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97-493: (Redirected from All-American Girl ) All American Girl may refer to: All-American Girl (TV series) , an American sitcom All American Girl (novel) , a young-adult novel by Meg Cabot "All-American Girl" (song) , a song by Carrie Underwood "All American Girl", a song by Melissa Etheridge from Yes I Am "All American Girl", a song by Train from My Private Nation All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story ,

194-422: A series of the same name . The 100 episode " Anaconda " also served as an unsuccessful backdoor pilot for a prequel series. A put pilot is a pilot that the network has agreed to broadcast either as a special or series; if it does not, it will have to pay substantial monetary penalties to the studio. This usually guarantees that the pilot will be picked up by the network. An unsold pilot or "busted pilot"

291-450: A television film to recoup some of its costs even if the network chooses to not order the show. Sometimes, a made-for-TV-movie is filmed as a pilot, but because of actors not being available, the series intro is reshot for the first aired episode. The original Cagney & Lacey movie co-starred Loretta Swit (of M*A*S*H fame) as Chris Cagney, but when she could not get out of her contract, they reshot it with Meg Foster , who after

388-469: A test market approach for its new reality talent competition format The Big Deal , producing a season of the series for Irish broadcaster Virgin Media One with the intent to use it as a pitch for Fox and other broadcasters. In a 10/90 production model, a network broadcasts ten episodes of a new television program without ordering a pilot first. If the episodes achieve a predetermined ratings level,

485-498: A "special" or "movie". It is thus often unclear to initial viewers of backdoor pilots that they are seeing a pilot of any kind, unless they have been privy to knowledgeable media coverage of the piece. Not all backdoor pilots lead to a series. The Star Trek episode " Assignment: Earth " was a backdoor pilot for a spin-off of the same name, featuring a human named Gary Seven (played by Robert Lansing ), taken from Earth's far past and raised by aliens to be sent to watch over Earth in

582-538: A 2000 TV film See also [ edit ] American Girl (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title All American Girl . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=All_American_Girl&oldid=936925074 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

679-402: A Korean boy that her mother has set her up with. Margaret's mother is ecstatic, but Margaret finds herself slowly altering her behavior to suit the desires of her Korean suitor—by the end of the episode, she ends the charade by coming clean about her true personality and their relationship ends. Unfortunately, because Margaret was honest and true to herself, she ends up losing a relationship due to

776-487: A backdoor pilot that focused on the decision Blair Warner ( Lisa Whelchel ) made in using her trust fund to purchase the financially troubled Eastland Academy. Blair became headmistress and opened enrollment to male students for the first time in Eastland history. Up-and-coming actors Juliette Lewis , Mayim Bialik , Seth Green , and Meredith Scott Lynn were featured as some of Eastland's new students. NBC did not pick up

873-402: A better feel for how a typical episode would appear (since a premise pilot may have to deviate from a typical episode in order to properly introduce characters). Remington Steele used both a proof of concept and a premise pilot. Proofs of concept were particularly common for game shows ; in such cases, the pilot may be entirely or partially scripted (and thus, due to regulations passed after

970-607: A college student who winds up working at the campus radio station, with David Garrison set to reprise his role as Steve Rhoades. The other was Enemies , which was intended as an antithesis to Friends in the same way the flagship Married... with Children was for The Cosby Show . The pilot featured a guest appearance by Alan Thicke . In June 2010, Lifetime pursued a spinoff procedural drama of Army Wives featuring Brigid Brannagh 's character, police officer Pamela Moran. The fourth-season episode "Murder in Charleston"

1067-533: A crash diet; in two weeks, she lost 30 lbs (14 kg). This resulted in her having to be hospitalized for kidney failure, and leading to major health issues that continued for years after the show. In a later interview, Cho said she believes that because she was not white, executives and the producers felt they had to "make up for it in other ways", which was the reasoning behind this. All-American Girl premiered on ABC on September 14, 1994, airing at 9:30pm after Home Improvement . Thereafter, it aired on

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1164-429: A fall or "mid-season" winter debut), and at the upfront presentation, the shows are shown to potential advertisers and the networks sell the majority of the advertising for their new pilots. The survival odds for these new series are low, as typically only one or two of them survive for more than one season. A premise pilot introduces the characters and their world to the viewer; it is structured so that it can be run as

