BTW, I didn't ask KJ what part they wanted her to play in the pilot -- I was afraid I was probably already interrogating her too much as it was! LOL! -- But could she have been offered the part of Elizabeth before Blair Brown was? It just seemed like a logical choice to me, since she would be the most well-known female actress from the original series.
Perhaps. But maybe it's just me, but as big a KJ fan as I am, I don't see her as Liz. She just doesn't seem to fall into the same type of category as, say, Jean Simmons or Blair Brown. Though, of course, TPTB behind the pilot may have seen her differently and may have actually made a serious offer to her to play Liz.
But that being said, I've been thinking about her two Third Watch episodes and it could be possible that her participation there might have conflicted with the pilot at one point. I was thinking of the pilot's actual start date of April 2nd - but we'd seen reports that the original start date had supposedly been March 22. And according to the TV production chart on Variety's Web site, Third Watch was already on hiatus as of April 5th, which, considering that she appeared in the next to last episode, would mean that the last date KJ might have been working on Third Watch was probably on or about March 25th.