Ranking The Top 10 Best TV Pilots Ever Made

Look, we get it. You've got a lot going on right now

And if you want to add a TV show to your busy sketch, that TV show's first episode better grab you quick

Lucky for you, we're counting down the top 10 best TV pilots of all time

as voted on by you, the viewer. Welcome to Rankworthy, the show where we rank just about everything

The truth is out there. And the truth is, The X-Files totally ruled right out of the gate

If you've never seen the show and you're a skeptic, like Agent Scully, the pilot throws you in headfirst

Regardless if you're a genre fan or a nut for procedurals, The X-Files offers something for everyone

Yes, yes, the show gets very complicated and continuity-based later, but right at the beginning, that's a different story

The pilot functions perfectly as a standalone mystery. It's so well-written, it also sets up the series' elaborate mythology as well

But don't worry, it doesn't get bogged down in anything unruly. Creator Chris Carter's original goal? To scare people's pants off

Our chilly legs would say he succeeded. If you watched Joss Whedon's sci-fi cult classic Firefly when it first aired

you didn't watch the actual pilot. You watched the second episode, Rush to Order when Fox execs brilliantly didn't believe Serenity

the intended pilot, would work. But it does work. Really well, actually

It introduces each charming character with ease and builds a world you want to get lost in

We all know what happened with Firefly's early cancellation, its revival as a film

and the never-ending rumors of more episodes being produced. If nothing else, the dedication the show sparks should be enough to give you all the evidence

you need to check it out. Trust us, it'll be well worth your time. At its best, Fox sitcom That 70s Show felt like hanging out at your best friend's house

that lived down the street. The period piece captured the comfortably aimless nature of high school with finesse no matter the era you watched it in Its pilot is ambitious too There a long first tracking shot from Eric perspective putting us in the head of someone who smoked a bit too many doobies

That's cool 70s slang, right? Doobies? Let's also not forget that the show launched the careers of megastars Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher

Furthermore, it also helped cement the careers of Wilmer Valderrama, Laura Prepon, Topher

Grace, and Danny Masterson. Since the show's conclusion, all of the series' regulars have gone on to successful

careers. If only the cast of That 80s Show had been as successful. Diane stops at a bar just for

a moment while waiting to fly to Barbados for her wedding. She meets a litany of perfect characters

Cliff, Norm, Coach, Carla, and the dashing but frustrating owner Sam. Then she slowly realizes

her fiancé left her in the lurch. Making Lemonade out of lemons, she accepts a job working at the

bar herself. Cheers is not only one of the greatest sitcoms ever, it's also got one of the greatest

pilots in one of the greatest series finales. The show also spawned one of the longest-running

TV characters in Frasier Crane. Needless to say, Cheers is worth a look. And if you're

worried about Diane, at least she's in a place where she already knows everybody's name

Is it still a TV pilot if it functions perfectly as a standalone 90-minute movie? Yes, those

Brits have to do everything differently, but that doesn't mean the Sherlock pilot isn't

amazing. It is the definitive modern retelling of the famous sleuth. Sorry, Robert Downey Jr

and it adds a surprising amount of nuance to Watson as well. The pilot has spawned four seasons of The Mystery Procedural

Created by Doctor Who, Stephen Moffat, and Mark Gaddis, the show delivers an expert, well-developed, and idiosyncratic portrayal of Holmes

Obviously, it catapulted Benedict Cumberbatch to universal acclaim and a career playing everything from Marvel Doctor Strange to Star Trek Con If only other TV shows storytelling could feel this simple this effortless this elementary

From highly acclaimed best-selling comic book to worldwide television phenomenon, The Walking Dead sure has evolved since its inception in Robert Kirkman's basement

The adaptation of the hit Image Comic was almost something very different, however

At various points in its life, it was set up at NBC, HBO, and Universal as a feature film franchise

As we all know, it ended up at the home of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Sons of Anarchy, AMC

When it came time to make the pilot, AMC avoided no difficulties in crafting the now very well-regarded days gone by

It was shot in 16mm film, much more expensive than traditionally digital productions

It features tons of cutting-edge CG imagery, and it was made during a particularly sweltering Atlanta heatwave

but the result was well worth the effort. It's still arguably the zombie drama's finest hour

Lost took the world by storm when it began airing in 2004. The central mystery at the core of the show

captivated audiences and transformed the medium of TV into highly serialized prestige storytelling format

that it is today. Even all these years later, the real reason that is still lingering

in the back of all our minds is, how on earth did J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof

pull off the Lost pilot? It cost up to $14 million, the most expensive pilot ever made at the time

They were constantly rewriting and changing character decisions at the last minute

and one visual effect was reshot right before air. And yet, when you watch this thing, all you can think is

dang, they really pulled off the lost pilot. Getting a TV show is exceedingly difficult

You have to jump through endless hoops, and even then most pilots don make it to air The original pilot for Game of Thrones was filmed in 2009 to a devastatingly negative response from HBO Thus the crew refilmed 90 of the episode refining the script

and replacing the director. In the end, it was all worth it. The finished result went on to become

a juggernaut. Winter is coming indeed. In adapting George R.R. Martin's ambitious fantasy novels

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss captured the world's cutthroat power of

dynamics immediately. And yikes, what a shocker of a final image. Incest and attempted murder of a

child? This ain't TV. It's HBO. Dexter is a show that had its ups and downs, but the simple fact

that it was able to make the audience care about a straight-up murderer is incredibly impressive

Dexter's pilot had to navigate this issue in spades. Would people watch? Thanks to a stellar

cast and complex performances, the answer, quite assuredly, is hell yeah. The pilot episode throws

you into a particularly peculiar tone and filmmaking style, setting up a typical procedural

narrative with shocking violence and moral ambiguity. But also, like, it's really funny

It's amazing what some well-timed punchlines can do to create a sense of empathy. Or maybe

we're just sickos. Vince Gilligan, former X-Files and Lone Gunman writer, got the idea for Breaking

Bad when he was reading a newspaper article about a schoolteacher who was making meth in his

Winnebago. He found himself obsessed with discerning the answer to a simple question

What would drive someone to do this? Right from the jump, you know Breaking Bad's not going to be like any other show

Its opening sequence feels less like a TV drama pilot and more like a hyperactive thriller movie

Then, when it jumps back in time to show us how we got there, we realize how much complexity the saga of Walter White has in store

And we're addicted. Pun very fully intended