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I was today years old when I… (17 Viewers)

pltrgyst said:
I don't think so.

1. "A Pilot episode is like a Pilot light, a small flame that is used to start a bigger fire. If the pilot goes out, there can be no fire. If the pilot fails to get an audience interested, there can be no show. A Pilot light or burner is a well known term prior to the first use of pilot episode, predating it by 70 years."

2. "According to Etymology Online, the term pilot has been used since the 1920s to mean "serving as a prototype". It is this sense that you get terms like pilot episode for a TV Show, or pilot program for an emerging technology.

If you go back further in time, there was an old sense of pilot as far back as the 1600s meaning "to guide". For example, in woodworking there is a common technique of drilling smaller "pilot holes", sometimes called "starter holes", in places where you plan to attach two objects by screw; the pilot holes guide the screw in straight and prevent the wood from splitting under the stress.

This earlier sense pre-dated the concept of manned flight by hundreds of years. However, the term pilot is not just used for the captain of an aircraft: the person who steers a ship or boat is also called the pilot, and their job is to "guide" the vessel along the correct path to avoid running aground, etc.

Most likely, the later sense of a pilot episode evolved out of the idea that this episode "guided" the TV show and got it "started" through the initial process of being picked up by the network."
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I wouldn’t give my friends in Hollywood that much credit, though.
 
Coyote said:
A little supplement to this nice little improvised Greek class.

This a helicophoro (rotor-carrying) aeroplano:
View attachment 917052

This is an aeriothoumeno (gas-pushed) one, from the 115 Pteryga Makhis (Combat Wing) of the Hellenic Air Force:
View attachment 917054

Andromakhi is an ancient girl's given name, meaning she 's capable of taking on even andres (men).
Edit: often nicknamed Makhi nowadays, which results into calling your daughter "Combat" :)
Click to expand...
This is an Ekranoplan. It uses ground effect to “fly” above the waves. But it’s a ship not a plane.

A800F1DC-E1E1-48C2-8026-1D0CFDE30B4A.jpeg
984913D7-F9F6-4CDB-96DE-D1843EB0E435.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Apparently kangaroo means “I don’t know”.

An English naturalist asked an aborigine what that weird hopping creature was and that was his response…
 
Windwalker said:
… found that the first episode of a TV show is called a “pilot” because it’s the initial thing that’s made “to air”.
Click to expand...

chipinla said:
It’s on the internet so 100% true… maybe we should ask someone who works in TV… oh wait…
View attachment 916768
Click to expand...

pltrgyst said:
I don't think so.

1. "A Pilot episode is like a Pilot light, a small flame that is used to start a bigger fire. If the pilot goes out, there can be no fire. If the pilot fails to get an audience interested, there can be no show. A Pilot light or burner is a well known term prior to the first use of pilot episode, predating it by 70 years."
Click to expand...

As someone who has been working in the tv industry (both network broadcast and cable/sat) for 20+ years now, the term Pilot or Pilot Episode generally referred to the very first episode of that show. And the Wiki description above is a fair description of what Pilots were used for. Not sure which is correct about the origin of the term, but they all make sense. Also, this applies to scripted shows. Reality shows don't usually have pilots.

When I first started in the industry, $ were budgeted for Scripts, Presentations and Pilots. Also, a lot of research $ for pilot testing was also budgeted. For the most part, the cycle was: Pitch shows with Scripts (sometimes Presentations were made as well) and from that group, the "best" ones were ordered to make into a Pilot. From that group of Pilots, certain shows would be greenlit, usually for a 13 episode order. If it did well, the "back 9" episodes would be picked up (ordered), for a total of 22 episodes for the season. On a few occasions, some shows would go straight to a 13 episode order (no pilot), though that was rare at the time.

Over the years, the development process has changed quite a bit. With SVOD (Netflix, Hulu, etc) and the high costs of producing pilots, many shows are now greenlit straight to series (full ordered or limited). The number of episodes per season also changed, with many shows being at 10 episodes (or lower). The point being that many shows now do not have a Pilot, at least under traditional sense of the word.

Probably more info than the average person would care for. ;)
 
gmunny said:
As someone who has been working in the tv industry (both network broadcast and cable/sat) for 20+ years now, the term Pilot or Pilot Episode generally referred to the very first episode of that show. And the Wiki description above is a fair description of what Pilots were used for. Not sure which is correct about the origin of the term, but they all make sense. Also, this applies to scripted shows. Reality shows don't usually have pilots.

When I first started in the industry, $ were budgeted for Scripts, Presentations and Pilots. Also, a lot of research $ for pilot testing was also budgeted. For the most part, the cycle was: Pitch shows with Scripts (sometimes Presentations were made as well) and from that group, the "best" ones were ordered to make into a Pilot. From that group of Pilots, certain shows would be greenlit, usually for a 13 episode order. If it did well, the "back 9" episodes would be picked up (ordered), for a total of 22 episodes for the season. On a few occasions, some shows would go straight to a 13 episode order (no pilot), though that was rare at the time.

Over the years, the development process has changed quite a bit. With SVOD (Netflix, Hulu, etc) and the high costs of producing pilots, many shows are now greenlit straight to series (full ordered or limited). The number of episodes per season also changed, with many shows being at 10 episodes (or lower). The point being that many shows now do not have a Pilot, at least under traditional sense of the word.

Probably more info than the average person would care for. ;)
Click to expand...

Sigh, brings back memories. Over a decade ago, I moonlighted in TV for a bit. Wasn’t my cup of tea.

You’re in LA?
 
Windwalker said:
Sigh, brings back memories. Over a decade ago, I moonlighted in TV for a bit. Wasn’t my cup of tea.

You’re in LA?
Click to expand...
That’s fun. I dabbled in front of camera when I first moved to LA but loved behind the camera more. I did some background work for fun and was lucky enough to be in this classic scene from Superbad ha. Fun experience when I was fresh off the boat to LA.
720B10A2-DF44-40ED-A1A3-74D46F685222.jpeg
 
Gear said:
"Helicopter" is not heli + copter ... it's essentially helico + pter

helico meaning spiral
pter meaning wing
Click to expand...
And TIL that ornithopter, which I always thought was just an archaic term for any flying machine, actually means "a machine that uses flapping wings to fly."

Literally ornitho (bird) + pter (wing).

1654117372035.png
 

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