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Failed pilots

January 31st, 2007 - 11:42am

The process for most TV shows to get on the air involves a pitch, a script, and then a pilot is made to try and convince the executives that the show is worth continuing. Most, if not all, the readers of this blog already know this, I’m sure.

In earlier years, most ‘green lit’ shows didn’t include the pilots as the first episode; it was often remade after some tweaking or ditched altogether. Sometimes the pilots would air in a special and more often, not. Some pilots never air at all, and are locked away forever, never to see the light of day again.

A few weeks ago, Justine and I caught the tail-end of a documentary about Adam West. The section we watched focused on West’s more recent years, when he was trying to break back into television (but didn’t feature Family Guy, so I suppose it must have been made before that show). West did a pilot for a show called ‘Lookwell’, which was co-written by Conan O’Brien.

Lookwell – in a way – reflects West’s actual life. The show focuses on an actor – Ty Lookwell – who, 20 years ago, played a TV detective named Bannigan (which is a running joke throughout). Now, out of work and bored, Lookwell tries to solve real crimes. The local police department gave him an honourary badge, which Lookwell flashes at every opportunity to show his ‘credentials’. Not to mention the crazy leaps of logic he makes.

Since we were looking at failed pilots, I also grabbed Heat Vision and Jack which featured Owen Wilson as a talking motorbike and Jack Black as a former NASA astronaut who becomes the smartest person in the world… during the day.

You can find both of these pilots on YouTube. I used a downloading service to grab the FLV then a converter (I forget which) to transcode them into AVIs.

Tags: adam west, heat vision and jack, lookwell, pilot, tv