Best TV pilot(s) of all time...

Cafe Society
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What, in your opinion, was at least one of the best television pilots of all time? You can name more if you like, and you can explain why if you want.

I have at least two, both of which I’ve seen from the DVD releases of those series:

“Hawaii Five-O” (the original from 1968; a.k.a. “Cocoon”); what I liked about this one was, for one thing, the climax when Wo Fat put McGarrett into the “cocoon” to see how long the latter could last (IIRC, McGarrett lasted almost 9 hrs. in that pool; that’s got to be a world record for endurance for a fictional character). The other thing that I liked about this one was the extra-long cut of the opening theme (91 sec. estimated).

“Hardcastle and McCormick” from 1983 (that pilot was a.k.a. “Rolling Thunder”). One of the best things about this one was that segment where McCormick comes before Hardcastle on a charge of stealing the Coyote. The judge let McCormick’s defense counsel know exactly where he stood on swearing: “I don’t allow swearing in my courtroom. If you do it again, you’re in contempt.”

Another fine exchange from that one: McCormick brings up the story of his first auto theft conviction: he put a Porsche in his girlfriend’s name for insurance purposes, only to have her throw him out; he went and retrieved that car, only to have his former girlfriend have him arrested for grand theft auto. The judge on that one (also Hardcastle, by the way) sentenced him to, in McCormick’s words, “two long years.” Hardcastle counters that retrieving a car after your girlfriend throws you out is tantamount to stealing it, even if it was yours to begin with, as McCormick claims. Hardcastle has a good line here: “Lady Justice is a tough old broad!”

One more good exchange: Hardcastle tells McCormick that he set it up so that McCormick would be in his custody for awhile. McCormick wonders what he means, and Hardcastle says “indefinitely.” McCormick is incredulous: “Indefinitely?! I have trouble putting up with you for half an hour. I’ve got to take orders from you indefinitely?!?” Hardcastle confirms that: “Now you’re cookin’, kid!”

But the best part overall is at the end when Hardcastle sends McCormick back to L.A.; McCormick has, in the judge’s words, “only 3 hours for a 5-hour drive,” so according to the judge, he wouldn’t make it to his next parole meeting without “breaking the double nickel.” This is where the Coyote’s true test of character comes in; McCormick speeds off with Nevada cops in pursuit, then they break off when he reaches the California line.

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There are quite a few, including many that never got made into series.
The Star Trek Pilots – Both “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Ever Gone Before”. There really hadn’t been anything like “Star Trek” on TV before – a science fiction series that wasn’t an anthology, about a crew on a faster-than-light ship that traveled around the galaxy, intelligently written (often by established science fiction writers). It was like a weekly dose of “Forbidden Planet”. For all the faults the series and the franchise had, it was something original and exciting, and the pilots reflected that.

Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders – Nicholas Meyer, author of The Seven Per Cent Solution, but also the underappreciated King of TV Movies adapted Robert H. Van Gulik’s classic detective series about the historical Judge Djien-dje Dee as a TV movie and an obvious pilot. It was very well done, and all the parts were played by folks of Asian ancestry, for a change (except, ironically, Judge Dee himself). the network suits balked at a historical series with a wholly Asian cast, though, so the series never got made. They had a half-hearted compromise, Chang!, starring the guy who played Dee, set in modern-day San Francisco, but what was new or original about that? it died in no time.
Barefoot in the Park – as with many pilots, this one ran on the series Love, American Style, where many shows got their tryouts (including a Fonz-less Happy Days). This one stood out because it had better writing and acting than most, and was genuinely funny. It took its cue from the Neil Simon play (as did The Odd Couple) and expanded upon it. Unfortunately, when they got around to doing the show, they decided to make it relevant by changing all the characters to black ones. It would be nice if all it took was changing the race of every member of the cast, but it didn’t feel remotely right, especially back in the early 1970s – the show felt as if it was written for that original white cast, and you missed the cultural differences you’d expect with a black cast. This show didn’t last long, either.
The Night Stalker – i don’t know if this was intended as a pilot for Kolchak, but after this and a follow-up TV movie, The Night Strangler, we got that series, so it was effectively a pilot. well-done story about Darren McGavin as an investigative reporter who finds a vampire in Las Vegas who raids blood banks. A lot of the ideas are now old hat, but they were new to TV at the time. The TV series moved him (and, unaccountably, his boss) to LA.

