Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Written by Dan Fogelman, the show's creator
This is the episode that started the phenomenon.
Tropes
- Birthday Episode: The episode shows four characters on their 36th birthdays:
- Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia), who turns 36-years-old on the day his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) gives birth to triplets.
- Jack's first born Kevin (Justin Hartley), a troubled sitcom actor.
- Jack's second born Kate (Chrissy Metz), Kevin's twin sister who struggles with her weight.
- Jack's adopted son Randall (Sterling K. Brown), a successful businessman who finally decides to meet his biological father (he was abandoned at a fire station and brought to the same hospital as the Pearsons, who decided to adopt him — the third of their triplets was stillborn).
- Death by Childbirth: Randall's biological mother, mentioned fleetingly.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: For a dramedy, this pilot is a lot more comedy than drama. The mix tilts more towards drama in later episodes. This pilot also has a lot less background music than later episodes.
- Fanservice:
- Jack is shown naked (this episode first aired at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, during the arbitrary Safe Harbor period when children are presumably not watching TV).
- In-universe, Kevin is asked to do multiple scenes in The Manny without his shirt for this reason.
- Foreshadowing:
- We get an early glimpse at Randall and Kevin's eventual mental health struggles; Kevin when he breaks down on set, and Randall when he has a brief Laughing Mad fit after bringing William to meet his family.
- Kevin's breakdown is triggered by being asked to do a "lighter" version of his character being left by his father, hinting at Jack's death and Kevin's complicated feelings surrounding it.
- Hyperlink Story: The episode follows three seemingly unrelated groups of people: a pair of expectant parents, a sitcom star and his sister, and a Wall Street weather trader and his wife and kids. At the very end of this pilot episode, it's revealed that the parents had kids in the 1970s and the other two groups are comprised of either their children or their grandchildren.
- Rewatch Bonus: Watching the pilot again after seeing later episodes helps you notice several clues sprinkled throughout that we're seeing different time periods in parallel.
- Rich Genius: Randall says he can buy a luxury sports car if he feels like it. His skill at his previous job trading commodity futures earned him a lot of money.
- Tomato Surprise: The three seemingly unrelated stories seem not to make much sense together, but hold our interest to the end when their relation is revealed.
- Wham Shot: The firefighter who left the baby at the hospital lights up a cigarette. And then a Walter Cronkite news broadcast pulls back to reveal hospital staff and patients dressed in 1970s attire, meaning Jack turned thirty-six in 1980; Kevin, Kate, and Randall are his children, and their stories are showing their present day lives as adults.
