Legendary series usually start with the best pilot episodes of all time. That first episode is always vital, as it sets up the world, its rules, and the characters that try to live by them. For this reason, the pilot can either make or break any promising series. It can launch them to greatness or crash them so horribly that critics will dissect every wrong detail. What separates the best pilot episodes from the mediocre ones is the story they are trying to set up and the characters that get introduced.
The pilot acts as the foundation of the series overall, and episodes have to work from it, adding to the story without diminishing the legacy. For this reason, the best TV pilots start the series with a bang. An RV lab driving on a New Mexico dirt road, with pants flying in the air – this is how Breaking Bad started its journey. However, pilot episodes are successful if they set up the characters themselves. Mad Men does this perfectly in the very first episode. We get introduced to Don Draper, a marketing executive, and quite the womanizer, who seems to live a double life. Since that episode, more layers have been added to Draper’s character, deepening his significance to the story.
HBO is not the only one to start their series with a bang. From Breaking Bad to Mad Men, everyone has their favorite pilots they are always eager to watch. Luckily, AskReddit is here to help us pick the best ones. User zzDreaDzz (most gamer username ever) asked a question in the group — “Which show has the best pilot episode?” People answered it, and we compiled their opinions in the list below. Upvote the pilots that you believe were the best. If you want to share your knowledge on the pilots and why they were good, do so in the comments below.
#1 The Good Place — “Everything Is Fine”
Booksmagic replied:
“The perfect pilot and the perfect finale. And also a pretty forking great middle to go with it.”
Image source: amazon.com, Many_Tomatillo5060
#2 Stranger Things — “Chapter One: The Vanishing Of Will Byers”
SCHN22 replied:
“First season is a masterpiece, best season by far.”
Image source: amazon.com, q8ti-94
#3 Supernatural — “Pilot”
“The ending of episode 1 was awesome.”
Image source: amazon.com, SuvenPan
#4 Fringe — “Pilot”
“The Fringe pilot did a ton of work getting the characters together and informing you of their personalities while still telling having a compelling plot.”
Image source: amazon.com, wtfreddititsme
#5 Lost — “Pilot (Part 1)”
TheShoot141 replied:
“What an amazing first episode. Seasons 1-3 are some of the best TV. Specifically the cliffhanger at the end of season 1, top 3 all time.”
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#6 Futurama — “Space Pilot 3000”
“I think Futurama’s pilot is pretty perfect.”
billys_ghost replied:
“You can watch it on mute with no subtitles and it still makes perfect sense. Great pilot”
Image source: amazon.com, Suite401
#7 The Walking Dead — “Days Gone Bye”
“The Walking Dead has one of the best Pilots/First seasons of all time. It falls off slowly at season 2, and gers more and more drawn out and repetitive, but man that show was amazing in the beginning.”
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#8 Game Of Thrones — “Winter Is Coming”
ElginBrady420 replied:
“I read the book right before it came out and I thought it would be a real shame if the pilot didn’t end on “The things we do for love.” It did not disappoint.”
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#9 It Crowd — “Yesterday’s Jam”
Ok-Budget112 replied:
““Team! Team, team, team, team, team. I even love saying the word ‘team’. You probably think this is a picture of my family? No! It’s a picture of The A-Team. Bodie, Doyle, Tiger, the Jewellery Man.”
I used to do a lot of presentations for work. For acknowledgments you’d usually show a group photo but we were always losing and gaining people so I started using a picture of the A-Team because of Reynolm!”
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#10 Bob’s Burgers — “Human Flesh”
“My crotch is itchy”.
“Are you telling me that as my daughter or my grill cook? Cause it should be neither”.
Image source: amazon.com, lohunte
#11 Modern Family — “Pilot”
freezerbreezer replied:
“The best part was not realising how all the families are related until everyone shows up at Mitch and Cam’s.”
beansbaxter78 added:
“Currently watching it now for first time. On season 2 now. Every episode has at least one actual laugh out loud moment.
My wife and I both nearly pissed ourselves when Fizbo pulled out the alarm clock to check the time.”
Image source: amazon.com, jgrumiaux
#12 Breaking Bad — “Pilot”
DragoonDM replied:
“I was really expecting that I’d have trouble taking Bryan Cranston seriously in a dramatic role, being so used to him as Hal. They even had him in tightie-whities in the pilot, thoroughly reinforcing his “Hal”ness. It was a pleasant surprise to see how wrong I was about that.”
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#13 Chernobyl — “1:23:45”
GarchompKills replied:
“3.6 not great not terrible.”
Redqueenhypo added:
“For me, one of the things that made it incredible was the short chat between Scherbina and Legasov outside the courthouse about the history of Pripyat. Nobody ever acknowledges bad things happened in Eastern Europe prior to 1939.”
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#14 Scrubs — “My First Day”
bfragged replied:
“I have a cousin who’s a comedy writer and claimed scrubs pilot was almost perfect and worth studying.”
Image source: amazon.com, vokat17543
#15 ER — “24 Hours”
“Older show but ER’s pilot was phenomenal.”
Image source: amazon.com, GalavantingRhino
#16 Community — “Pilot”
“Community, because it introduces all the main characters, their backgrounds, and the direction of the show all in about twenty minutes.”
Image source: amazon.com, naminek150
#17 Black Mirror — “The National Anthem”
allthingskerri replied: “Honestly I tell people to skip the first episode if they have no idea what black mirror is about. It almost put me off watching anything else after that first episode… But it really does set the tone for everything else.”
