Product Description

"A remarkable encyclopedia."
-- TV Guide

"A must-browse for media freaks."
-- USA Today

"Irresistible and enthralling."
-- Hartford Courant

"Full of fool's gold and genuine TV treasures."
-- The New York Post

The three hundred best and worst TV series ideas' known in the industry as pilots that never made it to primetime. From the adventures of a Samurai D.A. to the antics of an invisible alien baby, Lee Goldberg details the greatest shows you never saw.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #332969 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 204 pages

Review
"The best bathroom reading ever." -- The San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author
Lee Goldberg is a TV writer and producer whose many credits include Spenser: For Hire, SeaQuest, Diagnosis Murder, and Martial Law. He is also the author of the novels My Gun Has Bullets and Beyond the Beyond.

Customer Reviews

More like 1/10th complete; fun but shallow.
This is a fun book to read (indeed a cover blurb announces it as "Best Bathroom Reading Ever"), but it fails as a comprehensive reference work to TV pilots.

The book lists over 300 pilots, along with a plot synopsis and information on stars, running time, network, and more. The problem is that there have been many more pilots than this book covers ("Experimental Television, Test Films, Pilots, and Trial Series, 1925 Through 1995 : Seven Decades of Small Screen Almosts" by Vincent Terrace lists 10 times the number of pilots.) The book also divides the pilots by topic, rather than sorting them by title, which makes for annoying reading. I would have preferred the pilots to all be listed together, alphabetically, perhaps with a small topic index in the back.

Fun for a quick overview of the follies of TV, but useless for reference work. To be honest, I wouldn't be giving this a bad review if it weren't for the fact that the book is advertised on the cover as "The Almost Complete Guide..."- I doubt highly that this was the intention of the author. He makes note in his acknowledgements that this is an abridged edition of his book, and thanks other authors who have written more complete guides.

A DVD of these pilots would be great
I read the edition published by citadel press and found it to be a great read. I mean how many times do you get blank stares from people when you describe some unbelievable pilot you saw back when? Now you can show them the reference in this book!

As far as I'm concerend a few of the pilots in this book sounded like good shows.

I think a second edition with more entries would be great.

Even better I'd like to see a DVD compilation with these pilots in it!

Funny and informative
A fascinating look at what could have been on network tv if not for someone's bright idea. Goldberg is funny and his research really shows in this top notch book. A must for TV junkies.