Critic Names Favorite TV Pilots from 1999-Now, What Are Some of Your Favs?

Given that it's almost time for the new fall TV shows to commence -- the notion of "fall TV" almost seems retro, given the new, re-jiggered TV landscape where new shows now premiere throughout the year -- the Boston Globe's TV critic Matthew Gilbert was thinking about pilot episodes recently and comprised his own list of favorites that aired in the past 10 years.

The best one, in Gilbert's judgment: Freaks and Geeks, which premiered on NBC a decade ago. Gilbert said: "It so perfectly captured the relative innocence of the pre-MTV world, before kids were media-bound and ironic. Each of the indelible characters -- the cool kids and the geeks, all of them on the high school fringes -- was in place from the beginning."

Rounding out his top 10 were:

2. Lost (2004)
3. How I Met Your Mother (2005)
4. 24 (2001)
5. Mad Men (2007)
6. The West Wing (1999)
7. Arrested Development (2003)
8. The Sopranos (1999)
9. Action (1999)
10. Friday Night Lights (2006)

I would've make a different list, although I wouldn't quibble with the inclusion of Lost, 24, Mad Men, The West Wing and FNL.

One of the best pilots I'd ever seen was for Alias (2001) -- which received an honorable mention from Gilbert -- which set the stage for a powerhouse of a first season, and was gripping, dramatic and soulful at the same time, launching the careers of Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan and Bradley Cooper, who played a reporter who was in love with Garner's character. Garner's character's finance was murdered early in the first episode and she later learned that not only was her standoffish dad a CIA agent, but that the off-book, clandestine CIA group she thought she worked for was not connected to the U.S. government. She worked for the "bad guys."

I'd also include one of my perennial favorites, Once and Again (1999) whose pilot episode about the impact of two divorces on suburban Chicago families was raw and honest. This show's cast included Sela Ward, Shane West, Evan Rachel Wood and Patrick Dempsey.

Two more favorite pilots: Six Feet Under (2001), which introduced us to the freaky Fisher family on the day the family patriarch died, and the poignant season one opener for Rescue Me (2004). To round it out to an even top 10 pilots from the past 10 years, I'd throw in Big Love (2006).

If you were making a list of the best pilots that aired between 1999 and now, which ones would you say kicked some serious behind?

Favorite Christmas TV Episodes

The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert got me thinking with his recent article about Christmas TV episodes. I like several of the selections on his list ranging from the slightly off-kilter (South Park's "Mr. Hankey and the Christmas Poo," which is about exactly what it sounds like, and Seinfeld's classic Festivus episode, "The Strike") to dramatic (The West Wing's "Noel," still a favorite of mine, can't stop thinking of it whenever I hear "Carol of the Bells") to dark (Six Feet Under's "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," on the first anniversary of the death of Fisher family's patriarch).

Thus, I started thinking of other stand-out Christmas episodes from other shows. In particular, I remembered Once and Again's "The Gingerbread House" in its first season. Not only did it inspire me to seek out Tori Amos' haunting song "Winter," but it featured the main couple, Lily Manning and Rick Sammler, splitting up after Lily's confession that she'd slept with her soon-to-be-ex-husband from whom she asked for a divorce on Christmas Eve while decorating the Christmas tree.

In the third (and tragically) final season, Once and Again's Christmas episode, "Pictures," had the woman who broke up Lily's first marriage give birth to Lily's daughters' half-sister in Lily's bedroom, in the middle of a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Talk about melodrama . . .

A decade earlier, Christmas in an interfaith family was the subject of two episodes of thirtysomething, created by the same people behind Once and Again. In a first season episode entitled, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," Michael and Hope Steadman argued over how they should celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas during their daughter Janie's first year. The last scene makes me tear up every time, where Hope gets a menorah for him and Michael gets a Christmas tree for her.



In the second season, Christmas and Hanukkah evoked a crisis of faith for Michael in "The Mike Van Dyke" episode as Hope was in a serious car accident while out Christmas shopping. This is the one where Michael imagines himself as a character in the black and white "Dick Van Dyke Show."



Do you have any favorite Christmas TV episodes for which you'd like to give a shout out?