The Failed Pilot Project: An Introduction

The pilot is the single most important step in any television show's lifespan. Though it is rarely the best episode the show will offer up, it is the show's one true chance to claim, loudly and boldly, “here I am, this is what I can do.” (Yes, sometimes shows ended up changing dramatically from their pilots *cough* Cougar Town *cough*, but rarely do shows get a bigger audience after the initial airing.) It is the first chance to win over an audience – and the only chance to win over the executive boardroom. But what happens when a pilot doesn't succeed? What is the pilot is reworked, or is scrapped for a new introductory episode, or -worst of all – just not picked up? Enter The Failed Pilot Project, Pixelated Vision's long-term look at the rarely seen relics of TV.

The purpose of this project is to look at the world of television, from both the cultural and business aspects, via these rejected minutes of screen time. I will be looking not only at pilots that never made it to series, but also those pilots that had major reworking, and those that were scrapped, but due to contractual obligations, still made it to series.

This idea first came to me, albeit in a simplified form, upon viewing the unaired pilot for Dollhouse, available on the show's DVD box set. Despite being a solid, if not spectacular, hour of television, and a good indication of what the show would be like going forward, it was rejected by FOX as being too complicated and dark. (Joss Whedon claims that making a new episode was his idea, but I still have my doubts.) I have since watched  the episode a few more times, looking to see how it differs from the series proper, an exercise that is complicated by the fact that many part of the pilot were reused throughout various episodes in the first season. I was fascinated with this idea of how different people can approach television, how they have different opinions of the best way to start a story. (There will be a full post on the episode in the upcoming weeks.)

I begin to notice this elsewhere. As a TV obsessive with internet access, I began to notice that multiple series had their own scrapped or modified pilots, and the fact that each of these were scrapped/changed, and for the variety of reasons that these were rejected/modified, held their own specific lessons about how television works. Not every pilot we look at may be good, but they each hold an important lesson or two for learning how the television industry operates.

And then there are the rejected pilots, those that just never made it series. Again, thanks to the internet, I was able to stumble upon some of them and their specific lessons. This started upon viewing the pilot for Nobody's Watching, a series co-created by Bill Lawrence, of Scrubs fame. (Yes, this pilot will also be covered by the Project.) Upon initial viewing of this (and other rejected pilots) as a mini-movie of sorts, I bemoaned the lack of more episodes for something I found to be quite brilliant. But when I began to think about the FPP, I realized that these pilots have their own place in this back door discussion about television.

So, as I am sure you are wondering at this point, what shows/pilots will the FPP be looking at? For an initial list, we have:

From the mind of Joss Whedon:

• Buffy The Vampire Slayer - “Unaired Pilot”
• Angel - “Pitch Pilot”
• Firefly – A comparison of the pilot episode “Serenity” and “Train Job,” the first aired episode of the series    
• Dollhouse - “Unaired Pilot” 

From Bryan Fuller:

• The original pilot for Wonderfalls, with the original actors of Adam Scott ('Aaron') and Kerry Washington ('Mohandra')
• The rejected pilot for The Amazing Screw-On Head 

The rejected pilots:

• Nobody's Watching
• Heat Vision and Jack 

Other Pilots:

• Arrested Development – “Pilot” vs. “Unaired Pilot”
• The Dresden Files episode “Storm Front,” filmed as the pilot, but then edited down to work as the eight episode in terms of airdate.
• Veronica Mars – Rob Thomas’ rejected trailer for the a potential season 4 

The list is just preliminary, so check the Project page occasionally for updates. If you know of any other pilots that you think may fit with the Project, tell me about it in the comments (including where I can find the episode). Furthermore, while the above should be considered as the planned posting order, things may change. Though the current plan during the summer is to do one post a week, up every Wednesday morning or so, I can’t guarantee that this will always be the case, as I will be juggling two jobs this summer and wage labor isn’t always predictable in its scheduling. However, I do plan on doing all the related pilots back-to-back, with possibly a week off between certain sections (say, when I jump from Joss Whedon’s pilots to those of Bryan Fuller.)

Each post will provide a discussion of the pilot & series, how the two fit together, and how their differences alter our view of television. While discussing these pilots, I will be returning to a set of following questions, as applicable to each pilot:

• How good is the original pilot? Does it work? Is it a perfect encapsulation of what the series will be?
• Is this pilot a set up for what’s to come, or an example of how things will be? Would it have worked better the other way around?
• Was the network “right” is scrapping/modifying this pilot?
• Could America have embraced this show? If not, would it have been worth the few extra episodes of what clearly would have been a quickly cancelled series? 
• Did the changing of this pilot change the general feel of the series? If so, was it for better or for worse? 

As this project will be dealing with universal lessons that I hope all TV fans can appreciate, I will attempt to keep each post as open and spoiler-free as possible. I will also be providing the video in question via embedding or hyperlink, whenever possible. For those that can't be found on the Internet, I will write up a workable summary with enough information to inform you about the nature of the pilot. Of course, having a cursory knowledge of the series in question will enhance your reading experience, but please don't let that deter you from reading each post. Remember, this project is more about television than it is the pilots themselves.

It is my hope that this project will teach both you and me a good deal about television. Here's to our enjoyment as we take this journey together.

Next week: The Project (and Joss Whedon “Month”) kicks off with a discussion of the scrapped Buffy pilot.