The 50 Best Television Pilots of All Time

All of these episodes brought the checkbooks out.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Thanks to Pulp Fiction, we all know what pilots are. It's that single TV episode produced that will determine whether a network orders an entire season. Tons of pilots are made that we never see. Others go on to change TV history. We're interested in the latter.

These are the 50 Best TV Pilots of All Time.

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Written by Tara Aquino (@t_akino), Matt Barone (@MBarone), Brenden Gallagher (@muddycreekU), Ross Scarano (@RossScarano), and Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

50. The Killing

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49. The X-Files

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48. Star Trek: The Next Generation

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47. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

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46. NewsRadio

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45. Dallas

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44. Carnivàle

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43. Fringe

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42. Masters of Horror

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41. The Jamie Foxx Show

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40. Archer

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39. Dead Like Me

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38. The Wonder Years

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37. How I Met Your Mother

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36. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

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35. 24

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34. Game of Thrones

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33. Modern Family

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32. Miami Vice

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31. Justified

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30. The Cosby Show

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29. My So-Called Life

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28. Eastbound and Down

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27. The Larry Sanders Show

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26. Freaks and Geeks

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25. Alias

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24. Breaking Bad

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23. Firefly

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22. Homeland

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21. The Walking Dead

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20. ER

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19. Futurama

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18. Pushing Daisies

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17. The West Wing

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16. Six Feet Under

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15. The Shield

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14. Hill Street Blues

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13. Deadwood

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12. Saturday Night Live

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11. Homicide: Life on the Street

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10. 30 Rock

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9. The Wire

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8. Battlestar Galactica

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7. Cheers

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6. Friday Night Lights

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5. Mad Men

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4. Arrested Development

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3. Lost

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2. Twin Peaks

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1. The Sopranos

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