For a brief time in entertainment history, vampires were all the rage.
Buffy, Twilight, and True Blood proved that audiences thirsted for vampire-human romance,
so The CW capitalized on that craze with its adaptation of L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries
novels.
The series, which immediately claimed its own audience, became a major hit for the network.
But it wasn't all sunshine rings and crows for this show.
Here's the story you might not know about The Vampire Diaries.
Creative differences
Kevin Williamson, a beacon of the teen scene thanks to Scream and Dawson's Creek, initially
snubbed the idea of The Vampire Diaries.
The writer-producer admitted his fear to The Independent, saying he didn't want fans to
see it as
"... a Twilight rip-off, no matter which [novel series] came first"
...due to the ultra similar premises: small-town girl falls for impossibly handsome boy, who
just so happens to be a secret vampire, and she kind of digs his undeadness.
It was co-creator Julie Plec who changed his mind about that, though, and convinced him
to check out Smith's novels before giving it a hard pass.
She explained,
"I began to realize that it was a story about a small town, about that town's underbelly
and about what lurks under the surface."
Williamson responded to the central character's struggle with grief from the loss of her parents
and that there was a sense of "hopelessness" about her situation that could really resonate
with the Dawson's Creek crowd.
That dramatic distinction was ultimately enough for him to put his stamp on the effort.
Casting sliding doors
Nina Dobrev made a household name for herself by becoming Elena Gilbert… then Katherine
Pierce, then the third doppelganger, Amara.
But she almost wasn't the face of the series.
The network's first choice for the role was actually singer-actress Ashlee Simpson.
Yep.
Dobrev only won the role after producers gave her audition a second look and determined
that she was a better fit.
And before Ian Somerhalder earned his nickname "Ian Smolderholder" for his work as the steely-eyed
Damon Salvatore, future co-stars Paul Wesley, Zach Roerig, and Michael Trevino were all
amongst those who tried out for the role, too.
They eventually earned their own memorable and long-lived characters on the series, of
course, but Somerhalder as Damon is show canon, so it's hard to imagine any of them in his
place.
Bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble
The pilot for The Vampire Diaries was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the
Twilight Saga films were shot.
However, the rest of production took place down in Covington, Georgia, and it was there
that the cast found themselves in a little bit of a legal snare shortly after the series
premiered.
Just a day after the pilot hit the small screen, several of the series' cast members -- including
Nina Dobrev, Candice Accola, Kayla Ewell, and Sara Canning -- were reportedly arrested
for naughtily distracting drivers on a freeway during a photoshoot with photographer Tyler
Shields.
"No comment."
Although reports initially indicated that they may have been flashing traffic as well,
Ewell later denied that's what went down during the incident, and the first season ratings
remained strong despite the hubbub.
Delayed spin-off
Due to the initial success of The Vampire Diaries, The CW began to entertain the idea
of a spin-off series right away, settling on a fall 2011 date as the hopeful premiere
window.
Williamson, who'd previously planned doing a college campus-set paranormal investigation
sister series, became involved with his now-defunct The Secret Circle instead of moving forward
with the follow-up idea.
So, those plans were postponed until Plec picked up the torch and carried forward with
her idea for The Originals, which carried over several of The Vampire Diaries' own secondary
characters as a companion series, and aired in October 2013.
Real-life relationship drama
It's not uncommon for a show that involves so much physical and emotional passion to
transpire into some unexpected off-screen romance, but with The Vampire Diaries, there
have been an unusual amount of real-life couplings to happen amidst its cast … for better or
worse.
Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, for one, proved that their on-screen chemistry as the
ultra-shippable Delena duo was inspired by some real-life heat between the actors.
It was all well and good for a while between the two, but when they broke up in real-life
and had to continue doing love scenes, things got tricky.
"And then we started dating on the show."
"Then we started dating in real life."
"And then we broke up in real life."
"And yet our characters are still dating on the show."
"It's a good thing it's not awkward!"
After Somerhalder married Dobrev's former friend Nikki Reed, it wasn't long 'til Dobrev
announced her departure from the series.
They've since quashed any rumors of lingering bad blood, but the show's final seasons suffered
without her presence.
Theirs wasn't the only cast coupling to go south while the cameras were still rolling.
Paul Wesley's real-life wife Torrey DeVitto also joined the cast in a recurring role before
the two split, leading to her character counterpart suddenly taking her leave of Mystic Falls.
After their separation, he began to date the show's guest actress Phoebe Tonkin, who starred
in its sister program The Originals.
And after an on-and-off relationship of four years, those two called it quits for good
in October of 2017.
Meanwhile, Candice Accola and Zach Roerig were once an item for a brief period of time
early on in the series — although they've both since moved on.
And actor Joseph Morgan also found love on the set of the show with actress Persia White,
who had a brief recurring role in the show, and the two married in 2014.
Off-screen parallels
Budding and busted romances weren't the only true life takeaways from the show.
When Candice Accola got pregnant with her first child with guitarist Joe King, the show
also wrote in her onscreen surrogate pregnancy to explain her growing baby bump.
There was also a fire at the real-life set of the Mystic Grill, which was a little spooky
considering the show had previously torched its fictional version of the setting the season
before.
The Somerhalder shutdown
Ian Somerhalder accidentally preempted the show's end date announcement when he told
reporters that The Vampire Diaries' eighth season would be its final run.
Seeing as the network hadn't yet confirmed the same at the time, the actor had to eat
his words a little bit and backtracked to say that he was merely speaking for himself.
Ultimately, though, the showrunners confirmed the same with the news that Season 8 would
indeed be the final stand for The Vampire Diaries and it came to a close in early 2017.
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