Your fave pilot episodes of any TV series? by lwaves

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Your fave pilot episodes of any TV series?

POSTED BY: LWAVES
UPDATED: Sunday, April 25, 2010 06:53
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Saturday, April 24, 2010 11:32 AM

So what are they.
Doesn't matter how the series turned out, whether it was the best show ever or the biggest piece of crap ever filmed. As long as the pilot episode (or two-parter) was tops then it can count. Any time period - go back as far as you like.

Oh and we'll take it as read that we all put Firefly down as this is a FF site.

In no order:

Lost - The premise of Robinson Crusoe with more people was blown out of the way once the weirdness started. I was hooked from that point on.
Life On Mars (UK) - It shouldn't really have worked but the 70's were back with a mind-bending twist.
Angel - Buffy didn't get me until after a couple of episodes but Angel set out it's darker tone right from the start but still delivered the funnies and coolness.
Robin Of Sherwood - One of my fave all time stories and with the added magical twist and cast of likeable characters it was an instant hit for me. Loved the music as well.
Castle - Mystery, comedy, drama and sexual tension all rolled up into one with a great supporting cast.
Dark Angel - Genetically altered goodness with an attitude. What's not to like.

That'll do for now.
Your picks are??

"The greatest invention ever is not the wheel. It's the second wheel." - Rich Hall

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 12:43 PM

CHRISISALL

You already got Dark Angel, so...

Man From Atlantis- what a fun & well-acted piece. Victor Bruno was an amazing villain (as always). The series? Another story.

Planet Earth- Roddenberry goodness + John Saxon fresh from Enter The Dragon = a good time had by all. No series though...

Kung Fu- kicked a*s!!!

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman- Too bad the series rarely lived up to this high flying & entertaining nonsense.

Adventures Of Brisco County County, Jr.- Unbelievable! A great pilot followed by nearly as great eps all the way to the end!

Airwolf- GREAT pilot, very good first season, then into the toilet.

Night Stalker- Richard Matheson writing the highest rated TV movie ever at the time.

Battlestar Galactica- giving us our Star Wars fix in 1978. Not "technically" great for any other reason than the FX, that got recycled ad nausium in the series.

Is that enough for ya?

The laughing Chrisisall

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 1:22 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Yes, Firefly is a given. I'll also echo Lost, Life on Mars, Dark Angel and Kung Fu.

I did make a very long list of other shows, then decided to edit it down because some of them actually had much better episodes after the pilot.

At the top of my revised list is one that may bend the rules a bit, since I'm picking the 2003 BSG miniseries and counting it as a pilot.

Others, in alphabetical order only:
American Gothic
Carnivále
Chuck
Dead Like Me
Dresden Files (if you count the extended version of "Storm Front" which Sci-Fi aired only once, and then at 3am with no promotion. The edited version was broadcast as Episode 8.)
Freaks and Geeks
Mad Men
The Prisoner
Pushing Daisies
Star Trek TOS - "The Cage"
Twin Peaks
Wonderfalls

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 1:31 PM

CHRISISALL

OOoo, how did I miss CHUCK & The Prisoner???

Also, Max Headroom- very cool.
And yeah, Angel's pilot was very slick indeedy.

The laughing Chrisisall

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 5:04 PM

STINKBUG

Breaking Bad
Deadwood
Farscape

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 5:45 PM

BORIS

Now and Again
Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza place (laughed myself silly right from the start)
Big Bang Theory (ditto)
Northern Exposure
Good Guys Bad Guys (Kick ass gritty Aussie show starring Marcus Graham as an ex cop)
Homicide: Life on the Street (once upon a time loooong before "The Wire")
The Wire
Arrested Development
Freaks and Geeks
Flight of the Concords (season one rocked season 2 not so much)
Battlestar Galactica (I was a kid...it blew my mind and started my crush on Dirk Benedict)

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 8:17 PM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb

The pilots I saw when they first aired:

Firefly (Both of them)
John Doe*
The Lone Gunmen - Pilot wasn't scary at the time. Now it is.
Monk
24
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Drive*
Daybreak**
Heroes
Chuck - When Chuck's computer was "utterly destroyed", I was hurting, I was laughing so hard.
Castle
Better Off Ted

The rest:
Buffy
Angel
The X-Files
Lost
Titus
WKRP***

* Needs to be on DVD.
** 2-Disc DVD sucked! Re-release 4-disc!!
*** First DVD sucked! Re-release with original music!!!

