The 90-minute
pilot episode directed by Alan Shapiro and
Sharron Miller served as a sequel to the film and began with a short scene from the original film of Dallas Winston (
Matt Dillon) running from police and being shot. Alan Shapiro wrote and directed the pilot, which was aired as a special preview on March 25, 1990 (seven years after the release of the film) at 9:30 p.m. while the rest of the series aired at 7:00 p.m. The pilot was Fox's highest rated drama in the network's history, drawing a 9.3/16 national Nielsen rating and 14.1 million viewers, and tied for 64th for the week. However,
The Outsiders lost half the viewers from its
Married... with Children lead-in. ==Cast==