Episode #1

"The Pilot"

or

"Leonardo Leonardo Returns & Dante Has An Important Decision to Make"

This episode was intended to be the pilot, scheduled to debut in March of 2000. The episode never aired on television due to very negative reactions from test audiences who believed it was much more weak than Episode #2, which they were shown next.  This is due to the fact that ABC wanted the writers to set up the premise of CLERKS and write a very "pilot-y" episode.  What the producers delivered was an episode considered by most ABC execs as

"too pilot-y".  As such, it was never aired and, instead, Episode #2 was shown in its place.

The script of the episode was written to introduce the characters of Leonardo Leonardo and his assistant, Plug.  It also established his villainous role in the series and his relation to the small town of Leonardo, New Jersey.  When Leonardo Leonardo builds a Quicker Stop and is poised to destroy Dante & Randals careers.  But little do the two witless clerks know, the Quicker Stop is only phase one of an ingenius plan to enslave the people of Leonardo and destroy the world.  Together, with the help of Jay & Silent Bob, they must exploit Leonardo Leonardo's confused sexuality to bring him down.

In hindsight, the story of the CLERKS pilot is made even more sad by the fact that the young, shaky, UPN offered Kevin Smith and company thirteen episodes.  Execs at ABC, however, managed to convince CLERKS producers that UPN wouldn't even exist in a few months.  The virgin television producers had been subtly tempted by the Dark Side, which they very soon realized as production began.  Since ABC is essentially The Disney Network Channel, the production team was obscenely restricted by what it could and could not say and show.  Why they would even consider this show for its conservative audience is beyond me.

ABC did a double blow to CLERKS by hardly advertising it, aside from a superbowl spot which did not specify an air date.  In effect, fans who wanted to see the show didn't even know that it was on.  And since CLERKS was on right after Who Wants to Be A Millionare (BLECH!!!), most of the people who did know it was on were 40-60 year-olds, most of whom probably weren't very interested in watching it.  The lack of promotion was due to negative reactions at ABC's test screenings in San Diego and Ohio.  The test audiences consisted of people over thirty who were geared towards a one hour drama.  DURRRRRRR!!!!