‘Daisy Jones and The Six’: How the TV Adaptation Compares to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Novel

Credit: Amazon Studios

'Daisy Jones and The Six': How the TV Adaptation Compares to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Novel

Look at them now! Following the critical acclaim of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six, Prime Video brought the compelling characters to the small screen in a limited series starring Riley Keough, Sam Claflin and more.

“It read like a movie or television show with back in time, but also had this great documentary footage angle too,” executive producer Reese Witherspoon told Today in February 2023 about why she was instantly inspired by the adaptation. “You got to see people talking about their life in a way that built this mystery.”

The novel, which hit bookshelves in 2019, followed the whirlwind rise of a fictional 1970s rock group and their lead singer, Daisy Jones (Keough. The puzzle pieces told throughout the story reveal the mystery behind their eventual breakup.

For the Sweet Home Alabama star — and Reid, who is also a writer and producer on the series — finding the perfect cast for the series was imperative in bringing everything to life, starting with titular character Daisy Jones herself.

“Riley came on really early. I think we all thought it was going to be really hard to find Daisy Jones because she’s this really larger-than-life character,” the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo author explained to the outlet. “And then Riley showed up and immediately (we were) like, ‘Oh, there she is. She is Daisy Jones.’ I might have written the book for her and not have known it.”

When it came to romantic lead Billy Dunne, however, Reid told Today that finding an actor who could match up with Keough's intensity was a challenge.

“It took a little while to find that person. And I firmly believe that the reason for that was that we were just waiting for Sam Claflin,” Reid shared, adding that she was surprised at how well the chemistry worked between the entire cast.

“I didn’t see that coming. Not because I didn’t think that it was possible, but because I don’t think I’ve seen chemistry quite like this before,” she said. “It’s really beyond what I could have imagined.”

When it came to taking the story from paper to the screen, showrunner Scott Neustadter knew the transition would be seamless due to the way Reid had crafted the narrative.

“I always knew that an oral history would lend itself well to a mockumentary or documentary sort of situation,” he told Time in March 2023. “Early on, that helped make it a fairly seamless translation; later, we realized that a lot [of the book] is allusions to moments, things that she said or he said, but you might be missing the actual scene of what happened. So we got to invent those scenes from scratch —entire moments that we got to write from beginning to end, which isn’t always the case with an adaptation. It afforded us so much fun and so many kinds of opportunities for drama will hopefully deepen the story.”

Neustadter still had the challenge, however, of figuring out what worked best for TV —and that meant expanding certain characters' stories while cutting others out completely. In one of the biggest changes from the novel, The Six’s bassist, Pete, is erased entirely, with the band always having five members (plus Camila, portrayed by Camila Morrone, Billy’s girlfriend and eventual wife).

“When you adapt things for television, changes inevitably happen,” he shared. “The Pete character serves a function in the novel, but he doesn’t have much to say, he’s not the most dramatic. We knew if we were going to cast Pete, the actor might want more to do. It felt like eliminating Pete enabled us to do more with the characters that we had in the ensemble, which was already a pretty big group of people.”

In lieu of Pete, viewers are given a bigger look into the lives of more minor book characters like Teddy Price (Tom Wright) and Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be), Daisy’s best friend.

“We wanted to explore what it meant to be a queer Black woman in the world in that moment in time,” he explained to Time. “What would have to be compromised, what would have to be hidden? And especially in the world of disco, which is so much about freedom and expression, that dichotomy was very interesting to us. We also really wanted to make sure that she was her own character, not someone whose only function was guiding Daisy’s story. That was really important to everybody.”

Keep scrolling to see all the changes the TV adaptation made from the book:

Credit: Amazon Studios

'Daisy Jones and The Six': How the TV Adaptation Compares to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Novel

Look at them now! Following the critical acclaim of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six, Prime Video brought the compelling characters to the small screen in a limited series starring Riley Keough, Sam Claflin and more.

“It read like a movie or television show with back in time, but also had this great documentary footage angle too,” executive producer Reese Witherspoon told Today in February 2023 about why she was instantly inspired by the adaptation. “You got to see people talking about their life in a way that built this mystery.”

The novel, which hit bookshelves in 2019, followed the whirlwind rise of a fictional 1970s rock group and their lead singer, Daisy Jones (Keough. The puzzle pieces told throughout the story reveal the mystery behind their eventual breakup.

