Usually, the pilot episode airs as the very first episode of the show. But in some cases, it doesn't. Can you think of any examples?

Here's what I know of:

Most Nicktoons on Nickelodeon
Most, if not all game shows, with a few exceptions
Remington Steele
227
Reading Rainbow
Star Trek TOS

with STAR TREK, the pilot episoded didn't air at all! Neither did the 2nd one, I think. The first one did air however in the first season in a two-part episode, for which Gene Rodenberry wrote a "framework" to go around it, where Spock was accused of mutiny for comadeering the Enterprise to a planet that was off limits and at his court martial he showed the pilot episode to show why he did it.

I remember, the pilot of "WELCOME BACK KOTTER" didn't air as the first episode.

Because of technical issues, the first episode "Lucy Thinks Ricky is trying to Murder Her" wasn't the first episode shown. I believe the first one shown was "The Girls want to go to a Nightclub."

On The Munsters, 'My Fair Munster" was the first episode filmed but the second to air.

Firefly's pilot episode didn't air until the very end of it's run, because the executives at FOX felt it lacked action.

...did indeed appear- two weeks after a "sneak preview" episode {"The Man Trap"} kicked off the series on September 8, 1966, 'treky': "Where No Man Has Gone Before" aired on September 22, 1966. "The Cage", the original pilot, was never telecast in its original form on NBC, and aired instead as a two-part episode, "The Menagerie" {November 17-24, 1966}, with new footage overlapping the original, as Gene Roddenberry primarily wanted to schedule the first pilot for budgetary reasons...and found a way to do it.


The original pilot for "THE MONKEES" (with Bing Russell, Kurt's father, as their agent, whose role was dropped for the series) was shown on November 14, 1966, as it was decided to schedule for the premiere telecast what the producers thought was a more "typical" episode- "Royal Flush", on September 12, 1966 {that eventually won director James Frawley an Emmy for Best Director for a Comedy Episode}.

"THAT GIRL"'s original pilot episode, where Ted Bessell appeared as "Don Bluesky", Ann Marie's agent [his character became the All-American "Don Hollinger", her boyfriend], with Harold Gould & Penny Santon as her parents [Lew Parker & Rosemary DeCamp replaced them for the series], was never seen. A slightly refilmed version of the pilot was shown as the first episode on September 8, 1966. The unaired pilot was eventually released as part of the series' DVD box set.

:tv:

Funny Face - pilot was the last show aired

East Side West Side - pilot aired as episode 20



Honey West doesn't count because the pilot was an episode of Burke's Law

Actually, the pilot episode of East Side/West Side aired as the first episode.

Even this episode guide reflects this:

http://www.tv.com/shows/east-sidewest-side/episodes/

The first episode is production number #1001, while episode 20 is production number #1020.

Law & Order
The Bob Newhart Show

Yes, Dear's pilot did not air as the first ep (I think) When Greg's N-laws moved in was the pilot ep but didn't air til' later during season one.
Mama's Family the same. The pilot was about Vinton hocking Mama's silver for his friend Claude. When the show show picked up by NBC, a first ep was filmed with Vint and the kids moving in.

Leave it to Beaver Pilot was it a small world

Emergency! Pilot

Actually, the pilot episode of East Side/West Side aired as the first episode.

Even this episode guide reflects this:

http://www.tv.com/shows/east-sidewest-side/episodes/

The first episode is production number #1001, while episode 20 is production number #1020.


I was mistaken. It aired as episode 17, not 20. The episode is It's War Man:

With the approval of Aubrey and his newest television star, Talent Associates began production on Aurthur’s pilot script, now called “It’s War, Man.”

“It’s War, Man”’s story of a teen gang killer and his path through the legal system proved to be a somewhat didactic and even naive inquiry into the sociological underpinnings of crime. Structurally, it more closely resembled an episode of The Defenders, Reginald Rose’s courtroom procedural, than the show East Side / West Side would be come. But the pilot did an adequate job of establishing the series’ point of view, its goals, and its characters (including one, a junior case worker played by Victor Arnold, who was probably meant to be a regular but was never seen again). Though he received no “created by” credit, Robert Alan Aurthur took home a $1,000-per-episode royalty check for his initial contributions to the format of East Side / West Side – even though his involvement with the show ceased entirely after the production of “It’s War, Man.”

