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Poorly-Disguised Pilot: Difference between revisions
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Another common term for this is [http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3122752 "backdoor pilot"]; however this can refer to other things as well, most notably a pilot broadcast as a special or [[Made for TV Movie]] that will be picked up as a series only if the ratings are good enough.
A related concept is the [[Fully
Much like any pilot, the version of the series that makes it to air may have actors or settings changed. The version of ''Empty Nest'' that made it to TV was much different than the [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] on ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', and the proposed ''Aquaman'' series would have starred a different actor than the one who guest-starred on ''[[Smallville]]''.
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The [[Opposite Tropes|Opposite Trope]] is [[Fully-Absorbed Finale]]. See also [[Pilot Movie]].
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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** [[Archie Comics]] tried to salvage their failing 1960s superhero line by using "Mighty Comics" as their "Showcase", featuring such heroes as The Web, The Shield, The Black Hood, and Steel Sterling. It wound up killing the line for aout 15 years!
* DC had planned to do this with ''[[The Brave and The Bold]]'' to reintroduce the [[Archie Comics|Red Circle]] heroes before spinning them off in their own titles. This fell through when [[J Michael Straczynski]] decided to instead write a series of one-shots about the characters, which didn't work out well.
* One [[Story Arc]] in ''[[Runaways]]'' was a [[Poorly
* During the nineties, ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' met during a battle with Hydra a superhero named "Shoc", obviously meant to appear in his own series. It was also pretty obvious who was his [[Secret Identity]]. Fortunately, he was quickly forgotten.
** [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] also spun off ''Slingers'', a group of teen heroes that used discarded Spider-Man costumes from a time when he was wanted. The series failed, and the last we saw of them was when [[Jerk Jock]] Prodigy, while drunk, was arrested during the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' storyline, and the Hornet was killed by Wolverine during his "Agent of Hydra" story arc. Also, one of them, Ricochet, showed up in the ''[[Runaways]]'' storyline mentioned above, and not even superhero [[Ascended Fanboy]] Victor knew who he was, after identifying all his other no-name teammates (''ouch'').
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== Film ==
'''Note''': remember, films that created with the idea of releasing a Series/Cartoon in mind are [[Pilot Movie|Pilot Movies]] and should be listed there.
* Yes, this happens in film. ''[[Blade]]: Trinity'' was partially intended as a [[Poorly
* Similarly, the ''[[X-Men (Film)|Wolverine]]'' film has been stated to be a testing bed for films based on Gambit and Deadpool.
* And Marvel seems to like this a lot, because their upcoming in-house-production films (of which ''[[Iron Man (Film)|Iron Man]]'' and ''[[The Incredible Hulk (Film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' were the first two) are meant to collectively lead into an ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]'' [[The Avengers (Film)|film]], although both films are good in their own right.
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** Finally, the series' last episodes, "The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning", ended with Blair buying the Eastland school, turning it co-ed, and presiding over it in a would-be continuation series.
* The ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "Assignment: Earth" ends with Kirk and Spock assuring everyone that they are sure Roberta Lincoln (played by then-unknown Teri Garr) and her super-spy boss Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing) will have many more interesting adventures to come. Sadly, they didn't; the most they got was an occasional appearance in the [[Expanded Universe]].
** The episode was originally written as a straight pilot and then [[Dolled
* ''[[Diagnosis Murder (TV)|Diagnosis Murder]]'' had several episodes intended to be spin-offs but none were ever picked up:
** "Retribution," a two-part episode was intended to be a pilot for "The Chief." Fred Dryer starred at the hard-nosed Los Angeles chief of police who played various political games to provide law and order. Neal McDonough would co-star as Ross Canin, a mob boss who was actually an undercover policeman acting as Masters' ultimate inside man.
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* The ''[[Crossing Jordan]]'' episode "Sunset Division" is another example; however, the pilot has not been picked up.
* ''Empty Nest'' began on ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' this way with the episode "Empty Nests". However, the actors, characters, and premise were very different from the show that actually made it to air - David Leisure was the only actor to be retained, and even he was playing a different character (in the pilot he was playing a test pilot called Oliver).
