The Greatest TV Pilots Of All Time

Mad Men

Mad Men, the American period drama created by Matthew Weiner, is yet another AMC show with an incredible pilot episode. By the end of the 48-minute episode, we’re introduced to one of the most enigmatic characters on television—an advertising executive who is floundering just below the surface, Don Draper.

Getting Mad Men on the air was a long time coming. Matthew Weiner had been developing the pilot for a long time but was told it wasn’t going to work out until eventually, an unknown network at the time decided to pick up the show. He told Hollywood Reporter, “I finished the script and sent it to my agents. They didn’t read it for three or four months… I was advised not to send it anywhere because that was at a time when there were big overall deals for comedy writers. People would pay for the anticipation of what your proect would be, and actually having one was going to hurt you. I kept trying to get into HBO, but I never got a meeting. And I met with FX… [They] talked to me about making it into a half-hour. Then people started talking to me about a feature. It was my manager’s assistant who gave AMC the script. That’s who they were pawned off on.”