A pilot episode can make or break an audience’s opinion of a TV show, and very occasionally, a series manages to outdo all viewer expectations with a truly perfect episode. This is never easy to pull off, as the first season premieres have the difficult job of not only introducing all the main characters but also ensuring the series remains engaging, the characters' motivations make sense, and there’s enough narrative potential to carry forward an entire show. Without an excellent pilot episode, viewers are liable to stop watching, even if later episodes and seasons get a lot better.
Many of the greatest shows of all time boast incredible pilot episodes that laid the groundwork for all that would follow. While intense dramas like Breaking Bad and Mad Men effectively introduced the world to antiheroes like Walter White and Don Draper, it was also just as important that sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother gave viewers a reason to tune in week after week. A pilot episode is the most important moment in a TV show's entire history because if viewers aren’t hooked from the beginning, they’ll be gone forever.
10 How I Met Your Mother (2005 - 2014)
Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot”
How I Met Your Mother premiered the year after Friends had concluded and acted as the perfect replacement show for lovers of that popular sitcom. While Friends was a tough act to follow, How I Met Your Mother set itself up well in its opening episode to hook viewers in with a unique premise that kept them tuning in year after year to discover the mysterious mother's identity. This would not have been possible without an excellent opening episode that encouraged viewers to get invested in Ted Mosby's love life.
The pilot of How I Met Your Mother had a lot of work to do as it showcased the framing device of the older Ted’s voiceover narrative, had many flashbacks to the past, present, and future, and introduced not just Ted but also Robin, Barney, Marshall, and Lily. As a bright and cleverly constructed sitcom, it’s no surprise that viewers were hooked audiences right from the opening episode. With an impressive 10.94 million viewers tuning in to its premiere, How I Met Your Mother remained extremely popular throughout its nine seasons.
How I Met Your Mother
- Release Date
- 2005 - 2014-00-00
- Network
- CBS
- Showrunner
- Craig Thomas
Cast
Ted Mosby
Barney Stinson
WHERE TO WATCH
How I Met Your Mother is a television series that follows a father telling his children about his past. Released in 2005, it explores his experiences and adventures with four close friends, leading up to meeting their mother, as depicted through a series of flashbacks.
- Directors
- Michael J. Shea
- Writers
- Chris Harris, Stephen Lloyd, Joe Kelly, Robia Rashid, Greg Malins, Chris Marcil, Phil Lord, Sam Johnson, Tami Sagher, Gloria Calderon Kellett
- Seasons
- 9
- Streaming Service(s)
- Amazon Prime Video
9 Twin Peaks (1990 - 1991, 2017)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Northwest age”
David Lynch and Mark Frost created a cultural phenomenon with Twin Peaks as the serialized nature of its mysterious narrative pushed television into a brave new era. Prior to Twin Peaks most television was episodic, as networks felt they couldn’t rely on viewers tuning in week after week without ever missing an episode, but this series trusted that audiences were paying attention as this pilot posited the question of who killed Laura Palmer. With rich storytelling, an eccentric set of unusual characters, and Lynch’s distinctive sense of surrealism, Twin Peaks was unlike anything else on TV at the time.
With a hugely influential first episode, countless modern TV shows wouldn’t exist without Twin Peaks. From the ethereal beauty of Angelo Badalamenti's opening theme song to the unique mannerisms of Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks had a unique identity all of its own. An impeccable piece of storytelling, the most impressive thing about Twin Peaks pilot episode was the way it blended soap opera melodrama with an intense murder mystery while giving just the slightest hint of the absurd, supernatural happenings that would occur later down the line.
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Twin Peaks
- Release Date
- 1990 - 1991-00-00
- Network
- ABC
- Showrunner
- Mark Frost
Cast
Russ Tamblyn
Sheryl Lee
WHERE TO WATCH
Conceived by Mark Frost and David Lynch in 1990, Twin Peaks is a supernatural mystery-drama series that brings FBI Agent Dale Cooper to the quiet town of Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of a young woman named Laura Palmer. As Dale continues his investigation of her death, he learns that Laura's life wasn't as she d it, and the town itself is hiding far more secrets than they let on. The show received a revival for a third and final season two decades later to resolve the cliffhanger left at the end of the second season.