* The ''[[Knight Rider]]'' episode "Mouth of the Snake" had Michael and KITT playing second fiddle to a ''Sentinel''-like crimefighter and his sidekick in what appears to have been a [[Poorly
* ''[[MacGyver]]'': "The Coltons", after a 3-4 minute scene with Mac, became entirely about the exploits of a family of bounty hunters, each of whom had previously appeared in the series separately. The series never came to pass, but individual Coltons did continue to turn up for the remainder of the series.
* ''[[The Rockford Files]]'' had at least three Poorly Disguised Pilots during the run of the series. It did succeed in spinning off one short-lived series, ''Richie Brockelman Private Eye'', a series that had already had one stand-alone pilot two years earlier on the ''[[NBC Mystery Movie]].''
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* The ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' episode in which Jess goes to find his father in California was an obvious pilot for a series that was never picked up. Apparently, it was supposed to be called ''Windward Circle''. Adrian Pasdar tried out for, but didn't get, the role of Jess's dad.
* The 1996 ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' episode "Promised Land" was a pilot for the series of the same name that would run for 3 seasons.
* Even though the organization must have been involved in a large number of previous cases, ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'' only makes a prominent appearance in two episodes of ''[[JAG]]'': "Ice Queen" and "The Meltdown", a two-parter [[Poorly
** An interesting side note is the changes that were seen from this testing. Most notably, the female character was replaced by a Secret Service liaison, and the romantic tension between Abby and DiNozzo was completely dropped.
** Further interesting side note: The first season of ''[[JAG]]'' played much more like ''[[NCIS]]'' than the rest of the series; in fact, the season ended in a never-resolved cliffhanger due to cancellation. The first season of ''NCIS'' retreads many episodes of that canceled season.
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* The ''[[Quincy]]'' episode "Suffer the Little Children", with Tony Dow as an on-site therapist who lives with troubled families.
** The very last episode of ''Quincy'', "The Cutting Edge," was another one of these.
* An episode in ''[[All in The Family]]'''s second season introduced Edith's cousin Maude Findlay, who was even more of a fiery liberal than Mike and massively feuded with Archie. When audiences responded favorably to the character, Norman Lear made the second season's final episode a pilot for a [[Spin
** Also, the season 5 episode "The Jeffersons Move on Up", which had the Bunkers' neighbors moving to Manhattan as a springboard for [[The Jeffersons|their own series]].
** And the season 2 episode of ''Maude'', titled "Florida's Goodbye" could also be considered a poorly disguised pilot for ''[[Good Times]]''. However, it is interesting that in ''Good Times'' the Evans family had been inexplicably relocated from New York (where Florida's husband Henry was a firefighter) to Chicago (where husband James was often unemployed). And that the Findlays were never mentioned at any time during the series.
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** And the hour-long final episode rushed through wrapping up Terri and Janet's storylines in order to (literally) set the stage for ''Three's A Crowd'', an Americanized version of ''[[Man About the House]]'''s spin-off ''Robins Nest''.
* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' had a couple of episodes at the end of the fourth season ("Twilight" and "Top God") that had Hercules and Iolaus reminiscing of their younger days as teenagers for no particular reason. These episodes served as the basis for a later spin-off titled ''[[Young Hercules (TV)|Young Hercules]]'', which aired on Fox Kids. Ian Bohen, the actor who originally played the "Young Hercules" in the flashback episodes, ended up being replaced by Ryan Gosling in the actual spin-off.
** Just for clarification, ''Young Hercules'' already had a pilot in the form of a feature-length movie, which was filmed during the parent series' third season and being shopped around on its own. The parent series also did ''four'' "Young Hercules" episodes during its fourth season. "Regrets... I've Had A Few" was a holdover from the end of the third season and [[Word of God]] states it was done to allow Kevin Sorbo to vacation early. [[Word of God]] also states the remaining three ("Medea Culpa," "Twilight", and "Top God") were done to give Sorbo less to do so he could recover from health problems that year. That's not to say executives didn't consider the added benefit of making viewers aware of the "Young Hercules" concept ("Twilight" and "Top God" were likely filmed concurrently with the spin-off's production), but these episodes had more reasons behind them than being a [[Poorly
** And of course there's the final two episodes of the first season which pretty was the pilot for ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''.
* ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' episode "Cliff's Birthday" was intended to set up a sitcom vehicle for none other than Lena Horne, playing herself as the owner of a jazz club.
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* Some have pointed that this might be the case of ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' Season 7 episode "Free Love" for a number of reasons: 1) ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' has been rumored to get canceled soon since the beginning of the season, 2) It wildly varies from other episodes, being set in New York as opposite to Philadelphia and having Lilly alone helping the FBI guy that was introduced two episodes earlier, with [[Romantic Plot Tumor|hints]] of them to become an [[Official Couple]] and 3) in the episode [[Shout Out|she considers joining the FBI, while he muses about the creation of a Cold Case FBI unit]].
* ''[[Charles in Charge]]'' had three episodes in the final season which were failed attempts at a pilot for a new series. In each a character would visit somewhere where there would be a character that looked suspiciously like one of the regular cast members. Ellen Travolta, who played Charles mom had an identical twin sister who ran a car wash in New York. Willie Aames' character Buddy had an identical cousin working in a hotel in Hawaii. Nicole Eggert's character had an identical cousin living in New Mexico.
* ''[[Whos the Boss]]'' had a two-part third season finale in which Mona visits her brother who runs a hotel in NYC, but the spin-off was canceled before it aired. Another episode launched ''Charmed Lives'', which featured Fran Drescher and Donna Dixon and lasted three episodes. A third spinoff, ''Living Dolls'', starred Leah Remini and Halle Berry as aspiring models; it had two [[Poorly
* ''[[Charlies Angels]]'' had an episode called "Toni's Boys" where the angels met a team of [[Gender Flip|Gender-Flipped]] counterparts -- three young studs (with a habit of taking off their shirts) and an older female mentor. Nothing ever came of it, but it seemed like an attempt to introduce a second show using the Charlie's Angels formula, but aimed at a female audience instead - their "Charlie," Toni, was played by Barbara Stanwyck (and unlike John Forsythe, she appeared on screen!).
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' had more than one (the better-known one-season ''Enos'' was also a spinoff, but had a more traditional stand-alone pilot, and of course the character was already known by the ''Dukes'' audience):
** The second season gave us "Mason Dixon's Girls", a [[Poorly
** "Jude Emery", a show about an unconventional Texas Ranger who drove a Korean War surplus Jeep and had a gun that didn't work, was another -- a ''[[Walker Texas Ranger]]'' ancestor written by the show's creator Gy Waldron (this was the final episode he wrote for the series - [[Executive Meddling|he'd been thrown off the show after the first season]]).
* The third season finale of ''[[One On One]],'' "Phatheadz," reduced star Flex Alexander to a bookending cameo and left out all the others to focus on a never-before-heard-of relative and the barber shop he ran, and the daughter of the owner of the shop (Shannon Elizabeth) who wanted it to become a hair salon. In the end they teamed up and called it "Pharenity" (Shannon wanted to call the salon "Serenity") - unlike most [[Poorly
* Episode 6.19 of ''[[Bones]]'', "The Finder", featured the show's main cast taking a back seat to a new collection of characters led by an old friend of Booth's played by Geoff Stults. Yep, it was a [[Poorly
* The episode "3...2...1..." of ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' was this for an as-of-yet unnamed spin-off of the show featuring HG Wells.
* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' had one in season 5 that explained that the Amazons were founded by a girl [[Trapped in Another World]] (played by Selma Blair of ''[[Cruel Intentions]]'').
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* ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV)|The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' examples:
** The final episode of its second season (this was before the concept of the [[Season Finale]] took off) was used for an attempted backdoor pilot starring Bill Daily as an incompetent city councilman.
** The show had three actual [[Spin
** One episode's plot involved Rhoda ''almost'' moving back to New York, a few seasons before ''[[Rhoda (TV)|Rhoda]]'' was launched. It doesn't appear to have been intended as a backdoor pilot per se, but may have been a trial balloon for the concept.
