I thought the opening to Once Upon a Time was pretty captivating. First six minutes or so was set in a fantasy world - and then it jumps to a first date scene - set in modern times -where the main character chases after a guy on the street.
Not saying it was/is the best show - but certainly got my attention more than any other show I can think of in that short of a period of time.
For Buffy it was “Once More With Feeling”.
For The Wire it was D’Angelo explaining how the organization worked via chess pieces. (The opening sequence about Snotboogie was pretty good too. I also love the part where Bunk, using a copy machine, convinced some hood rat that it was a lie-detector machine. He’d ask the kid a question, press “Copy”, and a piece of paper came out that said “LIE”. Kid bought it, hook, line, and sinker.)
The comedy scene that opens the pilot of Chuck where Morgan is pretending to hang out Chuck’s bedroom window, only to reveal they’re on the ground floor. It was then closely followed by the action scene where Bryce escapes the facility using parkour.
Hook, line, and sinker.
For Buffy, it was one of Cordelia’s lines in the pilot (to Willow): “So glad you’ve see the softer side of Sears.”
For Due South, it was when the Mountie, Benton Frasier, is trying to find an apartment in Chicago. Eager to make a good impression on the building’s owner, he asks his friend Ray, a Chicago cop, “Is my lanyard straight?”
Ray: “He’s a slumlord!”
For Numb3rs, it was the second episode, where Charlie accurately predicted which bank was going to be robbed–and had to deal with the fact that this information almost got his brother killed.
I don’t always remember the exact scene that caught me, but I know what caught me about Sherlock: the cab chase. They run through streets while Sherlock has the whole London grid mapped out in his head; traffic lights and one way streets and all, and meanwhile John is running with him, cane forgotten, heart pounding, and it was all I could do to not get up and run with them.
I also watch Supernatural but the main thing that caught my attention there was pretty, pretty Dean. Oh, those eyes! I’m still watching, chiefly because of him.
What else? X-Files? The liver fluke. Definitely the liver fluke.
Al Swearengen hooked me on Deadwood from episode one.
Another Buffy one, the first season’s “The Pack”, where Xander and some other teenagers were turned into hyenas who killed and ate the principal and where Willow asked, “Why couldn’t Xander be possessed by a puppy? Or-or some ducks?”
Clearly, this wasn’t just another high school show. It had style, humor and horror.
Another one: I missed out on the new Doctor Who and decided one day to record them just to see what the fuss was about. I think the second one I watched was “The Empty Child.” Have not missed an episode since.
“Are you my Mommy?”
This one. Hands down. I paused the DVR, turned to my wife, and said “This is the best show EVER.”
Carnivale had me from the opening credits, but it was one of the final scenes in the pilot – the scene in which Brother Justin has a mystical experience and blood rains down on him from above and he takes it as a sign from God to build a new church – that made me think, “Fuck, I’m in.”
I love me some terrifying and thrilling religious imagery. And that was only the beginning!
**Arrested Development ** - “How much clearer can I say, 'There’s always money IN the Banana Stand!”
Archer - “Oh my god! You killed a hooker!” “Call-girl, you said she was a . . .” “No Cyril! When they’re dead they’re just hookers!”
The Shield: The last 30 seconds of the first ep. OMG, did that just happen? Holy shit, this show is awesome!
Vic Mackey, and the rest of the Strike Team, suspect the new guy the boss assigned to their team is a mole (and we’ve seen that he is), so after they take out a drug dealer, Vic takes the dealers gun, turns, and shooots the new guy in the forehead. Fade out to the POV looking up at the Strike Team looking down. :eek:
I was on a flight to OKC for my first training in 2008, and American Airlines was showing show shows from CBS to their captive audience. The Big Bang Theory was one of the shows they had chosen for the flight, so I was treated to “The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization.”
The line that hooked me was: “Please. The day you win a Nobel Prize is the day I publish a paper analyzing the drag coefficient of the tassels on flying carpets.”
Make that sample shows. :smack:
Batman: The first time I saw the Dynamic Duo slide down into the Batcave and peel out in that beautiful 1966 Batmobile.
Time Tunnel: The pilot episode, when “Mobile Tic-Toc One” disappeared beneath the surface of the desert and emerged in the giant underground complex.
Star Trek: “The Doomsday Machine,” Christmas Day, 1969 (after the series had gone into syndication). The USS Constellation, Commodore Decker, the Planet-Killer. Ahab and the Whale, Captain Queeg. Norman Spinrad’s story, Sol Kaplan’s score. Spock, Scotty, Lt Palmer. Filmed in the middle of the second season, when most of the best Trek episodes were produced.
The Prisoner: “The Chimes of Big Ben,” “Happy Birthday.” What wouldn’t they do to make Number Six talk?
Due South: The opening sequence and theme music still blow me away. “Kill a Mountie, and they’ll track you to the ends of the Earth!”
The Avengers: “Extraordinary crimes against the people and the state must be avenged by agents extraordinary. Two such people are John Steed, top professional, and Emma Peel, talented amateur.” I don’t remember which episode was the first one I watched, but it doesn’t really matter!
Big Bang Theory: What impressed me most was that I actually used to hang out with people like that 30-odd years ago, when I was in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Cheers!: The episode when Coach’s daughter shows up with her sleazy fiancee. To this day, I can’t watch it without getting choked up. My all-time favorite episode of that series.
Frasier: Probably the episode where Frasier inadvertently makes a date with the new gay guy at the radio station, and he’s the only one clueless as to what’s going on.
Night Court: Selma tells a suspect “Go ahead. Make my day!” Dan recognizes an old woman as his phone-sex hottie. Bull explains his name to a Swedish girl by drawing a her an anatomically correct picture.
Hill Street Blues: The episode where the nun is raped and Furillo is ready to throw the perps to the mob if they don’t confess.
Danger: UXB: “Right; off with your knickers, then—”
Fawlty Towers: “Oh, thank you, God, thank you so bloody much!”
The Good Life/Good Neighbors: Barbara. 
The Sopranos: “Hmph, the Romans! We Jews have been around 6,000 years, but the Romans? Whatever happened to them, huh?” “You’re lookin’ at 'em!”
Fiance, one e.
CSI: The very end of the first episode (I think), when Grissom stays in the office to finish a crossword puzzle and then goes for a spin on a roller coaster.
NCIS: The non-JAG pilot episode. “NCIS? Is that like CSI?” “Only if you’re dyslexic!”