# Outstandingly good pilot episodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943 "2015-09-20T13:59:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/21 "2015-09-20T17:19:12Z")
MONK also hit the ground running. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/22 "2015-09-20T17:22:15Z")
Queer as Folk, USA version. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/23 "2015-09-20T17:24:31Z")
Wasn’t THE MUPPET SHOW’s pilot episode the one that won Rita Moreno an Emmy? ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/24 "2015-09-20T17:24:46Z")
Netflix has a great movie named [Parallels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_(film))right now. It’s kind of like a more serious Sliders, but this time it’s an entire building that slides between alternate Earths. The thing is, it was originally supposed to be a pilot for a new series. I keep hoping it’ll get picked up somehow, but I doubt it. Still worth a watch, though. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/25 "2015-09-20T17:26:48Z")
The pilot episode of THE INCREDIBLE HULK was movie quality. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/26 "2015-09-20T17:40:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _The Shield_ started out with a great first episode. Agreed. The only caveat I would add is that, today, it wouldn’t be nearly as great. It set the tone for the shocking and dark dramas that came afterward, and so we’re kind of used to that now. At the time it was pretty ground breaking. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/27 "2015-09-20T17:40:38Z")
Another one I forgot for my OP: _ **Fargo** _. All three pilots I’ve mentioned have been for mystery series. Maybe it’s easier to make a pilot for these kind of shows, since it lets you tantalize the viewers with something to tune in for again. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/28 "2015-09-20T17:46:56Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Don’t forget, the original **The Six Million Dollar Man** was a movie, part of the _ABC Movie of the Week_ series. I’m not sure if they’d planned on making it a weekly hour series all along or decided to make it a series after the ratings came in for the film. Similarly with **The Night Stalker** (not that anyone has mentioned it). The pilot of **M_A_S\*H** is still one of my faves. (No, I do not mean Cowboy, who flew the chopper 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/29 "2015-09-20T18:41:19Z")
ER is one of the best pilots ever and I don’t really like doctor shows. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/30 "2015-09-20T18:52:06Z")
_ **NYPD Blue** _ ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/31 "2015-09-20T19:16:10Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I don’t even know which episode of COLUMBO was the pilot, but Peter Falk already had his Will-Get-7-Straight-Emmy-Noms-And-Win-A-Bunch-Of-'Em schtick down cold in it. > [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > That was \*\*\*Prescription: Murder \*\*\* and aired as a TV movie three years before it became part of the **NBC Mystery Movie** roster. I didn’t see that movie until Columbo had become part of the Mystery Movie, and the first time I watched it I didn’t even know that Columbo was in it (my parents had tuned it in). I remember saying to my parents at one point, “If this was Columbo, this is the part where he’d come in.” Sure enough, enter Peter Falk. “Ah, excuse me. I’m Lt. Columbo from the LAPD.” That’s how perfect the episode’s formula was and set the tone for the series. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/32 "2015-09-20T20:00:12Z")
**Numb3rs.** Also, I agree that “33” ( **Battlestar Galactica** ) was brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/33 "2015-09-20T20:15:16Z")
I’ll throw in another vote for Mad Men. It had me hooked from the start, set a tone that the show would hold (versus shows were the pilot seems unrelated) and still holds up as “good television” even today. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/34 "2015-09-20T20:33:12Z")
The pilot episode of BATMAN had Frank Gorshin already doing his ‘Riddler’ schtick to perfection, plus curvy Jill St John, plus Adam West mentioning Bruce Wayne’s dead parents _and_ doing the Batusi, so they were pretty well loaded for _bear_ with that one. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/35 "2015-09-20T21:04:29Z")
The pilot for _The Walking Dead_ is fantastic and uses the isolation and uncertainty of the environment to great effect. Shame it didn’t take long after that to grow stale and predictable. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/36 "2015-09-20T21:43:59Z")
**Hill Street Blues.** The pilot was so good they had to resurrect two characters when the series was picked up. Hill and Renko were supposed to die. ---
**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:** [September 20, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/37 "2015-09-20T22:42:57Z")
**My Name Is Earl** got everything right in the first episode. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/38 "2015-09-20T23:12:39Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > The COLUMBO pilot was shot in 1969, a couple of years before the series aired. Falk looked absurdly young in it. And surprisingly more well-groomed than he would become later on. The show I came in to mention was _Deep Space Nine_, introducing all the elements of the show except for the Dominion, which wouldn’t come up until later, and I find Sisko’s acceptance of his wife’s death still moving even after repeated viewings. It’s easily the best of the modern-Trek pilots. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/39 "2015-09-20T23:21:05Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > It’s also interesting to see the original lineup of prisoners that had a Russian POW among their group, who was dropped when the show was picked up and replaced by another American. Nitpick: He wasn’t “dropped,” he decided he didn’t want to do the show because he felt it was in bad taste. A direct quote: “Nazis were seldom dumb and never funny.” FYI, the character (“Vladimir Minsk”) was played by Leonid Kinskey, a very interesting man: > **[Leonid Kinskey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Kinskey)** > > Leonid Kinskey (18 April 1903 – September 8, 1998) was a Russian-born American film and television actor, best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca (1942). His last name was sometimes spelled Kinsky. > Kinskey was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started his career as a mime in various imperial theatres in Russia in the mid-1910s. In 1921, he fled Russia for Germany. He acted on stage in Europe and South America before arriving in New York City from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in J... IIRC, he was also a circus performer before emigrating from Russia. And yeah, the pilot of _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _ was hilarious! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/40 "2015-09-20T23:27:41Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Hill Street Blues.** The pilot was so good they had to resurrect two characters when the series was picked up. Hill and Renko were supposed to die. Nitpick: Only Renko was supposed to die, which is why he was forever after given a special credit at the beginning of the show. It would seem he was appearing under some sort of special agreement, like Martin Landau and Barbara Bain on _ **Mission: Impossible** _. After showing the pilot to test audiences, they had to reshoot Esterhaus’s scene at end when he tells Furillo that two of his men had been gunned down. The original line was “One in critical condition, one DOA.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943.md?page=3)