* [[Cartoon Network (Creator)|Cartoon Network]] has tried this twice, both times being in the form of [[Made for TV Movie|Made for TV Movies]]: ''Re-Animated'' (which spawned ''[[Out of Jimmys Head]]''), and more recently ''[[Level Up (TV)|Level Up]]''.
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* The [[Andy Panda]] short "Knock Knock" was in actuality a vehicle short for [[Walter Lantz]]'s intended new star [[Woody Woodpecker]], with the bird getting much more screentime than Andy and his poppa.
* ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' had "Pendragon", which ended with a resurrected King Arthur heading out to wander the world in search of Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. This was in fact a Poorly Disguised Pilot for a show that never came to fruition.
** The World Tour arc was ripe with these. There was "The New Olympians", a [[Poorly
{{quote| '''Greg''': The way this ended, you'd almost think we were setting up yet another spin-off. "That wacky alien Nokkar teams up with a doctor and two archeologists to save the world from invasion and learn a little something about getting along... all in one hotel room!"}}
** [[Greg Weisman]] had a pretty terrible record with ''Gargoyles'' spin-off ideas. None of his ideas became series, and he had quite a few. However, with the transfer of ''Gargoyles'' to comics, where it's much easier to launch new series, one of the spin-offs, ''Bad Guys'', is getting its own series.
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* Likewise, the Pinky and the Brain episode "Plan Brain From Outer Space" involves Brain meeting his penpal, who turns out to be brain-eating alien Zalgar the Brain Eater, who proceeds to try to hunt him down and...well, take a guess. The episode seems to be a pilot for a series featuring the titular character.
* The ''[[Rugrats]]'' episode "All Growed Up" features an odd "vision into the future" where all the characters are about twelve years older and have their adventures grounded in something resembling reality, as opposed to the usually surreal and fantastic nature of the exploits of their toddler incarnations. Sure enough, the episode was quickly transformed into a series, ''Rugrats: [[All Grown Up]]'', which recycles the Rugrats characters into a junior high school.
** ''All Growed Up'' was set 10 years in the future as it was a special feature for the 10 year anniversary. YMMV on whether it was a [[Poorly
** The episode where Suzie celebrates Kwanza with her family was meant to be this, as it was planned to have a spin-off featuring Suzie and her family. It never materialised.
* Parodied in the [[DVD Commentary]] of the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Western Air Temple", where they joked that Haru, Teo, and the Duke messing around in the temple was one of these for a spin-off called ''The Last Street Luger'' with a lost pilot episode that consisted of [[Leave the Camera Running|22 minutes of Teo riding around in his wheel-chair while passing various kinds of plants]].
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* ''[[Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends]]'' also featured various episodes where the [[Power Trio]] would encounter several other Marvel heroes, including the [[X-Men]]. Notably, Wolverine used the same Australian accent he used on the later "Pryde of the X-Men" pilot, even though he's Canadian.
* The ([[In Name Only|alleged]]) ''[[Betty Boop]]'' short ''[[Popeye the Sailor]]''. While Betty was in the cartoon for about 30 seconds, a certain one-eyed sailor took up most of the screentime, and then got his own cartoon series.
* The ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S1 E12 Call of the Cutie|Call Of The Cutie]] was supposed to serve as a pilot for a spinoff about the Cutie Mark Crusaders [[Spinoff Babies|aimed towards a younger demographic]] than that of the main series, however, [[Executive Meddling|higher ups]] at Hasbro suggested that they should be incorporated into the main series first.
* The "[[Johan and Peewit|Adventures of Sir Johan and Peewit]]" episodes in Season 2 of ''[[The Smurfs]]'' came off as this.
** This is the opposite of the original French language comic where the Smurfs originally appeared in the ''Johan et Pirlouit'' album ''La Flute A Six Schtroumpfs'' ("The Six Smurf Flute") before getting their own series. This also explains why the Smurfs take so long to turn up in the movie ''The Smurfs and the Magic Flute'' (based on the aforementioned album).
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