# Best TV pilot(s) of all time... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298 "2011-05-18T10:16:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/41 "2011-05-18T21:25:32Z")
Obviously [this](http://images.wikia.com/familyguy/images/1/1f/Quagmire.PNG) is the best pilot on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/42 "2011-05-18T21:34:47Z")
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I only watched because I’d liked the movie and wanted to make fun of how bad I thought the TV series would be. Surprise! Also, Pushing Daisies and Numb3rs. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/43 "2011-05-18T22:05:10Z")
I have to add **My So Called Life** to this list. By far the best show about high school and teenage problems that ever existed. I loved the final shot of the pilot of Angela and Brian on the residential street. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/44 "2011-05-18T22:08:53Z")
Another one of my favorites: “Matt Houston” from 1982 (a.k.a. “X-22”), September 26, 1982. One reason why is because in the beginning, we get quite a few nice skyline shots of L.A. and the skyscrapers thereof as Houston flies from his ranch to his penthouse. The real reason, however, is because it shows how an incredibly wealthy Texan (Lee Horsley, in the title role) becomes a private investigator in L.A. while at the same time supervising his family’s offshore oil drilling operations (Houston was a millionaire’s son in his native Texas). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/45 "2011-05-18T22:13:49Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Okay. So how did \*Hill Street Blues \*influence other TV shows? If you say it was an original police drama, I would say that \*Police Story \*was the precursor to _Hill Street Blues_. _Police Story_ did break ground in that it was (at the time) more gritty and realistic than the other TV cop shows that were then on the air. However, _Police Story_ was basically an anthology series in that the cast and stories were different in nearly each episode. _Hill Street Blues_ applied the template to a regular set of recurring characters. Another way _Hill Street Blues_ was influential was its use of multiple on-going story-lines and arcs that continued for more than two episodes. Granted, daytime TV (and radio) had done this for years but you rarely saw it in prime time. ---
**Author:** ![Dietrich\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@Dietrich\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dietrich_K)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/46 "2011-05-18T23:08:32Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > **Twin Peaks**. Everything about it – characters, music, atmosphere, dialog, setting, was like nothing that came before (at least on TV). I was instantly hooked. This. Another good, and recent, one would have to be “Fire in the Hole”, the first episode of **Justified**. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/47 "2011-05-18T23:28:01Z")
The first few minutes of **Breaking Bad** was simply a masterful scene which immediately drew you into the rest of the pilot. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/48 "2011-05-18T23:28:17Z")
In its day, the pilot for the first “Battlestar Galacitica” was pretty good, if a bit long at 3 hour tv movie, interrupted by Jimmy Carter announcing Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. But after a few episodes the series degenerated. The reboot did pretty much the same, although the decay took longer. The late 1960s revival of “Dragnet” was originally a two hour tv-movie, which was a new concept at the time. Surprisingly it took networks about 15 years to figure out they could do this. It’s the one you will see with Friday and Gannon chase after a man who has kidnapped young woman. Good old Sgt Friday (he was actually promoted to Lieutenant in the later years of the 1950s version but this wasn’t mentioned) gives one of his great speeches to a child molester who has insulted a Negro cop (as they were known in the day). If only they could have done a two hour movie of the Dragnet chasing down those evil dope smoking acid dropping hippies who paint themselves blue and leave babies to drown in bathtubs so they can get high and listen to sitar music. The pilot for “Ally McBeal” has the best all-time Fishism-a flashback of him in college saying “if we help someone along the way, that’s fine. But I am in law for the money, the piles and piles of money”. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/49 "2011-05-18T23:45:58Z")
I was really young, but I remember liking the first episodes of DuckTales and TailSpin. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/50 "2011-05-18T23:59:12Z")
> [@jharvey963](#): > > I’ll add **Dead Like Me**. The pilot introduced and immediately killed off the main character. 🙂 It also set the “serio-quirkiness” mood for the series. Sigh. I miss that show and wish it had lasted longer. I think it lasted just long enough. They wrapped the series up nicely, and didn’t leave us hanging. Firefly was cut down before its time, and needed the movie to complete it, but Dead Like Me was pretty complete as was. They made an unnecessary (and pretty poor) movie anyway. The only good thing about the movie was seeing Reggie grown up. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/51 "2011-05-19T00:17:33Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > It is my understanding that [Evil Roy Slade](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7GSi7ZuIc) was originally a pilot but was never made into a series. Sort of a western/Police Squad with John Astin. > > One of the funniest god damn things I’ve ever seen. OMG. I don’t know when I first saw this (late 70’s?), but it remains my gold standard on how funny a movie is. IMDB says [the 1972 movie was] "Based on characters created in the 1969 pilot for an unproduced series entitled “Sheriff Who?”, so called because every week there would be a new sheriff (played by a guest star), who would be killed by Evil Roy Slade. If true, not really a pilot. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/52 "2011-05-19T00:39:50Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > **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. _One_ vote for this? Wow - I thought this thread would be full of nods to this pilot. Oh well - here’s another vote. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/53 "2011-05-19T01:31:30Z")
Which episode of COLUMBO counts as the pilot? ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/54 "2011-05-19T01:34:53Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I only watched because I’d liked the movie and wanted to make fun of how bad I thought the TV series would be. Surprise! Did you see the pilot, or the actual first aired show, “Welcome to the Hellmouth, parts 1 and 2”? The pilot is available on youtube now, and it is slightly different than what was broadcast. There was a different Willow, for one thing, and there was a hilarious scene that didn’t make it to air where Xander introduces Buffy to the various student cliques. [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ThFA6NMe8) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/55 "2011-05-19T15:21:09Z")
I’ll list one of my least favorite shows: _Star Trek: Voyager_. The show as a whole sucked, but the pilot episode was on eof the good episodes they randomly strewed throughout the series to be annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/56 "2011-05-19T15:22:56Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Did you see the pilot, or the actual first aired show, “Welcome to the Hellmouth, parts 1 and 2”? The pilot is available on youtube now, and it is slightly different than what was broadcast. There was a different Willow, for one thing, and there was a hilarious scene that didn’t make it to air where Xander introduces Buffy to the various student cliques. > > [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ThFA6NMe8) I’d say that WTtHM is still the pilot. In this thread, as in common discourse, that word clearly means “first episode of a television to be aired.” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/57 "2011-05-19T15:39:09Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’d say that WTtHM is still the pilot. In this thread, as in common discourse, that word clearly means “first episode of a television to be aired.” Except for Cal, of course, who is defining them differently earlier in this thread. ---
**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:** [May 19, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/58 "2011-05-19T15:46:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Except for Cal, of course, who is defining them differently earlier in this thread. Not my redefinition – we’ve had this discussion several times on this Board. And I provided a cite to back it up. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/59 "2011-05-19T15:51:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’d say that WTtHM is still the pilot. In this thread, as in common discourse, that word clearly means “first episode of a television to be aired.” But not necessarily the first episode that _is_ aired. I remember seeing the pilot episode of _hope and Faith_, where they had different actors for the father and the son, and there was a lovable grandfather living with them who was totally written out when the show was finally aired. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298/60 "2011-05-19T16:56:08Z")
How about [Assignment: Earth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment:_Earth), a backdoor pilot that ended season 2 of Star Trek. I wished they had picked that one up, I thought Gary Seven was a great character. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-pilot-s-of-all-time/582298.md?page=2)