Come with us as we crash full force into abandoned media, so strange and bizarre, seen by millions and forgotten like some terrible fever dream fit during a childhood ailment. Not dead, but still alive though emaciated by the ravages of time and tape decay, in the purgatory of internet video sharing sites. We don't just review, we take you through every confounding moment to try and piece together the mysteries that are failed television pilots. Email us! pilotingerror@gmail.com
We are finally back, with a huge episode big enough even for our small audience! They are COPS! small ones! There are some cool miniature shots, and some 1980s MTV and and.... Ok.... Microcops... really sucked. It was just awful and stupid and annoying! We forced Rob Schulte (https://www.patreon.com/VanderpumpRobs) to watch it with us even though he was very vocal about wanting to watch and talk about anything else. What were we thinking!?What were they thinking!? What are you thinking!? Is if possible to think ever again after Microcops?! Maybe we will finally watch Sawdust with Leslie Jordan... No promises..
No expense was spared for this podcast episode. Sets, costumes, puppets, miniatures, matte paintings, explosions, this one has it all... unfortunately it's an audio medium... but we do tell you about it! In fact your intrepid hosts head back several million years to a time when dinosaurs and humans lived side by side in a poorly articulated parody of a 1930s gangster movie, ride bone trains, and have permanent erections. Did I mention this is a kids movie that used to play nonstop on the Disney Channel?! The 1990s were a weird time where screaming and being gross can be substituted for script writing. Joining us on this prehistoric quest is long time frequent guest Chris, who for some reason after watching so many terrible things with us, decided it was worth his time to do it again. Sorry Chris. Maybe next time you will stand back when you see a television sucking children and oranges into VHS tapes.
Just in time for Halloween, it's a rerun! Yep, this one is from 2022, but just like the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, it has risen from the pumpkin patch and walked it's undead ass back into your podcast feed! Judging by our listener counts, you've probably never heard it and if you have it's been a few years... We were so happy to have Miguel Myers from My Horror Confessional joining us, one of our favorite guest whom we keep wanting to have back, and hopefully one day will. We will have a brand new episode up soon, but until that happens enjoy this one we've kept sealed in a coffin for your enjoyment.
Clerks. is one of if not the most iconic and influential movie of all time, and a natural fit for a sitcom. However, it simply doesn't hit the same when you exclude all the gen xers and hire boomers to write and direct instead. We end up with a product that's about as edgy as a beach ball. Well, at least WE found a gen xer to watch it with US, Mike Sacks! https://www.mikesacks.com/ Oh, but then we shelved the podcast and waited a year and a half to release it and cut Mike out of 1/4 of it. Are we marketing geniuses? Well not really, this is a LOST EPISODE!! YES!! This was originally recorded February of 2023 and then almost lost forever. But now it's not, instead its available to listen to! And you should! and share it with your friends, loved ones, and enemies, and then write favorable reviews about how much you love the Piloting Error Podcast on the internet. Thank you for never giving up hope that we would eventually post the Clerks. episode! Sorry the pilot sucks and blows but the podcast is funny...
Is it possible to make Always Sunny in Philadelphia funnier? What if took place in space? Would anybody watch it? Would anybody care? The answer is no. Except maybe multiple failed TV Pilot podcasts, and we happen to be one of the ones that liked it! YES! This is a rare good one for us, full of talented people, and funny gags! Oh my god someone took that robot's penis! Joining us this time for our journey into outer space is Emily Rose from Who the F*ck Knows? With Emily Rose!( Linktr.ee/Emilyagogo ) We certainly wish this had been picked up instead of Glee... or the Orville... or Quark... but this 20 minutes of music deprived comedy gold is all we have. It's definitely an emotional abortion, which is a thing we learned about. Is anybody going to listen to this episode? It's actually funny... we swear...
We recently re-listened to the Acting Sheriff episode and remembered how much we wanted to see the movie within a pilot: Scuba Sleuth. Since that's never going to happen, we did the next best thing. We created our own version and rather than waste time with a plot, we skipped right to the climactic ending. So please, sit back and enjoy Robert Goulet, as Brent McCord, as SCUBA SLEUTH!
