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Do Not Disturb, Eleventh Hour: Why start with the pilot episode anyways…

By fred | August 25, 2008

Once upon a time, pilot episodes were something special. Not just because they were done before the series got picked up (if it ever got that far), or because networks could “give their input” about the episode and have it retooled before it actually made it to the air, not because that one episode could benefit from a budget much bigger than any of the following episodes, no there was another thing put pilot episodes aside from any other episodes : they were the first ones.

The first episode ever made for a given series, and as such they are usually quite packed as they try to introduce to viewers everything : what the show is, what it will be like, who the (main) characters are, etc It’s a difficult task to write & produced a pilot, it’s something different than for any other episodes that comes after, but that’s what you have to do when creating a new series.

Apparently though, networks do not have to air them first.

This is obviously the kind of news that says trouble. We all remember that’s how things started with the awesomeness that was Firefly : Fox didn’t like the pilot episode, they wanted something else, so they threatened Joss Whedon to write a new episode or else they canceled everything. Ensued a huge mess, Fox trashing (one of) the greatest show to come by and canceling it soon after.

Of course, when news came out that Whedon’s latest series, Dollhouse, was to reshoot a pilot episode, people started to worry, and get ready to go bomb Fox. But Whedon took time to explain how this was nothing like Firefly, how everything was different in the way he was treated and the show received, how Fox didn’t ask for a different pilot but he offered it, and because he is Joss Whedon I will trust him.

Still, Dollhouse won’t be the only new series not to begin with its pilot, as recently Fox announced that a new first episode would be shot for sitcom Do Not Disturb, while on CBS it is new drama Eleventh Hour that will open with another episode. It hasn’t been confirmed when or if the original pilot episodes would air at a later date.

For Eleventh Hour that probably doesn’t mean much, except that the network loves to mess with shows, sadly. But this being a new procedural from Jerry Bruckheimer, who gave CBS other shows like Cold Case, Without A Trace or the CSI’s, no doubt that’s not a sign of anything really. They’ll give the show enough time to become another hit, I’m sure.

As for Do Not Disturb, and since I watched a screener of the pilot, I can’t really see why they would ask to have another first episode. Not that it was good, it really wasn’t, but that had nothing to do with the episode, it was the show itself, the characters, everything. It’s all utterly cliché, quite unfunny, and it doesn’t even look good. This episode or another, I really doubt there’s anything to save from this one. Though it did look as if Fox was trying to do a CBS sitcom…

I know many didn’t like Unhitched last season, and it wasn’t really good, in fact I hated quite a few things starting with that stupid doctor character or any plot he’s ever been in, but at least they could have been some potential there. Re-tweaking it, letting the show grow into its full provocative, silly, absurd even, form might have resulted in a funny show. Do Not Disturb might not be as bad as The Return Of Jezebel James was, but it’s not that far…

Either way, I hate it when networks interfere with the creative minds behind the shows, and usually that is the very source of why shows don’t work and end up being so crappy in the first place…

Posted in News
Shows: Do Not Disturb, Dollhouse, Eleventh Hour