I love how Lori Loughlin's line was "you got into Harvard!" oh the irony.

80's:"This concept would never work."- some Tv exec Now:Netflix original series

The original UK "Red Dwarf" is one of the greatest shows ever.

John Denver beating up bad guys is the most amazing thing ever

I'd rather watch the worst of these than the "reality" tv crap we have today.

Johnny Carson once called Maclean Stevenson the man who's been in more pilots than an Air Force proctologist.

I've always been fascinated by obscure films and television shows especially ones that were never produced. Thank you so much for posting this on KZfaq as I remember watching both this special and the other based on your book.

NOW we know why Tom Selleck grew a mustache.

"Just Friends" was also done. They moved it to Boston, stuck Ryan Reynolds in it and called it "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place."

Too bad they didn't mention that the pilots for Daredevil and Thor were both Incredible Hulk TV movies.

"People in dog suits! What were they thinking?" Hey, it seemed to work for the show Wilfred.

I remember Generation X being aired as a TV movie. So it was probably made to be a pilot that never got picked up, but it did sell and air on television.

Ryan Stiles impersonating Robin Williams attempting to channel the Swedish Chef.

"The Questor Tapes" was a good TV movie and was bought by NBC to become a series, but the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry ("Star Trek") killed the series rather than make all the changes NBC wanted. They insisted that Questor's human friend (and teacher about humanity) be dropped, and the show be turned into a robot on the run, pursued by the people who built him. Roddenberry changed Questor's name to Data and plugged him into Star Trek: the Next Generation.

British "Red Dwarf" was awesome....there are LOTS of those shows...season after season!

The hits they missed, the misses they actually spent time and money on. Amazing.

The amazing thing is that these pilots got made at all. That takes a budget and industry professionals and talent and all kinda people who got to get paid. Incredible. Fun show, Lee.

I’d rather watch these “duds” than today’s “hits”.

I'd love to see a more recent version of this with the addition of streaming apps.

I wonder if someone DID inform the guys from the show that Red Dwarf was actually an attempt to reboot an english show of the same name that got to TEN-FREAKING-SEASONS, plus one movie, four books and one RPG. Hardly "Didn't make it", hmm? Of course, the american version was an unbelievable flub, but hey, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't...

Where's Wheels and The Legman when you need them?😂

"In Living Color" sat idle in the vault for 2 years before someone at Fox watched it. Must have been a HUGE surprise to the Wayans brothers when they got the call after 2 years of patience.

When he sees corruption he gets Rocky Mountain mad

I remember seeing Bates Motel and The Omen on TV. During the 1980s in the summertime, the major networks always showed the pilots of TV shows that never got picked up as a series in lieu of summer reruns.

Can't hold a candle to the one that made it on TV - "My Mother The Car!"

"Acting Sheriff" looks legitimately hilarious and Goulet was a treasure

In addition to _The Questor Tapes,_ Gene Roddenberry (creator of _Star Trek_ ) also wrote _Genesis II_ in 1973 and _Planet Earth_ in 1974 and pitched them as pilots. Both were essentially the same show ( _Planet Earth_ was a re-do of _Genesis II_ ) but neither one of these sold, either. Actually, you could say that, since Roddenberry's _first_ pilot for _Star Trek,_ "The Cage", didn't sell THAT was a failed pilot as well. Fortunately, NBC gave him a second chance and he made "Where No Man Has Gone Before" which _did_ sell. And the rest is history.

16 Meg? That wouldn't run a coffeemaker today....lol

I've been looking for this for YEARS! thanks for uploading it.

GARY 7 would have been brilliant.

Some of these are good pilots. Some people just don't know a good show.

This special is amazing. Can't believe how awesomely non-pc the narration was just back in 2004. Most of these shows look better than anything currently airing...especially Chameleon. That babe is out of this world.

So the future Captain Archer of Enterprise invents a transporter and says “Beam me up Scotty”. No wonder he got the part.

Umm is that Lori Laughlin at 38:14 talking about how hard it is to get into college???

41:24 - Wow, I could actually hear the network tell Graham Chapman; "Stop that; I think it's silly!"

Did you know that there was a pilot called "The Art Of Nick", which was a "Family Ties" prequel which shows Mallory's future boyfriend, Nick Moore, before he met the Keatons? It was quite funny, and co-starred a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis Dreyfuss, but the show never got picked up. I think they had the episode on KZfaq.