1261-526: A family, and we don't see rude grocers who shoot people randomly . I don't think this show will solve all the problems, but given a chance to grow, it will sure help." Prior to the series premiere, Asian American advocacy groups such as MANAA monitored the pilot, read scripts and attended tapings. Members of the Korean American Coalition said they were unhappy with the episode, citing the episode's "confusion of various Asian cultures" and

1358-662: A few occasions, pilots have been released as a theatrical films prior to the debuts of their respective series. Examples include Battlestar Galactica , whose pilot was theatrically released during the summer of 1978, prior to its broadcast as the opening episodes of the TV series that fall, and 1979's Buck Rogers in the 25th Century , released in early 1979, with the series launching in the fall. In both cases there are substantial differences between theatrical and televised version: both BSG and Buck Rogers' theatrical pilots had recurring characters (Baltar and Tiger Man, respectively) killed off,

1455-408: A fight ensues. Margaret does not in fact have strong feelings for Kyle, but she simply refuses to back down to her mother, who appears to be equally stubborn. In this sense, Margaret's romantic relationship is downplayed in favor of highlighting the conflicting, but loving, relationship between Margaret and her mother. In the second episode, the opposite situation occurs and Margaret finds herself dating

1552-423: A frustrated Margaret makes the rash decision to announce to everyone that she and Kyle are moving in together, simply to irritate her mother. Margaret realizes that she does not want to move out of the house and decides to stay in the end. Margaret has now moved into a low-rent apartment with three guys — Spencer ( Diedrich Bader ), Phil ( Sam Seder ), and Jimmy (Andrew Lowery). Margaret is anxious to hear back about

1649-630: A gloss" and used to attract fans of her stand-up. ABC also touted the series as the first TV sitcom to center Asian Americans; however, Mr. T and Tina , which centered on a Japanese American man and his two children, had aired on the network nearly two decades prior. Unlike the stars of shows like Roseanne , Ellen , and Grace Under Fire , Cho said she had little input in the creative process. Before production began, ABC executives began criticizing Cho about her weight, although Cho claims there had been no issue about her weight before filming began. ABC executives and producers encouraged her to go on

1746-417: A hit on rival network NBC that same season. Despite this retooling, ABC ultimately decided against ordering the revamped series. Since the series' end, Cho has become outspoken about her time on the series, particularly the difficulties she faced with the network and the effects the series' failure had on her. Another attempt at bringing an Asian American family would not come until 2015, when ABC launched

1843-427: A job interview at a record label, which is intensified when she and Phil have to deal with a rude phone customer service rep ( Vicki Lawrence ). When rats are found in the apartment, Jimmy and Spencer disagree on whether or not to call an exterminator. All-American Girl was pitched to ABC amidst a boon of female-led sitcoms. The show's creators suggested other titles for the series such as East Meets West and Wok on

1940-500: A little bit conservative. So I'm in between these kind of two extreme cultures. It's something I think a lot of Asian Americans go through because many live at home in a more controlled environment and then they go out or watch TV and they're exposed to this whole other world. [The series] is exploring the feelings associated with assimilation and becoming an American. All-American Girl was marketed as being based on Cho's stand-up comedy routines, though Cho said that it "was mostly just

2037-489: A rebellious streak, much to the chagrin of her very no-nonsense mother. She has an edgy sense of style, wearing short dresses, leather outfits, and following the trends of the average American girl from the 1990s. She wears different clothes, speaks in a higher register, laughs daintily behind her hand, and comes across as very polite—a significant contrast from her typically brash character. She manipulates her femininity to get what she wants, but this inevitably backfires when she

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2134-507: A show. You know, I wasn't thin [and] I wasn't white". Throughout All-American Girl , Margaret Kim flutters around multiple male characters and maintains about 7 short-lived relationships, all of which last for only one episode. The first episode "Mom, Dad, This is Kyle", centers on Margaret Kim and her American boyfriend Kyle, whom her mother constantly claims is a "loser" and that he is not right for her. Margaret then counters that her mother only disapproves of Kyle because he's not Korean, and

2231-465: A sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired. By 1954, the American television industry had begun to consider the idea of packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer, providing television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them. On June 8, 1956,

2328-509: A smattering of warmth between these characters" and Cho "is instantly appealing with her product-of-suburbia shtick", but "early scripts don’t provide material to define the character beyond her maternal sparring" and there is "not enough demonstrated early to lift the series beyond the most standard sitcom fare". Writing for Entertainment Weekly , Ken Tucker lamented that the show was the complete opposite of Cho's stand-up comedy, which he said "is all about exploding ethnic myths, starting with

