Five Ways Glee Has Let us Down Since its Pilot

Posted on May 21, 2012 by meekthegeek

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 first show to start off strong and then squander audience goodwill in a sea of contrivances and guest stars (Chuck, anyone?) And actually, it is still hugely popular and considered a success by many measures. The cast has sold more records than The Beatles. Maybe I’m the only one who hates it. Well, I can’t be the only one, as evidenced by this blog, Glee Sucks. Yes, you really have to compare the Glee of the pilot to — let’s call it post-Gwyneth Glee — to appreciate the magnitude of its decline.

The pilot was no less than groundbreaking. It aired after the Superbowl, months before the show would officially premiere. It was so wacky and in-your-face and, dare I say, life-affirming. I still have the New Directions rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing” on my iPod.

Here are the top 5 (but by no means only) ways that Glee has let us down since its pilot: Continue reading →

25 Years of Fox Pilots

Posted on April 17, 2012 by meekthegeek

Since the Fox network is celebrating its 25th anniversary on April 22, I thought I should write a blog post in honor of it. First I thought I’d pick a show that Fox prematurely cancelled, but that would be like shooting zombies in a barn.

Then I realized, I have already blogged about enough Fox shows to keep the inhabitants of Omicron Persei 8 entertained until someone decides to reboot Single Female Lawyer. So, here’s a list in roughly chronological order. Some selections fit squarely into the “cancelled too soon” category while others, deservedly or not, continue to air. I’m up for suggestions as to others I should cover — just leave a comment. Continue reading →

Heroes

Posted on March 27, 2012 by meekthegeek

I had planned on blogging about the pilot of Touch, but it was so uninspiring that instead I’m choosing to reflect on Tim Kring‘s last, far superior show, Heroes. Touch, the drama about an autistic child with the power to see connections among disparate people, definitely had a similar feel to it, and even overlap in subject matter. But the debut of Heroes was a landmark event and the start of a fan phenomenon that lasted until the show went off the rails in its second season. After watching Touch I thought maybe I was just romanticizing, but the Heroes pilot still holds up — it’s so good. Continue reading →

Mad Men

Posted on March 10, 2012 by meekthegeek

Unlike many pilots, where we dive headlong into action, meeting a spate of characters before the opening credits, Mad Men‘s “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” asks us to sit down and get to know its main character, Don Draper. We spend the pilot’s first six minutes with Don (Jon Hamm), not in the heat of battle on Madison Avenue, but in a quiet moment, alone in a bar. He scribbles thoughtfully on a napkin, mulling an idea. He launches an impromptu focus group of one with a waiter. He wants to know what motivates this guy–the average working man–to smoke the brand of cigarettes he smokes. (This brief encounter also gives us taste of 1960s culture vis-a-vis race, but more on that later.) Continue reading →

The West Wing

Posted on February 22, 2012 by meekthegeek

This show definitely needs to go on my list of Top Character Introductions in Pilots. While the whole episode is about the main character, the President of the United States (Martin Sheen), we only meet him in the last five minutes. His entrance is unforgettable; and his character is classic Aaron Sorkin.

When you’ve seen one or two pieces of Aaron Sorkin’s work, it’s easy to spot another one. Unless The West Wing is your first introduction to the genius behind A Few Good Men, The Social Network, Sports Night and yes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, this pilot screams “Sorkin wrote me” the whole time. Continue reading →

The Writers Room

Posted on February 20, 2012 by meekthegeek

I thought a post on the original Crackle series The Writers Room would be a nice complement to my last post on 30 Rock. The Writers Room, which debuted in 2008 is what you would get if you distilled 30 Rock down to just the scenes in the writer’s room and shot it with a handheld camera. And took out all the humor. No, I’m kidding. Sort of. But there is an episode of Louie, where a group of writers has been gathered to doctor a screenplay, which packs more humor into 2-3 minutes that this web show exhibits in its whole pilot. I’m sure that its writers would say that’s because I just don’t get it.

The scribes of the web series work for a sketch comedy show hosted by Kevin Pollack (as himself). You may not know the name Kevin Pollack, but you’ve seen him. See? An interesting twist of this is that all of the writers play themselves. Continue reading →

30 Rock

Posted on February 15, 2012 by meekthegeek

It must be fun for TV writers to write about TV writers. Someday someone should write a show about TV writers writing a show about TV writers.

Tina Fey could not be a more perfect choice for the writer/actress around whom to build a sit-com about television writers. Not only is she a riot without being a stereotype but she was the head writer for the most well-known late-night sketch comedy show ever, airing on the actual network portrayed in the show. NBC’s willingness to parody itself and its longest running show gives this show comedic possibilities that it would not have otherwise. (Their parent company really does make ovens.) Continue reading →

The Good Wife

Posted on January 22, 2012 by meekthegeek

The central character in The Good Wife, Alicia Florrick (Juliana Marguiles), doesn’t speak a word for the first three minutes she is on screen, but we learn a great deal about her. The first thing we see is her hand, clasped in that of a man. The two people walk to a podium in front of a sea of faces and cameras. It takes only seconds to paint the picture: Alicia, pale and drawn in a conservative grey suit, is the husband of a disgraced public figure. Her husband, Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), the State’s Attorney of Illinois, has been caught up in a sex scandal and resigned. Alicia stands dutifully beside him, the “good wife” the title has promised us. Continue reading →

One Tree Hill

Posted on January 2, 2012 by meekthegeek

Since the Socs rumbled with the Greasers–and probably before that–storytellers have posited the kids who have against the kids who have not. One Tree Hill tells the story of two half brothers from opposite sides of the tracks. Since then, it has told the stories of marriages, pregnancies and a high school shooting, but the brotherly duo is at its core. The pilot centers around their relationship. Continue reading →

Point of Attack, or Where to Start your Pilot

Posted on November 12, 2011 by meekthegeek

Anyone sitting down to write a story, whether it’s for television or any other medium, has to decide where to start. It seems like a simple question. You start at the beginning.

A protagonist’s story arguably starts from the moment of his or her birth, or earlier. So for purposes of this discussion we’ll call the beginning the “inciting incident” that kicks off the action of the story at hand. The inciting incident can happen before or after the camera begins to roll, however, giving the writer choices to make about Point of Attack. Continue reading →

Anatomy of a Pilot

A gooey dissection of television pilot episodes.

Category Archives: 2000s