For the Sweet Home Alabama star — and Reid, who is also a writer and producer on the series — finding the perfect cast for the series was imperative in bringing everything to life, starting with titular character Daisy Jones herself.

“Riley came on really early. I think we all thought it was going to be really hard to find Daisy Jones because she’s this really larger-than-life character,” the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo author explained to the outlet. “And then Riley showed up and immediately (we were) like, ‘Oh, there she is. She is Daisy Jones.’ I might have written the book for her and not have known it.”

When it came to romantic lead Billy Dunne, however, Reid told Today that finding an actor who could match up with Keough's intensity was a challenge.

“It took a little while to find that person. And I firmly believe that the reason for that was that we were just waiting for Sam Claflin,” Reid shared, adding that she was surprised at how well the chemistry worked between the entire cast.

“I didn’t see that coming. Not because I didn’t think that it was possible, but because I don’t think I’ve seen chemistry quite like this before,” she said. “It’s really beyond what I could have imagined.”

When it came to taking the story from paper to the screen, showrunner Scott Neustadter knew the transition would be seamless due to the way Reid had crafted the narrative.

“I always knew that an oral history would lend itself well to a mockumentary or documentary sort of situation,” he told Time in March 2023. “Early on, that helped make it a fairly seamless translation; later, we realized that a lot [of the book] is allusions to moments, things that she said or he said, but you might be missing the actual scene of what happened. So we got to invent those scenes from scratch —entire moments that we got to write from beginning to end, which isn’t always the case with an adaptation. It afforded us so much fun and so many kinds of opportunities for drama will hopefully deepen the story.”

Neustadter still had the challenge, however, of figuring out what worked best for TV —and that meant expanding certain characters' stories while cutting others out completely. In one of the biggest changes from the novel, The Six’s bassist, Pete, is erased entirely, with the band always having five members (plus Camila, portrayed by Camila Morrone, Billy’s girlfriend and eventual wife).

“When you adapt things for television, changes inevitably happen,” he shared. “The Pete character serves a function in the novel, but he doesn’t have much to say, he’s not the most dramatic. We knew if we were going to cast Pete, the actor might want more to do. It felt like eliminating Pete enabled us to do more with the characters that we had in the ensemble, which was already a pretty big group of people.”

In lieu of Pete, viewers are given a bigger look into the lives of more minor book characters like Teddy Price (Tom Wright) and Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be), Daisy’s best friend.

“We wanted to explore what it meant to be a queer Black woman in the world in that moment in time,” he explained to Time. “What would have to be compromised, what would have to be hidden? And especially in the world of disco, which is so much about freedom and expression, that dichotomy was very interesting to us. We also really wanted to make sure that she was her own character, not someone whose only function was guiding Daisy’s story. That was really important to everybody.”

Keep scrolling to see all the changes the TV adaptation made from the book:

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Daisy Isn’t Born Daisy

While she changes her name from Margaret to Daisy in the show, she was born with the Daisy Jones moniker in the novel. 

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Changing of the Times

The band reconvenes to be interviewed 40 years after breaking up in the book. In the series, they recount their story 20 years after their final show, making it the mid-1990s. 

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

A New Kind of Meet Cute

Billy first meets Camila when she’s serving him as his waitress at a bar in the novel. However, in the Prime Video series, the pair have a meet-cute at a laundromat — where Camila pretends not to know who Billy is. 

Camila also chooses to join Billy before the band leaves for L.A. in the show. In the book, they twosome break up and don’t get back together until Billy calls and tells her The Six have a record deal. 

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Eddie’s Motives

While he’s simply a negative guy who likes to complain in the novel, the TV version of Eddie has reasons to resent Billy. The show alludes that Eddie had a crush on Billy’s girlfriend Camila since childhood. He's also forced to switch from guitar to bass when Chuck quits the band — something he doesn’t want to do. 

When Billy exits to attend rehab, Eddie shows a desire to become the new frontman, but the band laughs at his suggestion. 

Credit: Amazon Studios

Where's Pete?

