I just sat through the first disc of the first season of American Dreams and thought “Damn, that was a good pilot episode.” It clearly introduces the characters without painting them in such bold strokes that they come across as comical, it has a solid plot that is a fairly representative of how the show will unfold, and it gives the show plenty of room in which to grow. This got me to thinking: What is the best pilot episode I have ever seen?
So far three have come to mind: #1The Wonder Years The Wonder Years (this, in my opinion, wins hands down.) #2 Freaks and Geeks #3 Party of Five
Alright, so I think the first two hold up pretty well, but some of you may be thinking “Party of Five.” However, I contest, if you go back and watch the first season and *only * the first season, that was a damn good show. The pilot sets everything into motion and does a great job of making us aware of their situation without explicitly stating all that much.
I’d like to say Buffy’s premier episode (a two-hour long showing that was later separated into two episodes for the DVDs), but that might be because I was expecting it to be bad–based on how the movie was–and I was floored when it turned out pretty damn good. So, I might hold it in high esteem simply because my expectations were so low.
Veronica Mars, however, that pilot episode had me hooked. I watched it out of curiosity and was immediately sucked into the storyline. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next episode. A smart lead actress, excellent script, a great mystery and the somewhat shocking revelation of what happened to her the previous year, all presented in one neat package. Compelling stuff, that.
And for the kid in me, the first Transformers, G.I. Joe and Voltron (the lions, not the silly cars) episodes.
I don’t know. While I’m a huge fan of Veronica Mars and think it’s one of the best shows on television, I felt that the pilot was not its greatest moment. It wasn’t really the show’s fault - but there was a lot of characters and background that needed to be introduced and I felt it threw off the pacing and there was too much exposition.
The pilot episode of My Name Is Earl, on the other hand, I feel did an excellent job in introducing its premise and cast while incorporating in a good plot.
Kung Fu, the 1972 pilot movie for the TV series featuring David Carradine, is what comes to my mind. It established the memory flash-backs which characterized and enriched the three seasons of Kung Fu that followed. This pilot is a gem.
For my money, the pilot of Six Feet Under is just about the best written, acted, lit and shot 65 minutes ever shown as a pilot for a t.v. show that was picked up.
Yeah. Weirdly, I looked at the clock JUST as it started, and it ran 65 minutes from what I could see. It was perfection.
“Frasier” - I watched it, expecting it to be bad, but watching it out of loyalty to “Cheers.” Frasier’s character was one of the last I would have expected as a successful spin-off character because he was so one-dimensional. But the writers blew me away with their brilliant decisions to change the setting to Seattle, to center the action around a family we had never met before, and to have Frasier’s father move into his upscale condo with that beat up LazyBoy.
The scene where Frasier makes a disparaging comment about “Eddie,” only to have the camera pan to a DOG, was laugh out loud funny.
“Lost” - beautifully shot, beautiful location juxtaposed against a plane crash. It had me hooked from Day 1.
“All in the Family” was just “Wow, this is going to change television!” right off the bat.
“The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” is the only other debut I remember that came close.
Note that a lot of very good shows, like “The Simpsons” started off quite well, but didn’t have that sort of “holy moly” reaction the above 2 did.
Unfortunately, in recent years, I don’t usually start watching a new show until it’s been on a few episodes and it seems to be “out of the ordinary”. E.g., I didn’t get around to watching “Scrubs” until maybe 3 episodes in.
I was going to mention this one. When they were talking about the Cuban refugees, and Leo was asking a bunch of questions that no one could answer, and he finally said in exasperation “True or False, I could stand in Key West with a pair of binoculars and get just as much information as you’re giving me now?” I fell in love.
