Bill Needle

I'm not trying to troll on Lost either. It just has to be my biggest WTF? show ever in the way that so many people (many of whom I used to respect ) loved it and when I tried it I had absolutely no clue why. Typically I can at lease see why other people who have different tastes in entertainment might enjoy a particular show. Or for instance take music, where a certain style might not be your thing but you can certainly acknowledge the talent of the artist performing it. Or a sport such as gymnastics which puts me to sleep within minutes but holy cow those people are doing some amazing things. But with Lost...I remain mystified. It is the show that found my entertainment blind spot.

bluetoast

The Shield derivative of Oz? How do you mean.

OldBoy

West Wing "Pilot"...I've seen it over and over and still gives me chills. That is amazing tv. Martin Sheen fucking killed in the end!

TheAllPurposeNothing

Pushing Daisies. About as brilliant as a pilot can be.

cowtown

Battlestar Galactica without a doubt...and then that long WAIT while the series got developed.

Don't remember exactly why, but the pilot of Californication also comes to mind as grabbing me and not letting go.

Hokeyboy

The Monroes

davidh777

Many answers here too:

Best 1st episode of a series?

OP of that one was The West Wing.

E Unit

ER had my favorite premiere.

DJariya

OldBoy is starting to develop the memory of an OldBoy.

OldBoy

Thanks as always david I fucking searched on "best" too and zip came up.

davidh777

I searched for "Lost pilot," because that's one of my favorite series premieres. Chuck is great too.

OldBoy

Maxflier

Still LOST.

Decker

Yeah, LOST is hard to top.

I was very partial also to the long-forgotten, short-lived companion show The Nine.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wu46u9sshKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also another short-lived one that hooked me right away was Murder One
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NQWqCEt7O-s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And also Boomtown. Loved that one from the get-go
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pPWpJX_n_HA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Norm de Plume

I was never able to get enthralled by the show, but I've always thought the theme music and opening credit sequence were second-to-none.

Michael Corvin

Wow, Oldboy started that thread too.

Answer then still stands, Lost.

I'll toss something different out. Sports Night. It's rare that a show can toss you in the middle of a world in the first episode and make you feel like the show has been on for 5 years.

More recently, The Flash was pretty awesome.

Shannon Nutt

This is the correct answer Best. Pilot. Ever.

stvn1974

Twin Peaks, I am watching it right now, actually.

Hazel Motes

Didn't think anyone else would post this, but ER is my answer as well.

Freaks and Geeks had a great series premiere too. I still get bummed out when I think what could have been.

Hazel Motes

And don't feel bad Oldboy. Between messageboards and social media I often lose track of what I've posted and where I've posted it

B5Erik

Castle
Firefly

Both hit the ground running. Too bad Fox didn't trust the Firefly pilot and aired it out of order later on. They screwed that series from the start.

Luds

Twin Peaks without a doubt.

Rob V

Lost... I was hooked immediately.

The Night Of premiere, most recently, was riveting to me.

Jay G.

To be fair, the opening scene of the Firefly pilot was added after the initial screening to FOX, and was in direct response to the network note that it didn't have enough action. The original opening scene is included in the DVD/Blu-ray set. However, by the time they had reshot the opening and re-edited the pilot, FOX liked the idea of a one-hour premiere and went with the 2nd episode without even watching the re-edited pilot.


Oddly enough, I watched all of Pushing Daisies on TV as it aired except for the pilot, which I missed. And even though I have it on disc, I haven't gone back to revist that show yet, and so still haven't seen the pilot.


I'm not sure what my favorite would be, but for a recent pilot I felt was really, really good, I'd go with Preacher: it introduces all the characters and plot at a pretty breakneck pace with a good number of fun action scenes, crazy comedy, and a little gore.

davidh777

It's funny to see the Castle pilot in the context of the first season because Alexis got noticeably older by the time they got signoff and started shooting the other episodes.