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. Thanks for watching! Click the Nicki Swift icon to subscribe to
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