History Main / PilotMovie

The advantage of a Pilot Movie over an ordinary {{pilot}} is that the bigger budget of a TV movie translates directly into better sets, cinematography and effects, not to mention the occasional "big-name" actor. SpeculativeFiction series which must build their entire "world" for the viewer in particular do better with a Pilot Movie.

In addition, by advertising it as a movie, a network can hype up the pilot and gauge the reaction without having to commit to showing any additional episodes. Quite often an ordinary pilot that was not picked up first time round is repackaged as a MadeForTVMovie in an attempt to recoup costs, and a good audience reaction can lead to a series after all.

Contrast: PoorlyDisguisedPilot (a redirect of this trope name, Backdoor Pilot, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_pilot#Backdoor_pilot can also be used]] to describe pilot movies). Compare and contrast with FiveEpisodePilot (a MultiPartEpisode at the beginning of a series that is frequently [[CompilationMovie repackaged as a Pilot Movie]]. Sometimes, a straight example of a Pilot Movie can be re-cut into several episodes to be aired alongside the rest of its series) as well as FinaleMovie (which is when a full-length film is made to serve as the ''ending'' of a television series).

* The 1979 [[ShortFilm short movie]] ''[[Anime/UnicoBlackCloudAndWhiteFeather Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather]]'' by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]] and Creator/OsamuTezuka, was [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico's animation debut]]. The film was planned as a potential anime series but for unknown reasons, Japanese executives quickly rejected it. However, Sanrio and Creator/MushiProductions decided to save some ideas from the animated series as a series of movies released in the early 1980s (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' in 1981, and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'' in 1983). [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Sanrio even planned on making a third Unico movie]] before "Sanrio Animation" was shutdown in the mid 1980s due to bankruptcy.

* ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' was conceived as a television pilot. Every scene after the blue box is opened have a very different tone compared to those from before, because they were added by Creator/DavidLynch to wrap up the story once Creator/{{ABC}} declined to give it a go.

* ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'': The pilot episode was more of a made-for-television movie or a first episode of a mini-series but the story arc could very well remain as a stand-alone two-hour movie, but the show was picked up and ran for five seasons. The leading role was played by well-known Creator/JaneSeymourActress. Several characters were re-cast.

* Inverted with ''Film/TheOogielovesInTheBigBalloonAdventure'', which was a ''very'' loose adaptation of an obscure PBS show called ''My Bedbugs''. The creator of the film intends for it to become this for a potential TV series in the future (as of July 2015, nothing has materialized).

* Starting in 1994, the Action Pack was a series of TV movies that were all intended as Pilot Movies, several of the titles having 4 or 5 movies made before being turned into series. ''Series/{{Hercules The Legendary Journeys}}'' was the most successful of these, but there were also series made out of ''Tek War'' and ''Vanishing Son''.

* ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'' is a strange case of this. This film is based on the already existing ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' series, but acts as a pilot to its fifth season ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', as it introduces the season's new powers, villains and zords.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' had a direct-to-video movie titled ''Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins'', which was later aired as the [[FiveEpisodePilot three-episode pilot]] of the TV show. Creator/TimAllen reprised Buzz for the VHS and DVD, but in the pilot version he was replaced by Creator/PatrickWarburton, who would voice him for the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' was a 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/GrooveSquad'', an animated movie featuring three cheerleaders who gain super powers by drinking fruit smoothies (one with x-ray and telescopic vision, one with super strength and one with flight) and are given gadgets by a former secret agent to battle a world domination obsessed MadScientist (who happens to be the father of their AlphaBitch school rival), was made as a pilot. The series was not picked up.

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' has this in the form of "Tangled: Before Ever After." The odd 55-minute running time was a result of the crew being unable to edit the desired story down any further, and the studio acquising to their request for an increased runtime.

* The animated ''Literature/{{Stellaluna}}'' movie is an obvious pilot, with its very-animated-TV-series-esque animation and it seemingly trying to set up for a TV show based off the book.

* ''WesternAnimation/WonderPark'' is a Nickelodeon movie in the same vein as ''Jimmy Neutron'' and ''Barnyard'', with a television series based on the film announced on the DVD release.

