MB I am a bit surprised by your statement that the WB approved of Alec's performance as Barnabas. Logic would dictate that if an entire filmed pilot is deemed "unsalvageable", that the main character is largely to blame.
Well, technically, what Garth Ancier said was that even though the pilot was "wonderfully produced" by John Wells, Wells must have realized that the pilot was unsalvageable because Wells never approached Ancier about fixing it. Ancier also firmly placed the blame on the director (PJ Hogan) for the pilot's problems. (The report of this can be read again here:
No Resurrection For Shadows) However, as we know, John Wells subsequently disputed that he'd ever thought the pilot was unsalvageable and actually said that he loved the way it turned out.
In terms of the pilot's main character, though, I'm not so sure one can say it was Newman's Barnabas, At first I was a bit surprised by how little screen time Newman actually had. But then, when one thinks about it, given Barnabas' circumstances, it really couldn't be any other way in a 40 minute pilot. If anything, Vicki was more of the main character because she appeared in the most scenes.
Additionally, Rod Labbe reported in the "What Happened" to the WB pilot article, that the WB "disliked Newman's Barnabas". I would have to assume he obtained that information from JP but of course I do not know that.
It's usually very dangerous to assume.