21:10 -- "Just Deserts" is spelled correctly. "Dessert" (with two S's) is the sweet course at the end of a meal. "Desert" (with one S, but pronounced the same) means a punishment or reward that is deserved. "Desert" (with one S, but accented on the first syllable instead of the second) means barren land.

1980s: People in dog suits! What were they thinking? 2019: People in cat suits! What were they thinking?

I can't get enough of these, thanks Lee!

I remember watching this special when it aired. I can't believe I finally found it and it was on KZfaq this whole time! Even though I could have sworn I looked for it here just a year or two ago? Anyway, thank you for uploading it! Of the pilots, The Chameleon interested me the most back then. Now that I've learned they were apparently made into TV movies, I will be looking for those next.

Man, I'm intensely curious why you blurred the faces of the two guys in the jail cell in the Robert Goulet show. Also, were you completely unaware that 'Red Dwarf' was originally a very successful (and hilarious) Britcom?

I remember seeing a few of these on "CBS Summer Playhouse" in the late '80s which was an anthology series that aired these never picked up pilots. The only pilot I saw on that program that I really wanted to see picked up for a series was called "The Pretenders" staring Amanda Pays and Roger Wilson. It had a "Miami Vice" grittiness with the witty repartee of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd from "Moonlighting'.

we have a channel here called the horror channel that puts pilots on as films during the day

Glad to see David Rappaport came back after Nick Derringer, P.I. and starred in a series that actually got on the air, The Wizard.

"People in dog suits...what were they thinking?" Well, I'm sure if this came out today it would be a huge hit to the furry community.

This special came out in 2004? It looks like something that was made in the late 1990s.

Laughed so hard with the narrator's delivery of each show! Good job!

That was amazing!! Powers to be also passed on a young brunette, thinking she couldn't carry a show: Sandra Bullock!

So they attempted an American version of Red Dwarf, and they completely left out three major characters from the show? No wonder why it failed!

I saw a are pilot of a show staring Elvira as a witch and the one played her mother was the grandmother on "Who's the Boss" Only had 3 shows. They never aired it. The setting was very similar to "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" that came on TV a few years down the road. I thought it was better than Sabrina.

Where was Remo Williams?

We actually taped "Fuzzbucket" off The Magical World Of Disney the night it aired as a TV movie, not knowing what the hell it even was. 30+ years later, we're still not even sure what the hell it even was.

Most of those unsold pilots are filled with dark humor (black comedy), satire and parodies all rolled up into one

I stopped watching television after the first time that Taxi was canceled. I haven't missed anything.

Great peek into the world of actors (both famous and unknown) and some of the things they do between the popular TV hits we know them for! A job's a job, and actors go out on auditions and shoot pilots on a fairly regular basis. Most of the actors we see here...the famous ones, anyway....wish these clips weren't so readily available! Which makes these clips all the more delicious! Thank you!

Thor and Daredevil were backdoored through tv movies in the Incredible Hulk tv series.

3:48 must be pretty bad when the extra's faces are pixelated. lol

Yeah, my "Fusion Furnace" used to overload when I watched "Battle of the Network Stars"

The Questor Tapes never gained traction, despite Gene Roddenberry's best efforts (neither did his "Genesis II" series about a NASA scientist accidentally buried in a cave-in during an earthquake in Carlsbad caverns during a suspended animation experiment, who is discovered about 150 years in the future after a nuclear war devastates Earth) BUT, the idea of a machine exploring humanity would come around again and be incorporated into his next successful series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as the character of Commander Data... Data was basically a reboot of the idea behind Questor, a mysteriously created android attempting to understand and become more human. Later! OL J R :)

Wow, no mention of Red Dwarf originally being a British sitcom or any mention of Kryton, Rimmer or the Cat. Do your research, guys.

Spenser & Magnum ?!? 🤯 Just a sign of things to come.

I remember reading about the Blazing Saddles sitcom they evidently made for a few years with no intention of airing it just so they could keep the rights, hoping to convince Mel Brooks to make a sequel.

Thanks for uploading this! Some of this stuff looks like it could have been really good. Poor Scott Bakula was really hitting the pavement. I'm glad he finally got "Quantum Leap". I think I would have actually watched "Acting Sheriff". 😄

The Gary Seven one was a stealth pilot. It was an actual Star Trek episode that they hoped would serve as a pilot. It's a shame it didn't get picked up.

Strange how those '80s tv execs have amazing concepts than today's lazy studio execs.

"Red Dwarf" was successful in the UK Of course the "DareDevil" reboot I remember the "Gary 7" episode Most of the others are better off dead!