Gilligan's Island

The Patty Duke Show

The Partridge Family (?) There's been discussion on this board that there is a long lost un-aired pilot, but has this been confirmed?

Barney Miller

All in the Family and Three's Company both had 2 originally un-aired pilots.

Gilligan's Island

The Patty Duke Show

The Partridge Family (?) There's been discussion on this board that there is a long lost un-aired pilot, but has this been confirmed?

Barney Miller

All in the Family and Three's Company both had 2 originally un-aired pilots.
The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" and "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" pilots didn't air at all. Clips from the pilot of "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" were shown in a season 3 episode, and the unaired pilot is currently being shown on tv4u.com and NICK AT NITE showed it once.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" unaired pilot was shown by TBS once back in 1990 or something and I think it's avaible on one of the DVD sets-I forget which one.

My Sister Sam had this happen as well. The pilot didn't air until around late in its 1st season.

My Sister Sam had this happen as well. The pilot didn't air until around late in its 1st season.

Another show that did this (and one I just remembered) is Inspector Gadget. During the original airings in first-run syndication, the Winter Olympics pilot aired as the last episode of season 1, and it was the 3rd and final version (the one where they redubbed some of Gadget and Penny's dialogue in one scene to have Gadget say that the mustache is a disguise for off-duty purposes).

HAPPY DAYS. The pilot was later aired on LOVE AMERICAN STYLE, and two years later(!) reworked as a "flashback" segment in the first episode.

HAPPY DAYS. The pilot was later aired on LOVE AMERICAN STYLE, and two years later(!) reworked as a "flashback" segment in the first episode.
the pilot didn't air until AFTER the show started? I never knew that.

And it wasn't "reworked" as an episode of HD-they only showed clips of it.

That can't be true. That episode originally aired on February 25, 1972.

"THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES" pilot didn't air AT ALL. Clips from it though were shown in a first season episode called "Jed pays his income tax" where an IRS agent came to the mansion to see why Jed never paid his income tax, and was chased out by a shotgun-wielding Granny. He went to the commerce bank and told Mr. Drysdale, who then explained about the Clampetts.

....was a slightly different show, "NEW FAMILY IN TOWN", intended for ABC's 1971-'72 schedule. When the network rejected it, Paramount "repositioned" it as a segment of "LOVE AMERICAN STYLE" (as they did with some of their comedy pilots at the time). When "American Graffiti" became a theatrical hit in 1973, ABC went to Paramount and said, couldn't Garry Marshall give us a weekly version of something like that? So, Marshall reworked "NEW FAMILY IN TOWN" by moving the time frame from 1953 to sometime around 1956, virtually recast everyone except Ron Howard, Marian Ross, and Anson Williams, adding Henry Winkler as "Fonzie". The rest is history...

The original pilot for "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES" ["The Hillbillies of Beverly Hills"] was never shown, although sequences were reworked, as noted, into the episode "Jed Pays His Income Tax".

:tv:

....was a slightly different show, "NEW FAMILY IN TOWN", intended for ABC's 1971-'72 schedule. When the network rejected it, Paramount "repositioned" it as a segment of "LOVE AMERICAN STYLE" (as they did with some of their comedy pilots at the time). When "American Graffiti" became a theatrical hit in 1973, ABC went to Paramount and said, couldn't Garry Marshall give us a weekly version of something like that? So, Marshall reworked "NEW FAMILY IN TOWN" by moving the time frame from 1953 to sometime around 1956, virtually recast everyone except Ron Howard, Marian Ross, and Anson Williams, adding Henry Winkler as "Fonzie". The rest is history...


Source?

Bumping this thread, here's another one:

Recently, I have been on somewhat of a Square One TV kick. The most popular segment on that show was Mathnet, a Dragnet parody where two detectives would use mathematics to solve crimes. Each episode was split into five parts.

The pilot episode, "The Problem of the Missing Baseball", aired as the second episode (106-110). "The Problem of the Missing Monkey", with future The Simpsons cast member Yeardley Smith as Jane Rice-Burroughs, aired as the first (101-105).

