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Pilots

Started by elderford, February 04, 2004, 11:29:02 AM

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elderford

Got hold of the first series of Fawlty Towers this week which as we all know exists in 12 perfect episodes, but it makes mention of the pilot.

I'm  fairly certain on the Phoenix Nights dvd, Kay mentions the pilot.

Can someone please tell me if they ever appear as extras on dvds, if not why not?

Surely the whole idea of a pilot is to make it so funny that a series will be commissioned, so it can't be that they're sub-standard?

Lastly, what classic pilot episodes are there out-there (probably being endless repeated on BBC3 and 4 for the twenty viewers who have satellite).

Mister Six

Wouldn't the Pheonix Nights pilot be that Comedy Lab thing he did? Perhaps there's a Comedy Lab DVD out there somewhere.

Not all pilots are transmitted. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an unbroadcast pilot made on a shoestring budget just so the studio execs could see what the series would look like and how the cast would interact. You can download it off t'internet. If you're interested, I'll rustle up the link.

Anyway, it's possible that the Fawlty Towers pilot was similar, and that the original copies have been lost or deleted.

Morrisfan82

I haven't seen the TV Offal pilot since it was aired, I remember that being a bit of a monster. DId VLS re-use any of it for the series? I don't seem to recall this being the case, just that he used different bits of the same NAFF tape Rainbow segment in each. Anybody?

The Comedy Lab thing Mr6 is thinking of is the pilot of That Peter Kay Thing, called The Services.

The 'pilot' of Pheonix Nights was an episode in the That Peter Kay Thing series itself. It was called The Neptune. It was a good un.

TJ

Some pilots just aren't 'useable' in that way. The "Fawlty Towers" pilot, for example, is virtually identical to the first episode proper. All that happened was that Polly was changed from being a philosophy student to an art student, and they reshot a minute or so's worth of dialogue and edited it into the original pilot. It's not 100% clear whether or not the pilot still exists.

Then at the next level up, there's stuff like the On The Hour pilot, virtually identical to what went out in the transmitted shows but with small stylistic and structual differences here and there which would excite fans but wash over most other people.

And then of course there's stuff like Blackadder, That Was The Week That Was, The Armando Iannucci Shows and Brass Eye, where the pilot was essentially an entirely different beast to the series and deserves exposure in its own right.

Being a completist, of course, I'd like to see all pilots available...

Purple Tentacle

Which one was the Armando Iannucci Show pilot?


The Shooting Stars pilot was better than the actualy series, with Uncle Peter instead of George Dawes, and Jonathan Ross and Danny Baker as the team captains.

TJ

Quote from: "Purple Tentacle"Which one was the Armando Iannucci Show pilot?

It's never been shown; I've not seen it myself, but I was told by someone who attended the studio recording at the time that it took the form of Armando and a co-presenter making jokes around the pre-filmed sketches (of the same type that ended up in the series) in a sort of Armistice-like setup.

butnut

The Blackadder pilot is very interesting. He looks much more like Blackadder II, and the guy who plays baldrick is really really bad. I think it's the same as one of the episodes from series I - I can't remember which, but some clevercogs here will remind me.

I do hope we see the Day Today one on the DVD. The bits of KMKY we saw were really very funny - it's a shame the whole wasn't on there.

Dr David V

I'd be intrigued to see the AIS pilot, it sounds very different to the series.

I think the main reason pilots don't make it onto our screens is because they look so cheap that if anyone saw it then they'd stop watching immediately. Of course the cost has nothing to do with the quality of comedy, but some people just seem to think like that.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: "butnut"The Blackadder pilot is very interesting. He looks much more like Blackadder II, and the guy who plays baldrick is really really bad. I think it's the same as one of the episodes from series I - I can't remember which, but some clevercogs here will remind me.

I do hope we see the Day Today one on the DVD. The bits of KMKY we saw were really very funny - it's a shame the whole wasn't on there.

'Born To Be King', said the clevercog. The Scottish-bastard-cannon-jumping-jews one.

I'd maim to see the Vic Reeves Big Night Out pilot, not to mention more of the home video footage of the original shows you catch glimpses of on the Omnibus and I Love 1991 shows....

fbb bastard

what ever happened to the pilot episode of "counts of the netherworld" the hicks thing he was doing for channel 4

TJ

Quote from: "fbb bastard"what ever happened to the pilot episode of "counts of the netherworld" the hicks thing he was doing for channel 4

I heard it was never actually shot, and that it had only reached treatment stage.

Neil

Something I was shot, as I saw clips of it year ago.  Fallon wasn't up to much but Hicks did an entertaining improvised bit about religion as I recall.  There's clips in the Austin Tribute, not sure if that's still available on blilhicks.com or not?  Must have been about 5 years ago I saw it as it presumably would have been for the fifth anniversary of his death.

fbb bastard

i just had a look and there seems to be no video footage on their just yet..(or it just aint letting me have a look at it) either way.....bummer

[ Bill Hicks ]
It's called Counts of the Netherworld and I'll be playing one of two Victorian-era counts who sit around and philosophize... it's a talk show but not a talk show; it's a situation comedy but it's not.

Yes, but not the way he told it on Rant in E-Minor (unfortunately). Bill and his friend Fallon had made a pilot episode of a show called Counts of the Netherworld for the British Channel 4. From an article in The Independant:

"At the time of his [Bill's] death, he was about to start a pilot for a Channel 4 series, The Counts of the Netherworld,

i would fucking kill to see some of this i really would.....

