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Television pilot

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A television pilot is a test episode of an intended television series. Pilot can also be used to describe a similar episode of a radio show. It may be slightly longer than a normal episode (sometimes it may approach twice the length so if sold, it will later be broken down into two episodes) and is intended to get network programming executives, and later the public, interested in the series. However, pilots are rarely fair examples of what a "normal episode" of a series is like, since they usually set the general background and tell the origin story for the series (e.g., if the series is about two angry roommates, the pilot will probably show how they met).

While many pilots are shot, few make it to the screen, and even fewer go on to become full-fledged television series. Competition at the network level is intense, with advertising money and choice viewer demographics at stake.

Pilot is an industry term, which has been adopted by the mainstream, and as such any first episode of a new television series will often be called the pilot by the general public, even if the actual pilot is unaired or aired later in the series.

Production of the pilot

Pilots are expensive to produce. Before a network commits to funding an entire pilot episode, it often requests a pilot presentation, a one-day shoot that, when edited together, gives a general idea of the look and feel of the proposed show. Some pilots can be just a few minutes long (ex: 10 minutes or less); however, such pilots will not be shown on the air unless more material is subsequently added to them to make them at least twenty-two minutes in length, the actual duration of a nominally "thirty minute" program (taking into account commercials). Occasionally, more than one pilot is commissioned for a particular proposed television series to evaluate what the show would be like with modifications. Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 are famous examples of this situation.

An example of change between the making of a pilot and the making of a series is To Tell the Truth in 1956. The original title of the pilot was Nothing But the Truth and the show was hosted by Mike Wallace. The program host was changed to Bud Collyer, and the title changed to To Tell the Truth.

Bare-bones pilot

Some series (such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are given bare-bones pilots that are never intended to be shown to the public. These pilots are made on a substantially smaller budget, contain no real special effects, and feature a condensed story. In the case of Buffy, the pilot was only 25 minutes long and took place entirely within Sunnydale High. This allowed the writers and producers to show off the style and general mood of the show and to convince the network to pay for a more polished, two-hour pilot, which was then aired.

Examples of bare-bones pilots

Airing the pilot

Pilots usually run as the first episode of the series, unless the series ended up being so different from the pilot that it wouldn't make sense (in this case the pilot, or portions of it, is often reshot or rewritten to fit the rest of the series). The pilot for Gilligan's Island, for instance, showed the castaways becoming stranded on the island. However, three roles were recast before going to series, with the characters either modified or completely altered to the point where the pilot could no longer be used as a regular episode. The series began with the second produced episode, with the characters already on the island. The story from the pilot was largely reworked into a flashback episode which aired later, although with several key scenes reshot.

There have been exceptions to this rule when a network or a producer has chosen to run the pilot at a later date. Series for which this has happened include the first Star Trek series, where the second, modified pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") was aired as the third episode, and footage from the original pilot ("The Cage") was edited into newer footage to produce the two-part episode "The Menagerie". (However, at the time it was common for a series' episodes to be shown out of the order in which they were produced.) The more recent television show Firefly set a particularly curious example, where the series was officially cancelled before the pilot aired as the final televised episode. Critics of the Firefly move complained that airing the pilot out of sequence made it difficult for audiences to understand what was going on; when the series was subsequently released on DVD, the pilot became the first listed episode.

Occasionally, pilots that fail to launch a series are nonetheless broadcast as TV-movies or as specials, usually as filler or as attempts by networks to recoup some of their investment in the production. Examples include the one-hour 1982 pilot for a never-produced Modesty Blaise series, and a 1986 pilot for The Saint in Manhattan, which had failed to launch a new series of Simon Templar adventures for television. Presumably, strong ratings for such broadcasts are capable of changing the network's mind, but this rarely occurs. On some occasions, a pilot film for a televised series will air separately long after the series itself has been cancelled. Such was the case with the pilot film for A Man Called Sloane, which featured a different actor in the title role. After it was not picked up for the 2006 fall season, the Aquaman pilot became available on the iTunes Store.

The pilot episode of The A-Team features a different actor (Tim Dunigan) in the role of Face, the part that Dirk Benedict would become well known for in the following series. (In fact, creators Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo had wanted Benedict from the off, after seeing him as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, but network executives insisted on a different actor in the role. Upon completion of the pilot (given the title 'Mexican Slayride' in syndication), they changed their minds, feeling that Dunigan wasn't right for the part, and the role was given to Benedict after all.)

Backdoor pilots

A backdoor pilot is a television movie, other TV special event, or even an otherwise normal episode of an already established series that is being used as a trial balloon—if audiences respond and ratings are good, the studio or network may order subsequent episodes from the creators. An example of the former would be when ABC aired its Dinotopia mini-series; although audience response to the mini-series was favorable, the following series was short lived.

In 1976, the character of Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas) had become so popular in Starsky & Hutch that producers considered giving him a spin-off. The second season episode 'Huggy Bear and the Turkey' (which would have been the name of the proposed series) saw Huggy paired with former Sheriff "Turkey" Turquet (Dale Robinette) as Private Investigators. The idea flopped and the series was never made.

Two second season (1979) episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard, "Jude Emery" and "Mason Dixon's Girls", also served as backdoor pilots for would-be series. The former concerns a Texas Ranger, and the latter is about a travelling Private Investigator and his beautiful assistants; both were written by Dukes creator Gy Waldron in hope of launching new shows, but neither episode led to a series being commissioned.

