What Could Have Been / Total Drama

Total Drama

Brochure advertising Camp TV.

What Could Have Been in this series.

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General

• Some of the voice actors originally auditioned for characters who weren't the ones they ended up becoming:
  • Emilie-Claire Barlow (Courtney) originally auditioned for Heather.
  • While Cory Doran originally auditioned for Mike and hoped that would be the role he got, he was also given a chance at doing Scott and Cameron.
  • Besides Noah, Carter Hayden also auditioned for Owen & Chris.
  • Caitlynne Medrek (Dawn) originally auditioned for Molly (Zoey's prototype from Total Drama Reloaded) and the original Zoey.
  • Besides Duncan, Drew Nelson also auditioned for Owen, Chef, Chris, Cody and several minor characters.
  • Christian Potenza originally auditioned for Ezekiel, but was persuaded by Tom McGillis to voice Chris.
  • Besides Heather, Rachel Wilson also auditioned for Gwen & Lindsay and really wanted to be cast as one of the two aforementioned.

Camp TV

You can read here for more information about the prototype version of Total Drama Island.

• As seen in 2003 overview:
  • The show featured only 10 contestants, 5 boys and 5 girls.
  • The host was named Brock Rockwell.
  • Rather than being Voted Off the Island, one contestant would simply win a popularity vote at the end.
• 2004 overview revealed that the number of contestants increased to 12. By 2006, 18 contestants had designs.
• Courtney, Heather, Izzy and Noah weren't planned at this point. Several other characters shared some resemblence with their current designs (such as prototype Eva resembling Heather). Interestingly, all four became major characters in the final product, either right from the first season or with time.
• 2004 overview mentions Jessica, Mandy, and Hilary, with none of the names being used in the final version. However, in a July 2006 revision for Total Drama Island, Jessica is renamed Heather. The Hillary and Mandy storyline is revised to feature Duncan and Geoff (spelled Jeff).
• Many of the characters that existed at this point had different designs. Some of them looked exactly like their present counterparts (i.e. Geoff), some had minor differences (e.g. Lindsay, Harold, Trent, Duncan, Leshawna, and Owen) and some looked nothing like they do now (e.g. Tyler, Ezekiel, Katie, Sadie, DJ, and Cody). Even with characters that looked close to their final concepts, they have some noticeable differences
• Lindsay was intended to be the series' Big Bad, which explains Heather's absence from Camp TV.
  • She was also portrayed in the trailer as a Karmic Butt-Monkey, again, just like Heather is in the show proper.
• Gwen was originally known as Heather, and she was more of a loner.
• Geoff and Gwen were supposed to be in a relationship.
• Gwen and Trent were supposed to be mortal enemies, with Trent by the way being a social pariah among the contestants.
• Harold was going to have a different shirt, this one referencing the Middle-earth.
• Tyler was one of the main characters, whereas Owen was one of the side characters.

Total Drama Island (2007)

Not So Happy Campers - Part 1

• The script of this episode reveals that instead of the two just looking at each other while waiting in line for Chef's food at the main lodge, Tyler would've been checking out Lindsay's butt and she would've flirted with him in turn.

If You Can't Take the Heat...

• According to the original storyboard, the Killer Bass were originally going to get in a food fight with each other after Duncan accidentally fired custard at DJ. The only food that wasn't going to be damaged from the food fight was Harold and Sadie's antipasto, which Harold guarded.

Haute Camp-Ture/After the Dock of Shame

• The episode was originally going to be a regular competition episode and feature a Fashion Show-esque challenge instead. This makes sense given how the episode's title "Haute Campture" is a play on the term "Haute Couture", which consists of high end fashion based in France.
  "Each camper is getting their minutes of fame - or make that, five minutes of shame, when they compete in the Total Drama Modeling Challenge. Dressed in heels in wigs and forced to strut their stuff, they will be judged on their walking, talking and hawking as they participate in the photo shoot. Owen scores big points with the judges, but loses big time friendships when he gets caught in multi-alliances. If the campers humiliation weren't tested to the limits, their courage will be when they are told they must do their final catwalk performance on a tiny runway over a pit of crocodiles! In the end, one camper reigns supreme when they fall into the croc pits and face off with the hungry beasts."
• Furthermore, Todd Kauffman revealed on his Twitter that the original plot was scrapped likely because many costume changes made it difficult production-wise. He also confirmed that Leshawna would give up her immunity for Gwen under assumption that the latter would vote off Heather, only for Gwen to vote her off instead, with Heather mocking her that anyone who gives up immunity deserves to lose.

