| “ | I thought this was supposed to be a talent contest! | „ |
| ~ Lindsay to the camera. |
Lindsay, labeled as The Spoiled Princess, was intended to be the main antagonist of the planned Canadian animated reality show Camp TV, an early version of what became Total Drama Island, the first season of the iconic Canadian animated franchise Total Drama. While an heroic and one of the kindest contestants in the final product, Lindsay was originally going to be show's villain rather than a kind girl manipulated by the villains, joining Camp TV with the intent of winning the show while beating out the competition.
She was voiced by Stephanie Anne Mills in the finished project.
Biography[]
Around 2003 and 2004, wanting to produce teenage entertainment, Fresh TV executives made some research and asked Canadian teenagers about what they liked to see on television, with the most common answer being that they enjoyed watching reality TV shows, like Survivor, The Amazing Race, Fear Factor and Big Brother. With all this in mind, Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch came up with the premise of making a Survivor-like cartoon hosted for teenager contestants, all based on teenage stereotypes, which they named Camp TV. In 2006, a promo trailer was made for Camp TV, displaying its basics and characters.
In the trailer, we see that the main villain of the show would be Lindsay, a blonde girl known as "The Spoiled Princess". In the promo, Lindsay is seen tanning while on the docks before a bird poops on her face, kissing up with a jock named Tyler instead of focusing on the challenge like a delinquent named Duncan and a big boy named DJ, interacting with a sassy African American teenage named Leshawna (though secretly hiding her dislike for her), preparing to jump to the lake while complaining to the cameraman that she thought the show was going to involve a talent contest, running away covered by the red ant farm of a nerd named Harold and is last seen painting Leshawna's nails possibly to sway her to her side to survive elimination. It's unknown how Lindsay would have fared in the season, but given her role as the main antagonist, it's likely that she would have went far enough.
However, as any other show, Camp TV was retooled before its release, which saw the show's name changed to Total Drama Island, which went on to become the first season of Total Drama, undoubtedly one of Canada's most popular cartoons. Similarly, several characterizations were altered for the final product, and among them, was Lindsay's: for the finished product, Lindsay was rewritten as a kind dumb blonde and the role of main antagonist was given to Heather, who incidentally recruits Lindsay as one of her allies until she realizes what a fake friend Heather is.
Trivia[]
- Although Heather ultimately replaced Lindsay as the main villain in the finished product, some aspects of Lindsay's original characterization remained in the first season:
- Lindsay's line about her believing that she was going to participate in a talent contest was said by her to Chris McLean in the series premiere, though it was slightly altered to "I thought this was going to be a talent contest!".
- Harold's red ant farm being dumped on a devious contestant, though it was Heather rather than Lindsay for exposing Gwen's secrets to the viewing world.
- Due to the intentions of the creators of Total Drama of basing their contestants on stereotypes, it's likely that Lindsay would have been based on the "Evil Blonde" stereotype, with Regina George from Mean Girls as a possible inspiration, considering that Camp TV was pitched in the early/mid-2000s around the same time Mean Girls was released. Total Drama director Todd Kauffman originally designed Lindsay for Camp TV with a "Reese Witherspoon sort of look", possibly that of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde.
- It's rumored that Rachel Wilson, who voiced Heather in the finished product, voiced Lindsay in the Camp TV promo, but it's unknown if it was her or some Fresh TV executive doing a scratch voiceover.