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': "The New, Original Wonder Woman" was a TV movie airing on November 7, 1975, complete with special guest stars such as Cloris Leachman as Queen Hippolyta and Red Buttons as Ashley Norman, the Nazi spy with the best reaction shot ever to Wonder Woman deflecting his bullets. It proceeded slowly from there to specials in April of 1976 to a short season on ABC in 1976-77 to two full seasons on CBS from 1977 to 1979.

** ''Knight Rider'' (2008), for the win. Keeping in close continuity with the original series despite an entirely new set of characters (Michael Knight makes a cameo at the end), going to series in fall 2008 despite some aggressively blatant product placement and a total IdiotPlot.

* The animated ''Literature/{{Stellaluna}}'' movie is a obvious pilot, with its very-animated-TV-series-esque animation and it seemingly trying to set up for a TV show based off the book.

* "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" from ''Series/{{Emergency}}'', a two-hour made-for-TV movie that focuses on the effort to train L. A. County firefighters as paramedics and get the legal backing necessary for them to use their training, in spite of a very doubtful Dr. Brackett. It features a cameo from ''Series/AdamTwelve'' characters Reed and Malloy (leading to a later MindScrew when the guys are discussing a recent ep of that series)

* Inverted with the movie ''Film/ZombieLand''. The plot, premise, and characters were all written with the intent of being a series but were instead greenlit as a film. The "Zombie Kill Of The Week" is one of the [[OrphanedReference leftovers]] of its intended design.

* Similarly, ''Manga/OnePiece'' had the pilot {{OVA}} ''[[Anime/OnePieceDefeatHimThePirateGanzack Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack]]''.
* The eventual ''Anime/MazingerZ'' spinoff ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'' started off as a 30-minute movie named ''Uchu Enban Daisenso''.

* ''Manga/UltraManiac'' started out with a one-off OVA pilot before getting picked up for a full 26-episode series.

* ''Anime/BorutoNarutoTheMovie'' was essentially the pilot movie for ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' SpinOffspring series, ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''.

* The 1979 [[ShortFilm short movie]] ''[[Anime/UnicoBlackCloudAndWhiteFeather Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather]]'' by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]] and Creator/OsamuTezuka, was [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico's animation debut]]. The film was planned as a potential anime series but for unknown reasons, Japanese executives quickly rejected it. However, Sanrio and Creator/MushiProductions decided to save some ideas from the animated series as a series of movies released in the early 1980s (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' in 1981, and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'' in 1983). [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Sanrio even planned on making a third Unico movie]] before "Sanrio Animation" was shutdown in the mid 1980s due to bankruptcy.

* It is said that the 1979 miniseries ''Literature/SalemsLot'' might have been considered as one.
* The first season of ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' comprises four telemovies.
* Creator/WesleySnipes and Creator/DeanCain's ''Futuresport'', with its end sequence where a sportscaster talks about Dean Cain's character (a former player) becoming the coach of an FS team.

* One weird example is ''Us'', a Pilot Movie that really wasn't. It was meant to be a normal pilot for a new series for Michael Landon but was converted to a movie when Landon died after production.
** His first series, ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'', also started as a TV movie showing the Ingalls family moving across the country to Walnut Creek. To this day it is syndicated as part of a movie package to stations as opposed to being cut into two parts for the series.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' also had a feature-length pilot, but had a half-hour reduced cut as well.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' was planned as a TV movie on the SciFi channel. After seeing the movie, executives turned the story into a series.
* Both versions of ''Battlestar Galactica'' got a similar start; the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original]] was envisioned as a series of TV movies, picked up as a series after ABC liked what they saw, and the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 2000s version]] originated as a three-hour miniseries that was successful enough to be continued.

* Each of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series from ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]]'' to ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' began with a movie-length pilot. The tradition actually began with the development of ''Star Trek: Phase II''; though that series would never be produced, its pilot movie, "In Thy Image", was rewritten and expanded into ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''.