While The Six are still performing as The Dunne Brothers in the novel, they have two other members — Pete Loving, who is Eddie’s (Josh Whitehouse) brother, and Chuck Williams, who is drafted and dies while serving in the Vietnam war overseas. Pete, for his part, remains a member of the band until he leaves to settle down with his girlfriend to start a family.

In the series, Chuck and Pete become one character, Chuck Loving (Jack Romano). While he still exits the band, he quits to pursue dentistry and attend college instead of being shipped off to war — and he isn’t related to Eddie. 

Credit: Amazon Studios

Twist on the Six

Because Pete doesn’t exist in the show, there are only five bandmates. The show solves the problem by having Karen (Suki Waterhouse) suggest the new name and include Camila in her calculations.

Credit: Amazon Studios

More Simone

Simone is mostly a sounding board for Daisy in the novel, but in the show, she’s given her own story line and career path — and her sexuality is defined as explicitly queer.

"I think it was a great addition because gay people created disco music," Be told Insider in a March 2023 interview. "It was part of the movement, it was part of why the music was so relevant. So making Simone a queer character and having her be the pioneer, the face, and one of the fundamental aspects of this genre coming to life, I thought was super important."

She continued, "I think it was a great addition because gay people created disco music. It was part of the movement, it was part of why the music was so relevant. So making Simone a queer character and having her be the pioneer, the face, and one of the fundamental aspects of this genre coming to life, I thought was super important."

Credit: Amazon Studios

More Teddy Price

Rod Reyes (Timothy Olyphant) has a big hand in helping The Six take off and gain some early success prior to Daisy joining the group in the novel. The show, meanwhile, has Rod line them up for a single gig at Filthy McNasty's on the Sunset Strip.

Instead, Billy and the band focus on getting the attention of Teddy Price, who Billy convinces to come to hear the band play. Teddy becomes the main mentor for the band — and Rod joins as tour manager once they’ve become famous.

Credit: Amazon Studios

Camila’s Got Complexity

While she’s simply good-natured and reasonable in the book, Camila is given her own agency in the novel — working as a photographer and as someone who has their own wants and desires in life. 

Credit: Amazon Studios

Music Change Up

In the show, only three songs retain their original names from the book: "Please," and "Regret Me,” in which the lyrics were also altered.

"The lyrics were something we chose really early that we just have to let them go," Neustadter told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published in March 2023. "When we went to these music people, we were giving them a lot of constraints. You have to write a song from this perspective. We were giving them a lot of, 'It has to be about this.' These songs tell the stories, and they have a narrative function. Even if you've changed the words, the story that they're telling, you have to write that song.”

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video (2)

How Graham and Karen Start Dating

  The show amps up the conflict by making Karen watch Graham pursue another girl before acting on her feelings for him. The book gives the couple a simpler story: Their romance blooms after Karen asks Graham why he’s never made a move on her. When he replies that he doesn’t “take shots” he thinks he'll “miss,” Karen lets him know that he won’t miss with her.

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Billy and Daisy Act on Their Feelings

While a kiss between Billy and Daisy technically happens in both the novel and the TV adaptation, the book has a much more subtle approach. Daisy and Billy’s lips barely touch before Billy pulls back. The snub fuels Daisy’s anger and she writes the song "Regret Me.”

In the Prime series, Billy passionately kisses Daisy in a parking lot in order to get her into the right emotional headspace to sing “More Fun to Miss” with vocal ferocity. 

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

New Photographer

While the Aurora album cover is a shot of only Billy and Daisy in both the show and the book, the person taking the picture is completely different.

Freddie Mendoza, a photographer who has a front-row seat to the duo’s chemistry, takes the snap in the novel. On the show, however, Billy’s wife, Camila, ends up seeing the twosome having a private, heated argument during the album cover photo shoot and secretly captures the moment herself.   

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video (2)

Camila and Eddie's Affair

  The book hints that Camila cheated on Billy, but the show outright confirms it. Not only does Camila have a one-night affair after getting fed up with being dismissed by her husband — she ends up sleeping with Eddie, Billy’s bandmate, who has been in love with her since childhood. 

Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Camila and Daisy’s 1st Meeting

  The women meet while The Six are on tour in the book. The novel, however, has Camila invite Daisy to a party at her and Billy’s home — without Billy’s knowledge. While he’s frustrated by her presence at first, the band ends up in a jam session that leads to Daisy becoming an official member of The Six.