Pilot Season
What better way to kick off the week than to watch how some shows kicked off their campaigns. Right now I'm working on writing a couple of pilots and I'm interested in finding out what works, what doesn't, what gets audiences to come back for the next episode, and what makes them tune out after the first commercial break. I would have loved to start with "The Shield" which has one of the best pilot of all time but that's not online. Instead I'm going to go with one of my favorite sit-coms growing up, "Benson"
Now I will admit, the open is a bit slow and there's one comment that definitely would not fly in the PC Era but it still makes me laugh. So click below and check out the pilot episode of "Benson".
The pilot is, of course, over-the-top and hardly realistic but the characters are grounded enough that I think we buy them even in the most outlandish moments. The show opens pretty slowly but once they pay off the Jesse Jackson joke, I think it is consistently funny. They do a good job introducing the characters and it's no surprise that the thinnest character (the Governor's aide) didn't last very long. The pilot also establishes the tone which is comedy with a touch of sentimentality. All in all, it's a funny show and you know what to expect in the coming weeks.
