10 Greatest TV Pilot Episodes of All Time

7. Fringe "Pilot"

I know a few people who really weren't all that impressed with this pilot and never watched the show because of it, but I am certainly not one of those people. Critics also had mixed reviews- some found it lackluster while others found it to be extraordinarily well made. I think it was action/ sci-fi television at its best. I am not a huge fan of J J Abrams (who co-created this series and co-wrote this episode) for reasons that I won't go into on here in all that much detail- let's just say he doesn't end his shows all that well, or for that matter his films- but credit where credits due... this man knows who to make a fantastic pilot episode. He features not only once more on this list but twice. The almost feature length Fringe pilot (80 minutes of epic) starts off irresistibly with a chemical release on an airplane that strangely turns everyones flesh to crystal and just gets weirder from then in. The episode features strange scientific experiments (kind of the whole point of the show), explosions and main character deaths. It promises to be the new X-Files and pretty much delivers on this promise for a good couple of seasons before the show- like most of J J Abrams shows start to become too weird for their own good. In fact, the show has had so many story changes (fake Olivia used to be pregnant... now she isn't) and many alternative futures that I can hardly remember all that much detail because there really is so much going on. The one thing I do remember through all the mess (not necessarily bad mess mind you) is that Fringes pilot was almost as exciting as a feature length film and just the right amount of weird to keep me entertained, especially considering that I am a huge fan of weird, as perfectly demonstrated by my love of the next pilot episode on this list...