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Welcome to the SDMB, bmasters1. We have a special forum dedicated to the arts, including TV, so I’ll move this there for you.

twickster, moderator

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Hill Street Blues – A new kind of cop show at the time, and the most influential show on TV. It upped the ante on characters, created a far more gritty and realistic scene, and started doing multiple plot lines and story arcs. The pilot was revolutionary for the time.

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Survivor. Yes, it had been done before in other countries. But as Jeff Probst walked down the length of a fishing boat as 22 people were scrambling to gather supplies, and he was shouting, “For the next 39 days…” I and the rest of America knew this was something that we’d never seen before.

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The Shield - A lot of pilots seem kind of like rough drafts, and the characters and story arcs are fleshed out later, but The Shield had its look and tone defined within the first few minutes. It grabbed me right away and didn’t let go. By the shocking climactic scene – Vic turns around and shoots Crowley in the head!! WTF!!! – I knew I was in this one until the end.

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Thanks! Just found it under the “Cafe Society” section.

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The two best I’ve seen are:

LOST - I know the show was disappointing to many, but the pilot was great.

Veronica Mars - Amazing intro. to an amazing show.

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Seconding this. Having two of the credited actors get shot and left for dead was stunning.

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Battlestar Galactica (new one, obvs). Hit the ground running, and set the tone for the series.

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I agree with Veronica Mars.

I’ll add Foyle’s War. The entire series is excellent, but the first episode is the best. It’s a murder mystery where you could conceivably solve the case along with the detective. Typical murder mysteries are unsolvable; the solution is presented as some revelation based on information unavailable for the viewer. But the early episodes of Foyle’s War gave sufficient information to formulate who the murderer is and why.

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Twin Peaks. Everything about it – characters, music, atmosphere, dialog, setting, was like nothing that came before (at least on TV). I was instantly hooked.

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As much as I bag on the show for being garbage, I can’t deny that the first season, espcially the pilot, was awesome.

I missed out on watching this when it was actually on TV, but I got the DVD set a couple years ago and yeah, the pilot was pretty amazing.

I would add Prison Break as another show with a killer pilot episode. The whole first season was entertaining, but it really should have stopped there.

The Sopranos pilot, of course, was also a great intro to a great show.

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While I agree that the first episode of Twin Peaks was, indeed, a great show and held promises that I don’t believe the series completely kept, I have to point out that First Episode does NOT equal Pilot. The examples I gave above were true pilots – filmed examples of what the series would be like, if it was made. Often they use or re-use these pilot episodes if the series is sold. I don’t think that Twin Peaks had an actual pilot – it was a sold series when it launched into that first episode.
Of course, if the thread and the original poster want to use this thread for “Best First Episodes of All Time”, they’re welcome to. But that’s not what a pilot is. I’m not being pedantic – that’s why I posted the way I did.
Relevant Wikipedia page:

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Firefly: Pilots need to do so many things. Show the universe where the story will take place. Introduce an entire cast of characters you’ve never met before. Show individual personalities so that it’s easy to distinguish them. Explain without getting bogged down. Set up a conflict or a series of conflicts that will show what the protagonists will be working towards (or against). And, oh yeah, do all this while not being boring and make us want to tune in for the next week.

Firefly did this better than any other pilot I can think of. The real pilot, of course, not the aired first episode. But I digress…

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Yeah, I forgot about that. Definitely an amazing one.

Wow, totally. I forgot this one too.

A lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but I’ll add:
**
Legend of the Seeker** : Perhaps one of the more overlooked shows of all time(well, that’s a bit dramatic, but still). Great 2 hour opening and it totally captured the feel and spirit of the show.

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In network viewings, and most rerun packages, I think the pilot montage (considerably different from the regular series montage) was never shown again. It’s possible that some station somewhere aired the original pilot, but that would be a rare instance. Mostly, they would use the edited two-part format, which had the standard series montage and completely different credit lists.

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Not true about Twin Peaks though. It has a very real pilot that was unreleased to the general public for years as anyrthing other than a weird European film. Only with the recent DVD release is it finally being seen as intended. I just finished watching the series for the first time and if you Havent seen the pilot I recommend it. It’s good TV.

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Would the online South Park thing count as a pilot? It was pretty funny.

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Miami Vice. I don’t think anything quite like it had ever been seen on TV before. MTV cops, indeed.