* The 1996 ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie TV movie]] was created as a possible pilot for a revival. It didn't pan out, but it gave the writers of spin-off media a new canon Doctor to play with until the show was revived for real in 2005.
* [[Film/Carrie2002 The 2002 remake]] of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' was intended as a pilot for a TV series on Creator/{{NBC}}, but it was never picked up because NBC had no interest in a tv series and only wanted a tv movie.
* ''Red Skies'' (2002) was an unsuccessful movie-length pilot repackaged and released as a MadeForTVMovie.
* ''Series/{{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 in a universe where the Russians won the UsefulNotes/ColdWar with an unwilling companion, Rembrandt Brown. It's a coherent story on its own, and the series really starts with the movie's TwistEnding.
* The Raymond Burr series ''Series/{{Ironside 1967}}'' started with a pilot movie.
* ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco''.
* ''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.
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' began as a pilot movie that showed how Jessica Fletcher got into writing in the first place and her helping to solve a murder while staying in New York City.
* ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' had ''three'' pilot movies, all of which had different actors playing the regular lead roles.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' had this, ''sorta''. The movie aired on Showtime, while the sitcom was picked up by ABC. Only Creator/MelissaJoanHart and Michelle Beaudoin appeared in both. The sitcom changed the setting from Riverdale to Westbridge, inverted the unrequited love plot (Sabrina now pining for Harvey), swapped the two aunts' personalities around, dropped Sabrina's RomanticFalseLead, renamed her best friend Jenny, and retooled her AlphaBitch rival from Katie to Libby. The sitcom had its own pilot episode anyway, making the movie some kind of alternate continuity story.

* ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire'' had a pilot movie telling how the main characters met the babysitter and found out she was a vampire.
* ABC Family's ''Samurai Girl'' miniseries was supposed to lead into a TV series that never materialized.
* ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'' started as a one-off film {{prequel}} to ''Series/InspectorMorse''. It was picked up for a series, broadcast in April 2013.

* ''Series/{{Witchblade}}''

* Same with ''Film/{{Jumper}}''.
* ''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' began with a TV movie. When it was picked up as a series, Loretta Swit was [[TheOtherMarty replaced in the role of Cagney]] by Creator/MegFoster due to Swit being unable to get out of her ''Series/{{MASH}}'' contract. Ironically, Foster would be replaced by Sharon Gless after Season One. (Yes, ''two'' casting changes in one season.)
* Inverted with ''Film/TheOogielovesInTheBigBalloonAdventure'', which was a ''very'' loose adaptation of an obscure PBS show called ''My Bedbugs''. The creator of the film intends for it to become this for a potential TV series in the future (as of July 2015, nothing has materialized).
* ''Film/PopeyeDoyle'', a remake of ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'', was intended to be a spinoff, starring Ed O'Neill. Unfortunately, it was not picked up.
* ''Series/JohnDoe'' started off with a pilot movie, which sported noticeably better special effects than the series did.

* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' had a pilot film in the form of ''Superman and the Mole Men'' in 1951. At the end of the first season, the film was edited into a two-parter called "The Unknown People."
* "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" from ''Series/{{Emergency}}'', a two-hour made-for-TV movie that focuses on the effort to train L. A. County firefighters as paramedics and get the legal backing necessary for them to use their training, in spite of a very doubtful Dr. Brackett. It features a cameo from ''Series/AdamTwelve'' characters Reed and Malloy (leading to a later MindScrew when the guys are discussing a recent ep of that series)
** NBC tried to create a spinoff with the ''Emergency!'' Movie "The Most Deadly Passage" aka "Seattle Medic One", but without any luck that time.
* ''Series/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.
* A 2003 TV movie called ''Mermaids'' was intended as a pilot for a series about three mermaid sisters. Networks apparently weren't interested, as they felt it was too similar to ''{{Series/Charmed|1998}}''. The concept did reappear again in the form of the Australian TV show ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'' - which was more of a SliceOfLife approach, as opposed to the adventure aspect of ''Mermaids''.