TRIVIA: The "Mathnet Founded 1985: To Cogitate and to Solve" bumper, as seen at the very end of the last part of each episode, is supposed to represent the year the pilot was filmed.

The Even Stevens pilot looked radically different from the series (different sets, different mom, different last name!) and in the year or so that passed between its filming and series production, the Shia seen in the pilot was almost unrecognizable. For these reasons it almost joined the list of "lost" pilots but, budgets being what they are, it was re-edited with footage inserted of Donna Pescow into a dining room scene that curiously features no wide shots at all, ;) an obvious redub or two and some new wraparound scenes. It aired as a sort of would-be flashback episode at the end of the first season.

The Mickey Rooney - Dana Carvey - Nathan Lane hamfest One Of The Boys began, as one critic pointed out, without any explanation for the premise (one of college kid's two roommates is Grandpa). Apparently NBC had more faith in that premise than the pilot that set it up, which aired last in sequence both first run and in summer reruns.

What about Mama's Family?

B/c of the inconsistent opening credits in syndicated reruns, it made it seem like the episodes (including the 1st episode) were airing out of sequence.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" and "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" pilots didn't air at all. Clips from the pilot of "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" were shown in a season 3 episode, and the unaired pilot is currently being shown on tv4u.com and NICK AT NITE showed it once.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" unaired pilot was shown by TBS once back in 1990 or something and I think it's avaible on one of the DVD sets-I forget which one.

Around Christmas I was putting up my tree and turned on Gilligan's Island. To my astonishment I saw the pilot. One of the characters was called Bunny and it even had a different theme (more Calypso sounding). I am pretty sure I had never seen it before then.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" and "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" pilots didn't air at all. Clips from the pilot of "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" were shown in a season 3 episode, and the unaired pilot is currently being shown on tv4u.com and NICK AT NITE showed it once.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" unaired pilot was shown by TBS once back in 1990 or something and I think it's avaible on one of the DVD sets-I forget which one.
The Patty Duke Show pilot was excerpted in the last show of the first season, with William Schallert and Paul O'Keefe edited into certain scenes played by others. The Hazel pilot, "Dorothy's Birthday" was presented as the 23rd (!) episode of the first season, with Don DeFore edited into scenes played by Edward Andrews. As there were significant differences in the house set used, this is curious since the audience would be less likely to notice this after one episode had aired, but it was a bit more noticeable sandwiched into the middle of the season.

Hawaii Five-O:

Up until MeTV reruns and after original CBS broadcats, the pilot episode "Cocoon," aired as the last episode or 2nd-to-last episode of Season 1.

NOTES:
- Tim O'Kelley, whom audiences disliked played Danny "Danno" Williams on the pilot, instead of James MacArthur.
- Chin Ho Kelly was 2nd in-command to McGarrett, instead of Danny and was sometimes more goofier than he was in the regular series. "Chin Ho Kelly strikes again!" :lol:
- A different actor played the governor, instead of Richard Denning in the regular episodes.
- This was the only episode of S1 major villain Wo Fat ever appeared in. He wouldn't resurface again until Season 2.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" and "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" pilots didn't air at all. Clips from the pilot of "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" were shown in a season 3 episode, and the unaired pilot is currently being shown on tv4u.com and NICK AT NITE showed it once.

The "GILLIGANS ISLAND" unaired pilot was shown by TBS once back in 1990 or something and I think it's available on one of the DVD sets-I forget which one.

The Season 1 Christmas episode, "Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk", had a flashback segment from the original pilot with the castaways, including the original Professor, Ginger & Bunny, seen sleeping on the deck of the wrecked Minnow.

Another one that comes to mind is:

Hardcastle and McCormick

Instead of the episode "Rolling Thunder," the episode "Man in a Glass House" aired as the 1st episode instead, at least in syndicated reruns.

The Adventures of Superman -- live action series from the 1950s:

A theatrical film titled Superman and the Mole Men starred George Reeves and served as a pilot of sorts -- the film was split into 2 episodes and was aired (re-named) in the 1st season, with the series openings/closings added -- but not until several made-for-TV episodes aired first.

