Pilot (Six Feet Under)

"Pilot"
	Six Feet Under episode
	250px Nate Fisher (Peter Krause) identifies his father's body.
Episode no.	Season 1; Episode 1
Directed by	Alan Ball
Written by	Alan Ball
Featured music	"Waiting" by The Devlins
Original air date	June 3, 2001
Running time	62 minutes
Guest actors
	Richard Jenkins as Nathaniel Fisher; Eric Balfour as Claire's Meth Date; Gary Hershberger as Kroehner Representative; Dina Waters as Chatty Mourner; Hayden Tank as Young Nate Fisher; Maximillian Kesmodel as Young David Fisher;
Episode chronology
← Previous; —	Next →; "The Will"
	List of Six Feet Under episodes

"Pilot" (also called "Six Feet Under"^[1]) is the pilot episode of the American drama television series Six Feet Under. It premiered in the United States on the premium cable network HBO on June 3, 2001. The episode was written and directed by series creator Alan Ball.

Plot

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. On Christmas Eve 2000, patriarch Nathaniel Fisher Sr. (Richard Jenkins), owner of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, is hit by a bus while driving his brand new hearse. His passing throws his family into emotional chaos as they attempt to deal with their grief. Nathaniel's death casts a pall over the return of his older son Nate (Peter Krause), who was hoping for a relaxing vacation before going back to his home in Seattle. On the flight, Nate meets and immediately has a sexual encounter with the mysterious Brenda Chenowith (Rachel Griffiths). Dutiful son David (Michael C. Hall) is struggling to keep his true sexual identity and his new boyfriend Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) from his family while suddenly having to run the family business. Matriarch Ruth (Frances Conroy) has her own secrets to keep, while youngest child and only daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) has her first taste of crystal meth before finding out about her father and must now go through the experience while tweaking. Throughout the episode, Nathaniel's spectre appears to each member of his family and forces them to face their own anxieties about life and death.

Production

Eric Balfour was only supposed to be introduced as "Claire's Meth Date" for the show's pilot, but director Alan Ball found his chemistry so satisfying with Lauren Ambrose that his role was developed into the character Gabe Dimas. Similarly, Dina Waters's and Gary Hershberger's roles were only listed as "Chatty Mourner" and "Kroehner Representative", whose roles were developed into Tracy Montrose Blair and Matthew Gilardi respectively, and would go on to have recurring roles.

The episode features humorous funeral home related commercials that would start each act, but the idea was abandoned and the pilot is the only episode in which they were used.

Reception

The pilot episode was positively received and earned several award wins and nominations. Creator Alan Ball won for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards, while the episode received nominations for Outstanding Art Direction for a Single Camera Series, Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic), Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series, and Outstanding Single Camera Sound Mixing for a Series.^[2] Alan Ball also won for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for the 2001 Directors Guild of America Awards.^[3] The episode won an Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design in 2001.^[4]

References

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External links

"Pilot" at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
"Pilot" at TV.com
"Pilot" at HBO.com

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v t e Six Feet Under
Awards and nominations Alan Ball Quotes
Characters	Nate Fisher David Fisher Brenda Chenowith
Episodes	"Pilot" "The Plan" "Everyone's Waiting"
Seasons	1 2 3 4 5
Other	Soundtrack Second soundtrack

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
1950s	Jack Smight for "Eddie" (1959)
1960s	Robert Mulligan for The Moon and Sixpence (1960) George Schaefer for Macbeth (1961) Franklin J. Schaffner for The Defenders (1962) Stuart Rosenberg for "The Madman" (1963) Tom Gries for "Who Do You Kill?" (1964) Paul Bogart for "The 700 Year Old Gang" (1965) Sydney Pollack for "The Game" (1966) Alex Segal for Death of a Salesman (1967) Paul Bogart for "Dear Friends" (1968) David Greene for "The People Next Door" (1969)
1970s	Paul Bogart for "Shadow Game" (1970) Daryl Duke for "The Day the Lion Died" (1971) Alexander Singer for "The Invasion of Kevin Ireland" (1972) Jerry Thorpe for "An Eye for an Eye" (1973) Robert Butler for "Part III" (1974) Bill Bain for "A Sudden Storm" (1975) David Greene for "Part I: Chapters 1 & 2" (Rich Man, Poor Man) (1976) David Greene for "Part 1" (Roots) (1977) Marvin J. Chomsky for Holocaust (1978) Jackie Cooper for "Pilot" (The White Shadow) (1979)
1980s	Roger Young for "Cop" (1980) Robert Butler for "Hill Street Station"(1981) Harry Harris for "To Soar and Never Falter" (1982) Jeff Bleckner for "Life in the Minors" (1983) Corey Allen for "Goodbye, Mr. Scripps" (1984) Karen Arthur for "Heat" (1985) Georg Stanford Brown for "Parting Shots" (1986) Gregory Hoblit for "Pilot" (L.A. Law) (1987) Mark Tinker for "Weigh In, Way Out" (1988) Robert Altman for "The Boiler Room" (1989)
1990s	Thomas Carter for "Promises to Keep" / Scott Winant for "The Go-Between" (1990) Thomas Carter for "In Confidence" (1991) Eric Laneuville for "All God's Children" (1992) Barry Levinson for "Gone for Goode" (1993) Daniel Sackheim for "Tempest in a C-Cup" (1994) Mimi Leder for "Love's Labor Lost" (1995) Jeremy Kagan for "Leave of Absence" (1996) Mark Tinker for "Where's 'Swaldo?" (1997) Mark Tinker for "Pilot" (Brooklyn South) / Paris Barclay for "Lost Israel, Part 2" (1998) Paris Barclay for "Hearts and Souls" (1999)
2000s	Thomas Schlamme for "Pilot" (The West Wing) (2000) Thomas Schlamme for "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part I" & "Part II" (2001) Alan Ball for *"Pilot" (Six Feet Under)* (2002) Christopher Misiano for "Twenty Five" (2003) Walter Hill for "Deadwood" (2004) J. J. Abrams for "Pilot" (Lost) (2005) Jon Cassar for "Day 5: 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m." (2006) Alan Taylor for "Kennedy and Heidi" (2007) Greg Yaitanes for "House's Head" (2008) Rod Holcomb for "And in the End..." (2009)
2010s	Steve Shill for "The Getaway" (2010) Martin Scorsese for "Boardwalk Empire" (2011) Tim Van Patten for "To the Lost" (2012) David Fincher for "Chapter 1" (2013) Cary Joji Fukunaga for "Who Goes There" (2014) David Nutter for "Mother's Mercy" (2015) Miguel Sapochnik for "Battle of the Bastards" (2016) Reed Morano for "Offred" (2017) Stephen Daldry for "Paterfamilias" (2018) Jason Bateman for "Reparations" (2019)
2020s	Andrij Parekh for "Hunting" (2020) Jessica Hobbs for "War" (2021) Hwang Dong-hyuk for "Red Light, Green Light" (2022) Mark Mylod for "Connor's Wedding" (2023)

Pilot (Six Feet Under)

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