--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 9:28 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Firefly
Dark Angel - out of the park.
Six Million Dollar Man
Nowhere Man
The Big Valley
Charlie's Angels
Magnum PI
Rockford Files
NYPD Blue
ER
Batman
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
ST: Voyager
The Adventures of Beans Baxter
COPS
America's Most Wanted

I'm tempted to include Heroes, maybe LA Law.

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Saturday, April 24, 2010 11:22 PM

BORIS

ooh yeah Rockford Files and NYPD Blue....and Hill street Blues...and I vaguely remember seeing the pilot of Sesame street when it was repeated in the late seventies...Sesame Street was my first TV cult experience

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 1:30 AM

CAMPBECC

Firefly: of course or I wouldn't be here

Stargate SG-1: incredible show I liked it about as well as Firefly at least the first 7 seasons

Chuck: the best show on TV right now

Dark Angel:I wouldn't of thought of it but after reading others posts, I remember how well the show started it just ended badly.

Save Chuck: go to http://savechucknow.wordpress.com/1-2/ to see how you can help

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 1:47 AM

CLJOHNSTON108

Quote:
Originally posted by RahlMaclaren:
Daybreak**

** First DVD sucked! Re-release!!

First off, it's great that somebody remembers this!
But they already re-released the DVD, and that's the one that sucks!
It was originally a 4-disc set, and then the company went out of business. Then it was put out as a 2-disc set by Mill Creek, and the compression really shows.
When I first discovered Day Break on Hulu last year, I went on a chaotic search for the DVD: Waited for the re-release, then couldn't find anybody selling it. Once I finally tracked that one down, and resigned myself to the poorer quality, then I found the original 4-disc set! O what a happy day that was!
What was your problem with it?
The only thing I didn't like was that they broke up the 2-hour pilot into separate episodes, which really disrupts the flow in the build-up to the big highway shoot-out, IMHO. Fortunately, Hulu runs it in its original form! (Sadly, we can't post Hulu links here.)

A good review of the 4-disc set...
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/daybreakcompleteseries.php
And the 2-disc...
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/daybreakcomplete.php

Oh, and my favorite pilots, ranked according to how many times I've rewatched them...

• Firefly
• The Middleman
• Mann & Machine
• Max Headroom
• Day Break
• Space: Above and Beyond
• Cupid (Jeremy Piven version)
• Defying Gravity
• Farscape
• Stingray (Nick Mancuso)
• Better Off Ted
• Total Recall 2070
• Babylon 5 (with the Stewart Copeland score)
• Airwolf
• Andy Barker, P.I.
• Strange Luck
• dueSOUTH
• EZ Streets
• C-16
• High Incident
• Hill Street Blues
• Earth2
• The Prisoner
• The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr.
• Burn Notice
• EUReKA
• Threshold (aired version)
• Dark Skies
• The X-Files
• Stargate Atlantis
• Stargate SG-1
• Angel
• Buffy
• The Flash
• MacGyver
•

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 3:21 AM

CYBERSNARK

I'll put in a vote for Andromeda. The show eventually went so far downhill it ended up underground, but "Under the Night" and "An Affirming Flame" (the two-part opener) were among the two best hours of TV space opera I've ever seen, and set up a universe that I still want to play in.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 3:42 AM

CLJOHNSTON108

I was tempted to include Andromeda on my list, but then I remembered that the episode I keep re-watching, D Minus Zero, wasn't the actual pilot.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 5:55 AM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb

Quote:
Originally posted by cljohnston108:

But they already re-released the DVD, and that's the one that sucks!

Yes, I know! I was trying to kill two birds with one footnote. Obviously, I failed miseribly. It's now edited for accuracy.

Just looked at Amazon. Dude, 4-disc is much less than $90 now! Less than 30 even!

Getting..... now!

Along with Freelancer (game).
Hopefully the mods will run on my ancient (11yr old) system.

Plus, Baldur Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast!

--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Sunday, April 25, 2010 6:53 AM

THESOMNAMBULIST

LOST for me.
and I kind of enjoyed that doomed show:
INVASION , it maybe drew on too much of what Lost was going on to do, but the pilot had something....

Otherwise I'd have to go as far back as:
BRIMSTONE - Clever!

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