Image source: amazon.com, Feetamongflames
#18 Six Feet Under — “Pilot”
tomatofruitbat replied:
” Love this show so much, and the pilot was amazing. I got so attached to the characters that I was sad for the end to come.”
Image source: amazon.com, NotTHATPollyGlot
#19 Brooklyn Nine-Nine — “Pilot”
JasperTheMaster08 replied:
“This job is eating me alive. I can’t breathe anymore. I spent all these years trying to be the good guy, the man in the white hat. I’m not becoming like them. I am them.”
Image source: amazon.com, MaximumBall7119
#20 Derry Girls — “Episode 1”
SoyBuenoWorker replied:
“The best part is that it’s Orla who we hear talking first and when you realize it’s not her diary, it’s hysterical. I think it’s also the most eloquent you ever hear Orla throughout the whole show, which makes it funnier.”
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#21 True Detective — “The Long Bright Dark”
“In my opinion. I don’t watch many series (because if the pilot is not good I usually don’t bother watching the rest) but this one got me going from the start. At least for the first season, anyway.”
Image source: amazon.com, yalaket111
#22 West Wing — “Pilot”
“Talks eloquently about how religion and politics can both exist at the White House without being overtly biased towards one side.”
Image source: amazon.com, rgentleman9
#23 Twin Peaks — “Northwest Passage”
MahouMonkey replied:
“When I experienced the pilot for the first time I couldn’t believe it was a show. I really felt like I was watching a film and it blew my mind how the world and characters enveloped me into this mystery.”
Image source: amazon.com, 30frames
#24 Battlestar Galactica — “33”
tbkrida wrote:
“I actually just started watching this for the first time 3 weeks ago. Woke up and there was an episode on and it looked interesting. Went back to the beginning and got hooked. On Season 3 now.”
Image source: amazon.com, OlDerpeeBastard
#25 Mr. Robot — “Eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”
Sierra1one7 replied: “Pilot is fantastic. Mr. Robot is one the best shows because it is a great show that actually ends well. Plus it has one of the most captivating scenes I have ever seen, the one with vera in the last season.”
Image source: amazon.com, Ell_13
#26 The Boys — “The Name Of The Game”
CaptainOverthinker replied:
“The person that convinced me to watch it told me “Just watch the first 5 minutes and you’ll be hooked”. They were very, very correct.”
Image source: amazon.com, GarchompKills
#27 Psych — “Pilot”
zachtheperson replied:
“I still think the Psych pilot might be the best episode of the whole show. Sean had so much more character, and they weren’t sticking to the 1.2.3. formula they adopted in later episodes.”
Image source: amazon.com, BeingRedundant
#28 Arrested Development — “Pilot”
Patricio_Guapo replied:
“The entire first season is the best first season of any sitcom ever. It’s flawless.”
Aardvark_Man added:
“I legitimately think that the original run is some of the best TV ever made of any type.
It’s just endlessly rewatchable, so tightly made and fantastic.”
Image source: amazon.com, Mysterea_Wisterea
#29 Fargo — “The Crocodile’s Dilemma”
“The ending of the pilot was shocking and really set the tone for the rest of the amazing first series.”
Image source: amazon.com, yalaket111
#30 Westworld — “The Original”
“The heavy ideas kept coming fast one after the next and I thought ‘whoa, slow down and pace yourselves, guys!’ but I was eating it all up throughout episode 1.”
Image source: amazon.com, jeroxe4075
#31 Ozark — “Sugarwood”
MrSnappyPants replied:
“I remember thinking, “this show is emotionally violent”. Incredibly well done. The laptop scene, the falling off the building scene. Brilliant.”
Image source: imdb.com, SolarGum
#32 Newsroom — “We Just Decided To”
“That whole monologue that Jeff Daniels does is priceless.”
Image source: amazon.com, ABaugh85
#33 Justified — “Fire In The Hole”
Paddock9652 replied:
Justified doesn’t get enough love in general but the pilot and finale were perfect and I would stack them against any other “golden age of tv” show. The show itself may not have been as tightly written and artsy as some but d*mn is it good.”
Image source: amazon.com, tetini8674
#34 Suits — “Pilot”
purpleushi replied:
“The whole first season was incredible. I remember watching every episode at least three times while waiting for the next one to air. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen so fast into fandom for any other show.
That being said, I ended up not even finishing the whole show. Checked out somewhere around the end of season 3 and then tried to finish at some point, but just couldn’t.”
Image source: amazon.com, Mysterious_Panic_488
#35 Invincible — “It’s About Time”
Warhorse173 replied:
“I remember my friend told me to watch it, so I did. For about the first 90% or so I thought it was ok, but kind of generic and predictable. Then I got to the last few minutes and I was hooked.”
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#36 Peep Show — “Warring Factions”
TheCaramelMan replied: “Peep Show is genuinely one of the hardest and cringiest shows I’ve ever had to watch. Every episode is like watching a car crash. And I mean all of this in the best way possible. The stupid and nonsensical sh*t these characters do and the awkward situations they get themselves in is so so so hilarious.”
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#37 Mad Men — “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”
“What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.”
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#38 The Chappelle Show — “Popcopy & Clayton Bigsby”
MeowsersMcMeow replied:
“If I recall correctly the whole point of making his own sketch show was so that he could air that sketch. No surprise its in the first episode.”
Image source: amazon.com, vokat17543
#39 The Americans — “Pilot”
“It’s the best show you’ve never watched.”
Image source: amazon.com, CeraphFromCoC
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