It's our 30th episode, and the errors and omissions were piling up, so once again we are looking back at old episodes and talking about things we missed, and mistakes we so confidently spewed. We also take a look into the future, and episodes we want to do in our 4th season, assuming we manage to continue making a podcast. Lastly we spin the Wheel of Pilots (https://wheelofnames.com/nyz-avm) and you can too! If we make 30 more podcasts, then this is the middle episode!
We could have watched a probably cooler show about teeny tiny police officers, but instead we watched a dumb sitcom about what women think and feel. Of coarse, no one bothered to consult any women about what they think and feel, and it's pretty obvious. Plus all the hot bidet takes you can stand! Joining us is author of multiple books including the new EXCRMNTMNTN, Andrew Hilbert (https://perpetualpublishing.com/2023/03/07/xcrmntmntn-a-body-horror-novella-about-art-and-poop-is-out-now-through-ghoulish-books/) and editor-in-chief of Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and the assistant editor of Dark Moon Digest and proprietor of Ghoulish Books Bookstore, Max Booth (https://www.instagram.com/ghoulishbookstore/)
Sometimes when we are reviewing pilots we stumble on fake pilots. Things that are listed as pilots on the internet and then they turn out to be Cinemax Comedy Experiments. What do you do? Do you stay true to to the format that you've chosen, no of coarse who the hell cares! Especially when we are talking about Chris Elliot, and the thing is absolutely the most incredible inventive hilarious over the top masterpiece ever made! Sometimes he's a hard-boiled detective, and sometimes he's a wacky sitcom dad, and you can tell based on the film quality. We loved every minute of it! So much so that we want to bring it to the attention of our listeners again! Dominic and Breyanne join us as we rewatch the greatest father son fist fight involving a hot dog of all time! From 1986, it's Action Family!
It's not your imagination, this is a rerun, but judging by the listener count you've probably never heard it before! We are traveling back to 2021 to travel back to 1991 and revisit this terrible idea for TV show where a stupid idiot with a great singing voice becomes a sheriff. This is an early episode so no game, no characters, hell we barely have a format and its only gotten worse since! Joining us was our good friend Chris Carera! Can you believe we made him watch this and he still comes on our podcast regularly?
Have you ever seen the movie Heat? Did you know that it was once a failed TV Pilot. Well, not Heat but a show called LA Crimewave... or is it Made in LA... or just Crimewave?... I don't know... We watched something called LA Takedown from 1988 that seems eerily like Heat, but with a TV Budget, and more late 80s tropes than you can shove into a freshly laundered tan suit. Joining us on this poorly executed heist, from the Pumpkin Spice Podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZAQrXbbyTyzMUgrh2PRfx), it's Rob and Graham. There is only one way this can end, and it's not sitting on a tarmac holding hands.
Have you ever said to yourself, "There is too much violence and fantasy in this super hero show. I want to see them just be old, and sit around, and wallow in failure." Good news is, Unbeleiveables is for you! Bad news is, there is only one episode, it's 23 minutes long, and there is next to no information about it anywhere. Don't worry! Triple Dipper Jason(https://www.instagram.com/jason_chapman_b/) is here again to help us figure out how they could possibly screw up a pairing like Steve Carell and Tim Curry? It's not funny! Also Corbin Bernsen is here too... and Mike Starr! Yeah... he plays a washed up super hero named poet... his power is that he can't stop rhyming. What the hell was going on in 1999? Badly Drawn Hamster, call us! https://comedytowatch.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/one-and-done-the-unbelievables/
In our second outing into gene Roddenberry failed tv projects we journey to 2133 to stroll around the futuristic community colleges of Tuscon Arizona, watch people fight over a human popsicle in the horniest ways possible, and then they wave around bejeweled sex toys in a futile attempt to enslave Ted Cassidy and his wig wearing friends. Joining us to admire these breath taking matte paintings, from the improv duo Kenny/Roger (https://linktr.ee/kennyrogersimprov) it's Kenny Madison(https://www.trekwarspod.com/) and Hiedi Rogers. Did we mention there is an extremely cool cave train!