Neil

I'll have a look and see if I can find the disc it's on!  Gawd knows where it is as it was burnt off years ago but I'll try and find it.  The tributes were pretty good, some interesting stuff in there, and lots of comics coming up to reminicise about Hicks.

Quote from: "butnut"The Blackadder pilot is very interesting. the guy who plays baldrick is really really bad.
From what I recall, wasn't it that the Baldrick character just didn't have many/any funny dialogue to speak? Maybe he was a shit actor too, but the lack of humourous lines for Baldrick is what sticks in my mind.

Morrisfan82

The guy who played Baldrick in the pilot was in Casualty this week. The programme I mean.

butnut

Quote from: "Garfield And Friends"
Quote from: "butnut"The Blackadder pilot is very interesting. the guy who plays baldrick is really really bad.
From what I recall, wasn't it that the Baldrick character just didn't have many/any funny dialogue to speak? Maybe he was a shit actor too, but the lack of humourous lines for Baldrick is what sticks in my mind.

No, he's just terrible. He tries to be a dimwit, but it just comes out as being slow and unfunny. Somehow Tony Robinson brought a lot of life, and some sharpness to the character - and made him likeable.

TotalNightmare

in a different stylee...

the red dwarf usa pilot is a curious beast, i heard a rumour that it is to be released on a future red dwarf dvd....

probably bollocks, but it would nice to see it out there in the public domain and not just in wanker's video collection that he paid 30 dollars for on ebay...

i can be such a twat sometimes...


but it was worth it to finally see it...

...i guess?

TTT

Quote from: "Jemble Fred"I'd maim to see the Vic Reeves Big Night Out pilot, not to mention more of the home video footage of the original shows you catch glimpses of on the Omnibus and I Love 1991 shows....

Ive got the Vic Reeves Big Night Out Fan Club Video if thats what you are on about?

El Unicornio, mang

On a slightly different note, Mulholland Drive was originally a pilot, but when the studio refused to comission a series, he added a lesbo scene and half an hour of weirdness and made it a feature film.

Seinfeld has an okay pilot, although  I'm surprised they picked up the show on the strength of it.

Darrell

Quote from: "TTT"
Quote from: "Jemble Fred"I'd maim to see the Vic Reeves Big Night Out pilot, not to mention more of the home video footage of the original shows you catch glimpses of on the Omnibus and I Love 1991 shows....

Ive got the Vic Reeves Big Night Out Fan Club Video if thats what you are on about?

That's the fucker, how the hell did you find one?! However, I did see the Four Golden Memories music video compilation in Cash Converters about a month ago but stupidly didn't buy it. Next day it was gone...

The Red Dwarf USA pilots are unclearable, apparently. They wanted to put them on the series 5 and 6 DVDs, but the clearance costs were too high. Well, they could have taken the money away from the stupid menus, clip featurettes and fucking fan fucking commentaries, but that would have made too much sense (and wouldn't fully benefit their 12-year-old "smeg"-quoting, T-shirt wearing target audience they're increasingly hitting at).

Another notable pilot is the Not the Nine O'Clock News one, which has never been broadcast or even bootlegged as far as I know. There were a few clips in that far-too-short docu that was on a few years ago, though.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: "Darrell"
The Red Dwarf USA pilots are unclearable, apparently.
And they're fucking awful, at least the one I've seen is. (There's 2 pilots, apparently the first one has Cat played by a woman from Star Trek DS9, or something, I've not seen that one though.)
A whole series worth of jokes in 26 minutes and it's not in the least bit funny.  A truly appalling effort which thankfully never made it to a series.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

I've heard rumours that the Fawlty Towers pilot still exists as rushes. Oh, where did I hear that again?

TTT

Quote from: "Darrell"[That's the fucker, how the hell did you find one?!

I traded for a "first generation" of an "original copy" on that vicandbob site. I'll get a capture sorted out and stuck in my soulseek shares.

TTT

TTT

I've just encoded 3 versions of the Vic Reeves Big Night - Fan Club Video.

One is 690mb, its divx 5 the res is 704*554, video bitrate is 3000kbps, audio is a 192kbps stereo mp3.

One is 366mb, its a divx 5 the res is 352*276, video bitrate is 1500kbps, audio is a 192kbps stereo mp3.

The last one is still encoding but shouldnt be more than around 110mb, its a wmv9, res is 352*276, video bitrate is 500kbps, audio is 64kbps stereo.

They will all be added to my soulseek share shortly, my name on soulseek is TTT.

butnut

Quote from: "TTT"I've just encoded 3 versions of the Vic Reeves Big Night - Fan Club Video.

One is 690mb, its divx 5 the res is 704*554, video bitrate is 3000kbps, audio is a 192kbps stereo mp3.

One is 366mb, its a divx 5 the res is 352*276, video bitrate is 1500kbps, audio is a 192kbps stereo mp3.

The last one is still encoding but shouldnt be more than around 110mb, its a wmv9, res is 352*276, video bitrate is 500kbps, audio is 64kbps stereo.

They will all be added to my soulseek share shortly, my name on soulseek is TTT.

That's great and I'd love to watch them- but I can't use soulseek (mac user). Any chance of someone hosting these, or torrenting them?