History Main / PilotMovie

* ''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.

Some network made-for-TV Movies, while originally intended as only as a one-off production, are successful enough that the network decides to [[FromSpecialToSeries develop the movie into a TV series]], thus turning the TV movie into pilot film.

* While the first installment of ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls2019'' to be released is the short "[=#TheLateBatsby=]" (accompanying the theatrical release of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' before subsequently being uploaded on the ''DC Super Hero Girls'' [=YouTube=] channel), its chronological starting point is "[=#SweetJustice=]", an hour-length special showing the Super Hero Girls meeting each other for the first time and forming a team to fight back against Lexcorp construction bots that are destroying various popular teen hangouts in Metropolis.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' has [[Recap/DigimonAdventurePilot a short anime movie]], unusually released a week before the series itself; it was set four years earlier and starred a younger Taichi and Hikari, and its events are later stated to be the reason why the eight heroes are {{The Chosen One}}s. It was eventually dubbed as part one of ''Anime/DigimonTheMovie'', and it was arguably the part that fared the best [[{{Macekre}} in translation]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emergencypilotad.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Ad for the Pilot Movie of ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' on NBC, Saturday, Jan. 15, 1972]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' had a pilot movie that was actually the first three episodes with some footage taken out for pacing.

* 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.

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

* "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/Adam12'' characters Reed and Malloy (leading to a later MindScrew when the guys are discussing a recent ep of that series)

* ''/Series/HawaiiFiveO'' had a MadeForTVMovie to launch the series. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cYwvFyCqiI Here's the intro]]. In syndication it's shown as a two-part episode called "Cocoon". You get no explanation added as to why[[TheOtherDarrin Dan Williams is played by a completely different actor]].