39,327
edits
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 5:
'''Jules''': Yes, but [[Deadpan Snarker|you're aware that there's an invention called television, and on that invention they show shows]]?<br />
'''Vincent''': Yeah.<br />
'''Jules''': Well, the way they pick the shows on TV is they make one show, and that show's called a pilot. And they show that one show to the people who pick the shows, and on the strength of that one show, they decide if they want to make more shows. Some get accepted and become TV programs, and some don't, and become nothing.|''[[
A pilot is a "test run" of a series concept, filmed and assembled to give the network an idea of what it will look like, how it will play, and (via viewer testing) what kind of demographic it will appeal to. Usually the network will turn down the pilot. Sometimes it will throw it back to the producers and say, "try again". There are probably ten pilots made for every series that actually makes it on the air, at least in American TV -- some insiders have snidely claimed that Hollywood is more about making pilots than actually making shows.
Line 11:
(The term "pilot" is used in this sense outside the entertainment industry; a "pilot plant", for example, may be a smaller-scale power plant that's used to test some new generation technology.)
Even when a show is picked up and given a timeslot, there is no guarantee that a pilot will ever reach the air. They often do, usually as the [[Premiere]]. Sometimes -- usually with those shows whose producers were told "try again", [[What Could Have Been|the original pilot is so different from what reached the air]] that they don't try to use it (as is the case with ''[[
Pilots often have somewhat larger budgets than a typical episode of the series, but fewer purpose-built sets. A hospital or school or graveyard in a pilot is likely to be the real thing - no sense building an elaborate set for a pilot that probably won't be picked up. As such, if the series is picked up and purpose-built sets are built to replace these locations, then eagle-eyed viewers might be able to spot differences between the characters' base of operations from the first week to the second.
Line 30:
== Anime and Manga ==
* [[
* [[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.
* [[Fist of the North Star]] had Kenshiro as a teenager. He is then on the run after being framed for killing his girlfriend.
Line 36:
== [[Game Show]] ==
* Following its 1975 cancellation, ''[[Jeopardy
** 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.
** The current Alex Trebek version, which began in 1984, also had two pilots. Both returned to the original format of straight-up answer-question gameplay that's still in use today. The first (1983) used the same set layout and music cues as the 1978 version, plus pull-card clues in the maingame and whiteboards in Final Jeopardy! like the first Fleming version and Jay Stewart announcing. The second (1984) had the familiar video wall for the maingame and light pens for the Final Jeopardy!, along with current announcer Johnny Gilbert. Both pilots, however, had much lower clue values — the first used the 1978 value of $25-$125 and $50-$150, while the second had $50-$150 and $100-$500.
Line 51:
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[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.)
* ''[[
* ''[[Bones]]'': Notable in a bad way, with dialogue that clunks like a jackhammer and lead characters that come off as completely psychotic. These problems rapidly improve in the regular episodes.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had a pilot episode (actually several, since they re-made it several times, using the same script) which, despite being a British show from 1963, survived. It was similar to the first episode, but with different costumes, a scene with Susan drawing a bizarre inkblot, and a statement that the Doctor and Susan come from the 49th Century. Because it was produced after the series was accepted rather than to sell the series, it may not technically be a pilot by some definitions.
Line 66:
** And Elaine isn't in it. Instead there's a [[Deadpan Snarker]] waitress at the restaurant who was going to be the show's moral center. But she proved to be wildly unpopular with test markets. So when the show was picked up a whole year later, Elaine was created to add a female character to the show.
** And Kramer's name is "Kessler," which was used as an [[In Joke]] later in the series.
* ''[[Star Trek:
** One of the things that changed between the pilot and the regular series was the design of the Enterprise-- due to the high cost of special effects and the low resolution of 60s televisions, many of the special effects shots from the pilot were re-used in the series, even though the ship looked subtly different.
** By the time of the spinoffs, the franchise was so large that any pilot was pretty much guaranteed a green light for a season. In fact, ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' was picked up for multiple seasons right off the bat.
* ''[[30 Rock
** Ironically, ''[[Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip]]'', [[Dueling Shows|another NBC show that started in 2006 and takes place behind the scenes at a sketch comedy show]], is generally considered to have had a great pilot and quickly gone downhill from there.
