Lost and Alias. Hooked right away.

Millennium's pilot is fantastic

Veronica Mars -- better than most movies.

One of my favorites.

Lost
Futurama

LOST - feature film that just happened to debut on TV pretty much.

Everwood - such a wholesome feel to the pilot, and was still very real and optimistic.

ANGEL - didn't know a thing about the man, having never seen Buffy but when he vamped-out and staked Sawyer in the opening teaser, I was immediately hooked.

The O.C. - Such an awesome contrast between the rich and the poor, and was very exciting.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The offbeat humor, the enthusiasm the characters had and the (at the time) innovative new approach to crime stories, plus it's still funny to hear Grissom call a room full of corpses "you assholes!" for scaring the team's newest (and shortest-lived) rookie.

ER
NYPD Blue

First one I thought of.

Yeah - I'll echo the sentiments here - all the entrenched F/X series, Lost, Homicide.

I'd have to go with Alias. After that commercial-free episode, my heart was pounding through my chest, so much so that I didn't watch another episode until I bought the complete series set a couple of years ago.

It was a toss up with 24. I decided that I couldn't watch 2 heart-pounding shows in a single season . This is how much a really don't like action, but still enjoy a good series.

it's funny about the FX series'. weren't they all no commercials or limited interruptions when first aired? i wonder if that has something to do with it (running through a first ep without any breaks). i too love the FX series', and do remember bits and pieces from them simply because they were fresh and new and sometimes startling without letting us come up for air.

Night Gallery

WEST WING, hands down. It's a fantastic episode, all of the characters were firmly established (and no one was OUT of character when compared to later episodes)... It's a perfect hour of Television.


-Doc

Twin Peaks and The Shield

Lost is an obvious choice. Seems like a lot of people are choosing more recent shows. I would like to add the Twilight Zone. "Where is Everybody?" may not be the best episode but it represents everything that made the show great.

Alias was great, but I'd have to go with Pushing Daisies. I haven't cared a ton about the show since, but the pilot was one of the best I've ever seen.

For an older show, I have to vote for Misfits of Science. The series tanked and the episodes weren't great at all, but the pilot was great.

There are a number of shows I have watched a lot of where I'm not certain what the pilot episode actually is because I've mainly seen the show out of order in syndication. I can figure out what the pilot is for something like The Beverly Hillbillies or Gilligan's Island, but not every show is quite that obvious. That's why I have chosen fairly recent shows.

Without question - LOST
Followed by Battlestar Galactica and Firefly

The actual Twilight Zone pilot aired as an episode of Desilu Playhouse. It was called "They're Coming". A guy who was at Pearl Harbor and survived is revisting years later. He goes to a bar he and his buddies hung out in. On the wall behind the bar are photographs of the men who were killed that day. This guy somehow gets transported in time back to Pearl Harbor just before the attack. He runs around trying to warn people but no one will listen/believe him. This time he gets killed. When we come back to the present at the end his photo in on the wall behind the bar. TV Land showed it once back around '98 or so as part of television history program they used to have.

The Untouchables pilot, "The Scarface Mob", also first aired as an episode of Desilu Playhouse. Later it was edited into a two part episode.

Twin Peaks, without a doubt. I can still remember watching it the night it aired, and being blown away by how great it was.

Also, Six Feet Under and Sports Night, and one that I don't think has been mentioned yet: Coupling (the British version, of course). It took me a while to get into it at first, but by the last scene, I was completely hooked.

Rob

Has anyone said Lost? I think it's the best pilot episode.

Twin Peaks

This is simply not true. The show is not a Twilight Zone episode. It was a shelved script for the Twilight Zone that ended up being filmed for Desilu Playhouse. CBS wanted no part of a sci-fi series. It became a big hit when it aired and CBS began looking at the possiblilty of producing a series like the Twilight Zone with Rod Serling. They ordered a pilot to be made and that was "Where is Everybody". I believe the show you are refering to is called "The Time Element". But it was never an episode of the Twilight Zone and cannot be considered a pilot any more than his other filmed scripts.

Edit: Just to add something- Serling intended The Time Element to be the pilot but because it was already used he did not want it to be the pilot episode. He then wrote a story called The Happy Place which was basically rejected by CBS for being too depressing. This led to Serling writing Where is Everybody, the episode that sold the series.

The Wonder Years - Absolutely perfect to me. The charachters were so well fleshed out in the pilot and remained true to themselves throughout the series.

Honerable mentions
Miami Vice
WKRP
My So-Called Life

I guess it depends on how you look at it. It is called "The Time Element". imdb refers to it as the Twilight Zone pilot. It wasn't an actual episode but is in The National Museum of Television and Radio for it's historical significance as being the prototype/launching pad for The Twilight Zone.

I'll echo others and say Lost, ER, The Office (UK) and South Park.

I'll add one that I didn't see mentioned. The pilot for Picket Fences was brilliant. I just recently picked up the first season on DVD. I had forgotten how wonderful that first season was.