* ''Series/LondonsBurning'' began with a two-hour pilot movie in 1986. Two years later it became a series, which ran until 2002.
* Starting in 1994, the Action Pack was a series of TV movies that were all intended as Pilot Movies, several of the titles having 4 or 5 movies made before being turned into series. ''Series/{{Hercules The Legendary Journeys}}'' was the most successful of these, but there were also series made out of ''Tek War'' and ''Vanishing Son''.
* The [[Recap/TheIncredibleHulk1977Pilot first]] [[Recap/TheIncredibleHulk1977DeathInTheFamily two]] episodes of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' originally aired as two-hour movies.
* There was a [[Film/CaptainAmerica1979 1979 Captain America movie]] that was made to serve as a pilot to a show never made.
* ''Film/BatesMotel1987'' was intended as a pilot to a supernatural anthology series set at the titular motel, but was never picked up due to poor audience response.
* ''Series/TheAmazingSpiderMan1978'' was preceded by a 1977 television film that served as a pilot.
* ''Series/TheBoldOnes'':
** ''The Lawyers'' had two pilot movies, ''The Sound of Anger'' and ''The Whole World is Watching'' before the series began.
** ''The Protectors'' began with a TV Movie titled ''Deadlock''.
** The main character of ''The Senator'', Hayes Stowe, was introduced in a TV Movie titled ''A Clear and Present Danger'' as a Justice Department attorney with political ambitions who takes on the (then-controversial) topic of air pollution. When the series itself began, Stowe had been elected Senator and served for some time. Interestingly, since the TV movie and series aired in the same year, Creator/HalHolbrook earned ''two'' Emmy nominations for his performance as Stowe, in both TV Movie and Drama Series, winning the latter.

* The short-lived but cultishly-loved detective show ''Tenspeed and Brown Shoe'' opens with one of these, establishing how the SaltAndPepper pairing of a daydreaming stockbroker and a savvy con artist comes to be. Alas, because it has a different rights-holder from the remainder of the series, it isn't included in the Region 1 box set of the show Mill Creek Entertainment released in 2010. Rather, CBS DVD brought it out as a VanillaEdition disc in 2015.
* ''Blue Lagoon: The Awakening'' was written and filmed as a pilot for a potential series that could expand ''Literature/TheBlueLagoon'' into a full-blown franchise. Executives at Creator/{{Lifetime}} became uninterested, and the finished project became a standalone TV movie instead.

* Inverted with the movie ''Film/ZombieLand''. The plot, premise, and characters were all written with the intent of being a series, but was instead greenlit as a film. The "Zombie Kill Of The Week" is one of the [[OrphanedReference leftovers]] of its intended design.

* One weird example is ''Us'', a Pilot Movie that really wasn't. It was meant to be a normal pilot for a new series for Michael Landon, but was converted to a movie when Landon died after production.

* ''Series/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.

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

* "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act" from ''Series/{{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, in spite of a very doubtful Dr. Brackett. It features a cameo from ''Series/AdamTwelve'' characters Reed and Malloy (leading to a later MindScrew when the guys are discussing a recent ep of that series)

* ''Series/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.

* ''Series/LondonsBurning'' began with a two hour pilot movie in 1986. Two years later it became a series, which ran until 2002.
* Starting in 1994, the Action Pack was a series of TV movies that were all intended as Pilot Movies, several of the titles having 4 or 5 movies made before being turned in series. ''Series/{{Hercules The Legendary Journeys}}'' was the most successful of these, but there were also series made out of ''Tek War'' and ''Vanishing Son''.

* ''Film/BatesMotel1987'' was intended as a pilot to a supernatural anthology series set at the titular motel, but was never picked up due to a poor audience response.

** ''The Lawyers'' had two pilot movies, ''The Sound of Anger'' and ''The Whole World is Watching'', before the series began.

** The main character of ''The Senator'', Hayes Stowe, was introduced in a TV Movie titled ''A Clear and Present Danger'' as a Justice Department attorney with political ambitions who takes on the (then-controversial) topic of air pollution. When the series itself began, Stowe had been elected Senator and served for some time. Interestingly, since the TV movie and series aired in the same year, Creator/HalHolbrook earned ''two'' Emmy nominations for his performance as Stowe, in both TV Movie and Drama Series, winning for the latter.
* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': "The New, Original Wonder Woman" was a TV movie airing on November 7, 1975 complete with special guest stars such as Cloris Leachman as Queen Hippolyta and Red Buttons as Ashley Norman, the Nazi spy with the best reaction shot ever to Wonder Woman deflecting his bullets. It proceeded slowly from there to specials in April of 1976 to a short season on ABC in 1976-77 to two full seasons on CBS from 1977 to 1979.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had a premiere movie that was later re-aired as a three-part episode, and renamed to "House of Bloo's".