- Directors
- Mark Frost
- Writers
- David Lynch
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Amazon Prime Video
- Main Genre
- Mystery
8 The Walking Dead (2010 - 2022)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Days Gone Bye”
The sheer quality of the opening episode of The Walking Dead was unprecedented in the realm of horror TV, as it showcased it was possible to tell an ongoing story on the small screen that had the same intensity and production values as a feature film. “Days Gone Bye” perfectly set up the horror of its apocalyptic landscape and showcased the true perils of a world that was being ravaged by a zombie outbreak. With an intense opening scene that saw Rick Grimes shoot a zombified young girl in the head, The Walking Dead immediately signaled this series was not going to be for the faint of heart.
“Days Gone Bye” was the most-watched series premiere in AMC history and achieved an impressive viewership of 5.35 million (via horror on television, as, although it boasted plenty of gory scares, it was also propped up by rich storytelling, a strong ensemble cast, and engaging worldbuilding. While The Walking Dead would vary in quality throughout its 11 seasons, this pilot episode encapsulated the best of this show.
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The Walking Dead
- Release Date
- 2010 - 2022
- Network
- AMC
- Showrunner
- Frank Darabont, Angela Kang, Scott M. Gimple, Glen Mazzara
Cast
Andrew Lincoln
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series, developed for television by Frank Darabont, follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead. The Walking Dead lasted for eleven seasons and spawned several spinoff shows, such as Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
- Directors
- Greg Nicotero
- Franchise(s)
- The Walking Dead
- Seasons
- 11
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix, AMC+
7 True Detective (2014 - Present)
Season 1, Episode 1: “The Long Bright Dark”
The first episode of the anthology crime series True Detective introduced audiences to the Louisiana State Police homicide detectives Rustin "Rust" Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin "Marty" Hart (Woody Harrelson.) With a dual setting shifting between 2012 and 1995, “The Long Bright Dark” saw Rust and Marty recounting the history of the Dora Lange murder investigation, as new evidence suggested the killer was still at large. With an engaging mystery and an A-list cast, this opening episode laid the groundwork for a complex, gritty, and philosophically rich crime procedural.
Shot entirely in 35mm film, the most striking thing about the first episode of True Detective was how good it looked from a cinematography perspective. The strong writing, effective soliloquies, and impressive performances also immediately signaled True Detective as a cut above the average murder mystery series. While True Detective kept its quality up throughout the entire first season, this opening episode was highlighted it as a show unafraid to explore topics of philosophy, religion, and the fraught, dark underbelly of American society.
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True Detective
- Release Date
- January 12, 2014
- Network
- HBO Max
- Showrunner
- Nic Pizzolatto
Cast
Rust Cohle
Ray Velcoro
WHERE TO WATCH
True Detective is an anthology series exploring intricate criminal investigations through multiple timelines. Each season examines dark personal and professional secrets revealed during the course of solving complex cases, highlighting the impact of crime on individuals both within and outside the law enforcement community.
- Directors
- Cary Fukunaga
- Writers
- Nic Pizzolatto
- Seasons
- 4
- Streaming Service(s)
- MAX
- Where To Watch
- M
6 Ozark (2017 - 2022)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Sugarwood"
The opening episode of Ozark started with a bang as Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney), a couple marked for death by the Mexican cartel, were first introduced. As a mild-mannered financial advisor, Marty was shown to be way in over his head laundering money for the cartel after it was discovered that Marty’s partner had skimmed $8 million from them. In order to save his life, Marty devised a plan to move to Lake of the Ozarks to continue their scheme there. Marty promises that, if he’s allowed to live, he will launder $500 million in five years.
This was an intense set-up for an opening episode that saw its lead character almost killed before things had even begun. Ozark took the dark premise of a mild-mannered man turning bad from series like Breaking Bad and turned it on its head with clever twists in a fish-out-water crime story. While the series would grow in complexity and intrigue over its subsequent seasons, Ozark episode one did an excellent job setting up the Byrde family and showcasing that Marty would do anything that was required to ensure his survival.
