Agreed. In Star Trek's case, it was the belief that Herb Solow, Lucille Ball and Gene Roddenberry had that got the second pilot. The main players, realistically, were Solow and Ball, because they knew how to navigate a conference room and a business meeting. They knew the strings to pull and how to not accept no for an answer. If it went to a network from any other studio, the only thing we'd have now would be "The Cage", a curious footnote and a "what if?" from television history. Liken it to The Beatles having Brian Epstein persisting and George Martin producing. Any part of the equation missing and nothing happens.
You know the term 'Extraordinary' gets thrown around a LOT by Star Trek fans RE: The commissioning of a second pilot; but honestly it's not all that extraordinary when you consider: Just a year prior: Lost In Space: yes, the pilot 'sold' the show (CBS really wanted a space show as NASA and Kennedy's declaration the U.S. would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade [the 1960ies] made 'space' popular. BUT, LIS essentially also had a second pilot which added 'Doctor Smiith' to the cast; and the footage from the original pilot was re-edited and used across 3 episodes in the final production of LIS Season 1. Gilligan's Island ALSO got a second pilot before the CBS Network took it to series. So yeah, was it uncommon that you'd get a second pilot to pitch your series? Yes. Extraordinary or unheard of prior to Star Trek? Hardly. But, Star Trek fans sure ate the story up at Conventions.
The story was actually built up so much that in some circles it was circulated that Star Trek was the first series to have a second pilot commissioned in television history.
You better find some other examples because Lost In Space DIDN'T have a second pilot. NEITHER did Gilligan's Island. "The first episode actually broadcast, "Two on a Raft", is sometimes wrongly referred to as the series pilot."
There are several examples of two (or even more) pilots being made before TOS, but Lost in Space and Gilligan's Island aren't among them.
http://gilligan.wikia.com/wiki/Marooned_(Unaired_Pilot) ^^^ Much like "The Cage" - yes that Gilligan's Island pilot was eventually broadcast - but NOT until 1992. It never aired - nor was it used on the actul series run - and the series itself was not green lit until the second pilot with casting changes was made (which Sherwood Schwartz used his own money to make), but still. And like I said the first LIS pilot sold the show, but they did film extra scenes and re-edit it to ad in 'Doctor Smith'. What aired is essentially a DIFFERENT pilot then what was initially filmed or meant to be originally shown as the 'first episode. the point is - neither actual second pilots, or a Network going to great lengths get get a show on the air in the form it wants - were unheard of or 'extraordinary' at the time.
I don't know a lot (or particularly care) about the production history of Gilligan's Island and neither the Wikipedia article or the Gilligan's Wiki article have sources, but when (or if, or how) the pilot episode aired makes no difference to whether the first aired episode is a pilot or not. Game of Thrones had a pilot episode that never aired. I don't think anyone would claim that it was a "failed pilot."
What do the Shenzhou's Flash-Gordon-looking transporters have to do with what we're talking about? You've derailed this thread way off course!
If it didn't sell the concept, then why make another pilot? And if the criteria of a failed pilot is they change things, then WNMHGB was a failure, because they changed things from that. Set design, costumes, actors, etc..
None. Had they had a pilot, they could have used an airplane and maybe not crashed on the island. If they did, we'd be talking about Lost. This would run us around to a J.J. Abrams conversation, putting us to the new Trek movies and their overall look, and how it compares with the Transporter Room on the Shenzhou.
The reason The Cage failed was that it was, in the eyes of the network "too cerebral". However, the show was never intended to have all its episode follow the same exact tone of The Cage. It was a very broad show, which is why it became the quintessential ur-sci-fi show. So the failure of The Cage was not a failure of the entire show concept, just a failure of the script. The sets remained mostly the same. The uniforms never changed radically, and Jeff Hunter could very well have made it to series had the contract negotiations not fallen through. Now, of course, none of this is at all relevant to the thread. (The thread has gone hopelessly off the rails into talk of Gilligan's Island and what not.) People are taking flippant pot-shots at The Cage in order to sort of prove that the thing doesn't have enough pop-culture relevance to be worth maintaining any of its style or canon elements for Discovery. That argument is a fail if for no other reason than the "refresh" of Pike as an icon in the Kelvin-verse, let alone 50+ years of reruns that have gradually elevated even dreck like Spock's Brain into cultural memes. The reason why Discovery looks different has nothing to do with some sort of cultural assessment of whether The Cage is well-remembered and everything to do with the idea of trying to make it look hip and modern. It's nothing more or less than that.