Read brief synopses from all episodes of Pilot Season. Click the thumbnails on the left of each recap to see the screencaptures for that episode, if available.
Episode one of Pilot Season. After 8 years, the quest has begun anew. Max still feels for Susan. Is it parent child love? Is it manager client love? Or is it ex-boyfriend lust?
Jam packed with comic geniuses like Sam Seder and Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Andy Dick, Isla Fisher, H. Jon Benjamin, David Waterman, Matt Besser, Ross Brockley, Laura Krafft, Marc Maron, Matt Price, Laura Silverman and Brendon Small.
Isla is not in this episode.
There are winners and there are losers and there are those that are on temporary hiatus.
Isla is not in this episode.
Decide who the biggest loser is as Max runs into Ben (David Cross) on the set.
Isla is not in this episode.
Max (Sam Seder) tries to save his job by tracking down the sought after comic genius behind the Motel 10 spots, Russ Chockley (Ross Brockley).
Russ Chockley’s character is based on actor Ross Brockley’s real-life experiences as a hotel commercial mega-star.
Isla is not in this episode.
Can Max convince Chockley and his super hot girlfriend (Isla Fisher) to come to L.A. for pilot season?
Isla’s character Butterfly is introduced in this episode. Butterfly is the girlfriend of now retired actor Russ Chockley, and is very hesitant about Max’s plan to move Russ back to Los Angeles to work again. She gives in though, and Max puts the couple up in a nice hotel in Hollywood.
– Butterfly: “I’m not coming out to LA.”
– Max: “I’ll get you a separate hotel!”
– Russ: “Don’t be scared!”
– Butterfly: “No, why would I be scared? I don’t wanna go out to LA.”
– Max: “There’s no reason to be scared.”
Earl (David Waterman) hates children, Butterfly (Isla Fisher) pretends to hate LA and Max’s buddy pretends to love breasts.
Butterfly talks to the camera crew about her past as a child actor, and how she gave it up because it was superficial, then moved onto modelling. She reveals that she has a Masters in Kineseology.
– Butterfly: “Wow, that’s a really weird question! Yeah I was – funnily enough – I was a child actor. But I gave that up. I mean it’s a really superficial, childish thing to do. It’s totally a shallow business. And then I moved into modelling.”
It’s a Hollywood Hills party: see if you can spot the whore.
A cynical Butterfly spends the entire Hollywood party complaining about her father and the people at the party. Max is surprised to hear that her dad is actually Hollywood movie star Henry R. Duke.
– Butterfly: “Everybody cares about them, them, them. What about me? Nobody sees me.”
– Butterfly: “… and I hate my dad.”
– Max: “Ugh, I hate my dad too.”
– Butterfly: “Basically he had sex with my mum, and then never spoke to her again. And the worst thing is I have to see his picture everywhere, it’s on billboards, it’s on buses. He had to go and be a f***ing movie star.”
– Max: “Your dad’s a movie star?!”
– Butterfly: “My dad is Henry R. Duke!”
Susan (Sarah Silverman) plays nothing but a bitch, Earl is the Brando of daycare and Jeremy’s (James Frain) Pilodes explodes.
Isla is not in this episode.
Max and Chockley go on a bender to celebrate. The night is still party.
Isla is not in this episode.
How many times can you swear at a judge before he throws away the key to your cell? Watch and learn.
Isla is not in this episode.
With her boyfriend in prison, Butterfly (Isla Fisher) gets piloded by another man.
Max pops into Jeremy’s Pilodes studio, where he has got Butterfly a job as an instructor. Max wants to ask her a question but Butterfly tells him she is too busy being “certified” as a Pilodes instructor, and that she can’t go and visit her boyfriend Russ Chockley in prison because she has clients. The camera crew want to stick around to watch her being “certified”, and Jeremy mentions he’d like a copy of the video in case he wants to check any of the Pilodes positions later.
– Max: “Butterfly, can I talk to you for one second?”
– Butterfly: “Max! Jeremy’s certifying me!”
– Max: “I thought you were already certified…”
– Jeremy: “Well, she’ll be certified until I am satisfied.”