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Ozark
- Release Date
- 2017 - 2022-00-00
- Showrunner
- Bill Dubuque
- Directors
- Bill Dubuque
Cast
-
Katrina Lenk
WHERE TO WATCH
Ozark is a drama-thriller that follows the Byrde family’s journey from their everyday, suburban Chicago life to their dangerous criminal enterprise in the Ozarks, Missouri. When financial advisor Marty Byrde sees a money-laundering scheme for a prolific Mexican drug cartel go wrong, he is forced to launder $500 million in five years to keep himself and his family safe. The series explores capitalism, family dynamics, and survival through the eyes of (anything but) ordinary Americans.
- Writers
- Bill Dubuque
- Seasons
- 4
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
5 Chernobyl (2019)
Episode 1: “1:23:45"
The HBO miniseries Chernobyl was a truly riveting five-episode miniseries that outlined the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed. This explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine remains the worst nuclear disaster in history, as it had ripple effects throughout Europe and the USSR, with 49,000 people needing to be evicted in the 36 hours after the accident. As a brilliant and emotional dramatization, Chernobyl's first episode laid the groundwork for the series' exploration of the horrific meltdown.
As a cautionary tale about the potentially devastating effects of a nuclear disaster, Chernobyl was made all the more thrilling with the knowledge that everything depicted on screen actually occurred. From the horrific instances of human error among its incredible cast of characters to its feature film-quality visuals, Chernobyl was a series packed with metaphors around current global issues and the lessons that those in power should take from the mistakes of the past. “1:23:45” was particularly effective at setting the atmosphere for the series as the disaster became increasingly unwieldy.
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Chernobyl
- Release Date
- 2019 - 2019-00-00
- Network
- HBO Max
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
Jared Harris
WHERE TO WATCH
Chernobyl is the Emmy award-winning mini-series by Craig Mazin created for HBO that retells the dramatic story of the Ukrainian nuclear disaster in the 80s. The show follows the true story closely with some dramatizations but still follows the fallout of the atomic event and tells stories from those closely involved to the efforts of first responders and other teams who helped with the cleanup efforts.
- Directors
- Johan Renck
- Writers
- Craig Mazin
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- MAX
4 This Is Us (2016 - 2022)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”
The pilot episode of This Is Us introduced seemingly unconnected characters celebrating their 36th birthday, setting up many of the show’s central themes. With powerful ideas around family, identity, loss, and connection, This Is Us immediately signaled itself as a show that’s unafraid to depict pivotal moments from life both past and present. The final twist revealed that Jack and Rebecca Pearson’s story took place in 1980, while the other characters, Randall, Kate, and Kevin, live in the present day.
This was one of the most impactful moments in the show and showcased This Is Us as a complex series with a unique narrative structure. As the dual lives of parents and their children were told simultaneously, This Is Us made poignant connections between their similarities and differences as it highlighted the universality of growing up. By showing that parents have rich, full, and complex lives before their children enter the picture, This Is Us was able to solidify its reputation as a heartstring-tugging family drama in its very first episode.
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This Is Us
- Release Date
- 2016 - 2022-00-00
- Network
- NBC
- Showrunner
- Dan Fogelman
Cast
Susan Kelechi Watson
Lonnie Chavis
WHERE TO WATCH
This Is Us chronicles the Pearson family across the decades: from Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s to their 37-year-old kids, Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) searching for love and fulfillment in the present day. This grounded, life-affirming dramedy reveals how the tiniest events in our lives impact who people become and how the connections people share with each other can transcend time, distance, and even death.
- Writers
- Dan Fogelman
- Seasons
- 6
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu
3 Mad Men (2007 - 2015)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
One of the finest hours in television history came with the Season 1 premiere of Mad Men, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” an episode that not only introduced the world to Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and the rest of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency, but also the rich 1960s setting of this period drama. With an impressive visual style, hard-drinking cigarette-smoking executives, and a mysterious protagonist, Mad Men was immediately engaging. Created by Matthew Weiner, fresh from working as an executive producer on The Sopranos, he clearly carried forward many lessons from that extraordinary series.
