The Perfect Hook: 10 Best Drama TV Pilots Of All Time

1. Breaking Bad — "Pilot" (2008)

• Writer & Director: Vince Gilligan
• Cast: Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt
• The Numbers: The pilot drew 1.41 million viewers, with a series episode budget of around $3 million.

I think most people have this ranked number one, and I am another one of those basic people who can't deny how exciting and special this show was and still remains today.

If you want to study TV writing, read the Breaking Bad pilot. From the iconic cold open—a frantic Walter White in his underwear driving an RV—to the heartbreaking "you've got to.." speech he records for his family, the pilot is a perfect, self-contained tragedy that opened up to a world with incredible legs.

2. Mad Men — "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (2007)

• Writer: Matthew Weiner
• Director: Alan Taylor
• Cast: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery
• The Numbers: The pilot was produced on a budget of over $3 million.

The worldbuilding of the Mad Men pilot immerses us in his world. It’s a hypnotic and stylish dive into the 1960s, a world of casual smoking, drinking, and rampant sexism, all seen through the eyes of advertising's most enigmatic man.

We get clues to Don's past, and are introduced to a ton of characters who all have lots of interesting plot threads of what is to come. It’s a perfect snapshot of an era and a man defined by the art of the sell.

3. Friday Night Lights — "Pilot" (2006)

• Writer & Director: Peter Berg
• Cast: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Taylor Kitsch, Aimee Teegarden
• The Numbers: The pilot premiered to 7.17 million viewers.

The pilot here takes us into the gritty world of Texas High School Football by using a handheld camera style. We feel almost like voyeurs behind the scenes in this world where "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" is a way of life.

The pilot is a masterwork of tone. It balances the hopes and anxieties of a small town and how it all rides on football. And the show culminates in a devastating injury that proves the show is about far more than just football.

4. Lost — "Pilot" (Part 1 & 2) (2004)

• Writers: Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
• Director: J.J. Abrams
• Cast: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews
• The Numbers: At $13-14 million, this was one of the most expensive pilots ever made. The first season averaged 16 million viewers.

No pilot has ever matched the sheer scale and immediate intensity of Lost. It brought you into a world where I felt like anything could happen.

The opening sequence—Jack waking up in a bamboo forest, stumbling onto a beach littered with the flaming wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815—is a cinematic masterpiece that feels like you're watching an epic movie.

And in two parts, it's able to introduce an ensemble cast, establish the island as a character in itself, and end with the iconic line that set up six seasons of mystery: "Guys... where are we?"

5. The Wire — "The Target" (2002)

• Writers: David Simon & Ed Burns
• Director: Clark Johnson
• Cast: Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce, Idris Elba, Wood Harris, Sonja Sohn
• The Numbers: The pilot's premiere drew 3.7 million viewers.

While other pilots grab you with a bang at the top, The Wire hooks you with its patience. You're behind what's happening, you have to slowly learn who is who in this world and what the stakes are, but that keeps us interested.

The opening "Snot Boogie" conversation on a stoop perfectly encapsulates the show's novelistic approach. It’s a dense piece of storytelling.

6. Twin Peaks — "Northwest Passage" (1990)

• Writers: Mark Frost & David Lynch
• Director: David Lynch
• Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ray Wise
• The Numbers: Made on a $3.8 million budget, the pilot was a phenomenon, drawing 34.6 million viewers.

I am still so surprised that David Lynch had a giant show on TV. Maybe it's because it begins with a simple idea—a small-town girl is murdered, and an FBI agent comes to investigate.

But the pilot quickly gives way to Lynch's tone and ideas. You get this atmospheric, and deeply weird tone that no one had ever dared to put on primetime television. It was, and remains, utterly unique.

7. ER — "24 Hours" (1994)

• Writer: Michael Crichton
• Director: Rod Holcomb
• Cast: Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Sherry Stringfield, Noah Wyle, Julianna Margulies, Eriq La Salle
• The Numbers: The two-hour movie pilot was a ratings smash, attracting 23.8 million viewers.

This pilot is a symphony of chaos, and it told you immediately, hey, the TV show would be, and how real it would feel.

It was written by Michael Crichton (based on his own experiences as a medical student), and throws you into the deep end of County General Hospital's emergency room and never lets up. The camera's kinetic movement, the rapid-fire medical jargon, and the overlapping personal dramas created a new template for the medical drama. Everyone tried to mimic it after.

8. Game of Thrones — "Winter Is Coming" (2011)

• Writers: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
• Director: Tim Van Patten
• Cast: Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington
• The Numbers: The first season averaged 2.52 million U.S. viewers, building an audience that would grow into a global juggernaut.

Worldbuilding is hard. This pilot was shot and reshot and recast and redited, but all that chaos led to one of the biggest TV shows of all time. They were patient, and they let the story grow.

It seems impossible, but in just one hour, the pilot introduces us to the Starks of Winterfell, the Lannisters of King's Landing, and Daenerys Targaryen across the Narrow Sea. We even got the existential threat of all the seasons, which were the White Walkers slowly coming toward the wall.

It’s an incredibly efficient episode that ends with one of the most shocking cliffhangers in TV history.

9. Six Feet Under — "Pilot" (2001)

• Writer & Director: Alan Ball
• Cast: Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Freddy Rodriguez, Rachel Griffiths
• The Numbers: The pilot premiered to a strong 4.97 million viewers for HBO.

We talked a lot about an hour-long drama, but this is the rare half-hour drama that kind of changed what we thought could be on TV at the time. The episode starts with a death and immediately sets the tone of a show about a funeral home.

This pilot is a hilariously melancholic meditation on life and mortality that steeps us in a bunch of people with their own issues with each other and with business. The genius of the pilot is its introduction of the Fisher family and making us care about each and every one of them.

10. The Sopranos — "The Sopranos" (1999)

• Writer & Director: David Chase
• Cast: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Nancy Marchand
• The Numbers: Early season episodes had a budget of around $2 million each.

I actually almost didn't include this one, because it is a great episode of TV, but it gave us this voiceover format that the show actually never used again, but the pilot also rewrote the rules of television, so it had to be on here.

This felt like an R-rated gangster epic that somehow was on your TV set. The episode brilliantly juxtaposes Tony's two families: his suburban life with Carmela and the kids, and his "work" life with his crew. And it gave us a flawed antihero who needed therapy to get help with both his worlds.

Summing It All Up 

I love watching TV, and I love the world we can build out over a few seasons. But all of that hinges on a great pilot that steeps you in a world and makes you want to continue.

These are my favorite ten drama TV plots, but I bet you have a few of your own you'd love to see on this list.