Hilarious, at 12:10, that space show's 'city space-scape' was used in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I can't believe I know that. These shows are still so much better than what's on now.

What about Mel Brooks' " When Things Were Rotten" a forerunner to "Men in Tights."

Many of these seemed to inspire other series or were inspired by other series

"Not even a quarter inch of plaster can stop him...but the network could." lol

Lee , My favorite part was the exciting voice over action lol!

How many of these pilots were hamstrung by Executive Meddling?

I thought I remembered the Bates Motel being a series. 20:00 Pilot movie then it because an anthology show where the "guests" made up the stories. The People (26:10) was a "Movie of the week" which was also a fine place to screen pilots.

I was at the taping for the pilot of A Dog's Life. In the live audience. Charles Martin Smith was also in the show. The taping was, I think, at CBS (Los Angeles) . IF not - it was KTTV

That "Bates Hotel" related pilot, starring Bud Cort, made it to air. I remember watching it. Bud Cort is pretty hard to forget!

That John Denver cop show ROFL!

Wonderfully fun to watch ! Thanks so much for sharing ! Most of these pilots looked pretty dang lame & I can understand why they weren't picked up - but some actually looked MUCH better than many of the shows that DID run on the networks ! I bet that sitcom with the elephant didn't cost much...after all, that peachy pachyderm worked for peanuts ! CHEERS !! :-)

I remember the "Daredevil" & "The Mighty Thor" "pilots"...they were part of "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk" & "The Incredible Hulk Returns"...attempted spinoffs of the Bixby/Ferrigno classic.

In 2013 there was a tv series "Almost Human" that is very similar in premise to the Condor pilot in this video. Law enforcement officer who doesn't like tech returns to duty after losing partner and is teamed with a humanoid robot partner. 1985's Condor can be seen on Amazon prime under movies.

Assignment Earth had real potential.

I remember Generation X (have it on VHS), Condor and Mandrake

Can't forget "Heil Honey, I'm Home!" (although that was a British pilot, not an American one) where Hitler and Eva Braun were a Lucy and Desi-type couple in a '50s sitcom parody. The pilot was the only episode of that series shown on television, although it's said that there were more episodes that had been filmed but never saw the light of day. "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer," on the other hand, aired for six episodes on UPN before being cancelled in the late 1990s. Basically, the show revolved around the titular Desmond Pfeiffer, President Abraham Lincoln's black British slave who served as the only sane man, and was supposed to be social commentary on the Clinton administration (yes, really). The only notably good thing to come out of it was it being referenced on "Clerks the Animated Series."

That lawyer in the wheelchair was a lady Ironside. Very cool!

Why is that guy's face blurred out at 34:31?

A Dog's Life = horrifying (no wait - Fuzzbucket = horrifying)

The commentary is worthy of a TV show on its own. Best comment at 34:57 "And the computing power of a digital watch." Hilarious.

It's amazing to watch these and pick out which ones were crap, which ones could have been good but got axed by the execs anyway, and which ones had elements or characters that became quite successful years later. I, for one, always wondered how "Assignment: Earth" and "The Questor Tapes" would have turned out.

I liked the Questor Tapes.

Jeez, how many shows was Scott Bakula in before he became a star? These are definitely some pretty wild show ideas.

I remember them showing Generation X on Fox back in 95....that is something they missed the ball on.

Something about those two good-looking "Bunco" kids tells me that if they just stick with the TV thing, they'll eventually make out just fine -- maybe even snag a starring role or two (or twenty) somewhere down the line....

Thor: I NEED TO DRINK!!!!!! Me: I hear you, brother!

I wish they made a series with that gorgeous terminator pilot.

Hell, I'd watch all of these😀

Yet, 2 broke girls got the green light...

very cool . i saw a similar special staring faith ford in the 1990s and thought what a great idea. i always wished they made more of them. since there had to be hundreds if not thousands of hours of material

That was...interesting. 13:00 What the announcer didn't say was that this pilot was adapted from a SUCCESSFUL British TV series that also featured a hologram of a member of the dead crew, a humanoid that was evolved from cats and an android with 2 back-up heads! They also made a second pilot that cast Terry Farrell as The Cat! I wonder if that can be found on KZfaq...

Two things: 1st - Red Dwarf is a classic British TV show, original is always best (that goes for The Office too). 2nd - I'd be happy to watch Marilu Henner paint her front room.

Scott Backula says "Beam me up Scotty." And years later played on Star Trek Enterprise. He never did get to say that iconic phrase though.

"Hello. Yeah, I'm the guy with the elephant." lol