Favorite Pilot Episode
Nothing like a first love. The thread on favorite TV season, got me thinking about pilot episodes. Does anyone have any favorite pilots that they still love (no matter how the show turned out)?
Some that come to mind for me are:
1. Mad Men - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
2. Lost - The whole post-crash scene was unlike anything I've seen on TV
3. Game of Thrones - Loved the opening, struggled with the middle, but the end with Bran was...different
4. The Walking Dead - Despite my recent disdain for the show, if the pilot is on in a marathon, I'll watch
Some that come to mind for me are:
1. Mad Men - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
2. Lost - The whole post-crash scene was unlike anything I've seen on TV
3. Game of Thrones - Loved the opening, struggled with the middle, but the end with Bran was...different
4. The Walking Dead - Despite my recent disdain for the show, if the pilot is on in a marathon, I'll watch



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Comments
Sorry to drop a possible spoiler thats over 20 years old but the fact they had the guts to kill their best and main character off in the very first episode and managed to do so successfully speaks volumes to me.
Lost
The Sopranos
The Americans
had the greatest pilot of all time (that I have seen)...
Lost
The Walking Dead
Are also excellent
I'm tempted to take the X-Files for my definitive choice. It does such an amazing job of setting up the show and it's one of my favorite episodes. I'm going to toss that out as a placeholder and meditate on it a bit.
Honorable mentions off the top of my head - thinking of pilots that just instantly made me want to watch that show: ER, Twin Peaks, West Wing, Futurama, Breaking Bad, Mad Men
And come at me all you like, but Glee had a fantastic pilot.
Oh, and This Is Us - it was very sentimental and schmaltzy and at one point I was ready to go, nah, I’m not enough of an old person for this show and switch off, but then the twist was revealed and by the end Lily and I were sobbing messes on the couch hanging out for the next week’s episode.
My 17-year-old first cousin once-removed LOVES it.
One I forgot: The Night Of. The series wasn’t bad, but went downhill to me. But that pilot was near perfect.
The Wire
Oz
Carnivale
The Shield
12 Monkeys
Battlestar Galactica (new one)
4400
The Magicians
im sure I’m forgetting many that I really liked and just can’t remember right now.
Fargo every season has had really good opening episodes, but the first one will always win out.
The Expanse (probably has my number 2 spot)
The Sinner (tied number 3 spot)
The Leftovers (tied number 3 spot)
The Night Of
Firefly
Stranger Things
Black Sails
Into the Badlands (just because it was badass)