Lockdown! NBC execs court serial DUI’er in medium security prison.
Isla is not in this episode.
Earl (David Waterman) handicaps his chances to make it in showbiz while Andy Kind (Andy Kindler) tries to make Chockley a prison bitch/sitcom star.
Isla is not in this episode.
Earl’s offer; you sponsor my back I’ll sponsor yours. Meanwhile, will Chockley choose prison or sitcom fame?
Isla is not in this episode.
Jason Reemer (Andy Dick) wins a tough wrestling match – with a chair; Ken Fold (Jon Benjamin) and Max (Sam Seder) visit Chockley (Brockley) in jail to pitch him on the pitches he was pitched.
Isla is not in this episode.
When it comes to Susan’s boyfriend, the Devlin’s in the details. Meanwhile, the entire creative executive team of CBS joins the chain gang.
Isla is not in this episode.
Jason Reemer (Andy Dick) has a cat poop problem. Chockley gets used to jail. Joan would be proud.
Isla is not in this episode.
Butterfly (Isla Fisher) sits on Jason’s (Andy Dick) face and Jason pilodes.
Butterfly is conducting a Pilodes session with Jason, but runs into some problems getting him out of the equipment safely. After she has rescued him, he has a strange, personal request for her. Initially hesitant, she soon wants to make sure she gets the job and her Russian colleague doesn’t.
[Conducting a Pilodes session with Jason]
– Butterfly: “And relaxing, breathing in … and out. Relaxing out all the negative energy, breating in the positives … deep breaths … are you breathing? Breathe harder!”
– Jason: “You can be a little more … harsh.”
– Butterfly: “Harsh? Like what do you mean?”
– Jason: “Like, spank me!”
– Butterfly: “Spank you?”
– Jason: “Harder, you know! Using that feather thing was good.”
– Butterfly: “The feather thing?”
– Butterfly: “Yeah, like tickle me but then hit me!”
– Jason: “Do you have head shots?”
– Butterfly: “No, god no!”
– Jason: “Well I’ll get them, I know someone…”
Chockley: “The true prison is Hollywood”.
Isla is not in this episode.
Earl finally breaks down and lets a little anger out.
Isla is not in this episode.
Max gets the short stick as Fold explains that there’s no M-A-X in team, and Butterfly says she won’t hang with losers.
Butterfly speaks candidly to the camera crew, telling them about her previous experience as an actress, and her relationship with Max. Unfortunately for him, she thinks he has a lot to learn, and that they’re heading in opposite directions.
– Butterfly: “Max has, you know, Max has got a lot to learn! I think he thinks he’s some hot-shot, agent … manager.”
– Butterfly: “I mean, Max is going, kind of, one way … and I’m going up, you know, to the top, and I can’t have the baggage of Max with me when I make it.”
Max’s drug induced dry mouth leaves him tongue tied when Chockley, with the help of a prison guard, throws Max out of his life.
Isla is not in this episode.
Jason’s Assistant (Lauren Dombrowski) finally gets her moment to shine only to have it snuffed out by a pair of boxer briefs (Michael Hitchcock). Pondering seppuku, Max is gutted by his boss, the Sole Partner (Jonathan Groff) of Big Management.
Isla is not in this episode.
Fold goes “Tzun Tzu” on his enemies, Susan relies on “Fatal Actions” to be a star and Max’s Big Management career is on hiatus.
Isla is not in this episode.
Me-ouch. Susan (Sarah Silverman) and Butterfly (Isla Fisher) go toe to toe in a steel cage match. Will Butterfly trump Susan with the help of her estranged movie star father? Don’t ask Max, he’s highly medicated.
Butterfly has to take over Susan’s session at the Pilodes studio, and their very polite and positive conversation covers several topics, including how Susan is going to be working with Butterfly’s dad in the TV remake of his movie Fatal Actions, the camera crew following Butterfly, Susan’s ape-like arms, and their ‘day jobs’.