Total Drama Action

• Justin was intended to be the Big Bad of Action, which is obvious given his earlier episodes in that season, before the staff realized he just didn't have what it takes to be an actual threat, and decided to have Courtney take over as the main antagonist in the second half of the season.

Total Drama World Tour

• World Tour was originally to be called Total Drama, the Musical, feature only 15 contestants, and include visits to locations such as Italy; Hershey, Pennsylvania; Scotland; and Toronto, none of which made it in the final product^note Though most were still featured in some way, such as being used in the Aftermaths.

Super Crazy Happy Fun Time in Japan

• According to Carter Hayden, Noah's voice actor, Owen was supposed to make actual monster noises instead of saying "monster noises". However, Scott McCord improvised that line and the production crew felt that this was funny, so they left it in.

I See London...

• Sierra's lines in the song were changed to be more family-friendly. You can watch the original unedited version here.

Greece's Pieces

• The episode's destination was originally going to be Italy, but the crew thought that setting it in Greece would give them the opportunity to make an Olympic-themed episode.

Total Drama: Revenge of the Island

• Cameo appearances by Harold, Leshawna and Tyler were planned, but scrapped at the last minute. All three still made brief cameos along with the rest of the original characters in the first episode.
  • Though never explicitly confirmed by the crew, it's possible that Katie was also going to have a cameo appearance in the season, possibly co-cameoing with Lindsay in "Runaway Model", as Fresh TV's now-defunct website listed Stephanie Anne Mills as having voiced both Lindsay and Katie in Revenge of the Island.
• Revenge of the Island had radically different character designs in its early stages.
  • Mike was pale and blonde in his prototype design. According to Mike's voice actor, Cory Doran, this was changed because Teletoon felt he looked too similar to Jimmy Two-Shoes and worried that kids would get the two confused due to their respective shows sometimes airing back to back and both characters having the same voice actor. Thus, Fresh TV decided Mike being Ambiguously Brown so he could be easily differentiated. Additionally, his eyes were Black Bead Eyes to eyes with sclera.
  • Cameron's prototype design is a white guy. A slightly recoloured version of the design was used for Jay and Mickey in Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.
  • In his prototype design, Scott has a small beard, wears a green military shirt, and wears dogtags. The beard was removed altogether and the shirt color and dogtags went to Brick in the final product.
  • With the exceptions of Jo and late-addition Dawn, all female characters have had their traits exchanged in various ways. Dakota originally had the red hair and flower that ended up on Zoey. Aside from that, Zoey is a fusion of another girl named Zoey and a girl named Molly. She has Zoey's name and references to her 60s retro enthusiasm remain in the final product even though the final Zoey doesn't look like she'd care about that. Of Molly, she has her earrings and bracelets and possibly the title "The Indie Chick", although that might also be the other Zoey's original title. The original Zoey's hair was shortened and given to Staci, who originally was going to be a blonde, and her top was made pink and given to Anne Maria.
  • B and Dawn are late additions. Dawn was created to fill the gap following Zoey's and Molly's fusion into a new Zoey and B was added as a thirteenth contestant when originally there were going to be twelve.
• According to this article from 2008, Revenge of the Island was also originally called Total Drama Comedy in its very early planning stages.
• Elements of the season that were changed due to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster included the Toxic Rats originally being named the Radioactive Rats and Fang also having the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes (which would explain why an episode is titled "Truth or Laser Shark").
• According to Cory Doran, Mike was originally going to do some sort of shudder whenever he switched, but they changed it to that gasp as they felt the audience needed a more obvious indication to tell he was switching.

Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!

• This episode was originally to feature a pancake eating challenge that ended up being cut for time constraints. This challenge did end up in the series proper the following season for "Food Fright".
• As evidenced by a scene in an early trailer of what seems to be a different version of the season finale, at one time this episode would've originally ended with Staci keeping all her hair after getting eliminated.