Not only did the pilot of Mad Men do an excellent job introducing the series characters, but it also showcased itself as a glimpse into bygone times as the cultural, social, and political tensions of the era it was set in bled into every scene. Mad Men set the bar incredibly high with its first episode, and it was clear from the beginning that Jon Hamm’s characterization of Don would be one of television’s all-time great protagonists. Set around Don’s advertising work for the cigarette manufacturer Lucky Strike, although it was set in the 1960s, it was clearly one of the best shows of the 21st century.
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Mad Men is a drama series set in 1960s New York, focusing on the lives of competitive men and women working in Madison Avenue's advertising industry. The show explores the social mores and cultural dynamics of the era while delving into the personal and professional challenges faced by its characters.
- Writers
- Jonathan Igla, Robin Veith, Carly Wray, Kater Gordon, Bridget Bedard, Cathryn Humphris, Chris Provenzano, Brett Johnson, Rick Cleveland, Tracy McMillan, Andrew Colville, David Iserson
- Seasons
- 7
- Streaming Service(s)
- AMC+
- Main Genre
- Drama
2 Breaking Bad (2008 - 2013)
Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”
The premiere of Breaking Bad had a lot riding on it, as the very concept of a high school chemistry teacher turned meth cook was an extreme character arc to achieve in under one hour. With Bryan Cranston as Walter White, this pilot had to undo the audience's previous perception of him as the goofy dad from Malcolm in the Middle and accept him in this gritty drama about a terminally ill man wanting to ensure his family’s financial future before he died. However, Cranston’s remarkable performance quickly set the tone for one of the best TV shows ever.
From laying the groundwork for Walter’s partnership with his former student Jesse Pinkman to introducing his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader, the first episode of Breaking Bad sowed the seeds for everything that came after it. This pilot powerfully balanced drama and comedy and somehow made Walter’s impulsive decision to start cooking meth not only believable but feel necessary. While Breaking Bad as a show continued to improve with each subsequent season, the pilot episode was truly a highlight across its entire five-season run.
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Breaking Bad
- Release Date
- 2008 - 2013-00-00
- Network
- AMC
- Showrunner
- Vince Gilligan
Cast
Walter White
Jesse Pinkman
WHERE TO WATCH
Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, follows a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin named Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as he attempts to provide for his family following a fatal diagnosis. With nothing left to fear, White ascends to power in the world of drugs and crime, transforming the simple family man into someone known only as Heisenberg.
- Directors
- Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren
- Writers
- Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, Vince Gilligan, George Mastras, Moira Walley-Beckett, Sam Catlin, Thomas Schnauz
- Franchise(s)
- Breaking Bad
- Seasons
- 5
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
1 Lost (2004 - 2010)
Season 1, Episode 1 & 2: “Pilot”
The two-part pilot for the ABC mystery series Lost was truly a masterclass in how to pull off the perfect opening episode. With the intriguing premise of the true nature of the mysterious island, Lost began with its extraordinary plane crash that saw the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 trying to pick up the pieces after they crash-landed on a seemingly deserted island. With a cost of between $10 and $14 million, it seems the network knew this was a series worth investing in because the first episode of Lost was the most expensive pilot ever made at the time.
As easily one of the most memorable pilot episodes ever made, Lost’s pilot hooked viewers right from the beginning and quickly became the most talked about show of its time. With the intensity of a feature film and the production values to back it up, Lost signaled a new era in television, as the power of this episode alone was enough to earn this series its place in television history. Although Lost failed to keep up the same level of quality throughout its six seasons and 121 episodes, the initial hook of what it all meant ensured its loyal fanbase.
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Lost is a mystery drama series created for TV that follows a group of survivors of a plane crash and tells its story between the past, present, and future via flashbacks. When Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashes and lands on a mysterious island in the pacific ocean, the castaways discover their new temporary home may have a mind of its own, as strange supernatural events keep them locked to the island. From an unknown black smoke creature to dangerous islanders, the engers must work together to survive the island's seemingly deadly intentions.
- Directors
- Jack Bender, Stephen Williams
- Writers
- Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
- Seasons
- 6
- Main Genre
- Mystery
- Creator(s)
- J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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