2425-400: A symbol to a certain degree." In response to his opinion piece, Asian American industry groups voiced their support for the show, stating that "while no one should blindly support any endeavor", they recognized the importance of Asian American representation as a whole and had engaged in a letter-writing campaign to persuade ABC to renew the series for a second season. The series struggled in

2522-537: A traditional pilot on NBC and would be revived by that network as Saved by the Bell ) and the Canadian drama Hillside (which would move to Nickelodeon , Disney Channel's primary rival, and air as Fifteen ). A successful pilot is often used as the series premiere , the first aired episode of a new show, or it may be aired as a later episode or never aired at all. For the Canadian supernatural drama Lost Girl ,

2619-535: A two-part story, shown as The Menagerie . This turned out to be an auspicious decision, because of various challenges which bogged down series production during the first season. The second pilot was also shown during that first season, as the third episode. The only major character to appear in both pilots was Spock . On other occasions, the pilot is never broadcast on television at all. Viewers of Temple Houston , for example, would likely have considered "The Twisted Rope" its pilot because "The Man from Galveston"

2716-462: A wealthy widow and friend of Charlie Townsend's who ran a detective agency she inherited from her late husband. The agency was staffed by three handsome male detectives: Cotton Harper ( Stephen Shortridge ), Bob Sorensen ( Bob Seagren ), and Matt Parrish (Bruce Bauer). The three took direction from Toni and solved crimes in a manner similar to the Angels. The show was not picked up as a regular series for

2813-401: Is a produced episode that is never broadcast or made into a television series. Variety estimates that only a little over a quarter of all pilots made for American television proceed to the series stage. Instead of a single pilot episode, an alternative is a test run , a small number of episodes that air as a short-run series with the potential to go into full production if successful. This

2910-409: Is an episode of an existing series that heavily features supporting characters or guest stars in previously unseen roles. Its purpose is to introduce the characters to an audience before the creators decide on whether or not they intend to pursue a spin-off series with those characters. Television networks use pilots to determine whether an entertaining concept can be successfully realized and whether

3007-496: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages All-American Girl (TV series) All-American Girl is an American television sitcom starring Margaret Cho . The series aired on ABC from September 14, 1994, to March 15, 1995. It was loosely based on Cho's own experiences growing up in a Korean American family in San Francisco . Cho starred as Margaret Kim,

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3104-455: Is gauged on its potential to advance from one pilot to a full-fledged series. Using this feedback, and factoring in the current status and future potential of their existing series, each network chooses about four to eight pilots for series status. The new series are then presented at the networks' annual upfronts in May, where they are added to network schedules for the following season (either for

3201-576: Is particularly common among shows that are intended to be stripped (airing five days a week). Talk shows occasionally use test runs. Metromedia and its successor Fox Corporation were particularly associated with using test runs for talk shows, with examples including The Wendy Williams Show , The Huckabee Show (a spin-off of Huckabee that aired for six weeks in summer 2010), the final version of The Jerry Lewis Show , and The Kilborn File , an unsuccessful comeback vehicle for Craig Kilborn . In 2021, Fox Alternative Entertainment utilized

3298-402: Is rejected for not maintaining this desired on trait. This issue of desirable female traits played a part in the production decisions behind the show. Producers told Cho to lose weight, resulting in her drastic weight loss of 30 pounds in two weeks and leaving lasting health complications. Said Cho, "I didn't have these attributes that [producers] think of when they think of like a female star of

3395-556: The New York Times reported that the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) would begin airing a package of unsold pilots that summer under the title G.E. Summer Originals , adding that "the problem of what to do with 'pilot' or sample films of projected television series that previously have failed to sell has been solved." G.E. Summer Originals premiered on the evening of July 3, 1956, at exactly

3492-436: The 1950s quiz show scandals , illegal to broadcast in many jurisdictions) and use fake contestants and "returning champions" to demonstrate those concepts. The adventure series Lassie had both a premise pilot, "The Inheritance", designed specifically to air as the series' first episode, showing how Lassie's series owner, Jeff Miller, came to acquire her; and a proof of concept pilot, "The Well", showcased situations typical to

3589-663: The Arrowverse , a shared universe of interconnected DC Comics superhero TV series. The " Heroes Join Forces " crossover was a two-part backdoor pilot for another spinoff series set in the Arrowverse called Legends of Tomorrow , featuring a team of heroes and villains originally introduced in Arrow and The Flas h. The penultimate episode of Arrow , " Green Arrow & The Canaries " served as an unsuccessful backdoor pilot for

