Pilot episode

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

A Pilot Episode, or Pilot, is the first episode of a new television series. In most cases, the pilot episode is also the only episode of a new television series. Often, a pilot features different actors, settings and/or writing staffs than the series based on it. In slightly more rare occasions, the entire series might be different than the show's pilot. This usually leads to a series of reasonable explanations as to why the first episode is different from the rest of the show's canon.

In recent years, the number of show pilots has decreased. This is because most new series are based, in part or in whole, on other currently airing television shows.

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Origin

During the early days of television, which coincided with the rise of commercial air travel, professional airline pilots would have lengthy layovers between flights. Many of these layovers took place in Los Angeles, at the end of both transcontinental and trans-Pacific airline routes. Television executives discovered the huge number of pilots who were essentially killing time at the airport between assignments, and began arranging impromptu readings of television scripts in the Los Angeles International Airport pilot's lounge. These sessions featuring crudely acted-out performances by various members of the fledgling aviation industry came to be known as "pilot episodes," and provided producers much-needed feedback about the quality of their scripts.

Although television series are rarely acted out by sleepy airline pilots these days, the convention of the word "pilot" remains in the television vocabulary.

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Pilots for the 2007/2008 season

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Shows picked up for 2007/2008 season

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