The first season (1981) episode of Magnum, p.i. titled 'J. Digger Doyle' presented the character of security expert Joy "Digger" Doyle (Erin Gray) of the episode title, in hope of launching her own series, but the idea didn't follow through. The third season (1983) episode 'Two Birds of a Feather' again served as a potential pilot for a new show. After playing the very similar character of pilot Grady Dancer in two episodes of Magnum co-creator Donald P. Bellisario's 1982-3 series Tales of the Gold Monkey, William Lucking was introduced as ace pilot Sam Hunter, a treasure hunter like Grady. Again a series wasn't picked up (although Bellisario went on to rework the 'adventures of an ace pilot' concept in Airwolf).

And the feature-length (two part in syndiaction) second season (1984) Knight Rider story 'Mouth of the Snake' (a.k.a. 'All That Glitters') introduced Charles Taylor as bionically enhanced David Dalton (the story is notable for little inclusion of series leads Michael Knight and K.I.T.T., or few other series regulars or locations). On this occasion, the concept actually was picked up, leading to several TV movies featuring Dalton in 1986; However they were not successful and a full series did not appear.

More examples include the series, The 4400 on USA Network, which was initially broadcast as a miniseries, and was later picked up as a full series on the same network (and is still currently on air). Also, the series Battlestar Galactica was initially broadcast as a miniseries on Scifi Network, and enormous popularity caused it to be picked up by the network. A spinoff series, Caprica, will be introduced by an episode airing in the 2006-07 season.

Similarly, the first two seasons of the original Twilight Zone had several instances of backdoor pilots, none of which were successful in establishing a new series. The Twilight Zone itself was a development from a backdoor pilot ("The Time Element") written for Playhouse 90 but finally airing as an installment of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: the cover page of the shooting script refers to "The Twilight Zone". The airing of a second, more conventional, pilot episode ("Where Is Everybody?") followed 11 months later and served as the first official episode of the legendary series.[1] Two episodes of the series were intended as backdoor pilots, both (possibly) coincidentally about guardian angels. One was called "Mr. Bevis," which starred Orson Bean as a down-on-his-luck man; the other was called "Cavender Is Coming," which starred Carol Burnett as a down-on-her-luck woman and Jesse White as her angel. Neither were picked up, and neither were particuarly well-received by TZ fans. Producer Buck Houghton has expressed particular disappointment with "Mr. Bevis."

At one time many pilots not selected for production as full series were aired as parts of anthology programs; these shows, which were often aired as summer replacements, were regarded as potentially holding more of the audience than repeat showings of old episodes of popular programs and this usage allowed the recoupment of at least a small part of the large development cost. Also, in a very few, rare instances, public interest could result in network executives taking a second look at the decision not to go forward with the series. One of the best known examples is "Love and the Happy Days," a rejected pilot for a TV series about a family in the 1950s, which was aired as an installment of the popular anthology, Love, American Style; this, combined with the popularity of the film American Graffiti (both productions starring Ron Howard), resulted in the series Happy Days being commissioned. The practice of airing pilots is now very seldom seen; pilots are more apt to be screened to focus groups than to a mass audience. Few pilots not selected to go into production as a series are ever aired in any form, although some are now being made available (both officially and unofficially) via the Internet.

Channel 101 and Channel 102 are monthly film festivals where participants submit a film in the format of a pilot under five minutes in length.

More examples of Pilots-within-Series

  • Again, Star Trek provides a famous example of the latter "backdoor pilot"-type with the episode "Assignment: Earth" where the crew of the Enterprise encounters Gary Seven, a character with his own agenda with the planet in a story that was intended to introduce the character and the premise of his adventures in a proposed series of his own (see spin-off).
  • An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation featured isolated groups of the primary and supporting cast in semi-standalone stories throughout the ship. One of these, featuring Chief O'Brien and Ensign Ro, was intended to test the characters' chemistry and ability to hold audience interest, in preparation for the planned series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Ultimately, Michelle Forbes, the actor who played Ensign Ro, did not sign on for the series, and her character was replaced with Major Kira.
  • Robin Williams appeared as "Mork" on the series Happy Days. His overnight success lead to his own series, Mork and Mindy.
  • More recent examples are NCIS, which began as a two-part episode of JAG.
  • CSI: New York, which began as an episode of CSI: Miami, which itself began as an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
  • Top of the Heap, a short-lived television series starring future Friends cast member Matt LeBlanc, which began as an episode of Married...With Children.
  • The pilot episode of Private Practice (a spin off from Grey's Anatomy) was first shown on May 3rd 2007 in a special two hour episode of the main show.
  • Boston Legal a spin off from The Practice, was introduced through a 6 episode story arc that saw James Spader's character being fired and the collapse of the firm from The Practice.
  • In the season 4 episode of Seinfeld, there is a 2-part episode called "The Pilot". Instead of being the usual pilot-in-the-series, this fake pilot served as a self-parody of the show and has been one of the most memorable moments of the show.

Examples of Pilots-within-Anthology-Series

For a complete list, see Shows that spun off from Anthology Series

Usually these anthology series were for one off-stories and once the episode showed the potential for a series.

In some cases a series is created specifically to showcase pilots.

Put pilot

A "put pilot" is an agreement between a network and a studio, where the network will incur substantial penalties if the pilot episode is not aired. This is a virtual guarantee that a pilot will be picked up.

Pilots Released as Films

Although many pilots fail each year, on rare occations these failed pilots are released as films.

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