3686-526: The anthology series . They have variously been used as a place to show work still being actively considered for pickup, and as a venue for completed work already rejected by the network. With the decline of anthology series, backdoor pilots have increasingly been seen as episodes of existing series, one-off television films , and miniseries . As backdoor pilots have either failed to sell or are awaiting audience reception from its one-time broadcast, networks will not advertise them as pilots, only promoting them as

3783-449: The pilot episode of All-American Girl , "Mom, Dad, This is Kyle", Margaret's mother, Katherine Kim, strongly disapproves of Margaret's white boyfriend Kyle, and constantly tries to set her up with successful, intelligent Korean men, a recurring conflict between Margaret and her mother. Margaret, tired of her mother's constant matchmaking, convinces her to have Kyle over for dinner. At the dinner, Katherine makes no effort to accept Kyle, and

3880-448: The series premiere , the first aired episode of a new show, but sometimes a series' pilot may be aired as a later episode or never aired at all. Some series are commissioned straight-to-series without a pilot (although an increasing number of such series have their first episodes titled "Pilot" ). On some occasions, pilots that were not ordered to series may also be broadcast as a standalone television film or special. A " backdoor pilot "

3977-550: The 1960s; while the series was not picked up, its characters have appeared in numerous non-canon Trek productions set in the 20th century. The third season two-part episode "Terra Firma" of Star Trek: Discovery is generally regarded as a backdoor pilot for a series featuring the character Philippa Georgiou. The final two episodes of the CBS sitcom Green Acres (1965–71) were both backdoor pilots. With CBS being pressured by advertisers to develop more urban-themed shows (ultimately at

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4074-481: The 2014–2015 season due to dismal overall reception by viewers. The Gossip Girl episode " Valley Girls " was supposed to be a backdoor pilot for a prequel spin-off series starring Brittany Snow as a young Lily van der Woodsen , however the show was not picked up. " The Farm " was an episode of NBC 's The Office that was supposed to act as a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series starring Rainn Wilson and focusing on his character, Dwight Schrute . Upon review,

4171-540: The BSG pilot was extended for television, and the televised version of the Buck Rogers pilot utilized a different opening credits sequence and featured a newly added epilogue scene intended to lead into the weekly series. By the mid-1950s, the practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year — far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series — had created

4268-516: The Bane ", the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures , is not a pilot because the BBC had committed to the first season before seeing any filmed content – yet it is routinely referred to as a pilot. The straight-to-series model is usually used when established talent is attached to a series, or it is based on an established property or franchise. Amazing Stories (1985) is credited as being one of

4365-479: The Underground", Margaret moves into the basement of her parents' home, then moves out altogether in "Young Americans". The spin-off would have focused on Margaret and her roommates — Spencer ( Diedrich Bader ), Phil ( Sam Seder ), and Jimmy (Andrew Lowery) — plus Grandma Kim and Jane ( Mariska Hargitay ), a bartender at the roommates' hangout. The revamped concept was meant to emulate Friends , which had become

4462-517: The Wild Side , before deciding on All-American Girl . Said Cho of the show's concept: [It] is about two basic things: It's about me having these two families that I don't exactly relate to--my family at home, my biological family, who are very traditional, kind of strict and a very Asian, very Korean family. And they don't understand me because I'm just too wild and too Americanized . And then there's my family of friends who understand me but find me

4559-422: The basis of The Paul Lynde Show . The original Star Trek TV series had two pilots, neither of which became the premiere episode when the series was picked up. The first, titled The Cage , didn't sell, but Desilu head Lucille Ball convinced NBC executives to allow shooting of a second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before , which was accepted by the network. The Cage was edited and expanded into

4656-529: The characters for what would become the NCIS spin-off series NCIS: Los Angeles , and the NCIS season 11 two-part episode " Crescent City " introduced the characters for what would become NCIS: New Orleans . NCIS: Los Angeles itself also included a backdoor pilot for a potential further spin-off – NCIS: Red – but the series was not picked up. Similarly, the backdoor pilot for the television sitcom Empty Nest

