8 Bad Pilots Of Good TV Shows
1. The Simpsons
The Simpsons is perhaps the greatest animated show of all time. The beloved cartoon first aired in 1989 as a spinoff of the cartoon segments from The Tracey Ullman Show. The first season still feels like a piece of another show, though, with choppy animation, inconsistent characters, and none of the larger sense of Springfield that becomes so endeering.
Because the show first aired in December, the studio decided to take creator Matt Groening's Christmas special, which he'd intended to be the eighth episode, and air it first. After adding some expository narration for Marge, they called it a day, and sent it out to air. In retrospect, it doesn't feel like the first episode, since it starts out with a Christmas theme and not a "meet The Simpsons" theme.
Though The Simpsons would one day become a key part of the cultural zeitgeist, they were a long way off in their first episode.