You know Blazing Saddles, that really funny movie that uses a quintessentially American genre, the Western, to point out the dark hypocrisies of America itself? Well, we watched the 1972 pilot spin off Black Bart where they ignored all of that and just focused on normalizing racist humor. That doesn't mean we aren't going to laugh at stupid drunken confederates... Joining us is noted Dukes of Hazzard expert, and co-host of the Bill and Robs an Excellent Adventure Podcast, Bill Tilly! It's a fun adventure into DVD extra content, and experiments in saying the the N word on prime-time television. Remember the scene where all the cowboys are farting? hilarious!
We could have watched a show about teeny tiny police officers, but being dumb men trapped in a hell of our own design, we watched a 1986 show about how women think and feel. Of coarse, no one bothered to consult any women about what they think and feel, and it's pretty obvious. Joining us is author of multiple books including the new EXCRMNTMNTN, Andrew Hilbert (https://perpetualpublishing.com/2023/03/07/xcrmntmntn-a-body-horror-novella-about-art-and-poop-is-out-now-through-ghoulish-books/) and editor-in-chief of Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and the assistant editor of Dark Moon Digest and proprietor of Ghoulish Books Bookstore, Max Booth (https://www.instagram.com/ghoulishbookstore/) Plus we try to unravel the possibly Mandela Effected Street Sharks, a special visitor brings us unending wealth, and all the hot bidet takes your butt can stand! So many butts in this episode...
Part imaginary, part hallucination all... quixotic? No, but he is confusing. It's Creating Rem Lezar a Pilot (in our loose definition anyway) about a super hero with no clear powers who convinces children to build him by invading their minds and forcing them to draw infinity symbols and yell at adults. Oh and they sing, alot, like the whole time. It's insanity on whole new level for us, and the only people we could force to watch it with us is our wives, Cheryl and Breyanne. Will our marriages survive? Listen and find out!
In this episode we experiment with puppet therapy to unlock hidden memories of mouth men and the secrets they keep. It's July 3, 1987 and the CBS Summer Playhouse is confusing children about a show that will never exist. Jim Henson and Fred Newman team up to teach us about no fault divorce with a strange pilot involving a man torn between his love for dragon puppets and force feeding his son cheese. Joining us are Cathy and Brian from the Reality Issues podcast! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reality-issues/id1614710848
This is a cross posted episode with our friends Bill and Robs: An Excellent Adventure podcast! Follow MacKenzie Support Bill and Robs podcast here Bill and Robs Merch! Find more Bridge Burner Collective podcasts
In a world so edgey every other shot is a dutch angle, a group of handsome well dressed youths will some how have to overcome the cramped quarters of a palatial mansion and defeat Matt Frewer, an evil marketeer intent on stealing their brains so he can rule the dream dimension. Joining us via collect call are Bill and Robs from Bill and Robs An Excellent Adventure https://anchor.fm/billandrobs and together we attempt to unravel the mysteries of this 1996 mid week programming filler.
Oh BOY! Exactly what you wanted for Christmas, a rerun of your new favorite episode of your least favorite podcast! Cool! We are heading back to Tattertown, an extremely confusing animated story about a tyrannical little girl who wants to force religion on literal trash, and that's not even the weirdest part. It's the very first Nicktoon and created by Ralph Bakshi, the father of modern cartooning. We will be back in January with all new episodes!
This month we offer up a classic favorite episode, the Quixotic adventures of actor turned annoyance to police work, Lookwell, written by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel and starring the one and only Adam West! This is one we bring up quite a bit as an example of a failed TV Pilot that is actually worth watching. We will be back soon with new episodes, but for now enjoy this old one. (Chances are, judging by our downloads, you've never listened to it anyway!)
Things are getting super spooky but also super horny on the podcast this episode, as we watch a 1993 pilot starring national treasure, Elvira. Unfortunately it doesn't live up to her movie, but we were dying laughing anyway. We also welcome horror and Elvira expert Miguel Myers from My Horror Confessional (https://allmylinks.com/myhorrorconfessional) and we all three learn the true manifestation of evil: sassy talking animals.
So it's come this, a Piloting Error clip show? No, not quite, but close. We talk out of asses so much we actually have to dedicate entire episodes to correcting ourselves. We also find time to host an award show complete with slapping, and Native American protestors. Two years, and 20 episodes later, we have yet to put a dent in abandoned TV pilots that were uploaded to the internet.