* The 1979 short movie ''[[Anime/UnicoBlackCloudAndWhiteFeather Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather]]'' by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]] and Creator/OsamuTezuka, was [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico's animation debut]]. The film was planned as a potential anime series but for unknown reasons, Japanese executives quickly rejected it. However, Sanrio and Creator/MushiProductions decided to save some ideas from the animated series as a series of movies released in the early 1980s (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico in 1981, and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'' in 1983). [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Sanrio even planned on making a third Unico movie]] before "Sanrio Animation" was shutdown in the mid 1980s due to bankruptcy.

* The 1979 short movie ''Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather'' by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]] and Creator/OsamuTezuka, was [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico's animation debut]]. The film was planned as a potential anime series but for unknown reasons, Japanese executives quickly rejected it. However, Sanrio and Creator/MushiProductions decided to save some ideas from the animated series as a series of movies released in the early 1980s (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico in 1981, and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'' in 1983). [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Sanrio even planned on making a third Unico movie]] before "Sanrio Animation" was shutdown in the mid 1980s due to bankruptcy.

* The [[Recap/TheIncredibleHulkPilot first]] [[Recap/TheIncredibleHulkDeathInTheFamily two]] episodes of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' originally aired as a two-hour movie.

Contrast: PoorlyDisguisedPilot (a redirect of this trope name, Backdoor Pilot, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_pilot#Backdoor_pilots can also be used]] to describe pilot movies). Compare and contrast with FiveEpisodePilot (a MultiPartEpisode at the beginning of a series that is frequently [[CompilationMovie repackaged as a Pilot Movie]]. Sometimes, a straight example of a Pilot Movie can be re-cut into several episodes to be aired alongside the rest of its series) as well as FinaleMovie (which is when a full-length film is made to serve as the ''ending'' of a television series).

* ''The Adventures of Superman'' had a pilot film in the form of ''Superman and the Mole Men'' in 1951. At the end of the first season, the film was edited into a two-parter called "The Unknown People."

* The first two episodes of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' originally aired as a two-hour movie.

* [[Film/Carrie2002 The 2002 remake]] of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' was intended as a pilot for a TV series on Creator/{{NBC}}, but it was never picked up due to disappointing ratings.

* The season 6 premiere of ''Series/{{House}}'' was a movie-length inversion of all the common tropes on the show, which arguably prepared the way to a different direction in the show, thereby qualifying itself as a pilot.

** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' had not one but two pilot movies: ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' as the former series re-adapts the events of the latter two movies and they were certainly made to gauge the interest fans would have in another ''Dragon Ball'' series.

* ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'', though not a pilot for the entire series, acts as a pilot for the fifth season - ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'' - of the long-running show ''Franchise/PowerRangers''.

* The DirectToVideo ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'' was effectively the pilot for ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'', establishing why the human-alien duo hunt down and rehabilitate [[Characters/LiloAndStitchExperiments Stitch's "cousins"]] during the show. The titles mismatch because at one point, ''The Series'' was going to be titled ''Stitch! The Series'' at one point, prompting ''The Movie'' to be renamed from its original intended title ''Lilo & Stitch: A New Ohana'', but when ''The Series'' got back to its final name, it was too late for ''Stitch! The Movie'' to have its title changed again. Complicating things further is that an anime series titled ''Anime/{{Stitch}}'' was made a few years later.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' began with a [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsMovie theatrical pilot film]] that served as the introduction of the series, though it was actually compilation of a few early episodes that were meant for TV broadcast.

* The DirectToVideo ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'' was effectively the pilot for ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries''.
* The first five episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the "Awakening" story arc, was edited by Greg Weisman into ''Gargoyles The Movie: The Heroes Awaken'', which was given a special screening at Walt Disney World before being released on home video.

* The 1970 short movie ''Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather'' by [[Creator/{{Sanrio}} Sanrio Animation]] and Creator/OsamuTezuka, was [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico's animation debut]]. The film was planned as a potential anime series but for unknown reasons, Japanese executives quickly rejected it. However, Sanrio and Creator/MushiProductions decided to save some ideas from the animated series as a series of movies released in the early 1980s (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico in 1981, and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'' in 1983). [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Sanrio even planned on making a third Unico movie]] before "Sanrio Animation" was shutdown in the mid 1980s due to bankruptcy.

* The fourth ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' film ''Anime/YokaiWatchShadowsideTheReturnOfTheOniKing'' was the pilot to ''Anime/YokaiWatchShadowside'', a SpinOffspring series.