– Butterfly: “When I’m with normal people, I stand out, I feel different, I feel like ‘oh my god, everyone’s going ‘she’s so beautiful”, you know, and when I’m with other famous, beautiful people it’s like I’m the same as them! And I just wanna feel like, you know … I don’t wanna be different all the time.”
– Susan: “Are you guys close, are you daddy’s little girl?!”
– Butterfly: “Oh my god, I am so daddy’s little girl! I mean, he adores me, he’d do anything for me, and he rings and sends me presents, and I’m just like, the luckiest.”
– Susan: “Riiight. And he doesn’t spoil you, by making you not need to work….”
– Susan: “I never had to have a day job, so it’s just like, ‘woooowww…'”
– Butterfly: “Really?”
– Susan: “So good for you!”
– Butterfly: “I kind of think TV is a bit like a day job in a way, because it’s not actually, you know, it’s not film, you’re just churning out, kind of, you know, the same kind of formulaic stuff!”
– Butterfly: “Wow, look at your arms! Oh my god, they’re not disgusting at all! That is so weird that people say that about your arms, they’re really nice! It must just be on TV that they come of kind of ape-like. Interesting.”
Action star Henry R. Duke (Jason Beghe) shows newfound daughter Butterfly (Isla Fisher) a little love, all in the name of DVD extras.
Butterfly finally meets her father – famous action movie star Henry R. Duke – after he abandoned her and her mother when she was just a baby. The camera crew accompany Butterfly to his Hollywood house, and Henry is filming the reunion for the DVD extras of his movie Fatal Actions. He tells her how he used the emotion of loosing her in his ‘craft’. When he thinks they’ve “got enough” footage, he shows her round his house. Just as she leaves, Butterfly mentions that she’s an actress, and that she knows they’re making a TV show of his movie Fatal Actions…
– Butterfly: “Yeah I mean it’s weird, I haven’t seen my dad for twenty years, and I’m about to meet him. Plus the fact he’s a big movie star and… how’s my hair? Ok?”
– Butterfly: “Great, I haven’t had a dad, you know, for so long….”
– Henry R. Duke: “Really?”
– Butterfly: “…Yeah, it’s incredible to, dunno, to have a dad.”
– Henry R. Duke: “It’s incredible for me.”
– Butterfly: “Really?”
– Henry R. Duke: “Well you always had a daddy, he just wasn’t around. Everybody’s got a daddy.”
– Henry R. Duke: “Do you wanna take a swim?”
– Butterfly: “No, I didn’t bring a bikini.”
– Henry R. Duke: “That’s ok, do you wanna take a dip?”
– Butterfly: “But I don’t have a swimming suit, so…”
– Henry R. Duke: “Oh we can find something for her you … here, give me a hug.”
– Camera Crew: “What just happened in there?”
– Butterfly: “I just got a part in Fatal Actions the TV show!”
All hell breaks loose as Max breaks into Big Management and Susan’s career goes bust.
Isla is not in this episode, but we do see the fall-out from Susan after Butterfly uses her connections/manipulative powers to take her part in an upcoming TV series.
Ben (David Cross) knows it’s all about the ride and the china white, and Earl (David Waterman) knows it’s all about los dineros.
Isla is not in this episode.
Max takes a beating from a shirtless Reemer (Andy Dick) and a bothered Butterfly (Isla Fisher).
Having discovered Butterfly is an actress and has got a part in the new TV series Fatal Actions, a desperate Max tracks her down at a hotel … only to discover she has signed with his rival Jason Reemer, who is shacked up – half naked – in her hotel room with her. This does not go down well with any of them.
– Max: “I’ve just left Big Management, and I wanted to manage you, uhh…”
– Butterfly: “I’ve got representation, Max.”
– Jason: “This is my client, I signed your girlfriend.”
– Max: “Ok, wait a second…”
– Butterfly: “Wait, girlfriend? Why did you just say girlfriend? Max isn’t my boyfriend.”
– Max: “No, I don’t know where you got that impression!”
– Butterfly: “Max have you been telling people that you’re my boyfriend?”
In the Pilot Season finale, does Max finally land Susan? Does he get a pilot deal? Or is he lost in the Hollywood hills?
Isla is not in this episode.
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