Though we now all know Buzz Lightyear to sound like the man who barked at tools on Home Improvement, back when Toy Story was first coming together, he could have sounded quite differently. Specifically, he could have sounded like Billy Crystal.
As revealed in this old video apparently recorded from Bravo (via), Pixar originally wanted Crystal to voice the plastic spaceman—and they even went so far as to demo a makeshift audition by dubbing lines from When Harry Met Sally onto an early model of the character. The result is a Buzz Lightyear whose “to infinity and beyond” catchphrase would have seemed more like the neurotic, existential dread of death. Which is to say, less iconic though vastly more identifiable.