Oh boy! What a sopping wet pilot this is. We spend way too much time with three sisters/mermaids as they avenge the death of their father, at the hands of a bizarre fisherman who uses explosives to fish in this 2003 annoyance. Who would have thought there were so many mer-rules?! And we break all of them, except the one about nipples on television. You can't even do that in Australia.
In our hoboiest episode yet, your humble podcast hosts of meager means set out on a journey across the US by riding the rails to visit Big city ROB (robkschulte.com) in California and learn of his big city podcast ways. Then on to Bel Air where news has it Hobos have inherited the entire wealth and estate of a possibly confused but definitely deceased multi-millionaire. The neighborhood, or at least one annoying person who basically lives on the same property, are upset about where this is all going. Are there really no more than 1 episodes worth of hobo jokes? We find out when we watch this 1983 waste of server space.
You know what, fuck it! Let's just talk about Star Trek for two hours. Why else would we drudge up this Gene Roddenberry 1974 slog of a pilot about an android searching for his creator? Every single interesting idea has been extracted and put to better use some where else. Yet we go boldly where many have gone before! Also we welcome special guest ED from the Bro Trek Podcast! https://anchor.fm/bro-trek
Strange things are done in the midnight sun, but this isn't one of them, in fact it couldn't get more boiler plate and bland than John Denver flying his plane in fake Alaska. And yet, some how, we got lost in his little Dutch Boy turned Golden Retriever charm, as we roamed through the spruce stands, and dined on Oranges, moose burgers, and lamb stew, while he lulls us into submission with songs about nature and stuff. It's 1988, he's flying planes, performing search and rescue operations, and helping the local constabulary, Sheriff John Rhys-Davies, enforce draconian prohibition, and probably getting ready to move-in on his dead best friends widow! What more could you ask for? I guess a lot since this is all we got.
In our first international episode, we visit 1997 BBC Four to admire the commercials of Great Britain, while occasionally also talking about an Eddie Izzard penned atrocity that asks the moosical question: "What if some uppity cows started asserting basic human rights?" Fear not, the natural social Darwinian order will eventually put them back in their place. It's a terrible lesson in British politics, and one we learned the hard way, by watching one of the worst pieces of garbage any of us has ever had to sit through... multiple times.
It's a good old fashion Piloting Error Christmas when we watch the very first Nicktoon, and struggle to make sense of a collage of ideas that could only have come from the father of modern animation himself Ralph Bakshi, in this 1988 manic mess. Join us as we learn the true meaning of Christmas: appealing to the vanity of elderly Jewish shop keepers, so they will wear wreaths on their faces.
Chris Elliot bends genres with will power alone, in this absurd comedy experiment that isn't even a real TV Pilot. Luckily, we make the rules, and this is funny. Pure comedic genius is on full display in a whacked out schizophrenic intentional wreck from 1986, which may be the singular most perfect 28 minutes ever committed to celluloid.
In this extra spooky Halloween special we travel back to the hay day of steampunk, 2012, and watch an abominable Munsters reboot made by two Bryans, and recoil at the sight of Eddie Izzard's old age make-up.
In our two hour season premiere, we take a long strange trip into the depths of our own minds as we meet the most boring/hot doctor who ever lived, then recoil as he preys on young confused college students with his terrible magic powers in this grainy 1978 snooze fest.
In the most derailed episode ever, we congratulate ourselves way too much for talking about trash and recording it ten times, while relying on fart sounds for laughs. We also look to the future and tour the vast graveyard of pilots we have yet to tap.
In this very special Star Spangled Salute to America, we reconnect with our forefathers by watching a terrible 1992 pilot called 1775 and learn none of this is what they intended.
We watch something good for a change, a 1991 quixotic cult classic starring Adam West and Written by Conan O'Brien and Robert Smigel.
We peer deep into a possible future where Andy Kaufman robots serve us all, and we don't like what we see.
It was so ruff getting through this 1990 Cop Dog Double Feature, we were howling for it to end.
We do a pretty go job acting like we want to talk about this 1991 Robert Goulet groaner.
We unlock the secrets of this 2008 Paul Reubens alien wreckage
We go to the other side with George RR Martin's bizarre S&M multidimensional adventure show from 1993.
We wade knee deep into this 2003 Comedy Central literal shit show.
In our pilot episode, we take a long hard look at this legendary 1996 John Swartzwelder pilot.