What is the Best first episode?

Conefed

Conefed

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The rest of the season may suck - But what is the best first episode out of all television series?

This question arose from my friend circle after rewatching The Walking Dead from the beginning.
The Walking Dead - Highlights Episode 101 The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye AMC

My compiled list:
Current order of best first episodes, as of 11/18/2013:
8.9: Breaking Bad, season 1
7.7: The Walking Dead, season 1
7.6: Archer, season 1
6.8: Battlestar Galactica, season 1
6.7: Sons of Anarchy, season 1
6.4: Star Trek: TNG, season 1
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Awaiting deliberation:
Arrested Development
Battlestar Galactica (old)
BBC Sherlock Holmes, season 1
BBC Sherlock Holmes, pilot
Beauty And The Beast
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (old)
Californication
Carnival
Cop Rock
Deadwood
Dexter
Dukes of Hazard (old)
Eastbound and Down
Fringe
Futurama
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Knight Rider (old)
Lost
Mad Men
Magnum PI (old)
Miami Vice (old)
Profit
Rescue Me
Rome
Sopranos
Stargate
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
The A-Team
The Greatest American Hero (old)
The Incredible Hulk (old)
The Shield
The Tales of the Gold Monkey
Thundercats (old)
Venture Brothers
Voyagers
Wild Palms
X-Files (old)
 
Sterling

Sterling

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Arrested Development
Sopranos
Deadwood
Archer!

Would say BSG as well, but that actually started as a miniseries so not sure how that fits for this sort of thing.
 
T

Tropics_sl

shitlord
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Rome.

The episode covered a lot of ground and really introduced the characters of the show extremely well and built a very intriguing plot very quickly.
 
Alex

Alex

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Californication. The first episode is possibly the height of that television show.
 
Mist

Mist

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BSG was really one 2 hour movie that was cut up into a miniseries to show across 3 nights, so I think that counts. And yes, it's the best.
 
Wombat

Wombat

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The Shield, especially for the time.

Lost has a lot of supporters with the plane crash sequence.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Within the first 5 minutes we have a massive terminator attack on John Connor and a nuclear blast. Episode ends with time travel happening for all the people in the show.

Great first episode, great series.
 
Borzak

Borzak

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Miami Vice, a character was killed in the pilot and magically came back to life with no explanation in the series. Yeah I'm old.

BarnettFerrero.jpg
 
E

Elissidel_sl

shitlord
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No way I can pick just one, but a top 5 in no order

-BSG (blew me the fuck away with how interested I got into that world so quickly)
-LOST (even the fucking trailer for the first episode peeked the hell out of my interests)
-Deadwood (obviously)
-GoT (I was so relieved after the first episode, I knew it was going to be in great hands)
-ROME (as others have said, covered so much ground, was great)

I am trying to remember what the first episode of Carnival was like. I was sucked into that world big time, but I cannot remember if it was from the first episode or the first few eps.
 
Chukzombi

Chukzombi

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of my childhood, the pilot episodes i remember as holy shit awesome were from Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Incredible Hulk, The Greatest American Hero and Knight Rider. i dont remember seeing the pilot for Dukes of Hazard, but since i fucking loved that show i probably geeked out over that one too.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Either Deadwood, or Rome.

I'd go with Deadwood because the pacing was slightly better and the narrative was a little less jumbled. But both shows managed to not only introduce the characters, but also set the tone for them and began the entire season arc all within the first episode. But the biggest thing of all was that the chemistry between all the actors was already at 95% of what it was later in the series, which is VERY rare even in good series openings, usually cast has to grow on each other but these people all felt completely natural. Really very impressive openings.

Sopranos gets an honorable mention, because it does pretty well in all the categories above but the chemistry between all the actors didn't really solidify until midway through Season 1.
 
Szlia

Szlia

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Wombat_sl said:
The Shield, especially for the time.
Click to expand...
As a standalone episode, the first episode of The Shield is jaw dropping amazing. In the context of the whole serie though I always found it to be a bit odd, because there is a lack of repercussion from what happened (both in investigation and in psychology), and when you learn to know Mackey it all seems a bit out of character.

My entry will be... Wild Palms (am anticipation mini-serie from the '90s produced by Oliver Stone and with episodes directed by Kathryn Bigelow) because there is zero exposition, so you dive head first into a complex situation and you end up making diagrams to understand wtf just happened.
 
K

Karloff_sl

shitlord
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Off hand I'd have to say Magnum PI, X-Files, Fringe and Deadwood. All those pilots had me hooked. I'm sure there are others too.
 
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