Codename: Kids Next Door
What Could Have Been in this series.
An early version of the KND.
- As stated on the main page, Sector V originated in Mr. Warburton's earlier attempt at a CN series, Kenny and the Chimp (whose lone episode featured future KND villain Professor Triple Extra Large), from 1997. There, they would've been a band of troublemakers with a constantly-changing name; their antics would often get Kenny in trouble (with Chimpy often their willing partner in mischief). The CN execs realized they had much more potential and ordered a pilot focusing just on them.
- Numbuh Three was initially going to speak only in Japanese (with subtitles), while Numbuh Five was initially going to be The Voiceless. Both ideas were scrapped because it would have resulted in two girls of color (amongst three white boys) having no English-language lines, thus possibly raising protests over alleged sexism and alleged racism.
- Ed Asner was originally the voice of Mr. Boss
; it's not clear why he was replaced by Jeff Bennett. - "Operation: S.P.A.N.K.E.N.S.T.I.N.E." was originally a thirty-minute Thanksgiving special, "Operation: S.P.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G.".
- Lizzie's original character design was changed before her debut episode was made. Apparently her old appearance was too ugly for the execs.
- One episode, "Operation: T.R.E.E.S.", an episode-long Shout-Out to Dr. Seuss and specifically to The Lorax, was axed early in its production. On the old KND LiveJournal page, they also said that it was too close to The Lorax and had to be scrapped because the estate of Dr. Seuss wouldn't approve it. Judging from the post, it was going have Numbuh 362 reading a story, most likely about the treehouses.
- For The Grim Adventures of the KND, Mandy was originally going to torture Numbuh 1 by forcing him to watch Sheep in the Big City. While Sheep creator Mo Willems approved of the idea and CN's legal dept. had cleared any licensing issues, it was eventually dropped because the executives felt that Sheep was too obscure for the audience to know. It was later changed to Evil Con Carne, but it was still considered too obscure, so the gag was changed to Nigel being tortured by Fred Fredburger.
- The Toiletnator was originally going to be a one-time character whose only appearance would have been in "Operation N.O.-P.O.W.U.H."
- According to this one blog post by Tom Warburton, some of the otherwise human villains (Mr. Wink, Mr. Fibb, Mrs. Goodwall, Professor XXXL) having animal parts was supposed to lead into a story arc that eventually got abandoned. A Cartoon Network Free Comic Book Day issue that predated the show's premiere explained that the KND were responsible for at least the transformations of Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb.
- Elements of this made its way into an episode where Nigel narrates the conspiratorial origins of adults, where one such adult was made partially from a fish. The end of the episode also hinted that some part of this Origin story was true, though nothing ever came of it.
- Numbuh 1 was going to be voiced by Tom Kenny, and then an actual twelve-year-old (until he hit puberty), before Ben Diskin was chosen. Meanwhile, Numbuh 2 was going to be voiced by Sue Rose (the creator of Angela Anaconda and Pepper Ann).
- Originally, Numbuh 4 was The Chosen One destined to defeat Dodgeball Wizard, until one of the writers suggested that it should instead be his little brother, Joey.
- The teasers for GKND did lead to discussions about making a Sequel Series, but Cartoon Network rejected it in favor of The Powerpuff Girls (2016) and Ben 10 (2016). The creators have stated that they still hope to get the series off the ground.
- Black John Licorice from "Operation: L.I.C.O.R.I.C.E." was originally intended to be voiced by Geoffrey Rush, the actor who played Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (which was fitting, given that Black John Licorice was a parody of Barbossa to begin with). Instead, Marc Graue did the voice because Geoffrey Rush's rates were too expensive.
- Mr. Warburton had hoped to get Mel Brooks involved with the production of "Operation: S.P.I.N.A.C.H.", as the episode was a pastiche of the Spanish Inquisition from History of the World Part I, but was unable to get in contact with him.
- Count Spankulot's original name was Count Spankula. It was changed because internet searches for "Count Spankula" brought up results that presumably were Not Safe for Work.
- Numbuh 206, the escapee from "Operation F.U.G.I.T.I.V.E.", was originally meant to return in Season 6, but this idea didn't manifest in the end, so his fate is left unknown.
- A Nega Universe counterpart for Numbuh 362 was planned for "Operation P.O.O.L.", yet she ended up getting cut from the final episode.
- The minor villain Potty Mouth was initially going to use a lot of (bleeped-out) swears in his speech. The network wouldn't allow it, so his speaking patterns were changed to include toilet-themed Parenthetical Swearing.