* Incidentally, in her book ''Bossypants'', [[Tina Fey]], while proclaiming her own negative opinion of the ''30 Rock'' pilot, cited ''[[Cheers]]'' as an example of a sitcom with a great pilot.
* ''[[Kids Incorporated]]'' shot a pilot featuring most of the actors who become the first season cast but very different sets and a radically different format, using only the flimsiest of plots to link together not entire songs, but a series of medleys, mostly not by the main cast. The pilot was never aired, but it was intercut with some new footage in the form of bridging sequence with Rassan Patterson (who had not been cast for the pilot) and released as a direct-to-video feature with a framing story of how his character came to join the band -- in the final sequence, quite obviously filmed much later than the rest of the episode, we're offhandedly told that three members of the pilot cast had suddenly moved out of town, leading to the Kid's invitation to join the band (No similar explanation is given for Stacy and Renee, who in the pilot had clearly been meant as supporting characters rather than band-members).
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''' pilot was an hour and a half long, and many of the "lost" scenes and characters that didn't make it into the premiere were recycled in modified ways (the Terrorist character of The Engineer was changed to the neurotic Ted Sprague, for instance).
* The pilot of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' was shot in an actual model home which featured an elegant sweeping curved staircase leading to a barren unfinished attic.
* After the pilot of ''[[3rd Rock
* The pilot episode for ''[[Law and Order]]'', "Everybody's Favourite Bagman", was filmed a couple of years before the series, and later incorporated into the series... eight episodes in. This led to the rather amusing continuity error in which Detectives Logan and Greevey met A.D.A Robinette for the first time when they've already worked with him for seven episodes.
** Worse yet, this pilot featured a different District Attorney (Wentworth) from the rest of the season. Thus, if you watch the episodes in order, you see D.A. Schiff for several episodes, then Wentworth for this episode, then back to Schiff for the next 10 years.
* The ''[[Global Frequency]]'' pilot episode was leaked onto the Internet, where it garnered widespread rave reviews. Unfortunately, the leaking ticked off the executives in charge so much that they cancelled the series out of spite. You'd think that, the illegality of the leaking aside, the possibility of having a show about which such good word of mouth had spread that it had a better chance of success than most other untested pilots would be worth giving a shot to anyway, but apparently not.
* The pilot episode of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' was 69 minutes long, and originally aired commercial-free.
* "Serenity", the two-part pilot episode of ''[[
* The pilot episode of ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'', also titled ''Pilot'', focused on the ghost of a Vietnam War pilot.
* The pilot episode for ''[[Kyle XY]]'' was reshot at a later date because it was considered to be too downbeat and dragging. This lead to a difficult scenario where all the cast were a year older. Josh, for instance, had to have all his lines redone because his voice was an octave lower.
* ''[[Sherlock]]'' has a 60-minute pilot version of "A Study In Pink", with the idea of this being the first episode of a series of 60 minute episodes. Instead, the BBC, despite loving the pilot, asked for three higher budget, 90-minute episodes. This led to the pilot needing to be scrapped and a new version of the same story being written. The 90-minute version is considered much stronger than the pilot, as it spends more time establishing the characters, fixes some elements of the sets and plot that didn't work the first time, and also added the "archnemesis" subplot. Though the pilot version of "A Study in Pink" never aired, it is included in its entirety on the home release of the series.
* The original pilot for [[Married...
* The pilot for ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'' gave Bob Hartley the extra job of heading his apartment building's Action Board when the writers feared his psychologist practice wouldn't supply enough storyline possibilities. Also, Bill Daily was not in the pilot, but interestingly the actor who filled his position of Wacky Neighbor would later return to play his brother Warden Gordon Borden in an episode of the series.
* ''[[Sesame Street]]'' had [http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Pilot_Episodes five pilots] produced and shown to children in early 1969. The biggest difference between these and what would eventually air is that the Muppets are kept separate from the humans, but since kids paid more attention to the Muppet and animated segments, they were integrated into the street once the show got off the ground, arguably for the better.
** One segment that never made it into the actual show but was heavily advertised even before the street segment was set in stone was [http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Man_from_Alphabet "The Man from Alphabet"], a spoof of detective shows. It failed in testing due to the lesson never getting across to the kids.
