If you’re writing a series pilot you probably view it as an introduction to your series. A prologue. A first chapter.

Where you set up all the elements and characters so that when we get to Episode Two, we can hit the ground running.

There might be a new situation or development that changes everything for the characters, bringing people together with new challenges, that happens at the end of the pilot.

This might make for an effective cliff-hanger. But in my humble opinion, it’s NOT the way to do it.

We’ll use Breaking Bad an an example. Its pilot centers on a huge life change for Walter White, a chemistry teacher who decides to get into the methamphetamine business, risking his life and freedom by entering this dangerous new world.

While the pilot does dramatize that change, does it wait until the end to have him and his former student Jesse Pinkman cook their first batch and try to sell it?

No.

This happens in the middle of the pilot, entails lots of conflict, and leads to a first adventure (rival scary drug dealers come after them) that serves as an example of the kind of challenge every episode will be based on.

Since pilots’ original function was as a selling tool for a series, this is the way they usually work: they don’t spend the whole episode to get to the point where Walt and Jesse agree to partner, at the very end. That would be a “premise pilot.”

Instead they serve as an illustrative example of the kind of thing we can expect every episode. They show readers what the series will look like each week. Rather than hint at possibilities they can’t see dramatized until a second script.

The recent Netflix series Beef gets to its central challenging situation even more quickly. Two strangers have a road rage incident that leads to an ongoing battle. And it happens, I believe, in the second scene of the pilot. Saving almost all character and world set-up for after that big “catalyst” event for the series.

Even if you’re writing a pilot on spec as a sample to try to seek representation and perhaps eventually get a staff writing job (still the main reason to write a pilot if you’re not already well established, as selling it is a virtual impossibility), this is still a good approach: getting to the main story/conflict early.

Maybe then it’s less important that it exemplifies the hoped-for “series to come” starting in Episode 2. But it’s still essential to frontload story. Pilots can take (and need) way more conflict and story twists and turns than writers tend to think, to be really strong scripts.

That means way more characters pursuing intentions that lead to complications. Way more of a big problematic situation affecting everyone that is developing and being battled. And usually multiple stories, from different character perspectives.

Most pilots that I read don’t do this. Instead they take their time “showing the world” without bringing in some huge conflict for the characters to battle – at least not until the last 1/4 of the pilot. Which to my mind is far too late.

Writers do this with screenplays sometimes too – write an exciting climax but spend the first two acts in a relatively conflict-free zone, showing characters doing things and talking to each other but no one desperately pursuing objectives that really matter and have high stakes.

Ideally your show does have some big, intriguing, pitchable premise that is understandable, believable and compelling. And that will be the foundation of all your episodes, and really fun for audiences to watch. One that creates highly difficult challenges for people.

That’s the first priority – make sure you have that. Even it takes a lot of trial and error to get there. A lot of “idea work.”

Once you have it, my single biggest piece of advice for your pilot is to get to it quickly. Ideally in the first half of the script but possibly much sooner. Because that’s when your show really kicks in and becomes what it’s ultimately going to be.