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Top 5 Ways Glee Has Let us Down Since its Pilot
The premiere episode of Glee, airing in February of 2009, was one of the great pilots. Which might leave you to ponder, upon the conclusion of the dramedy’s third season… WTF? Glee wouldn’t be the...
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Best Deaths in Pilots
Inspired by i09’s Death Week* and more specifically, their re-posting of Charlie Jane Anders‘ Ten Coolest Death Scenes in Science Fiction History, I got to thinking about how many characters bite the...
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Episodes, and musings on “in media res”
Is it me, or has it gotten really trendy to use the device known as in media res (“in the middle of things”) in pilots? It can be a very effective way to tell a story, obviously, since it’s been around...
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Can you tell from the pilot?
Can you tell if a TV show is going to be any good based on its pilot? io9’s Charlie Jane Anders recently posted How to Tell from a Pilot if a TV Show is Going to be Any Good and offered some insightful...
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Five Ways to Ruin Your Pilot
I’ve been trying to think of a good reason to write a post on this topic for a long time. The Mindy Project is as good a reason as any. The Mindy Project has everything going for it, with Mindy Kaling...
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Merry Pilots
You wouldn’t think Christmas would be a particularly propitious time to set your pilot. Pilots usually air in the fall, or just after the holidays. And Christmas is the season for marathons of shows...
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Isaac Asimov: Visions of the Future
If you’re at all into science fiction, I don’t have to convince you that Isaac Asimov was an amazing guy. He wrote about a zillion books and imagined worlds and technology that laid the foundation for...
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Pilot Titles, Round 2
I did an earlier post of match-the-pilot title-to-the show, but here’s a fresh batch. Some are obvious, some are not. See if you can guess which shows’ pilots these are: 1. Give Me a Ring Sometime 2....
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Pilot Titles, Part 3
If you’ve read this blog before, you know I enjoy titles of pilot episodes, and television naming conventions in general. Can you identify the show by the title of its pilot? Air dates range from the...
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What makes a good sci-fi pilot?
Any fan of genre television probably has a mental list of dos and don’ts when it comes to pilots. With so many entries into the sci-fi category in the past few years, we’ve seen them all. You probably...
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Pilot-Finale Symmetry
This post contains SPOILERS for the series finales of Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Eureka, Friends, Chuck, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and Parks and Recreation. A series finale can be an oddly polarizing...
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Favorite Pilots of 2016
In the spirit of year-end lists, which I love, I offer my own mini-list. I’m calling this “favorite” rather than “best,” considering there are probably lots of great pilots out there I have yet to see....
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