Television pilot

Westerns were considered yesterday's genre, and just a few years earlier than this, CBS had canceled many of its rural-themed hits like Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hee Haw.

But, as we mentioned in our last episode, the real game-changer was on March 30, 1974, the TV movie Pilot.

It ended up earning strong enough ratings and positive audience responses, demonstrating that viewers would, in fact, tune in for this kind of heartfelt storytelling.

And boy, did they ever.

That success of the Pilot movie convinced NBC to order a full series.

And here we go.

Season one, episode one.

forgetting about the CBS shows.

Episode titled Pilot, but it's not the pilot episode.

Oh,

it's not a pilot, not the pilot.