4753-531: The discrepancy between her "American" self and her "Korean" self. In subsequent episodes, Margaret finds herself dating a variety of male characters, including a professor, a handyman, and a criminal. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes , 40% of 10 critics gave the series a positive review. The site's critics consensus reads, "Margaret Cho acquits herself nicely as a leading lady, but All-American Girl' s hit-and-miss laugh quotient doesn't measure up to her talents." Brian Lowry of Variety wrote, "There’s

4850-432: The emphasized accents of characters. Others criticized stereotypes such as the " tiger mother ", the expectation for Korean women to be proper and demure, the overachieving nerdy Asian, and the obedient Asian child. Critics said there was a lack of development that allowed for characters, aside from Margaret, to have little depth beyond their perceived archetypes. The series also received criticism for its casting. Cho

4947-607: The expense of additional episodes is justified. A pilot is best thought of as a prototype of the show that is to follow, because elements often change from pilot to series. Variety estimates that only a little over a quarter of all pilots made for American television proceed to the series stage. Each summer, the major American broadcast television networks – including ABC , CBS , NBC , Fox , PBS , Univision , and Telemundo – receive about 500 brief elevator pitches each for new shows from writers and producers. That fall, each network requests scripts for about 70 pitches and,

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5044-418: The expense of the network's rural-themed programs ), Green Acres creator Jay Sommers was given an opportunity to develop two series ideas, both of which were rejected. ABC attempted to create a spin-off of Charlie's Angels in 1980 called Toni's Boys . The backdoor pilot that aired near the end of season four was simply titled "Toni's Boys" and guest starred Barbara Stanwyck as Antonia "Toni" Blake,

5141-673: The first appearances of characters and situations later employed by a series – even if the work was not initially intended as a pilot for the series. A good example of this is "Love and the Television Set" (later retitled "Love and the Happy Days" for syndication), an episode of Love, American Style that featured a version of the Cunningham family. It was in fact a failed pilot for the proposed 1972 series New Family in Town , but

5238-417: The first episode of the series if substantial changes are not made between the pilot and greenlighting . In the event the changes being made are so substantial that they would cause confusion to viewers, the pilot (or portions of it) is often re-shot, recast, or rewritten to fit the rest of the series. The pilot for Gilligan's Island , for instance, showed the castaways when they had just become stranded on

5335-478: The first person to cross over this racial barrier, you're scrutinized for all these other things that have nothing to do with race, but they have everything to do with race — it's a very strange thing". Furthermore, the show's use of "butchered Korean language" was criticized. With the majority of the cast not being Korean American, their ability to speak Korean was limited, and none of All-American Girl's directors, writers, or producers were Korean American, though

5432-412: The first season was replaced with Sharon Gless ; therefore, the original movie is not considered part of the television series, and is not included in the series collections on DVD. In some cases, this does not hamper broadcast, such as Jackie Cooper playing the role of Walter Carlson in the TV movie pilot of the 1975 series The Invisible Man , but being replaced by Craig Stevens for the remainder of

5529-425: The first series commissioned without a pilot. The model has seen a rise since Netflix popularized it. A number of unsold pilots have been reworked into theatrically-released feature films, including Lum and Abner Abroad (1956), which wove together three pilot episodes for a 1956 series that would have starred the comedy duo of Lum and Abner ; Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966); and Mulholland Drive (2001), which

5626-507: The following January, orders about 20 pilot episodes. Actors come to Los Angeles from within the area or elsewhere in the United States and around the world to audition for them. By spring, actors are cast and production crews assembled to produce the pilots. Casting is a lengthy and very competitive process. For the 1994 pilot of Friends , casting director Ellie Kanner reviewed more than 1,000 actors' head shots for each of

5723-505: The following season. The series finale of One Day at a Time in May 1984 served as a backdoor pilot to a spin-off featuring Pat Harrington Jr. 's character Dwayne Schneider in a new setting, but CBS ultimately passed on the potential series. Similarly, the 1988 two-part series finale of The Facts of Life ("The Beginning of the End" and "The Beginning of the Beginning") also served as

5820-543: The intention of following them up with a full 104-episode order if successful; both series failed to reach the threshold Allen sought, though they remained in limited production (three to four new episodes a year, mixed in with the first season) for a few years afterward. An earlier variant was the 13-episode pilot run; in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Disney Channel notably gave a 13-episode pilot order to two series it never picked up, but would go on to longer runs on other networks: Good Morning, Miss Bliss (which also had

5917-399: The island. However, three roles were recast before going to series, with the characters either modified or completely altered to the point where the pilot could no longer be used as a regular episode. As a result, CBS aired Gilligan's second produced episode, which opened with the same scene of the characters just stranded on the island (showing only those not re-cast), first; the story from

