double_agent  04/04/08

cough COUGH!! LOST!!! Cough...

RobGrizzly  04/05/08

Also coughing..*LOST* cough~

jkcampbell  04/05/08

Lost, Alias, Arrested Development, Battlestar Galactica...

Oh yeah, and LOST!

scarsandstories8  04/05/08

yeah, I had plenty that i love that i didn't list (desperate housewives and... most of all.. brother's and sisters), but i just didn't have time when i took the challenge. and, yes, the lost one was pretty amazing, so i apologize for not mentioning it.

The Counteragent  04/06/08

jkcampell, you smart cookie, I'd agree with all of those, and also add Scrubs, actually.

Sdca4life  04/07/08

LOST....


Heroes was pretty good too

=]

[and Alias]

demetrithegreek  04/07/08

Aaron Sorkin always comes out of the gate strong. Studio 60 and Sports Night are two of the best pilots ever.

scarsandstories8  04/07/08

can turns not be forfeited if they take too long anymore?... :(

jkcampbell  04/07/08

No need to apologize, scars! We're just giving you more ammunition.

ABCSOAPS55  04/08/08

i can't say it's the best ever not with shows like "ER", "The Golden Girls", "I Love Lucy", "My So-Called Life", "NYPD Blue", "Frasier", "Felicity" and "The West Wing" all having produced superb, examplary pilot episodes.

scarsandstories8  04/08/08

it's weird that you say felecity. i never realized that i liked the pilot, but now that you say that, i did. i'm not a fan of the show, but it had a perfect pilot.

ABCSOAPS55  04/08/08

Well, the pilot episode is perhaps the best episode the series ever had and is one of the best pilots, if not drama episodes of the entire 1990's, if not the greatest single hour of television to ever air on the WB network.

randomlove36  04/11/08

Lost definitely takes the cake for best pilot, it was basically a mini movie. I would also like Pushing Daisies to the list of great pilots!

scarsandstories8  04/11/08

oooooh, yes! Pushing Daisies was also amazing!

...will the be a forfeited turn coming any time soon? :(

Oceanic 6  04/15/08

The Shield is ONE of the best pilots I have ever seen! That being said, it is NOT the best pilot I have ever seen. It is a very very good one though. I love the final scene with Mackey looking down at Terry Crowley as he is bleeding out on the floor...HAUNTING! Plus I totally lost it when Shane got the gun from Two Time and gave it to Vic and then BAM! Total shock!

That scene set the tone for the rest of the series right there and let us know that these cops were NOT the noble caliber of an Andy Sipowicz or a Bobby Simone...these cops made their own rules!

The Shield pilot reminded me a lot of the movie Training Day...only better!

Another one of the best pilots I have seen is the Rescue Me pilot. That pilot is actually stronger than the pilot of The Shield, if you can believe it. It is almost a pitch perfect pilot. The comedy timing is spot on and the emotional impact of the show hits you pretty hard by the time it's over. It is in the same category as The Shield except it is about emotionally scarred drunken firefighters instead of emotionally scarred corrupt cops.

The best overall pilot I have seen is probably the pilot for Millennium. That is one HELL of an hour of TV! Literally. It is one of the most groundbreaking hours of TV I have ever seen and it is put together extremely well. Lance Henriksen is perfectly cast and the pace and the dark tone of the episode is really creepy...but in a good way. Too bad the rest of the series NEVER lived up to it's full potential and that the plot/storyline got lost in the shuffle of the confusion of the writers.

The Millennium pilot remainsto this day the best episode of that series. Period.

charinator  04/16/08

Seinfeld. Just because it's the best sitcom ever. George's reaction from his failure to interpret the girl's signal despite previously going over every seeming possibility was classic.

Oceanic 6  04/17/08

The Sopranos had a pretty good pilot too. It blended the funny elements with the dramatic elements seemlessly. Plus, they are a VERY realistic portrait of an american family. NOT as far as the business, but as far as everything else: sibling rivalry, resentment of your mother, the stress that being the head of the household can put on you, extra-marital affairs (hey people cheat, it's in our nature to always crave new experiences...that's all I'm saying.), etc. Plus you gotta love the stuff with the ducks!

Oceanic 6  04/17/08

I would mention the LOST pilot too, which for network TV is freaking awesome!, but as far as I am concerned (and I don't think I am alone on this) almost every episode of the series since the pilot has been amazing and FAR BETTER than the pilot, in terms of quality of storytelling. Tell me I'm wrong...

Examples of episodes of LOST that are BETTER than the pilot:

"Walkabout", "The Moth", "Confidence Man", "Solitary", "All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues", "Homecoming", "Numbers", "Deus Ex Machina", "Do No Harm", "The Greater Good", "Exodus", "Man of Science, Man of Faith", "Orientation", "Everybody Hates Hugo", "The Other 48 Days", "Collision", "The 23rd Psalm", "The Hunting Party", "The Long Con", "One Of Them", "Lockdown", "Dave", "Two For The Road", "?", "Three Minutes", "Live Together, Die Alone", "A Tale Of Two Cities", "Further Instructions", "Every Man For Himself", "The Cost of LIving", "I Do", "Not In Portland", "Flashes Before Your Eyes", "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead", "Enter 77", "The Man From Tallahassee", "Expose", "One of Us", "Catch 22", "The Brig", "The Man Behind The Curtain", "Greatest Hits", "Through The Looking Glass", "Confirmed Dead", "The Economist", "The Constant", "The Other Woman", "Ji Yeon", "Meet Kevin Johnson", "The Shape Of Things To Come", etc...

Okay, I threw that last one in based on the strength of the preview alone, but you get the point, right? The bulk of the LOST series as a whole is much stronger than the pilot. That being said, LOST DOES have a GREAT pilot too, but to compare it to how good the show has been in terms of where the series has gone and WILL go...is just not fair. BEST SERIES EVER!

scarsandstories8  04/24/08

seeeeeeeeeeeriously. forfeit his turn already.

OzzieAlThor  04/24/08

Buffy and Angel do not have good Pilot episodes.