What Could Have Been / The Nostalgia Critic

There were several movies, that the Critic was scheduled to review, but no videos were made for various reasons.

Examples

• Toward the end of Nickelodeon Month, he would review the Game Shows that were on Nick, but Doug could not find any high quality footage from any show (except of Double Dare, which he already reviewed), so the Critic reviewed Good Burger instead.
• He was also about to review Newsies, but he reviewed Rocky IV instead, since The Nostalgia Chick wanted to review that movie. However, Doug later reviewed it (as himself) on January 23, 2014 by popular demand, along with Old Yeller and High School Musical 3: Senior Year, since he did not review it or the latter two during Disneycember.
• There was originally going to be an Old vs New of The War of the Worlds, but it was held up due to the copyright fiasco with The Room (2003). Eventually it was dropped, because Doug found both movies too underwhelming and overrated to compare.
• Drop Zone was dropped and replaced with Ernest Scared Stupid, because the Critic decided to take the opportunity of spending the whole October of 2010 talking about horror movies.
• Doug wanted to review Matilda because he hated it so much (It was #3 on "Doug's Top 10 Movies He Hates But Everyone Else Loves"), but so much backlash from his audience caused him to scrap the review. The later cameo appear of THE Mara Wilson, and her subsequent appearances in more Channel Awesome videos, have made up for the loss.
• According to the premium area commentary of Batman & Robin, the episode could have had Critic restrained in a straitjacket with a mental home green screen behind him.
• After the disastrous reaction to Let's Play Bart's Nightmare, the review of James and the Giant Peach was supposed to open with an argument between the Critic and Douchey McNitpick, which would basically have been a massive Take That! against those who complained. Doug was talked out of it by others, who persuaded him that in the best case it would look like he didn't understand why the video was so disliked, and in the worst-case (and probably more likely) scenario he would wind up destroying his fanbase overnight.
• The Follow That Bird review was originally meant to be a straight forward Nostalgia Critic episode — until Doug watched it to get ready for the review and realized he couldn't make fun of it. He wound up writing in Chester A. Bum to take over the review after the Critic broke down, and the review itself became 5 minutes long!
• One of the post-To Boldly Flee tributes was going to be the “Top 11 Worst NC Episodes”, but someone smart realized Doug apologizing for fifty minutes wouldn't be an enjoyable experience, and made him do the “Top 11 Worst NC-Reviewed Movies” instead.
• The sexual harrassment Running Gag in "Dawn Of The Commercials" could have been worse, as Doug wanted Rachel to fondle him at the end of their bit and Jim said "So you're going to be on your knees touching Doug".
• As stated at the end of Face/Off, the original review was going to double as a big farewell video to Rachel (with story that tied into the reviewing parts) while also introducing the new actress, but Doug deleted it by accident. So the retake ended up being more review, less skits and Rachel having to send in footage from California.
  • As this commentary elaborates, the plot would have had Tamara switching faces with Rachel in an attempt to get on the show. After the two women switch faces constantly, the Critic & Malcolm would then send Rachel to California mistaking her for Tamara and end up hiring Tamara to be Rachel's replacement. This version of the review would eventually be filmed and included in the 2015 The Awesoming bundle of videos on Vimeo, with Barney Walker playing the role of Rachel!
• The Wicker Man (2006) review commentary reveals that Spoony was originally set to appear in The Shining video, but the review was running too long so his role was cut.
  • He also says here that Rachel was going to leave just after Catwoman (2004), but her moving plans fell through. Also, if she had wanted to stay, the Straw Fan she played in "Top 11 South Park Episodes" would have come back as Critic's hyper fangirl stalker.
• The Chick/Critic The Rocky Horror Picture Show crossover with Doug singing in fetish gear will probably never happen. After Critic came back, Lindsay tweeted that it would exist in the future, but Doug shot it down at Almacon 2014 saying he wouldn't be able to cope with it. Although he raised hopes again in a 2016 con where he mused about wanting to do an old versus new of The Rocky Horror Picture Show vs the Laverne Cox one.
• The After Earth review was going to have the Critic be unaware that Will Smith wrote the script to the movie until he reads the credits. The Critic would then begin to feel betrayed and launch into a breakdown like Will's in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse". Doug backed out however because he didn't feel comfortable using such a tragic scene for the basis of a joke.
• As stated by Rob in The Lorax (2012) commentary, everyone offended by Hyper Fangirl should count their blessings; she was a lot nastier in the original script draft, and “Tamara saved Doug from his own vile mean spirited-ness”. Plus, she had at least two more prominent roles in following reviews.
• JonTron did agree to cameo in the Foodfight review in reference to the fact that he reviewed the film already shortly before the Critic released his review. However, he got busy, though eventually did cameo for the opening of the 2014 Halloween reviews.
• In the BTS of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Doug talks about recreating the original Face/Off review for the 2015 DVD, and because they couldn't get Rachel, and Rob dropped out (because as he makes very clear, he's much less into crossdressing than Doug), Barney is acting as her instead.
• In an example that Doug totally admits was hot weather getting to his brain, he and Rob apparently wanted to make a fifteen minute long sketch about a sequel to Willow, thinking it would be the funniest thing ever. Then they realized, not so much.
• There were apparently three different endings shot to the Christmas Story II review.
• In The Monster Squad review, Doug was wanting to bring back other characters aside from Analyst 1, with examples being Quinn as the cool kid and the Devil as the black kid, but thought it'd be easier to have the premise be “acting like boys and not being very good at it” instead of a load of continuity.
• Doug was originally going to get Hyper in for The Purge, but felt like the episode was overloaded enough and the Hyper>Critic Story Arc should have its own episode.
• In the commentary for Mad Max: Fury Road, and when Critic is trying to get away from the fanboys, Doug mentions he thought about doing this in an actual cemetery instead of green-screen, but realized that would be a good way to get kicked out.
• The Hocus Pocus review was originally going to be filmed outside, but Doug said that the weather was bad and he/others weren't feeling well, so they had to green-screen instead.
• In a minor example for Christmas With The Kranks, Doug was thinking of accentuating his weight loss even more by getting baggier jeans for his 2007 self, but it'd be too much work switching constantly.
• The review of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was going to be a crossover with Chris Stuckmann, but Chris had to cancel at the last minute due to schedule conflicts. Doug quickly called Brad Jones to come over and do the crossover with him instead, which worked swimmingly due to Brad pulling off an impressive Han Solo!
• In the Alvin And The Chipmunks real thoughts (released a week before she passed), Doug admits he was going to have his mom as one of the Aw Girls (because she's obsessed with 'cute'), but decided against it because she couldn't have joined in the big dance number.
• In the real thoughts of Freddy vs. Jason, Doug said Michaud him to choose between that movie or Van Helsing. Doug was proud of the choice since it hit a million views in a week. Nostalgia Critic would later cover Van Helsing during Nostalgiaween 2018.
• At Fan World, Malcolm and Doug talk about how Malcolm was originally going to play Patty in Ghostbusters, but Malcolm's friend then identified as genderfluid so both thought they would be better than a cis guy in drag. (Ironically, said friend, Adonis, would later come out as a trans man, thus no longer identifying as a woman at all.)
• Hyper Fangirl's wedding dress in the Chipwrecked review was going to be a lot more complex according to Tamara's process vlog, but due to errors and time constraints she ended up just altering her Velma cosplay dress.