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6014-472: The latter saying, "A heavy accent does not a stereotype make. People have accents and that’s what makes the show beautiful and the world beautiful. The accent is required for the role. This is what’s going on in this country. And now, in this very rare opportunity, we can show this on television." Playwright Philip W. Chung wrote a defense of the show in the Los Angeles Times , arguing that as

6111-431: The middle-man in these touchy debates, and prefers to spend time working in their family-owned bookstore. Also in the house are Margaret's brothers — her successful older brother, Dr. Stuart Kim, and her admiring younger brother, Eric — and eccentric Grandma Kim. Margaret is a college student who frequently bounces between majors and works at the cosmetics counter of a department store with her friends, Ruthie and Gloria. In

6208-461: The more Americanized Margaret and her traditional parents. Among the values and expectations thought to be typical of Asian American culture that are exhibited by the Kim parents include obedience and respect for elders, a high regard of education and success, and placing the most importance on the eldest son. In All-American Girl , Margaret Kim comes across as a typical college-age girl with somewhat of

6305-713: The much more successful Fresh Off the Boat . Footage from All-American Girl made a brief appearance in the ABC comedy series, where the characters poked fun at its faults. Cho later returned to ABC to guest star for another sitcom featuring an Asian American lead, Dr. Ken . The complete series was released on DVD in a four-disc set from Shout! Factory / Sony BMG Music Entertainment on January 31, 2006. The set features commentary by Cho (joined twice by Hill) on one episode per disc and retrospective interviews with Cho and Hill. Television pilot A successful pilot may be used as

6402-502: The network orders 90 more to bring the total to 100 episodes , immediately enough to rerun the show in syndication . Series that used the 10/90 model include Tyler Perry 's House of Payne , Meet the Browns , For Better or Worse , Debmar-Mercury 's Anger Management , and Are We There Yet? . Byron Allen 's sitcoms followed a similar model, with Mr. Box Office and The First Family airing 26-episode first seasons with

6499-410: The network's Wednesday night comedy block at 8:30pm as the lead-in for Roseanne and Ellen . The premiere episode drew in 16.8 million U.S. viewers, helping the network to a consecutive ratings victory for that week. After its premiere, ratings dropped substantially. The Kim family is intended to be portrayed as a typical Asian American family, and a recurring concept is the clash of values between

6596-473: The networks work on the same shared schedule, directors, actors and others must choose the best pilot to work for with the hopes that the network will choose it. If it is not chosen, they have wasted their time and money and may have missed out on better career opportunities. Once they have been produced, the pilots are presented to studio and network executives, and in some cases to test audiences; at this point, each pilot receives various degrees of feedback and

6693-534: The new series. The Dukes of Hazzard aired two episodes, named "Jude Emery" and "Mason Dixon's Girls", which served as a backdoor pilot complete with the Dukes cast interacting with the new characters. Ultimately, CBS passed on the two series in favor of a series starring Hazzard County deputy Enos Strate . A pair of Married... with Children episodes aired as backdoor pilots that would not be picked up. The first, Radio Free Trumaine , featured Keri Russell as

6790-554: The notion that a Korean-American woman is likely to be quiet and demure." While reviews were positive about Cho and Hill, the series faced scrutiny from the Asian American community. Guy Aoki , head of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), said, "If there is one Asian group that needed a show like this to take care of the misunderstandings people have about them, it's Korean American. We see

6887-405: The only Asian American focused-TV show at the time, All-American Girl was subject to unfair expectations. Chung wrote, "No show can single-handedly carry the burdens of an entire community. No one looks at the family on ' The Brady Bunch ' as a representation of all white families but, unfortunately, due to a lack of any real Asian American presence in the media, ' All-American Girl' must become

6984-751: The original Golden Girls episode. A 1972 episode of All In The Family , Maude , centered on the Bunkers visiting their cousin Maude Findlay at Maude's house in Tuckahoe. Norman Lear was so impressed he wanted to make Maude as a separate show. Maude would debut 5 months after the episode aired, in September of 1972. A 2011 episode of the TV Land original sitcom Hot in Cleveland focused on