Truth or Laser Shark

• The episode's title comes from an earlier script, when Fang the Shark was originally going to be able to shoot lasers as part of his mutations.
• Harold was confirmed to be one of three characters, along with Leshawna and Tyler, whose cameos were planned for the season but scrapped from the final version. Considering glasses identical to his are given to the contestants for the second challenge, and that the second challenge's called "Mad Skills" Obstacle Course (a term clearly referencing Harold's multiple "mad skills"), this was most likely the episode in which he was planned to appear in.

Total Drama All-Stars

• According to◊ Word of God, the original All-Stars line-up included Owen, Cody, and Brick, but later decisions had them replaced with Gwen and Sam, and the cast cut down to 14. However Owen still managed to get a cameo in the finale, while Cody was frequently mentioned by Sierra with his face appearing in her hallucinations. The same line-up also revealed plots that didn't make it into the season such as Courtney getting revenge on Heather, Duncan getting revenge on Courtney, the continuation of Zoey's commando persona, and Scott creating a new and improved strategy after analyzing past Total Drama episodes.
  • Owen was dropped because according to rumors, Scott McCord declined to voice him for a whole season.
  • Cody was dropped because they thought his relationship with Sierra had been fully played out in World Tour.
  • Brick was replaced by Sam because the latter had "more drama potential".
  • Anne Maria was also a part of the original cast before being replaced by an Island competitor (allegedly Gwen).
  • And then there's a trailer from late 2011 (two months before Revenge of the Island aired and almost two years before All-Stars actually aired), which may be an indicator that Justin, Beth, Ezekiel, Blaineley, Izzy, Geoff, Bridgette, Trent, Leshawna, Harold, Noah and Tyler may have also been considered to compete in the season at one point.
• Lightning was originally meant to have brown hair again, but the writers left it white.
• A scrapped storyline would have been about Lindsay and Tyler going under a break up after Lindsay forgot his name in front of his parents. It was scrapped, however, and the two of them are canonically still together.

Food Fright

• The storyboard reveals that the scene at the girls' cabin from the start of the episode would've played out differently. Heather would've complained about getting Chef's powdered gruel on her hair while Courtney gives her a broom. After being asked what she can do with it, Courtney answered "Ride it," calling her a witch in a roundabout way, referencing their conflict largely missing from the final product. Meanwhile, Gwen would've been fixing a gap in the roof over her bed with the gruel, recommending doing so for Courtney next, only for the latter to refuse, suspecting it might turn out to be another act of Gwen "sabotaging" her.

Total Drama: Pahkitew Island

General

• According to his character bio, Max from Pahkitew Island was said to have psychic powers that allowed him to see only 3 seconds into the future. No traits of his psychic powers were shown in the actual season and he was simply the Big Bad Wannabe.
• Topher originally wore a blue and yellow shirt with gray pants. This was changed to have his clothing match Chris'.

So, Uh, This Is My Team?

• Beardo was originally making robot sounds and walking like a robot during his attempt to retrieve supplies from the garbage pile instead of running in slow motion.
  • Furthermore, Dave and Chef's reactions to this could be seen on two separate small screens.
• After Leonard's tower fell over and Leonard was revealed to not be hurt, a piece of the tower fell down and hit him on the head as he celebrated.
• After retrieving the bucket of glitter, the birds that were following Ella got injured, unbeknownst to her.
• There was one more Sugar's confessional, which was shown at the beginning of the elimination ceremony, along with Dave's, Leonard's and Beardo's.
• During the campfire ceremony, Sugar ate Leonard's marshmallow.

Sky Fall

• Originally, this episode was supposed to be titled "Break Back Mountain" in reference to Brokeback Mountain, but the network didn't want to allude to a movie with homosexual relationship.

