Comments on: Pilot School

Pilot School

Bookhouse — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:41:15 -0800

Pilot School. A nice collection of teevee show pilot scripts. Observe the embryonic state of many of the classics of the past few decades, including Buffy, The Wire, Hill Street Blues, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos and The West Wing.

For people who aren't students of the form, the most interesting part may be the small changes that happen between script to screen. For instance, Twin Peaks was originally named Northwest Passage, Tony Soprano was named Tommy, and The West Wing's C.J. Cregg was described as "compact."

By: oncogenesis

oncogenesis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:53:22 -0800

Mad Men - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: 404 There is no god.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:59:09 -0800

Caprica - Pilot Yeah, actually, there might be after all.

By: Bizurke

Bizurke — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:01:12 -0800

I wish I had sock puppet accounts so I could favorite this post ten times.

By: Knappster

Knappster — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:08:22 -0800

There is a god.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:21:54 -0800

So that US version of Spaced.... I've got a bad feeling about this.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:30:08 -0800

MetaFilter 1x01: Randy Newman sings "I Love ~~L.A.~~ PDX" as a series of shots take us from the ~~Pacific~~ Columbia River coastline: ~~muscle~~ Waterfront Park beach, ~~roller-bladers~~ bicycle traffic jam; etc. to downtown: the ~~Hollywood sign~~ Wells Fargo Center, ~~palm~~ trees, ~~Pink's~~ Powell's, bike traffic on the 10s... Let's re-pitch it.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:32:59 -0800

I am pretty damn sure that pilots for unaired and in production shows do not have permission to be there. I suspect the site is about to get a C&D from FOX if not others too.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:34:47 -0800

That's so not the original Buffy pilot. Shame.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:36:41 -0800

I am pretty damn sure that pilots for unaired and in production shows do not have permission to be there. I suspect the site is about to get a C&D from FOX if not others too. Maybe, but scripts leaked to the internet are kinda like cockroaches -- if you see one, that only means there are a hundred more hiding somewhere. In other words, I'm sure you could google for any of these and find it on some other site, if not many other sites.

By: rtha

rtha — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:37:19 -0800

Oh, Sports Night! Love you, miss you.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:38:50 -0800

Maybe, but scripts leaked to the internet are kinda like cockroaches -- if you see one, that only means there are a hundred more hiding somewhere. In other words, I'm sure you could google for any of these and find it on some other site, if not many other sites. Yeah but normally they're stashed away, where you need to be looking for them specifiably to find them. This is right out in the open with old scripts anyone could find.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:44:27 -0800

MetaFilter: kinda like cockroaches

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:46:14 -0800

This guy is a screenwriter, yet he's putting other writers' scripts that are still in production up on the internet. What the fuck.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:08:53 -0800

Metafilter: I'm sure you could google for any of these and find it on some other site, if not many other sites.

By: nakedcodemonkey

nakedcodemonkey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:23:28 -0800

Amazing that Sports Night ever made it to air. Aaron Sorkin was still new to tv, and that script was a seriously hard read. But damn it turned out to be good television. They've already got the Dollhouse script, and the show doesn't even launch for a couple more months. Nice.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:36:09 -0800

That's so not the original Buffy pilot. Are you sure? It looks like it to me. By the way, the never-aired Buffy pilot has been on YT for a while now.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:44:56 -0800

Yes, I'm quite sure. First off, the unaired Buffy pilot is a single episode; this script is two episodes. The unaired Buffy pilot has an amusing bit wherein Principal Flutie calls her "Bunny." This script does not have that, although that bit was used later on with Willow's mother. The unaired Buffy pilot has a sadly-lost scene wherein Xander gives Buffy a rundown on the various cliques within the school, including the "dirty girls," who have issues with hygeine; this script lacks that. That's all I can think of at a casual glance. I haven't seen it on YouTube. I saw it way back in the day when you could only get it in five, small files and YouTube did not exist.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:47:29 -0800

Go, my little web spider. Go! Daddy needs his background reading for his imaginary second career.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:51:54 -0800

Hoo, show runner bibles. Voyager? Let me envision it.. "Take everything that is good about the ST Canon and take a righteous dump on it. Also, more mysterious alien nemesisissiis".

By: willmize

willmize — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:22:38 -0800

Holy crap! Murder One! I totally forgot about that show. The first season was one of my favorite series ever. Loved it. Much downloading going on at my place right now.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:55:15 -0800

The unaired Buffy pilot has a sadly-lost scene wherein Xander gives Buffy a rundown on the various cliques within the school, including the "dirty girls," who have issues with hygeine; this script lacks that. My wife and I still quote the bit about the drama students from time to time. "I [dramatic gesture] didn't get [even more dramatic gesture] the homework!"

By: MrVisible

MrVisible — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:10:49 -0800

Oh. My. God. They have the pilot script for Cupid. The Rob Thomas Cupid. Jeremy Piven. Paula Marshall. That was the funniest show ever to hit TV. I'd do truly reprehensible things to get it on DVD in its entirety. And there it is... the pilot script. You have made me very happy.

By: crossoverman

crossoverman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:41:15 -0800

Caprica - Pilot Yeah, actually, there might be after all. Hey, it's the BSG-verse. There may be several!

By: isogloss

isogloss — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:45:19 -0800

Veronica Mars!

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:33:35 -0800

Incidentally, the Caprica script -- in addition to being just plain awesome -- is basically the Rosetta Stone of BSG. Like for real. Just about any questions I had about the nature of the Cylons were directly or indirectly answered, and I'm kind of stunned by how they pulled a whole lot of obviously-written-on-the-fly material from four seasons into a coherent and satisfying whole (seriously, Heroes producers: if you want to keep your jobs, you have got to hire these motherfuckers). It's up to you how spoiled you wanna be, but this is really, really great work.

By: flashboy

flashboy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:23:46 -0800

Who is this "Leo Jacobi" fellow Sorkin is writing about in the West Wing pilot?

By: every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes

every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:48:48 -0800

I think that's Leo McGarry.

By: carbide

carbide — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:18:10 -0800

The Veronica Mars script condenses about three episodes into one, changes a whodunnit into a missing person, makes the killer into a home-videoing sadist and loses all the puns (Peninsula West High?). The lame jokes totally grated when I started watching, but the second (tenth, twentieth) time, they kind of add to the noir charm, the undercurrent of schmaltz and variety hour humour. I can't help but wonder about the name changes and when they came about - Logan Hewitt rather than Echolls, Monica Rivers rather than Shelley Pomroy, etc.

By: leethomson

leethomson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:41:39 -0800

Thanks for pointing out the broken Mad Men link. Now fixed. Tehanu - I am happy to remove any scripts, should network or writer request it, and have done on occasion. The site is intended as a resource for students and writers, and I'm not making any money off it, so I get to sleep pretty well at night. In the case of in-production scripts, I could put them up after they air, or now. What's the diff? Adipocere - the Buffy pilot linked to on the Pilot School page is the shooting script for "Welcome to the Hellmouth," which is the show's pilot proper. The unaired Presentation Pilot is here..