* The 6 minute test pilot of ''[[Walking
* ''[[The
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
* [[Executive Meddling]] forced the Pilot Episode of ''[[
* The Pilot Episode of ''[[
** Following ATHF's success, the shelved ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'' script ''Baffler Meal,'' featuring the original conception of the Aqua Teens was dusted off and made into [[What Could Have Been]] a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] had the script been used when it was originally written. Shake is even bossier (but humorless), Frylock is a completely different design and personality with a chipper high pitched voice, and Meatwad, looking closest to the actual character is less naive and much more an exaggerated [[The Eeyore]].
* The pilot for ''[[
* The Pilot Episode of ''[[
* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
* ''[[Re Boot]]'': Did not have a pilot because of the expense of CGI hardware back then. It was an entire season or nothing.
* ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'''s pilot had the inspector himself with a mustache and a british accent (provided by [[Gary Owens]]). When the show was picked up as a series, they had to throw in a [[Hand Wave]] in the aired version explaining the mustache. US tropers, however, can see the aired version [http://www.hulu.com/watch/83128/inspector-gadget-original-series-winter-olympics#s-p5-so-i0 here].
* The pilot episode of ''[[
* The pilot for ''[[Comic Book/The Amazing Screw On Head|The Amazing Screw On Head]]'' animated series. Though the series was not picked up, the (awesome) pilot is avaliable online and on DVD.
* ''[[
* ''[[Ka Blam!
* Sniz and Fondue's REAL pilot is a rarely-seen short called "Psyched For Snuppa", directed by [[Courage the Cowardly Dog|Jon R. Dilworth]]. Aside from starring Snuppa and Bianca and featuring Sniz and Fondue (called "Squeaky") as supporting characters, it pretty much is identical to the eventual show.
* The pilot for ''[[My Life
* The pilot for ''[[
** Joe Murray intended for Rocko to be a light yellow, and animated him as such in the pilot. However, [[Merchandise-Driven]] - based [[Executive Meddling]] forced him to change him to his final beige color, which required the pilot to be recolored digitally.
* The pilot of ''[[
* ''[[Kirby of the Stars]]'' had a four-minute clip made to celebrate the release of ''[[Kirby]] Air Ride'' in Japan. The pilot can be viewed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXHME5248pM here].
* The ''[[Recess]]'' pilot, "The Break In" was made in 1996 and was aired as the first episode in 1997...at least the altered version. The "pilot" version had ''very'' different character designs, such as no one wearing their main outfit (except Mikey and the non-main six cast), T.J. being tall and skinny, Vince looking like a teenager, Spinelli looking like a kindergartener, and Gretchen with black hair (Gus wasn't in the pilot). When it aired as the first episode, it was re-drawn to look more like the series proper. Clips of the pilot version were seen in an ABC Saturday Mornings promo on the 1997 VHS to ''[[
== Never got beyond pilot stage ==
* ''Virtuality'' is an ''unfinished'' [[Mind Screw]] of a pilot which one can only describe as [[
* In 2006, ''[[
* Micah Wright, a writer for ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'', created a pilot called ''[[Constant Payne]]'' that never sold.
* There is a pilot out there for a "show" called ''Mercy Reef'', starring Justin Hartley as Aquaman, and Adrianne Palicki as the villaness. To the enragement of many a fan, it wasn't picked up, but it was leaked onto iTunes for free download. It is awesome.
* There are dozens, if not hundreds, of unsold [[Game Show]] pilots:
** [[David Letterman]] hosted two pilots of ''The Riddlers'' in November 1977. The first pilot was shown on [[GSN]], and Dave talks about it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJDu-hPhDo here.]
** While it never made it to series, a portion of the February 1975 pilot ''[http://www.usgameshows.net/x.php?show=KingOfTheHill&sort=0 King of the Hill]'' (not [[King of the Hill
** ''Pyramid'' creator Bob Stewart had no fewer than 15 pilots which he pitched to networks over time but never sold. As was the case with ''Cash on the Line'' in 1973, most of his pilots had ideas that wound up in other series of his that did make it to air. For instance, the main game of ''[[Go (TV series)|Go]]'' was based on the [[Bonus Round]] to ''[[Chain Reaction (TV series)|Chain Reaction]]'', and appeared in at least two pilots before that.
** ''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.
|