Types of Pilot :

Types of Pilot : 

If a network is not totally sold on a potential series' premise but still wants to see its on-screen execution, and since a single pilot can be expensive to produce, a pilot presentation may be ordered. Depending on the potential series' nature, a pilot presentation is a one-day shoot that, when edited together, gives a general idea of the look and feel of the proposed show. Presentations are usually between seven to ten minutes. However, these pilot-presentations will not be shown on the air unless more material is subsequently added to them to make them at least 22 or 45 minutes in length, the actual duration of a nominally "30 minute" or "60 minute" television programme (taking into account television commercials that fill the remaining time). Occasionally, more than one pilot is commissioned for a particular proposed television series to evaluate what the show would be like with modifications. Star Treck  and All in the family are famous examples of this presentation-to-pilot-to-series situation.

Production :

An example of change between the making of a pilot and the making of a series is "To Tell The Truth" in 1956. The show's original title at pilot was Nothing But the Truth and was hosted by Mike Wallace ; by the time it became a series, the title was changed and Bud Collyas was tapped as the host.

Pilots usually run as the first episode of the series, and more often than not are used to introduce the characters and their world to the viewer. However, the post-pilot series may become so different that it would not make sense for the pilot to be aired. In this case, the pilot (or portions of it) is often re-shot, recast, or rewritten to fit the rest of the series. The pilot for Gilligan Island, for instance, showed the castaways becoming stranded on the island. However, three roles were recast before going to series, with the characters either modified or completely altered to the point where the pilot could no longer be used as a regular episode. As a result,CBS aired Gilligan's second produced episode, which had the characters already stranded on the island, first; the story from the pilot was largely reworked into a flashback episode which aired later (with several key scenes re-shot). Even Gilligan's theme song, which was originally done as a calypso number, was rewritten and recomposed to be completely different. Another example was in the original Star Treck where most of the footage of the original pilot, "The Cage", was incorporated into the acclaimed two-part episode, "The Menagerie",  with the story justification that it depicted events that happened several years earlier. Conversely, the second pilot for Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before ", aired as the third episode of the show's first season, even though it included some casting and costuming differences that set it apart from the preceding episodes.