Pilot: Difference between revisions

[[The Futon Critic]] has reviews for many of the successful pilots and now the unsuccessful ones.

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* [[Dragon Ball]] had one in the form of ''Dragon Boy.'' The main character who would be the inspiration for Goku was named "Tanton" and had bat-wings instead of a monkey tail. The character Bulma was an [[Expy]] for was a princess. The Dragon Balls had a small dragon instead of stars on them.

* [[Naruto]] wasn't a ninja series, but instead involved magic. Instead of wanting to be Hokage, Naruto was sent on a quest to find friends under the orders of whom would later become Hiruzen Sarutobi after one prank too-many. Instead of a demon being sealed inside Naruto, the Demon Fox was his father.

* Following its 1975 cancellation, ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' made two pilots for a revival under original host Art Fleming. The first, in 1977, used a much different format which started off with each player playing as many questions as possible in 30 seconds apiece (with no penalty for wrong answers) before finishing off the rest of the board normally. After that, the lowest-scorer was eliminated, the two remaining contestants played an unaltered Double Jeopardy! Whoever had the higher score after this moved on to a [[Bonus Round]] with a 5x5 board, and had to get five right answers in a row within 90 seconds for a bonus or $100 per clue.

** The 1978 pilot omitted the timed portion of the first round and eliminated the time limit from the bonus round (but also ended the bonus round if three wrong answers were given). Under these radically changed rules, ''Jeopardy!'' aired just five months.

* ''[[Match Game]]'' had one for the staid 1960s format and two for the more-familiar 1970s format (all hosted by Gene Rayburn), a week for a 1990s revival that lasted one season (Bert Convy hosted the pilot week, but his death from brain cancer forced Ross Shafer to take over when it sold), and an unsold 1996 pilot with Charlene Tilton and a radically-altered bonus round. The last one evolved into a shorter-lived 1998-99 revival hosted by Michael Burger.

* ''[[Card Sharks]]'' filmed two pilots in 1978 with the same set and rules, which pretty much resembled the show's final product. The only difference was that #1 depicted a loss and #2 depicted the highest possible win in the bonus round (which also happened once in the real game). There was also an unsold 1996 pilot which greatly altered the format, and another in 2000 that eventually became the 2001 revival; there were also relatively unchanged revivals in 1986-89 network and 1986-87 syndicated.

* [[NBC]] accidentally aired the pilot to the 1990 revival of ''[[To Tell the Truth]]'' on the east coast. This was notable as Richard Kline hosted the pilot, but Gordon Elliott was the actual host of the series (for a few months at least).

* ''[[The Jokers Wild]]'' had two pilots hosted by Allen Ludden (of ''[[Password]]'' fame), in which a panel of celebrities asked the questions. A third pilot was part of an awkward 90-minute special, ''The Honeymoon Game'', hosted by Jim MacKrell, which was a hodgepodge of games put together (including an entire first third that was axed ''during the pilot'' because Barry disliked it). Finally, once everything got going, ''Joker'''s wheels spun for 14 years, an amazing run for a game show.

* Surprisingly averted with ''[[The Price Is Right]]''. When [[Mark Goodson]] began the revival in 1972, he instead created a pitchfilm that included him and Dennis James discussing the game. They played two mock pricing games and even showed a clip of Dennis filling in for Monty Hall on ''Let's Make a Deal''. Interestingly, pretty much the only thing that carried over from the pitchfilm was Dennis James hosting the nighttime series (of course, with Bob Barker hosting on daytime).

* ''Pass the Line'' is an abysmal 1954 "game" created and hosted by Cliff Saber in which a professional artist drew something which was copied line by line by several panelists. Possibly the only redeeming quality is the presence of a very young Jonathan Winters.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Name a problem a [[Pilot Movie]] could have, and it's there. The creator re-edited it several years later to make it stink less. (The radical changes in characterization and the transformation of Delenn from an androgenous [[Uncanny Valley]] dweller to [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|exotically attractive female]] are the major differences.)

* ''[[Being Human]]'': Notable in that two of the three main characters, as well as the big bad of the first season, were recast between the pilot and the start of the series.

* ''[[South Park]]'' has three pilots. In the first one, Cartman is called Kenny, [[No Name Given|no name is given to the other three]], and both "Kenny" (Cartman) & Nameless Kenny die. In the second pilot, used with the signature cutout animation, the town of South Park is firmly established and the characters have personalities, to the point where Kyle is Jewish. All of the characters have the names they currently have, and Kenny's the only one who dies. Kyle even starts the [[Catch Phrase]], "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!", although "You bastards!" had not yet come into existence. This could be considered [[Canon]], but in Season 4, the kids made it themselves, to provide example of something kids would make. [[Comedy Central]] saw the second pilot, and they asked Trey Parker & Matt Stone to make a 22-minute pilot. They made it with cutout animation, and it was accepted (although alterations were made before it actually aired, such as dropping Kenny's [[Back From the Dead]] stunt from the ending). Later episodes used Maya instead for [[Conspicuous CG]].

* [[Executive Meddling]] forced the Pilot Episode of ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' to be broadcast as the 11th Episode.

* ''Virtuality'' is an ''unfinished'' [[Mind Screw]] of a pilot which one can only describe as [[2001: A Space Odyssey|2001]] meets [[Serial Experiments Lain]] meets [[Big Brother]] [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]] (with some [[Ghost in the Shell]] and [[eXistenZ]] for flavor) from the producers of [[Battlestar Galactica]]. It's bad enough the crew has to pilot an experimental ship ''and'' be [[Reality TV]] stars in space for 10 years, but then mysterious "malfunctions" kick in, the VR goggles start to blur the lines between fantasy and reality {{spoiler|the captain gets killed yet his consciousness seems to have survived; a crew member gets raped in her own simulation by a man who may or may not be a computer virus}}. Notable in that it was aired despite the show itself being cancelled.

* In 2006, ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' writer Derek Drymon completed a 12 minute pilot for [[Nickelodeon]] called ''Diggs Tailwagger'' in which he voiced the title character. It never got picked up for series, and Drymon now works at [[Cartoon Network]].