You learn to know a pilot in a storm.
I've known numerous actors who got a pilot that they thought was going to run forever, and they went out and blew all of the money. Now they've got a mortgage they can't pay for.
When we did the pilot, I sort of pictured this guy pirating a signal and then this story unfolding of him building this satellite and these robots and watching these bad movies.
Many pilots of the time were the opinion that a fighter pilot in a closed cockpit was an impossible thing, because you should smell the enemy. You could smell them because of the oil they were burning.
There was so long from when we did the pilot and then when the show was eventually picked up by Comedy Central - and, in fact, we had to shoot the pilot twice.
I did a terrible television pilot that was so badly written and dumb that it became a turning point for me and I decided that I would never accept a job just because I needed the money.
I can't tell you how good it is to go from 'Homeland' to be lucky enough to find 'The Blacklist' at the right time. It literally came at the very end of pilot season when I thought there was nothing left.
People think coming in under the radar is like being a fighter pilot and actually coming in under the radar. It's a completely ridiculous idea to come in under the radar. It's the Olympics; everyone is on the radar here.
I wanted a woman who had the body and the power of a real pilot. I interviewed hundreds of woman, but Jessica just seemed perfect for the part. I couldn't get her out of my head. I continued to bother her and she finally gave in.
I live in the sky as a pilot, so it has great meaning to me.
Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.
The stuff I did in 'Rescue Me' was great. It gave me the opportunity to play comedy, and Denis Leary was the first one to take a chance with me. And from that experience, we had a comedy pilot that we did that I was going to play the lead in. And then 'Person of Interest' came along. They're all new experiences.
More people saw the pilot of 'Glee' than saw me in my entire 10-year career on Broadway.
I had to think ahead. How much would I really enjoy committing five or seven years to working on this? When you're an unemployed actor offered a TV pilot, no matter who you are you're tempted by the good hunk of change to be made. It keeps you out of the unemployment line.
Every pilot thinks they're the best pilot in the world. I think I'm the best pilot.
Nothing's worse than telling your family you got a pilot, hearing the pilot got picked up, and then finding out it's not in the fall lineup.
We went down for pilot season, I got Full House, and we wound up never leaving.
Coming in and out of Hollywood for pilot season, I may have to thicken my accent or hear that, physically, I'm not Latino. I not only am, but there's another 50,000 people who look exactly like me.
When you're doing a pilot, you're doing it in this bubble that almost works against the creative impulse. You don't have time to get to know the actors first, and you have three writers, as opposed to a room full of writers.
Normally, you cast a pilot, and you have to make compromises about being political about who you cast.
The first thing I did for TV was a pilot for CBS.
My main incentive now is to be so successful that I can get a private jet and sit with the pilot. I got upgraded to first class the other week, but even there I was still scared. I could be massaged for the whole flight and still think I'm going to die.
When I read the pilot 'for Married with Children', it just reminded me of my Uncle Joe... just a self-deprecating kind of guy. He'd come home from work, and the wife would maybe say 'I ran over the dog this morning in the driveway'. And he would say 'Fine, what's for dinner?
As a child, I always wanted to be a race car pilot.
During my career as an airline pilot, I had the opportunity to be a check and training captain. Part of this job was to train and test experienced pilots to ensure that they had the necessary knowledge and skills to safely and efficiently operate those magnificent big jets.
There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.
To be a bodyguard is to be a kamikaze pilot. Dedicated.
Mohammed al-Qahtani was not alleged to be a leader of the Sept. 11 plot. He was not trained as a pilot. If he was involved, he was one of the 'muscle' hijackers.
I wasn't really interested in doing anything except going from pilot season to pilot season and sowing my oats in the months between and telling my agency to stop sending me movie scripts, because they'd pile up in my house and make me feel guilty because I had to read them.
Like, to do a pilot, you don't know what's going to happen with it.
I'm doing a pilot for Comedy Central with the band Steel Panther. They're faux heavy metal. They started as kind of a tribute band out here, or a cover band, and they're funny guys, and they just sort of morphed into their own thing.
I am a helicopter pilot. Something that gives me pleasure sometimes is taking my helicopter to go high, 2000 meter, 6000 feet, to go there and feel like a bird. In this moment I feel free.
I had done another show called 'United States of Cars,' which was a pilot that didn't get picked up. And they said, 'You know, we're doing 'Top Gear,' and would you like to meet the guys?' It was the wild - most wild audition I ever had because I never went to a studio or a producer's office.
This pilot, by far, was the best I ever read - and I hope that insults every other pilot I worked on.
If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.
When I fly in a helicopter, I insist there be two sets of controls, one for me in case something happens to the pilot. I'm no expert, but I know enough to at least get the thing on the ground. Nothing scares me like the thought of not being in control.
