# The 42 Best TV Pilot Episodes of All Time

> A first episode has to sell an entire world in under an hour, and only a handful did it perfectly. Prestige dramas, cult mysteries and a few comedies made the cut.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-42-best-tv-pilot-episodes-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Sopranos (Pilot)** — score 1000/1000
   1999 HBO pilot in which mob boss Tony Soprano begins seeing a psychiatrist after suffering panic attacks.
2. **Breaking Bad (Pilot)** — score 836/1000
   2008 AMC pilot in which terminally ill chemistry teacher Walter White starts cooking methamphetamine.
3. **True Detective: The Long Bright Dark** — score 782/1000
   2014 HBO premiere in which detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart recount a 1995 ritualistic murder case in Louisiana.
4. **Stranger Things: The Vanishing of Will Byers** — score 745/1000
   2016 Netflix series premiere in which a boy disappears in Hawkins, Indiana, and a mysterious girl appears.
5. **Fargo: The Crocodile's Dilemma** — score 716/1000
   2014 FX premiere in which hitman Lorne Malvo's arrival in Bemidji, Minnesota, upends the life of insurance salesman Lester Nygaard.
6. **24: 12:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.** — score 586/1000
   2001 Fox premiere told in real time as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer races to stop a plot against a presidential candidate.
7. **The Shield (Pilot)** — score 532/1000
   2002 FX pilot introducing corrupt LAPD detective Vic Mackey, ending with one of TV's most shocking final scenes.
8. **Succession: Celebration** — score 532/1000
   2018 HBO pilot in which media mogul Logan Roy's 80th birthday sparks a fight over who will succeed him.
9. **The West Wing (Pilot)** — score 532/1000
   1999 NBC pilot by Aaron Sorkin following President Bartlet's senior staff, ending with the president's famous entrance.
10. **The Last of Us: When You're Lost in the Darkness** — score 532/1000
   2023 HBO premiere in which smuggler Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie across a post-pandemic America.
11. **The Wire: The Target** — score 469/1000
   2002 HBO series premiere in which Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty pushes for an investigation into the Barksdale drug crew.
12. **The X-Files (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   1993 Fox pilot pairing skeptic Dana Scully with believer Fox Mulder to investigate mysterious deaths in Oregon.
13. **Desperate Housewives (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   2004 ABC pilot narrated by Mary Alice Young, whose suicide exposes the secrets of her neighbors on Wisteria Lane.
14. **Freaks and Geeks (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   1999 NBC pilot following Lindsay Weir as she drifts from the mathletes toward the burnouts at a Michigan high school in 1980.
15. **Homeland (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   2011 Showtime pilot in which CIA officer Carrie Mathison suspects a rescued Marine POW has been turned by al-Qaeda.
16. **Arrested Development (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   2003 Fox pilot in which Michael Bluth is forced to hold his dysfunctional family together after his father is arrested.
17. **Better Call Saul: Uno** — score 469/1000
   2015 AMC premiere showing struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill years before he becomes Saul Goodman.
18. **The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye** — score 469/1000
   2010 AMC pilot directed by Frank Darabont in which sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes wakes from a coma into a zombie apocalypse.
19. **Gilmore Girls (Pilot)** — score 469/1000
   2000 WB pilot in which Lorelai Gilmore asks her estranged parents for money to send her daughter Rory to a private school.
20. **House (Pilot)** — score 397/1000
   2004 Fox pilot introducing misanthropic diagnostician Dr. Gregory House as his team investigates a collapsing kindergarten teacher.
21. **Pushing Daisies: Pie-lette** — score 397/1000
   2007 ABC pilot about a pie maker who can bring the dead back to life with a touch, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
22. **The Bear: System** — score 397/1000
   2022 FX pilot in which fine-dining chef Carmy Berzatto returns to Chicago to run his late brother's sandwich shop.
23. **Cheers: Give Me a Ring Sometime** — score 397/1000
   1982 NBC pilot in which graduate student Diane Chambers is stranded at Sam Malone's Boston bar.
24. **Boardwalk Empire (Pilot)** — score 397/1000
   2010 HBO pilot directed by Martin Scorsese, set in Atlantic City as Prohibition begins under treasurer Nucky Thompson.
25. **Veronica Mars (Pilot)** — score 397/1000
   2004 UPN pilot introducing teenage private investigator Veronica Mars in the divided town of Neptune, California.
26. **ER: 24 Hours** — score 397/1000
   1994 NBC pilot written by Michael Crichton depicting one chaotic day in the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital.
27. **Watchmen: It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice** — score 397/1000
   2019 HBO premiere that opens with the 1921 Tulsa race massacre before following masked police in present-day Tulsa.
28. **Westworld: The Original** — score 397/1000
   2016 HBO premiere set in a Western theme park where android hosts begin to show signs of awareness.
29. **The O.C. (Pilot)** — score 397/1000
   2003 Fox pilot in which troubled teen Ryan Atwood is taken in by a wealthy Newport Beach family.
30. **Six Feet Under (Pilot)** — score 313/1000
   2001 HBO pilot by Alan Ball in which the Fisher family's patriarch dies, leaving his sons to run the family funeral home.
31. **Twin Peaks (Pilot)** — score 313/1000
   1990 ABC pilot directed by David Lynch in which FBI agent Dale Cooper arrives to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer.
32. **Mad Men: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes** — score 313/1000
   2007 AMC pilot introducing 1960s Madison Avenue ad man Don Draper as he struggles with a cigarette campaign.
33. **Hill Street Blues: Hill Street Station** — score 313/1000
   1981 NBC pilot that introduced the ensemble police drama's handheld style and overlapping storylines.
34. **Mr. Robot: eps1.0_hellofriend.mov** — score 313/1000
   2015 USA Network pilot in which anxious hacker Elliot Alderson is recruited by an anarchist group called fsociety.
35. **Alias: Truth Be Told** — score 313/1000
   2001 ABC pilot by J. J. Abrams in which Sydney Bristow learns the spy agency she works for is not part of the CIA.
36. **Severance: Good News About Hell** — score 313/1000
   2022 Apple TV+ premiere introducing Lumon Industries, where employees surgically split their work and personal memories.
37. **Community (Pilot)** — score 213/1000
   2009 NBC pilot in which disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger forms a fake Spanish study group at Greendale Community College.
38. **Friday Night Lights (Pilot)** — score 213/1000
   2006 NBC pilot set in Dillon, Texas, where a new high school football coach faces a season-defining injury to his star quarterback.
39. **Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming** — score 213/1000
   2011 HBO series premiere in which Ned Stark is summoned south to serve King Robert Baratheon.
40. **Dexter (Pilot)** — score 213/1000
   2006 Showtime pilot introducing Miami blood-spatter analyst Dexter Morgan, who secretly kills other killers.
41. **Sherlock: A Study in Pink** — score 0/1000
   2010 BBC premiere in which Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meet in modern-day London and investigate a series of apparent suicides.
42. **Lost (Pilot)** — score 0/1000
   2004 ABC two-part pilot, one of the most expensive pilots of its time, following survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious island.

Tags: tv shows, episodes, pilot