Pilot Episode facts
While investigating facts about Pilot Episode, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The deliveryman who picked up Martin's chair in the final episode of Frasier (played by Cleto Augusto) was the same deliveryman who had dropped it off in the pilot.
AMC gave the writers of 'Breaking Bad' permission to use only one 'fuck' each season, which led to giant discussions when to use the one 'fuck'. Because the pilot episode was independent, they used a bunch of 'fucks' there.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Pilot Episode I managed to collect.
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The pilot episode of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was made with only $200. And that was just for the 2 cameras and some tape.
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Al Jean (a writer and producer of The Simpsons) said if the series ever ends, he would like the final episode to end with the arrival of the Christmas pageant from the first scene of the pilot episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," making the whole series a continuous loop.
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There is an unaired version of the pilot of "Archer" where he is a raptor. Throughout the entire episode, he has no lines. He just makes raptor noises and it makes no sense.
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The pilot episode of the Lone Gunmen was about a conspiracy of the US government to hijack an airline and fly it into the World Trade Center to start a profit making war. It aired March 4, 2001.
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The pilot episode of an offshoot of The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen featured its heroes racing to stop a plane getting hijacked by govt agents and flown into the World Trade Center to increase defense spending while blaming foreign enemies. Aired 6 months before 9/11.
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In the first Futurama episode "Space Pilot 3000", Nibbler's shadow can be seen when Fry falls into the cryonic tube.
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Steve Carell had only seen about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned for The Office. He did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais's characterizations
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The pilot episode of LOST was so expensive (~$14million) that the network president was fired for greenlighting it.
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The pilot episode of LOST was so expensive (~$14 million) that the network president was fired for green-lighting it
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AMC gave the writers of 'Breaking Bad' permission to use only one 'fuck' each season, which led to giant discussions when to use the one 'fuck'. Because the pilot episode was independent, they used a bunch of 'fucks' there.
What is true about pilot episode?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
The pilot episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog was nominated for "Best Animated Short Film" at the 1995 Academy Awards.
The pilot episode for the X-Files spinoff show, The Lone Gunman, was about a government conspiracy to fly a plane into the Twin Towers to start a fake war. The episode aired in March 2001. - source
Tiger Woods PGA Tour '99 was recalled because the entire South Park pilot was used as dummy data on the disc and players discovered they could watch the episode by simply putting the game disc into a PC. - source
Star Trek's Captain Kirk was named for explorer of the Pacific, Captain Cook and that the title of the pilot episode was an homage to one of Cook's diary entries: "ambition leads me ... farther than any other man has been before me"
One episode of "MacGyver" contains a scene where a pilot nearly crashed his helicopter, but reacts fast enough to save the actors. - source
The alien language featured in Futurama was completely deciphered by fans only a few hours after the pilot episode finished airing
During filming of the pilot episode of Firefly, Joss Whedon was still arguing with Fox that the show should be displayed in widescreen format. Consequently, he purposely filmed scenes with actors on the extreme edge of both sides so that they could only be shown in widescreen
Seinfeld ended the last episode with the same bit as the beginning of the pilot episode.
The pilot episode of 'Frasier' over-ran by 60 seconds, and NBC decided they would find the time to run it. Instead of cutting commercial, they cut 15 seconds from 4 other shows that night.
It's always sunny' was only given $200 for their original pilot episode
Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character on Seinfeld, Elaine Benes, did not appear in the original pilot. NBC picked up the show on the condition that a strong female character would be added to following episodes. Louis-Dreyfus reportedly won’t watch the Seinfeld pilot out of superstition.