..."THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" pilot was re-edited and reworked into the final episode of season one (as "The Cousins") was because the original was filmed in Hollywood, featuring San Francisco as the setting, and had Mark Miller and Charles Herbert in the roles of "Martin Lane" and "Ross" (after ABC bought the show, production shifted to New York, and the setting became "Brooklyn Heights"). In order to "salvage" the original pilot, Sidney Sheldon and William Asher had to "adapt" parts of it into a new "flashback" episode...

:tv:

I have a new one:

A Different World

The pilot episode actually aired as the 2nd episode, b/c Maggie (Marissa Tomei) was not present in the 1st aired episode "Reconcilable Differences" and Bill Cosby wanted the audience to get know Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis) and Whitley (Jasmine Guy) before introducing Maggie.

And some other pieces of confusion surrounding the 1st season were that the Season 1 finale episode "My Dinner Date w/ Theo" was alledgedly filmed before the pilot episode. Reasons for this are that Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison are not listed in the cast, Ted Ross plays Dean Harris and is a show regular, and Vernee Watson-Johnson plays the Gilbert Hall resident director, named Carla Meyers.

cinfusion in the 1st season was that the episode "If Chosen, I Might Not Run" was the acutal 1st episode filmed but aired as the 8th episode according to the production number.

The first filmed episode of "Isis", where Miss Thomas's red car was painted yellow, was the 3rd one shown. In the other 2 episodes, Miss Thomas's car is already yellow. Also notably missing from that 1st / 3rd episode was the rhymes. Isis just did her thing without rhymes.

WELCOME BACK KOTTER

Saved By The Bell's Pilot episode is "King of The Hill." That episode aired as episode #15, just one week before the season finale in 1989.

I have a new one:

A Different World

The pilot episode actually aired as the 2nd episode, b/c Maggie (Marissa Tomei) was not present in the 1st aired episode "Reconcilable Differences" and Bill Cosby wanted the audience to get know Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis) and Whitley (Jasmine Guy) before introducing Maggie.

And some other pieces of confusion surrounding the 1st season were that the Season 1 finale episode "My Dinner Date w/ Theo" was alledgedly filmed before the pilot episode. Reasons for this are that Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison are not listed in the cast, Ted Ross plays Dean Harris and is a show regular, and Vernee Watson-Johnson plays the Gilbert Hall resident director, named Carla Meyers.

cinfusion in the 1st season was that the episode "If Chosen, I Might Not Run" was the acutal 1st episode filmed but aired as the 8th episode according to the production number.

Whoa. Now that is strange. An episode filmed BEFORE the pilot? Never thought I'd hear something about that.

Speaking of which, have you seen the episode guide for St. Elsewhere?

http://epguides.com/StElsewhere/

Notice how they have the S1 ep. "Bypass" at a lower production code number than the Pilot? I'm a bit skeptical about this, because I'm pretty sure the Pilot was, in fact, the first one filmed for the series. For all I know, these production code numbers could have merely been used to assign each episode such a thing.

If there's one thing you should know about production codes, it's that they do NOT always represent the filming or taping order of episodes for a TV show. Sometimes they do, but other times they don't.

Whoa. Now that is strange. An episode filmed BEFORE the pilot? Never thought I'd hear something about that.

Speaking of which, have you seen the episode guide for St. Elsewhere?

http://epguides.com/StElsewhere/

Notice how they have the S1 ep. "Bypass" at a lower production code number than the Pilot? I'm a bit skeptical about this, because I'm pretty sure the Pilot was, in fact, the first one filmed for the series. For all I know, these production code numbers could have merely been used to assign each episode such a thing.

If there's one thing you should know about production codes, it's that they do NOT always represent the filming or taping order of episodes for a TV show. Sometimes they do, but other times they don't.

YIKES! That just gives me reason to ignore the production codes on some shows.

But yet in TV.com it seems to make no references to the pilot and the episode "Bypass" being aired out of order. Maybe I'll search a fan page of St. Elsewhere and see if anything else different comes up.

Here's some more confusion regarding the 1st season of "A Different World,"
Another late S1 episode "Come Back, Little Eggby" aired in April of 1988 but yet it has a 1987 copyright date and also you can tell it has a 1987 copyright because Stevie (Loretta Devine), who was the dorm mother in most of the 1st half of the 1st season is present in this episode.

According to epguides.com, the S1 ep. "If Only For One Night," was the initial Season 1 finale.