Until Michael Bay runs out of 80s franchises to ruin, it’s likely that we won’t see a live action Sailor Moon. But once upon a time, before the spunky sailor scouts made their way onto North American television, someone pitched a pilot for an adaptation that didn’t just involve some creative editing and dubbing voices.

A live action Sailor Moon for a Western audience was to have Serena in a very Saved by the Bell-campy show that would switch over to animation when she changed into her Sailor Moon persona.

Check it out:

The second hand recording of this extended opening segment may look very rough and pretty silly, but it fits the style of the time and was probably less embarrassing then.

This looks like a Debbie Gibson video, but honestly, if you remember back to this era of television, everything aimed at this demographic looked pretty similar to this.

Yeah, it was a good idea to can this horrible concept. They made Power Rangers work without animating the Ranger parts, but this would have been creepy. The only live action Sailor Scouts I need are cosplayers (except maybe that jolly fella with the beard.) I was dragged into watching Sailor Moon because my wife was secretly obsessed with it. I saw it for what it was, and there was some fun there, but just not my cup of tea.

Still, I am glad they went with creative editing and english dubs.