7081-631: The parent series who are to be given their own show. For example, to introduce A Different World , built around The Cosby Show character Denise Huxtable ( Lisa Bonet ), the Cosby Show episode " Hillman " was devoted to the Huxtable family visiting Denise during her freshman year at Hillman College though no characters from the upcoming series were introduced. A 2018 episode of ABC's 1980s-set sitcom The Goldbergs , titled "1990-Something", heavily featured teachers who were recurring characters on

7178-430: The pilot from that point onward was largely reworked into a flashback episode which aired later (with several key scenes re-shot). Even Gilligan's theme song, which was originally done as a calypso number, was rewritten and recomposed to be completely different. Another example is Star Trek , where footage from the unaired original pilot, " The Cage ", was incorporated into the two-part episode, " The Menagerie ", with

7275-456: The pilot that sold the series to Showcase , " Vexed ", was used as the eighth episode of the first series. In the case of Firefly , the original pilot ("Serenity") which was intended to serve as the series premiere was rejected by the network, and a new first episode, "Train Job", was shot specifically for broadcast. Sometimes, too, viewers will assign the word "pilot" to a work that represented

7372-567: The project to series. In 2013, The CW announced there was a spin-off of their genre hit Supernatural in the works. The 20th episode of season nine titled "Bloodlines", served as a back-door pilot, revealed in January 2014 to have been titled Supernatural: Bloodlines . The series was set to explore the "clashing hunter and monster cultures in Chicago". The show was not picked up by the CW for

7469-443: The ratings from the beginning. ABC executives and producers constantly attempted to change the series’ format in an attempt to improve ratings. After negative reviews and controversy, episodes became less focused on the Kim family as a whole, and more centered on Margaret and Grandma Kim. After the thirteenth episode, Ashley Johnson — who was added after the pilot — was written out of the series completely, while Ruthie, Gloria, and

7566-413: The rebellious daughter of Korean emigrants and bookstore owners, whose American attitude often comes into conflict with her more traditional parents ( Jodi Long and Clyde Kusatsu ). Among her co-stars were BD Wong as Margaret's brother, and Amy Hill as her eccentric grandmother. All-American Girl was created by ABC to capitalize on the trend of female comediennes headlining their own sitcoms. Cho

7663-483: The rest of the Kims — besides Margaret and Grandma — appeared to be slowly phased out. Amy Hill was retained through these changes as Grandma Kim had become popular with audiences. By the end of the first season, ABC had decided to revamp the series into a new series. The final episode "Young Americans" was intended to serve as a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series of the same name. In the fifteenth episode "Notes from

7760-448: The revamping was unsuccessful and the series was cancelled after one season. All-American Girl takes place in San Francisco , where Margaret Kim tries to navigate life with her family, friends, and romantic partners. In the Kim family household, Margaret has many squabbles with her very traditional mother, Katherine, who wants nothing more than for her to settle down with a Korean boy and be successful. Her passive father plays more of

7857-519: The same time as another anthology series of unsold pilots, Sneak Preview on NBC , and these thus became the first two series of unsold pilots to air in the United States . A number of summer anthology series consisting entirely or partly of unsold pilots were broadcast in the United States between 1956 and 1989. These series were: By the mid-1980s, the rise of cable television outlets had led to an increase of original programming during

7954-474: The series and served as the backdoor pilot to Schooled , which debuted in early 2019. In other cases, an episode of the parent show may focus on one or more guest characters who have not previously appeared in the show. For example, the JAG season eight episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" introduced the characters for what would become NCIS , while the NCIS season six two-part episode " Legend " introduced

8051-434: The series, which aired well on into the first season of the series. A backdoor pilot is a film or miniseries that serves as a proof of concept for a full series, but may be broadcast on its own even if the full series is not picked up. The term may also be used for an episode of an existing television show that serves to introduce a spin-off . Such backdoor pilots commonly focus on an existing character or characters from

8148-414: The series; the pilot is still considered part of the series and released to DVD as such. Likewise, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story had an almost entirely different cast from the series it was intended to pilot ( The Waltons ), but both have been rerun for many years. A proof of concept pilot usually takes place chronologically further into a series run than a premise pilot, to give network executives

8245-427: The six main roles. She summoned 75 actors for each role to audition, and she then chose some to audition again for the show's creators. Of this group, the creators chose some to audition again for Warner Bros. Television executives, who chose the final group of a few actors to audition for NBC executives; as they decide whether to purchase a pilot, network executives generally have ultimate authority over casting. Since

