Filler Video> The Greatest Shows You Never Saw

The only discussion topic out there are franchises I’m not into or repeating the same arguments, so let’s end the week on something fun.

In a previous filler video post I talked about getting to be part of a pilot survey with my parents. We got to see two unsold pilots, they got our feedback, and neither show was ever picked up to my knowledge. It was a fun experience.

I’ve seen talk earlier this week that pilots are dying as a way to sell a show. I’m not sure how they’re getting greenlit these days, but Hollywood in general is kind of a mess right now. The pilot gave the studios and network an idea of what they were going for, and test audiences like the one I was part of a chance to see what the concept is about, to see if it would have a full audience should it air, and what tweeks to make. In theory, as sometimes the final show was so far from the pilot you wonder if they saw the same thing. Some pilots are even redone with notes from the network and test audiences worked in.

Lee Goldberg posted our last video on “The Best TV Shows That Never Were”, although some of them would be worked into a made-for-TV movie or a one-night summer replacement, a little something extra for those who stayed home that summer night. Some even got released on home video just to make up the money used to make the pilot. Well, it turns out that was the second video. His first, The Greatest Show You Never Saw, was based on the same book as the other one, filled with more shows that never made air outside of those TV movies and summer replacements, or released as a special in syndication. You can find some of them on YouTube. Some of these even feature celebrities before and after they became famous for something else, so imagine a world where this was their big break. And for my comic-living readers, there’s a few you are already infamously familiar with, and for the rest of you there are a few pilots that actually did get picked up with some of that rework I mentioned. See if any of these are ones you wish you had gotten as a full series.