# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/61 "2015-09-21T20:17:57Z")
I’ll endorse the earlier mentions of : [ul] [li]LOST[/li][li]The Walking Dead[/li][li]and M_A_S\*H[/li][/ul] I’ll add in the Pilot episode of _Flash Forward_. And also the first episode of the FX series _The Booth on the End_, still available on Hulu. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/62 "2015-09-21T20:20:07Z")
**ER** ’s [pilot](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295222/) deserves more than one mention. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/63 "2015-09-21T20:23:53Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > _Sherlock_’s pilot was the best episode to date. _Voyager_’s, too. _Sherlock_’s pilot was not broadcast. It’s available on the DVD; interesting, but not as fine as the first episode. Which was shot last in the first “series.” I loved the pilot for _Sleepy Hollow_. What a batshit premise for a series–but it worked. Humor & character chemistry & _really scary stuff_. The first series was mostly quite good. The second sucked until the last episodes–when two problematic characters were killed off. I’ve avoided reading much about Season 3–will they succeed in unbotching all that botching? ---
**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 22, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/64 "2015-09-22T01:48:05Z")
The pilot episode of THE COSBY SHOW was jaw-droppingly good. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/65 "2015-09-22T05:13:48Z")
There was a short-lived english series called _Come Back Mrs Noah_. It starred Mollie Sugden (Mrs Slocombe from _Are you Being Served_) playing - well, a Mrs Slocombe character. The plot was, Mrs Noah had won a Best Housewife’s Cake award and the prize was a tour of the great British Rocket, that was being prepared for takeoff. The astronauts were played by the two officers from _It Aint Half Hot, Mum_, and Ian Lavender played the reporter who took her through the rocket. You can guess the plot - '‘Don’t touch that Big Red Button, Mrs Noah! Oh, No!’. Who would have guessed, eh? The first half-hour (set on the ground, before the rocket took off) was one of the funniest things I had seen. The episodes after that were full of Anti-Gravity corsets and such-like and were not good at all (I gave up after episode 3 or 4). It was a bit surreal in parts, but basically dire. It has gone down in history as one of the worst British TV comedies of all time. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/66 "2015-09-22T06:45:50Z")
For me its Deadwood. Admittedly I haven’t seen in it a while, but I know that it just grabbed from the get go. ---
**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 22, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/67 "2015-09-22T10:30:40Z")
The first episode of ALIAS was perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/68 "2015-09-22T17:42:43Z")
PSYCH had an excellent pilot, and the pilot for Gilligan’s Island was as good as any of the regular episodes ---
**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 22, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/69 "2015-09-22T20:39:37Z")
The first episode of AGENT CARTER was better than anything that followed. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/70 "2015-09-23T05:05:19Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > the pilot for Gilligan’s Island was as good as any of the regular episodes And it’s the only episode where they revealed the professor’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/71 "2015-09-23T05:13:24Z")
I’ll mention a show that was short-lived, not sure why, but the first episode of **Pushing Daisies** had me drooling in anticipation. ---
**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 23, 2015, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/72 "2015-09-23T08:54:14Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > And it’s the only episode where they revealed the professor’s name. Incorrect; there was at least one other, the one where Zsa Zsa was on the island. ---
**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 23, 2015, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/73 "2015-09-23T08:55:49Z")
The pilot of _ **CSI** _, which ended with Grissom on the roller coaster, was excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/74 "2015-09-23T11:42:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Battlestar Galactica’s mini-series was not great, but its first episode as a regular show was amazing. It’s called \*\*33 \*\*and is incredible. I recommend watching it before anything else. That first season was some of the best TV ever. Too bad the rest of series never live up to it. Not that the later seasons didn’t have great episodes but, as the series went on, it became more and more clear the writers had no idea where to take it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/75 "2015-09-23T13:41:53Z")
Mork & Mindy. Robin Williams nailed it from the start. ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/76 "2015-09-23T13:53:35Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Aaron Sorkin always makes great pilot episodes, even for his crappy shows. In particular, _Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip_, may have the most lopsided ratio of quality-of-pilot to quality-of-show that I’ve ever seen, and _The Newsroom_ has one fantastic scene in the pilot episode and never reaches those heights again. Studio 60 had such an _amazing_ pilot —I’ll occasionally just watch that episode. But that show went downhill fast. If anyone’s never watched it, I’d recommend watching just the pilot, and nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/77 "2015-09-23T14:28:59Z")
**The Sopranos** and **Breaking Bad** stand out for me. Breaking Bad in particular really hooked me. “Walt, is that YOU?” I thought the first episode of **Downton Abbey** did an outstanding job of introducing a huge ensemble and making each character distinct and memorable, even if the plot itself was so heavy on exposition. Interesting factoid: **Monty Python’s Flying Circus** never made a pilot. The BBC ordered 13 episodes essentially sight unseen. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/78 "2015-09-23T14:34:34Z")
In her book Enter Whining, Fran Drescher states that the pilot for The Nanny was the highest rated pilot in CBS history. ---
**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 23, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/79 "2015-09-23T19:25:53Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > In her book Enter Whining, Fran Drescher states that the pilot for The Nanny was the highest rated pilot in CBS history. I find that hard to believe. Drescher was hardly a big star at the time the series debuted. According to [this _Hollywood Reporter_ article](http://home.frognet.net/~ritchie/hrenterwinning.htm) the pilot was the highest-_tested_ one in years. ---
**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 24, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943/80 "2015-09-24T01:42:50Z")
**This one** blew me away when I was 11 years old: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TQwZAPgZaA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outstandingly-good-pilot-episodes/731943.md?page=5)