Do today TVs even have a pilot episode?
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beckyx1 — 12 years ago(November 19, 2013 05:46 PM)
Yes, all TV shows have pilot episodes (it is just the first episode of the series) - although the "pilot episode" is seen a lot more in America than the UK. For example, I don't know if you have ever seen LOST, which began in 2004 and has now ended, but that had two pilot episodes, basically just to test the water and see how big of an audience it attracts.
P.S. if you haven't seen LOST, I highly recommend it!! -
IndigoFlame — 11 years ago(June 29, 2014 09:21 PM)
The Pilot for Lost is actually the first two episodes if I remember correctly.
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jellybeanchick — 12 years ago(March 19, 2014 08:37 PM)
Yes, they do. A pilot is nearly always part of the development process. Here's how it usually goes: showrunner pitches the idea to the network. The network likes the idea and orders a pilot. The network likes the pilot, so they order several episodes. Very rarely does a network order a season of a show without even seeing a pilot. And very rarely is someone going to invest in filming more than one episode of a show without a network planning to run it.
There's nothing good about running the pilot, then making a major change for the rest of the series. That is actually lazy writing. These days, there is more concern about continuity, so if a change is needed, they will usually film a new first episode. The original pilot will not be shown, but sometimes is included on the DVD release. -
IndigoFlame — 11 years ago(June 29, 2014 09:31 PM)
Person of Interests pilot has a different set than the series plus the equipment gets more sophisticated.
BBC's Sherlock had an unaired pilot that's available to see on Netflix. It's a good example of how much more a production company can do with better finances.
The Walking Dead's pilot is the entire first season.
Justified's pilot was shot in Pennsylvania while the rest of the series is in Kentucky. Ava's house and other exteriors changed.
Supernatural changed subtly. The two brothers and the car didn't change but the scripts got tighter and the mythology evolved in the first season.
Burn Notice's Gabrielle Anwar lost her accent and her character softened after the pilot.
House, M.D.'s Hugh Laurie's accent improved audibly between the Pilot and the second episode.
Those are the only ones I can recall right now. Most series have some changes but when it's an independent production that's been ordered by a cable channel you won't notice them so much because the first season seems to have been shopped ordered and bought before much if any production has happened.
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mtourist — 10 years ago(April 28, 2015 01:16 AM)
'George Gently' the brilliant British TV series starring Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby as detectives, has a pilot episode. It's set in the 60s, starting in '64 when hanging was still done, set in Northumberland, though I read on the 'net that most of it was set in Ireland for the more starkness.
I have right up to Series 6 on DVD, but Series 7 is about to go to air in UK, if it hasn't already started, but I think it's starting 29th April. We in Oz will have to wait a little while for us to get it, maybe later in the year, and to be put to DVD, but that happened last time even before it had finished the last episodes on TV!
The BBC put it out in a newspaper article saying it was Series 8, and I thought I'd missed a series, 'til a fan on Twitter told me they'd got it wrong, as they were calling the whole of the first series a 'pilot' but only the first story was. There were three. They didn't change anything from the pilot.
Apparently, the new series is actually being set in Northumberland and surrounds this time, to the delight of me and other fans. -
Lyceus — 10 years ago(May 01, 2015 10:35 AM)
A lot of nowadays' shows have pilots, most of them I'd say. There are several examples of changes between the pilot and the following episodes (some of them required shooting a new pilot episode):
The Big Bang Theory
originally had another actress playing Penny, in an un-aired pilot.
New Girl
had a black sports coach called Coach. By the second episode he had left and was replaced by Winston, a black basketball player and we were told he had lived in the appartment long before Coach. How convenient!
Several actors from the original
Game of Thrones
pilot were changed, so their scnes were filmed again. Some of the characters that were re-cast were Catelyn Stark and Daenerys Targaryen.
They also changed the female cop in
Psych
's pilot. In the second episode she had been transferred and we had a new character, Juliet played by Maggie Lawson.