The Greatest TV Pilots Of All Time

The Sopranos

When The Sopranos aired on HBO in 1999, the criminal anti-hero so popular in today’s television wasn’t so common. However, there’s little crime in the pilot. Instead, the focus is on the inner life Tony Soprano, a mob kingpin, who is crippled with panic attacks and attends therapy.

The David Chase series continued to subvert expectations of a gangster drama by exploring Tony’s family and home life as well as his criminal activities. Chase recalled to Rolling Stone how he sold the show to HBO as “a real life Simpsons,” saying, “I guess I was just thinking the attitude and the comedic dysfunction and the vulgarity of The Simpsons. I also started thinking about it as Twin Peaks in the Jersey meadowlands.”