Pilot: Difference between revisions

{{examples|Notable Pilots:}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

 

** 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|that]] one) became the BonusRound to ''CardSharks''.

* [[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).

* 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).

* [[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.]

** 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.

** 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.

* 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 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.

* The pilot for ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' is "Big House Blues". Unlike most pilot episodes, pretty much everything, from Ren and Stimpy's designs, voices and personalities to the animation is fine-tuned from the get-go. [[Nickelodeon|Nickelodeonit]] several times, albeit with some sexually-suggestive footage removed.

* The Pilot Episode of ''[[The Drinky Crow Show]]'' is the only episode not in HD.

* ''[[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 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.

* ''[[Futurama]]'''s pilot had a notable title, "Space Pilot 3000". (The second episode was named "The Series Has Landed".)

* 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 as a Teenage Robot]]'' was shown on ''[[Oh Yeah Cartoons|Oh Yeah! Cartoons]]''. It was known as ''My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot'' and had a different art direction. It was eventually remade as the episode "It Came from Next Door".

* 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.

 

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