Rupert Grint is currently promoting his appearance in CBGB, but he came very close to being a CBS comedy star. Last spring, The Eye network shot a pilot for a single-camera comedy called Super Clyde, in which the former Harry Potter star played a comic-book dude who inherits a boatload of money from a crazy uncle and decides to become something of a superhero, giving help to those in need. Raising Hope creator Greg Garcia shot the pilot (which also stars Stephen Fry) at roughly the same time as The Millers; only the latter show got greenlit to series. But even though Super Clyde didn’t move forward, Garcia and fellow exec producer Michael Fresco lobbied CBS execs to at least let folks see their finished product online. And, in a bit of a surprise move, CBS said yes.
“The worst part about it not ending up on the fall schedule was that no one was going to see something that I was really proud of,†Garcia said in a statement released to Vulture. “Thankfully the folks at CBS are giving people a chance to see the pilot online, and I’m very grateful for that. Now I just hope people like it as much as I do.â€Â Back in the seventies and eighties, broadcast network pilots which didn’t get ordered to series were often burned off during the summer as “specials.†The nets largely halted that practice decades ago, though every once in a while an unsold pilot will end up on the air, (like NBC’s recent Munsters reboot, Mockingbird Lane) or online (Warner Bros. TV’s Aquaman). It’s unlikely that CBS will change its mind and order Super Clyde to series. But if you’re curious about what CBS rejected, and want to see whether Grint’s American accent is any better than Rebel Wilson’s, the pilot can be seen right here.