Few consumers of television series (those that are shown on standard TV) wonder what a pilot series of a television series is. And they can be understood - who wants to delve into the features of filmmaking with all the relevant terms, when you can just enjoy your favorite picture?
However, this issue is well known to all serial "maniacs", daily absorbing various television shows in huge quantities. What is the pilot series they know, and many particularly ardent fans can readily give their favorite examples. We also decided to shed light on this concept and dedicated a today's article to it.
Pilot series - what is it? Non-Released Example
To begin with, it is not entirely correct to associate the first episode of the series with this concept. Pilot series - what does this expression mean? This may be a trial series, which was created not for the sake of showing on TV, but for other purposes. An example is the well-known television series Enchanted, which tells about the life of three witch sisters. On the Internet, you can find an unreleased pilot series, which means that viewers who have access only to the TV could not even suspect its existence. In this episode, the younger sister named Phoebe was played not by the familiar Alice Milano, but by a completely different actress. At the same time, many viewers who became familiar with this series claimed that such a casting did not look at all. It can be assumed that the creators of "Charmed" shot two initial episodes with different actresses in order to feel the difference and make the final choice, based on already prepared material.
Viewer Verification
In the previous chapter, we gave an example of an initial episode created for the personal goals of show runners. Despite this, most of all, the concept of what a pilot series is connected with the published material. Such an episode can be appreciated by the audience of the new television series and used as a motivator for subsequent viewing.
In this case, the pilot series should draw attention to the project. Creators can take into account audience criticism and focus on ratings. Usually, after the first episode, the second follows, while the time interval between their releases does not exceed one week. However, there are other cases where the release of series No. 2 may be delayed.
Pilot series especially loved by viewers
Among all the pilots that came out, there are many really excellent episodes that managed to conquer the audience literally from the first minutes. The shows that launched the series have become truly benchmarks and set the bar for the filmmakers for many years to come.
Speaking about the most popular pilots, one cannot but mention such series as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Friends and The Soprano Clan. Each show had a specific target audience, which did not prevent them from entering the general list of icon pilots.
To the series mentioned above, without a shadow of a doubt, you can add Lost, Desperate Housewives and more modern Office, The Walking Dead and, of course, Game of Thrones.
About the most expensive issued pilots
Having understood what a pilot series is, we can talk about the most outstanding examples. American television is a very popular and influential industry setting trends around the world. Many series released on this TV are of high quality and multi-million dollar budgets.
What pilot episodes can be said to be the most expensive in the history of television? For example, in the Terra Nova series, the cost of this series amounted to 10-20 million dollars, in the Underground Empire - 18 million, in Lost - 10-14 million, in Beyond the Boundary and Rome - 10 million , and in the popular Game of Thrones - $ 5-10 million.