes, making this image seem strange looking back. But these photos will forever prove he was a part of the show at least for a little while!
Image: The Everett Collection
4. Green Acres
This promotional photo for Green Acres takes a metaphorical approach to the show. It’s referencing the fact that Lisa and Oliver have to climb a telephone pole just to answer calls because the line doesn’t actually connect into the house. But the phone in the show is black and this prop handset isn’t even connected to anything! It gets the point across, but it doesn’t match any actual scene from the sitcom.
Image: The Everett Collection
5. Land of the Giants
This publicity photo featuring Land of the Giants star Deanna Lund was obviously meant to grab attention, but it barely has any correlation to the actual show. She’s posing with the model of the spaceship used in the series. It could make some kind of sense if she played a giant, but she didn’t! She was a tiny, fully-clothed human.
Image: The Everett Collection
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The original name of the series in which a pilot was even made, was "The Flagstones".
The name "Gladstones" was considered and actually appeared on a number of sketches before the final change to "Flintstones".
Fred: "BARNEY!!!"
Green Acres: Bonanza, Cannon, Mannix, The Love Boat and Barnaby Jones. But LOL , yeah she may have been as much trouble as Gidget. 😀
Back in 2015 I took an unexpectedly expensive "staycation". I got so bored that I spent $15 for the Moebius mini Spindrift models - and about $600 building it. (Yes, really.)
Toward the end of the build, a combination of unfamiliarity with airbrushing, impatience and a heat-gun led to near total disaster. Then I remembered from my visit to the set of LOTG in late 1969 or early 1970 that THEIR Spindrift didn't have a ;eft side *either*. [le sigh]
So I scratch-built a diorama of the forest setting with the ship nestled against the base of a tree, effectively concealing the ... um... "battle damage" (yeah, that's it.)