Every year, a number of television pilots are filmed -- "test episodes" for potential new shows. Some of them get ordered to series, and those pilot episodes often become episode #1 of the new show. Others, however, are unable to hurdle that barrier and remain unsold -- not picked up as a full television series.

Note that "unsold" does not necessarily equate to "unaired" -- many of the pilots listed here have aired on tv, either as a backdoor pilot (shown as a tv movie, or as an episode of an already-running tv show from which it was intended to spin off) or "burned off" (aired as a tv movie or a one-off episode among the summer reruns, or incorporated into one of several anthology tv series that consisted entirely of rejected pilots). Others have seen the light of day as extra features on DVDs, or straight-to-video releases, or in a few cases were even bumped up to theatrical releases.

I've started moving ones I've seen and/or have (i.e., I know they're at least marginally available) to the top of the list -- so far that's #s 1-976.

Sources: Unsold Television Pilots, Lee Goldberg. Movies Made for Television, 1964-2004 and 2005-2009, Alvin H. Marill. Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925-2007 and Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937-2019 and Encyclopedia of Unaired Television Pilots, 1945-2018, Vincent Terrace. Various selective-subject (science fiction, animation, etc.) TV books. Various internet resources - IMDb, TCMDb, TheFutonCritic, etc. etc. etc.

(A work in progress.)

Ralph Fiennes, Bruce Willis, Will Ferrell, Chris McKay, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Alderson, Kristen Ariza, Ike Barinholtz, Charlie Day, Noel Fielding, Will Forte, Christopher Miller, Mike Mitchell, Jason Momoa, Nick Offerman, Gary Payton, Chris Pratt, Maya Rudolph, Cora Miller, Cobie Smulders, Trisha Gum, Channing Tatum, Richard Ayoade, Alison Brie, Sheryl Swoopes, Jorma Taccone, Jonah Hill, Tiffany Haddish, Ben Schwartz, Doug Nicholas, Margot Rubin, Todd Hansen, Teri Reeves, Jadon Sand, Stephanie Beatriz, Ollie Mitchell, Emily Nordwind, Liam Knight, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Halprin, Graham Miller, Lauren White, Kristen Phaneuf, Brooklynn Prince, Sawyer D. Jones, and Emmett Mitchell in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Taika Waititi, Ben Fransham, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh, and Stu Rutherford in What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

The title says it all. Just because I watch them doesn't mean I like them. If you want to know which ones I do enjoy head on over to my favorite films list that will show you what I like and what I'm into.

Michael Biehn and John de Lancie in Deep Red (1994)

Ruth Gemmell and Cathy Tyson in Band of Gold (1995)

Titles which feature (a) transgenger character(s) but do not focus on transgender-related issues have "minor transgender theme" in description.

John Boles, Frances Dade, Dickie Moore, Helen Parrish, Genevieve Tobin, and Lois Wilson in Seed (1931)

Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, Will Ferrell, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

John Hurt in An Englishman in New York (2009)

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