The Ridonculous Race

• Don (the show's host) originally started off with a much different design◊ and was known as Chadley Chizzleton, which went with his original basis of Ron Burgundy.
  • Brody, Crimson, Dwayne, and Ennui were also going to have partially different designs◊. As shown on the same picture, Geoff was initially going to keep the bracelet on his right wrist, which he wore during Total Drama.
• Lorenzo used to be known as Keifer, then Chad, and Chet was known as Keith.
• Rock started out as Mike, then Roach, while Spuds started out as Corky than Sparky. Early promotional material also referred to them as the Small Town Buds◊ rather than the Rockers.
• MacArthur started out as Marsha and Sanders was known as Beth.
• The Geniuses (Mary & Ellody) were originally known as the AV Club.
• The Surfer Dudes (Geoff & Brody) were originally known as The Bromance Bros, and then the Bromance Boys◊. Brody also used to be known as Bro.
• The Ice Dancers (Jacques & Josee) started out as siblings.
• The Fashion Bloggers (Tom & Jen) started out as The BFFs and were the producer's assistants.
• While The Tennis Rivals (Gerry & Pete) have a Friendly Rivalry with one another, they started out as mortal enemies who hated each other.
• Leonard from Pahkitew Island was picked at the last minute because they wanted a magician character but figured "he was just as good" as well as to save money on production. This also lead to Tammy's creation as the magician had to be paired up with an assistant.
• Besides the aforementioned magician and his assistant, a few other teams were considered but ultimately cut. These included an elderly couple in their nineties, a team of Pranksters, a team of Extreme Girls who were obsessed with over the top reality TV, and a team of nerds.
  • Furthermore, there was going to be a team of two blonde females, which could have been one of the aforementioned scrapped teams. However, it's also possible Taylor was merely going to have blonde hair instead of brown.
• The Final 3 changed a few times. Among the known considered choices were Ice Dancers, Best Friends and Sisters◊; Ice Dancers, Police Cadets and Sisters; and Ice Dancers, Police Cadets and Best Friends.
  • Furthermore, aside from it being one of the initial final 3 choices, the Surfer Dudes weren't supposed to return.
• Terry McGurrin revealed in a Twitter post that, in one of the first drafts for the finale, Chris was planned to have a bigger role in the episode: he was going to show up and give Don hosting tips, only not to be recognized by the current host and eventually be escorted by the security. The idea had to be dropped due to concerns about runtime and ruining the episode's tension.

Total Drama Island (2023) Part 1

• Clé Bennett is nowadays busy with multiple Hollywood projects (having managed to break out from the Only So Many Canadian Actors niche since the late 2010s), or else he could have been possibly given back his role as Chef Hatchet by Deven Mack, who has been voicing the Chef since Total DramaRama due to Fresh TV believing that Bennett can't fully commit himself to the role again despite never being actually fired.
• Christian Potenza mentioned back in late 2021 that he was going to reprise his role as Chris McLean once more, having already recorded the first episode. However, once the first trailers of the season were released in early 2023, it was instead revealed that Terry McGurrin would take over the role from Potenza. According to McGurrin himself, this decision was made to acknowledge that the new seasons were part of a revival, though a few reports allege that some apparent abuse allegations involving Potenza may have also been a factor.
• Cake Entertainment's original synopsis of the season mentioned extreme baking, TikToking, drag racing and “disaster and horror movie inspired challenges”. However, none of those end up as challenges in any of the episodes. The extreme baking challenge appears to have been recycled for the next season's "Fun Fight at the O'Cake Corral".
• An image of Scary Girl's facial expressions was leaked before the season's premiere, with several storyboard shots from the opening on the side. Among them was a shot with Emma and Damien standing next to a bear, meaning that they (and Chase who'd likely soon appear in that scene) would have their individual scenes in the opening before the final shot of the campfire. The same leaked images also seems to suggest that, at one point, Wayne and Raj were gonna be sitting in the middle of the campfire.
• Zee's hat was going to have a plum colour, but because the color caused the hat to get lost against the dark brown of Camp Wawanakwa's trees, Terry McGurrin and his team looked for other options that could pop more until they settled with green.
• Bowie was originally going to have another name, but was changed due to Terry McGurrin's love for David Bowie.
• The episode "Pirates of the Cabbagean" was originally going to be titled "Ship for Brains", a title Terry McGurrin jokingly pitched in the season's writing room. However, McGurrin and the writers ended up changing it due to feeling it had to be changed for the final release. The original title was unexplainably kept in IMDb.
• Terry McGurrin showed some reservations in the writers room about making "Jurassic Fart", feeling somewhat weird over seeing it produced, so had Neha Kohli's first draft not convinced him to do the episode, it may have been scrapped. Though funnily enough, several fans wish McGurrin had scrapped it.