History Main / PilotMovie

* Both versions of ''Battlestar Galactica'' got a similar start; the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic original]] was envisioned as a series of TV movies, picked up as a series after ABC liked what they saw, and the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined 2000s version]] originated as a three-hour miniseries that was successful enough to be continued.

* Each season of ''Series/KnightRider'' started with a double-length episode (when re-aired, they would be split into a two-parter) billed as a "Season Premiere Movie". ''Series/KnightRider'' has a long history of pilot movie revivials:

** ''Knight Rider 2010'', a ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''-style reimagining, really more of an attempt at "Mad Max Gets a Talking Car: The Series", with no links to the original series (but adequate hooks left to add some in the proposed series). Never to be seen again.

* ''MyBabysittersAVampire'' had a pilot movie telling how main characters met the babysitter and found out she was a vampire.

* ''Anime/Robotech'' had a pilot movie entitled ''Codename: Robotech'', basically an extended edition of the ClipShow episode "Gloval's Report" taking bits from the first part of the Macross Saga. It was released on home video in the UK and (barring a release of the first two episodes) was pretty much the only Robotech Brits got to see until TheNineties.

* ''Series/EarthStarVoyager'' was a two-part miniseries that originally aired on ABC's ''Wonderful World of Disney'' in January 1988. It focused on a bunch of young people from a late 21st century [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Future Earth]] as they [[Franchise/StarTrek trekked through [[SerialNumbersFiledOff the stars]] to find a new home for the human race. Even though the series was never picked up, the miniseries was actually nominated for two primetime Emmys for sound editing and sound mixing.

* ''{{Sliders}}'' started with a movie about, well, Quinn Mallory, his friend Wade Welles and his teacher Professor Arturo trying out Quinn's timer and getting stuck on an universe where the Russians won the Cold War with an unwilling companion, Rembrandt Brown. It's a coherent story on its own, and the series really starts with the movie's TwistEnding.

* ''EarthStarVoyager'' was a two-part miniseries that originally aired on ABC's ''Wonderful World of Disney'' in January 1988. It focused on a bunch of young people from a late 21st century [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Future Earth]] as they [[SerialNumbersFiledOff trekked through the stars]] to find a new home for the human race. Even though the series was never picked up, the miniseries was actually nominated for two primetime Emmys for sound editing and sound mixing.
* ''MurderSheWrote'' began as a pilot movie which showed how Jessica Fletcher got into writing in the first place and her helping to solve a murder while staying in New York City.

* ''KimagureOrangeRoad'''s pilot was a TV special loosely based on one of the chapters in the manga.

!Examples:

* ThisIsSpinalTap: When they were given seed money to pitch the film, the cast (being unsure how to put the style of the movie across) instead of filming scenes or developing production concepts, shot a complete twenty-minute film, Spinal Tap: The Last Tour, as their 'pitch' instead. Some sequences, such as the performance of "Gimme Some Money" are lifted from the original short film. It appears only on Criterion's long out-of-print pressing of the DVD, not on MGM's more recent pressing.

* ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}'': The "Disorganized Sports" arc was partially used to introduce some of the main cast of the {{spinoff}} strip ''Copper Road''.

* ''Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' was a backdoor pilot for ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' (establishing things like Abis Mal as a villain, Genie being somewhat weaker and his powers being on the fritz so that he couldn't solve the problem-of-the-episode easily, Iago being something of an ally to Aladdin and Co.) in addition to tying up some dangling threads from the first film.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicAdventuresOfMumfie'' had its first thirteen episodes combined into one movie called Mumfie's Quest, [[AdaptationDisplacement which is more well-known than the original episodes it comprised of]].

* Each of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series from ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]]'' on began with a movie-length pilot.

* Borderline example: The pilot of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', called ''Serenity'' like the later [[TheMovie actual movie]], was the length of a Pilot Movie.

* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' was originally meant to be a Pilot Movie; no one picked it up, so some footage was added to make it a feature length film, and then it did so well that it was picked up for a series that [[DevelopmentHell may or may not ever air.]]

!!Examples:
[[AC:Manga and Anime]]

[[AC:Live Action TV]]

* ''ForeverKnight'' started as a made-for-tv film named Nick Knight. It was overhauled a bit and chopped in half for the two part 'Dark Knight' pilot. Nick was relocated from Los Angeles to Toronto and his house went from a theater to a loft, and the male coroner was exchanged for Natalie. Don Kapelos (Schanke) was the only actor to make it from the movie to the series, however.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''SamuraiJack'' had a pilot movie that was actually the first three episodes with some footage taken out for pacing.
** Similarly, ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had a premiere movie that was later re-aired as a three-part episode, and renamed to "House of Bloo's".
* ''JimmyNeutron'' had a pilot theatrical movie that preceded the TV series on Nickelodeon.

* ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}: The Return of Jafar'' was a backdoor pilot for the ''Aladdin'' TV series (establishing things like Abis Mal as a villain, Genie being somewhat weaker and his powers being on the fritz so that he couldn't solve the problem-of-the-episode easily, Iago being something of an ally to Aladdin and Co.) in addition to tying up some dangling threads from the first film.

* "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" from ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'', a two-hour made-for-TV movie which focuses on the effort to train L. A. County firefighters as paramedics and get the legal backing necessary for them to use their training.

There are both successful examples (''Babylon 5: The Gathering'' gave birth to, of course, ''Series/BabylonFive''), and unsuccessful ones (USANetwork's 2004 debacle ''Frankenstein''). An unsuccessful Pilot Movie can become an Amelia Earhart -- "the pilot that was never seen again".

* ''TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco''.