One of George Romero's more beloved creations is Bub from Day of the Dead. Smart enough to learn a few basic tasks, and to grow emotionally attached to the scientist who's teaching him. The earliest materials we have for Day of the Dead were produced all the way back in 1979, when Dawn was still in theaters. That document, a very short synopsis, was likely written to secure the deal that would fund his next three films: Knightriders, Creepshow, and Day. The first longer draft comes from 1982, and it's very different from the finished film. The original conception is a huge, sprawling epic, with a giant cast of characters navigating zombie armies that have been trained to fight humanity's wars. It would have been a remarkable film, on a far grander scale than Romero would ever get the chance to work with. According to Romero's collaborators at the time, Romero could have filmed this script, but he'd need to promise an "R"-rated cut. Suspicious that fans of zombie movies would show up for a sequel that was light on gore, he instead opted to make the film with a drastically reduced budget, and that lower budget would grant him the freedom to release the film unrated. The differences between the finished film and his original conception were stark enough that he listed "Day of the Dead (version 1)" as one of his "unrealized projects" in a 1992 letter. 

There are significant differences between the synopsis, the first version, and the finished film, but some of the most fascinating elements of the early drafts are the consistencies. Rhodes, memorably played by Joseph Pilato in the finished film, is also the main villain of the first version. In the first version, however, he has actual military power, and he is more openly cruel, even bloodthirsty. But perhaps the most interesting consistency between the first and second versions of the script comes in the portrayal of fan favorite Bub, the zombie. 

In the finished film, we see Bub being taught and trained by the Dr. Logan. He shows glimmers of humanity and possible memories of simple tools and tasks, and in his progress throughout the film he seems to grow emotionally attached to Logan. In the chaos of the film's climax, Bub shoots the villainous Rhodes in vengeance for the scientist's murder, followed by a bitterly sarcastic salute. In the 1982 draft, Bub is one of several zombies to have been trained by a scientist named Mary Henried. But, whereas in the finished film Bub is the first and most successful experiment in domesticating zombies, the military dictatorship of the first version has a mass of trained zombies who perform basic tasks. Cleaning and transporting materials, mainly, but they're also trained to attack rebels and outsiders. Bub is the most advanced of Henried's students, a quick-draw sharpshooter who is loyal to his teacher and wants to impress her - their relationship in this draft seems very much like a mother-son dynamic.

We have briefly met Bub before, alongside fellow students Bluto and Tonto, but this is his first sustained scene: 

IN THE CLOSET STALL, the tall ZOMBIE named BUB is trying to attract MARY's attention. We met him last night, too. He was the one RHODES referred to as MARY's pride and joy; the one that was surly and unsociable to RHODES. BUB can tell the good guys from the bad guys.

BUB stands in his shooting stall wearing western-style gun belts. Six-shooters hang in holsters on each of his hips. A GUARD is trying to turn BUB around to face the target wall, but the tall creature seems more interested in MARY.

MARY faces BUB and she delivers a military salute with her hand.

Mary: Good morning, Bub.

BUB replies with one of those pathetic sounds that obviously means something to him. Then he, too, salutes. 

The rest of the scene plays out with Bub continuing his attempts to please and impress Henried, showing off his prowess as a gunslingers and saluting her repeatedly, making snarling sounds as if trying to talk to her. Bub was, in both the first version and the film, Romero's first attempt to explore the "humanity" of zombies that would be so central to his subsequent zombie films and to the novel that Daniel Kraus finished after Romero's death, The Living Dead. Seeing the humanity in zombies, and attempting to, in her words, "humanize" them, is what makes Mary Henried a heroic figure in Day, and Rhodes' contempt for her efforts is one of many things that makes him a villain. 

NOTE: Many thanks to Peter Schöfböck for his assistance with this post. Peter was able to identify and decipher a cryptic memo written while Romero was in Germany, and which pertains to the reception of Dawn of the Dead in that country rather than, as I had previously assumed, to the development of Day.

-Adam Charles Hart