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Every month, I answer questions from paid subscribers in the mailbag feature. If you're getting this, you're not a paid subscriber, but you might love to become one, so you can read more! There's an easy way to do so right below!
dillopick asks: I’m curious if you know why most pilots don’t include the credits sequence, even now in the streaming age?
In most cases – money. You don't want to blow what money you have on a credit sequence when pilots already tend to be more expensive than most episodes of a show's first season. Especially as we're swinging back around to an era of pilots made before series pickups (though often in much more quiet fashion than in the days of "pilot season"), this maxim has held true. (Obviously, HBO always flouted this and continues to, though they often produce their credits sequences after the show is already picked up, then append them to the pilot before air.) And even shows picked up for full runs from the get-go will keep to this idea, if only out of a sense of tradition. It's also a good way to suck people in if your pilot is good! The credits hold the most meaning for viewers at a time when they're already in on the show. So why stand in the way of their involvement unless your credit sequence is really, really, really good? Roberta Costa writes: On 2019, you wrote a piece on Vox called 25 episodes that changed television. You listed the season one finale of The Good Place, “Michael’s Gambit.”
You said then: "Consider the inclusion of this episode an educated guess. In the season one finale of The Good Place, a delightful comedy set in the afterlife, the show unleashed a magnificent twist that upended the entire series. ... It’s the kind of plot twist usually reserved for dramas, but also the kind that tends to play really well on streaming services. ... If TV comedies start to become plottier, it feels like a safe bet to say that movement started here."
A few years after the episode and this articles, would you still include "Michael’s Gambit" in a list of episodes that changed television?
No, but not for the reasons you think. Want to know why? Well, you're going to have to become a paid subscriber! Here's that accursed button again:
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