# Best television pilot **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306 "2006-10-29T04:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/21 "2006-10-30T00:00:04Z")
I’ll vote for the two-hour pilot episode of **The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.** , which was exciting and suspenseful while being funny as all getout. Gosh, how I miss that show. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/22 "2006-10-30T00:01:39Z")
Another vote for\* Firefly \* which I did not see until 4 years after it aired. Really, did they do _any_ advertising for this show??? And _My Name is Earl_. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/23 "2006-10-30T00:08:45Z")
I’ll second Twin Peaks. The music! The scenery! The air of genera weirdness. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/24 "2006-10-30T01:40:18Z")
**Deadwood** – besides introducing a bevy of colorful, fleshed out, well defined characters, there was hanging and shooting and rescue and bodies fed to pigs. I still can’t believe they did all that in less than an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/25 "2006-10-30T01:51:41Z")
I’m going to have to grudgingly admit that the pilot for Homicide isn’t all that stand out (as compared with many of the episodes.) But the movie they made to wrap it up was pretty darn special. So I’m going to have to go with Twin Peaks. ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/26 "2006-10-30T02:16:50Z")
I thought **The Shield** had a pretty riveting pilot, with an ending that a) really set the tone for the series and main character, and b) you’d be hard-pressed to ever forget. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/27 "2006-10-30T02:18:30Z")
Great shows with great pilots: **The West Wing** **Firefly** **My So Called Life** Great shows with merely good pilots: **Buffy** and **Angel** **Deadwood** **The Wire** Great show with a fairly poor pilot: **The Simpsons** Iffy show with a great pilot: **Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip** ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/28 "2006-10-30T02:44:27Z")
**Eureka** was pretty sizzlin’. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/29 "2006-10-30T03:04:23Z")
Though it wasn’t exactly like the first episode that aired, the pilot for **Heroes** was so good (that music!), everyone I know who watched it got hooked. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/30 "2006-10-30T03:29:43Z")
I agree with the general consensus about _Studio 60_, _Six Feet Under_, _Frazier_ and _My Name is Earl_. _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_ gave us the “you got spunk” scene, perhaps the most quoted piece of dialogue ever. _Sex and the City_ has a terrific pilot even though it does little to really introduce us to the main characters. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/31 "2006-10-30T04:06:39Z")
I recall being completely hooked on _The Sopranos_ right away, even though I didn’t think I would like the series at all. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/32 "2006-10-30T08:43:01Z")
**Twin Peaks** , haunting, mesmerizing, bizarre, sad, funny, gorgeous, amazing. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/33 "2006-10-30T08:46:44Z")
I liked **ER** ’s pilot, lots of strong characters. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/34 "2006-10-30T13:08:02Z")
Not the grreatest pilots ever, but they were above-average and hinted at greatness: The **Star Trek** pilot, of course. They changed a lot of things later, but it was ground-breaking and interesting. Taking SF for real, as an adult concept. **The Questor Tapes** – I’m not sure they really could have made a good series out of this, but Roddenbery did have a knack for interesting SF. He tried again (three times!) with a series about a guy who wakes up buck-Rodgers-like in a changed future world. It wasn’t quite as gfood, but it was fun. **Barefoot in the Park** – this showed up (as did many other pilots) on **Love American Style** , but it was MUCH better than the usual run of their offerings. It featured Al/david Hedison as the newlywed husband and I can’t remember who as his wife. It really stood out as well-done. based, of course, on the Neil Simon play (and subsequent movie). Timas has changed, and I now find the Jane Fonda movie unwatchable. I might find this pilot thec same way (hubby doesn’t want to let his bride take out his expensive new car, puts her through training course), but maybe I would. When it came time to turn this into a series, they decided to make all the characters black. It didn’t work, and the series died. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/35 "2006-10-30T17:55:56Z")
**The Black Donnelly’s** pilot is bitchin’. Better than a lot of movies I’ve seen lately. I was really pissed when I found out it wasn’t a fall show but a mid-season replacement. OTOH, mid-season is coming up fast. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/36 "2006-10-30T18:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] The **Star Trek** pilot, of course. They changed a lot of things later, but it was ground-breaking and interesting. Taking SF for real, as an adult concept. [/QUOTE] Well, of the _two_, I have to admit liking “Where No Man Has Gone Before” a lot more than “The Cage”. “The Man-Trap”, however, is mediocre. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/37 "2006-10-30T18:12:25Z")
> [@](#): > > “The Man-Trap”, however, is mediocre. True, but it wasn’t a pilot, nor even intended to be the first episode aired. IIRC, it’s supposed to have been the fifth one made, but someone (studio execs? Roddenbery?) decided it was a good one to use to introduce the concepts to the audience. Why they didn’t use the pilot, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/38 "2006-10-30T21:00:53Z")
I didn’t see it mentioned yet - **Futurama** ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/39 "2006-10-30T21:45:44Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] **Deadwood** – besides introducing a bevy of colorful, fleshed out, well defined characters, there was hanging and shooting and rescue and bodies fed to pigs. I still can’t believe they did all that in less than an hour. [/QUOTE] I think the two of us have talked abut this before..maybe not… I think the Deadwood pilot is actually pretty unspectacular. In fact when I try to turn people onto the series I always tell them “Watch the first three episodes and decide. The first one isn’t that great but by episode 3 if you aren’t hooked there’s something wrong with you.” The first episode was produced and nearly a year went by before they produced another episode…and it shows. In the pilot everything is not quite there. The dialogue doesn’t resonate. The town looks like a set. The characters just don’t settle well. I can totally see someone not getting hooked by Deadwood’s pilot. I think Milch and Co. put a lot of work into the show between the first and second episodes. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306/40 "2006-10-31T05:24:00Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] The **Star Trek** pilot, of course. They changed a lot of things later, but it was ground-breaking and interesting. Taking SF for real, as an adult concept. [/QUOTE] And, since the OP doesn’t require that the pilot be made into an actual series, I present for your consideration, [**Assignment: Earth**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708419/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-television-pilot/378306.md?page=3)