I'm pretty sure The Planet of The Apes pilot episode 'Escape From Tomorrow' was the third show to be filmed, it does have the production code of B-503 anyway!
JB
"Obsession" and "Gamesters of Triskelion" Filmed Out of Order?
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I'm pretty sure The Planet of The Apes pilot episode 'Escape From Tomorrow' was the third show to be filmed, it does have the production code of B-503 anyway!
JB
That show was "pre-sold without a pilot."
What I'm picking at here is the difference between a pilot episode and a premiere episode.
Yeah this is why I put pilot in quote-marks, as many people assume the first episode is a pilot, but this isn't always the case.
Well I'm not sure what pre-sold means as such but the first episode was actually the third filmed which is odd!
JB
JB
It means they sold the series without first having to make a pilot episode -- an unusual, but not unprecedented move by the network at the time.
I remember the mass hysteria for Planet of The Apes back in 74 as I'd just seen the first feature film at the cinema and was blown away by it! Strangely enough soon after that the show got the chop and Apes mania went down the toilet! 
JB
JB
I think the 'Apes' producer and 20th Century Fox squeezed as much as possible out of the 5 original 'Ape' films. After seeing 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' I was pretty much burned out on seeing any more monkeys, orangutans and gorillas. I did watch the tv series, but I thought it was pretty lame.
There are, I believe, two terms: "presentation pilot" which is a proof of concept episode to demonstrate what the show will look like before it's sold, and the "broadcast pilot," which is the first aired episode.
As far as Trek is concerned, "The Cage" and "Where No Man" were "presentation pilots" and "The Man Trap" was the "broadcast pilot."
I Spy also had it's "presentation pilot" shown later in the first season ("Affair in T'Sien Cha"), but most people call "So Long, Patrick Henry" the pilot, simply because it was the first broadcast episode.
As far as Trek is concerned, "The Cage" and "Where No Man" were "presentation pilots" and "The Man Trap" was the "broadcast pilot."
I Spy also had it's "presentation pilot" shown later in the first season ("Affair in T'Sien Cha"), but most people call "So Long, Patrick Henry" the pilot, simply because it was the first broadcast episode.
For what it's worth, "broadcast pilot," in this context, is a term I've never seen before. It does not appear to be in common usage, based on a (brief) Google search.
@Karzak -- are these terms familair to you?
I first heard it, or read it, in Larry Brody's (otherwise awful) book on television production, "Turning Points in Television." A wikipedia search (I know) also differentiated the two.
For all I know, it's an "after the fact" term coined to explain why people keep calling "premiere episodes" "pilot episodes." As, say, with I Spy.
For all I know, it's an "after the fact" term coined to explain why people keep calling "premiere episodes" "pilot episodes." As, say, with I Spy.
Maybe people were different back then and not noticed the differences as such but I've always thought it was lunacy not to have Where No Man as the first episode!
JB
JB
This seems likely to me. How long until it slips into Cash's work?
NBC wanted a planet episode first ("strange new worlds" and all that). Even if it had been available from the beginning, "The Corbomite Maneuver" would have aired second. Mid-summer 1966 airdate schedules indicate this was the plan, with "Corbomite" scheduled for week #2, but it kept getting pushed back due to incomplete visual effects.
When the network sees a pitch they're excited about, because the idea and the actors attached are so good, they place an order to go "straight to series." So there is no pilot episode to be judged and possibly rejected.
Okay but surely Escape To Tomorrow is still a pilot episode as it sets up the series storyline and the plight of the astronauts!
JB
JB
NBC wanted a planet episode first ("strange new worlds" and all that). Even if it had been available from the beginning, "The Corbomite Maneuver" would have aired second. Mid-summer 1966 airdate schedules indicate this was the plan, with "Corbomite" scheduled for week #2, but it kept getting pushed back due to incomplete visual effects.
Other than the pilots, none of the earliest episodes spend a lot of time on planets, so I guess "Man Trap" won by default (along with the eye catching monster at the end). Had the budget been higher, they could have done more with the sets of "Mudd's Women" and "The Enemy Within".
Other than the pilots, none of the earliest episodes spend a lot of time on planets, so I guess "Man Trap" won by default (along with the eye catching monster at the end). Had the budget been higher, they could have done more with the sets of "Mudd's Women" and "The Enemy Within".
If Mudd's Women aired first I doubt we'd ever have got tosee Man Trap let alone Corbomite Maneuver! 
JB
JB
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