I've read the script now, and like it! Some changes obviously took place between this and actual production. My personal favorite was the business when Carolyn met Victoria--the little (hilarious) gesture when she asked "Have you met...David?"
Seems to me some things were probably cut for budgetary reasons. Understandable. They wanted a pilot and any characters that might be best introduced later--Sarah, Sam, Maggie--might have been cut to save money.
What I've said before (and am clearly saying again) is that the WB pilot became in many ways my favorite DS ever. Like the original series it created its own little pocket of reality that let me accept a few absurdities--like no one checking out the credit score of the new arrival, or that such a huge home would exist in Maine of all places in the 1700s. All the performances seemed good to me, setting up all kinds of mysteries that led me hoping to see more. Yes, that includes Blair Brown. What else had been going on in that house, I kept wondering?
My only disappointment was that Victoria seemed to be Josette's reincarnation. Frankly, that was cliche back in 1968 and the original series wisely avoided it.
