Seeing almost exclusively dramas in this thread so i’ll propose two sitcoms: How I Met Your Mother, and Sunny. HIMYM is a wild sitcom pilot in that it lands with its concept and character dynamics nearly perfectly established from the jump, is really funny, and sets up the show perfectly. It’s still probably one of the best episodes of the series.

For Sunny, there’s technically the true pilot in Charlie Has Cancer or The Gang Gets Racist which is the premiere, but both are honestly great for the same reason so take your pick. A show that is not afraid to go so dark that it becomes absurd enough to be hilarious, especially upon revisiting them years later once you’re really in on the joke. So tonally different from what the show became, or what they show really excels at imo (these episodes are way too grounded to be peak Sunny) but a necessary foundation to get there.