8342-490: The spin-off was not picked up by NBC and the original version was never aired; instead it was reworked with additional material shot later, as the original version contained "certain aspects that were appropriate for a pilot of a new show". The Arrow episode "The Scientist " served as a backdoor pilot for the spinoff series The Flash , introducing Barry Allen as a CSI searching for super-powered people in an attempt to find his mother's murderer. This episode also created

8439-400: The story justification that it depicts events that happened several years earlier. Conversely, the second pilot for Star Trek , " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", aired as the third episode of the show's first season, even though it included some casting and costuming differences that set it apart from the preceding episodes. If a network orders a two-hour pilot, it will usually broadcast it as

8536-467: The summer months and ABC, CBS, and NBC began to experience a decline in summer viewership; the launch of Fox as a fourth major network in 1987 only exacerbated the problem for the former "Big Three" networks. Although CBS viewed CBS Summer Playouse — broadcast during the summers of 1987, 1988, and 1989 — as original programming that addressed this issue, it was the last anthology series of unsold pilots. Unsold pilots aired as one-offs occasionally during

8633-459: The wedding of the character Elka (played by Betty White ). Boyce Ballentine ( Cedric the Entertainer ), an R&B singer-turned-preacher, was introduced as the pastor for the wedding, with the intention of Boyce eventually having his own series on the network. That came to fruition in 2012, when TV Land introduced The Soul Man . A historically important venue for backdoor pilots has been

8730-502: The writing staff included two Asian American writers and a Korean consultant was also hired. Staff writer Elizabeth Wong commented, "This is not a show that deals with politics. It's an 8:30 show that deals with family dynamics. That's what we're interested in. But I very much feel a lot of pressure." Korean American viewers found the briefly spoken Korean phrases to be so flawed as to be essentially unintelligible. Show creator Gary Jacobs and BD Wong pushed back against criticism, with

8827-546: Was an episode of The Golden Girls , which relegated that show's regular stars to supporting characters in an episode devoted to new characters who were introduced as their neighbors. Feedback on the episode resulted in Empty Nest being extensively reworked before its debut; while the concept and the "living next to the Golden Girls" setting was retained, the series ended up featuring different characters from those in

8924-498: Was composed of an unsold pilot episode appended with an ending shot specifically for the film. The 1966 film release, Tarzan and the Trappers was edited from the unbroadcast pilot of a proposed 1958 Tarzan series. In addition, a number of unsuccessful pilot episodes have been released as direct-to-video films, including Belle's Magical World (1998), Cruel Intentions 2 (2001) and Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003). On

9021-443: Was included in a Wednesday night lineup that included other women in lead roles— Brett Butler ( Grace Under Fire ), Ellen DeGeneres ( Ellen ), and most successfully, Roseanne Barr ( Roseanne ). The series received criticism for its depiction of Korean Americans and for stereotyping characters. ABC attempted to counter low ratings by retooling the show into an ensemble sitcom about Margaret and her white friends, but

9118-464: Was intended to serve as a backdoor pilot for the proposed spin-off. The episode sees Moran teaming up with an Atlanta-based detective on a murder that is related to a case she has been working on for the past three years. At the end of the episode, the detective encourages Moran to take a detective's exam, and to look for her if she is in Atlanta. In September 2010, however, Lifetime declined to pick up

9215-418: Was only publicly exhibited in cinemas four months later. Even then, "The Man from Galveston" had an almost entirely different cast, and its main character was renamed to avoid confusion with the then-ongoing series. Some television series are commissioned "straight-to-series" where a network orders a season without viewing any produced episodes, hence no episode is considered a pilot. For instance, " Invasion of

9312-468: Was recycled as a successful pilot for 1974's Happy Days . So firmly embedded is the notion of it as a Happy Days pilot, that even series actress Erin Moran (who did not appear in the episode) viewed it as such, as well as its creator, Garry Marshall , since Happy Days itself did not have a separate pilot of its own. In a similar situation, the 1962 pilot Howie was resurrected 13 years later to form

9409-624: Was the only Korean American cast member; while BD Wong is of Chinese descent, Amy Hill and Clyde Kusatsu are of Japanese ancestry, and Jodi Long is of mixed Japanese and Chinese ancestry. Critics said this perpetuated the idea of Asians as a monolithic ethnic group, and argued Asian audiences should not be forced to "identify with the Kims simply because they were Asian". Similarly, non-Asian audiences were equally unable to identify with "yet another example of Hollywood's ignorance and indifference when it comes to depicting an ethnic group about which it knows so little". As Cho stated later, "When you're

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