Unsold Television Pilots is a detailed compilation of all the unsold television series concepts that, from 1955 through 1988, reached the development stage at the networks--but didn't sell. Pilots are listed by year and title and include production credits, plot synopsis and when applicable, air dates. The Introduction explains what a pilot is, and how the television marketplace works now and has worked in the past. An exhaustive index (actors, writers, directors, producers and pilots) and separate lists of pilots that are based on movies, pilots that are continuations of cancelled series, and pilots that are spin-offs of characters from other series are also included.

This reference work, the most complete guide to aired and unaired television pilot films ever published (or made available in any way), contains 5,190 alphabetically arranged programs, each with storyline information, performer and character cast listings, producers, air dates (where applicable), genre, and network or cable association. Also included are the unaired versions of pilots that became a series (like 90 Bristol Court, Hazel, The Middle and Perfect Strangers) and the updates of aired series that were never telecast (e.g., The Robinsons: Lost in Space, the 1997 version of Hawaii Five-0, the 2011 Wonder Woman and the 2001 Electra Woman and Dyna Girl).

Covering the years 1945-2018, this alphabetical listing provides details about 2,923 unaired television series pilots, including those that never went into production, and those that became series but with a different cast, such as The Green Hornet, The Middle and Superman. Rarities include proposed shows starring Bela Lugosi, Doris Day, Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Orson Welles, Claudette Colbert and Mae West, along with such casting curiosities as Mona Freeman, not Gale Storm, as Margie in My Little Margie, and John Larkin as Perry Mason long before Raymond Burr played the role.

For everyone who has ever laughed at the television industry's knack for dreaming up wacky ideas, here is the ultimate TV reference guide. It's all here--from Groucho Marx playing billionaire J. Paul Greedy to Norman Lear's "McGurk", in which actors dressed in dog suits barked one-liners at each other. Includes over 300 annotated listings and a complete index of actors, writiers, directors, producers, and pilots.

THE BEST TV SHOWS THAT NEVER WERE"The Best Bathroom Reading EVER," - San Francisco Chronicle"A must-browse for media freaks." -USA Today"Irresistible and enthralling." -Hartford Courant"Full of fool's gold and genuine TV treasures." -The New York Post This lively and entertaining book looks at the three hundred best and worst TV series ideas-known in the industry as "pilots"-that never made it to primetime from 1955-1990. From the adventures of a Samurai D.A. to the antics of an invisible alien baby, Lee Goldberg reveals the most astonishing, funny, and bizarre shows that never were. "You'll slap your head in disbelief-try not to hurt yourself-at the idea of John Denver as a singing FBI agent. You'll wonder whether Joe Penny as a samurai district attorney would have been funnier-unintentionally-that John Belushi's 'Saturday Night Live.' For tube-historians, this is a must see." - People MagazineThis book was previously published as "Unsold TV Pilots: The Greatest Shows You Never Saw" and "Unsold TV Pilots: The Almost Complete Guide To Everything You Never Saw on TV"

Kat Murphy is a private detective tortured by demons. Real ones. She is serving a death sentence in Lost Angeles, the dark and depraved city in Hell where a beast known as a Torment forces her to relive, night after night, the moment she killed her lover and put a bullet in her own skull. Kat longs to make amends for her sins. So when the city's Chief Administrator hires her to retrieve a stolen box with a mysterious power, offering to call off her Torment in return, she gets the chance to do just that. But if Kat has learned one thing, it's that every case has a wrinkle. As she trawls drug dens, casinos, and fighting pits in search of the thief, she discovers that both box and city contain secrets darker than she could ever have imagined. And with time running out, Kat must choose between her own desire for peace and the fate of the world above in Hell's Detective, the electrifying new mystery from award-winning author Michael Logan.

Before establishing himself as the "master of disaster" with the 1970s films The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, Irwin Allen created four of television's most exciting and enduring science-fiction series: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. These 1960s series were full of Allen's favorite tricks, techniques and characteristic touches, and influenced other productions from the original Star Trek forward. Every science-fiction show owes something to Allen, yet none has equaled his series' pace, excitement, or originality. This detailed examination and documentation of the premise and origin of the four shows offers an objective evaluation of every episode--and demonstrates that when Irwin Allen's television episodes were good, they were great, and when they were bad, they were still terrific fun.

In 1955, Gene Deitch embarked on a daily comic strip for United Features Syndicate that he hoped would become his life's work. One of the most unusual strips of the decade, Terr'ble Thompson was about a very odd little boy who had his "Werld Hedd Quarters" in a tree house and was regarded far and wide as "the bravest, fiercest, most-best hero of all-time." Terr'ble Thompson collects the entirety of Deitch's short-lived inspiration for Tom Terrific, and a new generation will discover what could have been one of the great comic strips of all-time had it continued. The strip is drawn in a simple, modernist style that served as an antidote to the ubiquitous Disney look that had spread into all facets of popular culture. Terr'ble Thompson was a visual and verbal feast of fun that blended time and space, with Terr'ble going on adventures with great historic figures like Columbus, George Washington, and Davy Crockett. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #424242}

Vampire Henry Sturges returns in the highly anticipated sequel to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter-a sweeping, alternate history of twentieth-century America by New York Times bestselling author Seth Grahame-Smith. THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln's shocking death. Henry's will be an expansive journey that first sends him to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash. Along the way, Henry goes on the road in a Kerouac-influenced trip as Seth Grahame-Smith ingeniously weaves vampire history through Russia's October Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, and the JFK assassination. Expansive in scope and serious in execution, THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE is sure to appeal to the passionate readers who made Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter a runaway success.

From cops who are paragons of virtue, to cops who are as bad as the bad guys...from surly loners, to upbeat partners...from detectives who pursue painstaking investigation, to loose cannons who just want to kick down the door, the heroes and anti-heroes of TV police dramas are part of who we are. They enter our living rooms and tell us tall tales about the social contract that exists between the citizen and the police. Love them or loathe them--according to the ratings, we love them--they serve a function. They've entertained, informed and sometimes infuriated audiences for more than 60 years. This book examines Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Naked City, The Untouchables, The F.B.I., Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, CSI, The Shield, The Wire, and Justified. It's time to take another look at the "perps," the "vics" and the boys and girls in blue, and ask how their representation intersects with questions of class, gender, sexuality, and "race." What is their socio-cultural agenda? What is their relation to genre and televisuality? And why is it that when a TV cop gives a witness his card and says, "call me," that witness always ends up on a slab?