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The unaired pilot is the unofficial pilot of Gravity Falls. It was a low-budget, pre-production test version of the episode "Tourist Trapped."

While pitching Gravity Falls to Disney, Alex Hirsch was eventually asked to create a pilot of the series to show to the network. He accepted, and the series was later greenlit for production as a full series.[1] The pilot has never aired on television, but a few clips from it have been uploaded online from various sources.

Overview[]

Twins Dipper and Mabel visit their eccentric great-uncle Stan for a summer in Gravity Falls, Oregon, where he operates the world's most bizarre museum. In the opener, the twins arrive in Gravity Falls and soon discover something amiss in the remote town.

Synopsis[]

The episode opens with the young twins Dipper and Mabel Pines arriving to spend their summer break with their Great Uncle Stan in the remote town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. Dipper soon finds his sister's new crush is suspiciously odd, which causes Dipper and Mabel to come face-to-face with the town's strange and uncanny secrets. Dipper also finds a mysterious journal with facts and notes about Gravity Falls' creatures that hints to an even greater cover-up hidden within the town's wondrous past and present. Dipper then believes Mabel's boyfriend is a zombie when he starts acting strange. When Mabel is with her boyfriend, he tells her that he is actually a gnome standing on top of other gnomes. Dipper asks Stan if he could use the golf cart to save Mabel.

Dipper takes the golf cart and finds them in the forest. Dipper questions on what is going on, and Mabel explains that Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes who are in fact complete jerks. Dipper realizes that he was way off and checks the journal, only to see that there is no weakness listed for the gnomes. The gnomes now have Mabel tied up. Dipper commands them to release Mabel or else. The gnome begins to explain that Dipper won't be able to stop them because they are a powerful race, but Dipper stops him in mid-sentence and chucks him with the shovel. The other gnomes then grab Mabel and run away with her.

File:Pilot Olddipper.png

Where did all those popsicles come from.

Once Dipper realizes that the gnomes are getting away with Mabel, he gets in the car and starts to chase them. The other gnomes in the forest jump off the trees and start tearing the golf cart, then other gnomes are fired like arrows from a bow towards the golf cart. Dipper dodges them though and soon catches up with the gnomes. Once he does, he whacks the gnomes carrying Mabel away with the shovel, unties her, and drives away from the gnomes. The gnomes form a giant gnome monster and start to chase them. Dipper drives the car through a Gravity Falls billboard off a cliff, crashing the cart in front of the Mystery Shack. The twins crawl from the cart as Dipper warns the gnomes to stay back. He throws the shovel at them, but they smash it to the ground.

Getting an idea, Mabel then tells Dipper that she has to marry them. He disagrees, but she tells him to trust her. Mabel then agrees to marry the lead gnome, Jeff. Jeff is excited and goes to put the ring on Mabel's finger. Once Jeff successfully places the ring on Mabel's finger, he wants to hurry and get Mabel back to the forest, but Mabel says that he must first kiss the bride. Jeff puckers up, but to his surprise, Mabel has a leaf blower pointed his way. Mabel sucks and shoots Jeff out of the leaf blower because he lied to her, broke her heart, and messed with Dipper. As he is flying through the air, he says that he'll get revenge someday. The rest of the gnomes are confused as to what they should do next as Mabel begins blowing them with the leaf blower, forcing them all back into the forest. One of the gnomes gets caught in the plastic from a 6-pack soda and is carried away by a goat.

File:S1e1 differences.png

Pilot vs final comparison.

Mabel feels sad that her first boyfriend was a bunch of gnomes, so Dipper tries to cheer her up by saying that her next boyfriend may be a vampire.

At night Mabel is then seen jumping on the bed, playing with her toy while Dipper writes about the events that happened that day in the mysterious journal he found. Dipper explains what mysteries are waiting to be uncovered as it shows one last scene with him getting chased by a flying saucer.

Production notes[]

Trivia[]

  • The pilot was animated by House of Cool studios, located in Toronto, Canada.
  • It is 11 minutes long, approximately half the length of a normal Gravity Falls episode.[2]
  • Alex Hirsch stated that he hopes this pilot isn't ever fully shown to the public, because it's "a mess" and it "would be like showing awkward photos from [his] high school prom."[2]
  • The pilot was likely created in 2010.[3]

Differences[]

File:Pilot deleted scene.jpg

Promotional image for the pilot.

  • Unlike the episode "Tourist Trapped," Dipper has his blue pine tree hat throughout the entire episode, instead of him getting it in the end.
  • There is a short "next time" preview at the end of the episode, narrated most probably by Stan, showing the kids befriending the locals of Gravity Falls.
  • Some clips show Dipper escaping from a crashing UFO whereas the series only references aliens in cryptograms and the episode "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future."
  • Stan appears to have a supreme fondness for popsicles.
  • Stan is in his eighties in the pilot, while he is in his sixties in the series.[4]
  • Soos does not appear in the pilot episode.
  • There are, of course, noticeable differences in style and character designs. The following are key differences.
    File:Dipper and wendy pilot.png

    Dipper and Wendy using a Ouija board.

    • Details are not as heavily outlined as they appear in the show's current design.
    • Dipper has no vest and has differently styled shoes with white tips. He also has white stripes at the ends of his sleeves and at the bottom of his shirt and his Pine Tree hat is worn at the beginning instead of being obtained later in the series like the aired pilot.
    • Mabel has a different outfit and also has white shoes.
    • Stan has four fingers in the pilot while in the series he has five. Also, Stan has grey eyebrows and his hair cannot be seen with his fez on, but thick white hair can be seen around his head in the pilot. His fez has a star between the claw-like points and Stan's nose is a different shape. In this design, Stan has a walking stick with an 8 ball at the base of it.
    • Wendy has black hair and her hat and outfit are completely different from in the series.

Gallery

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Site navigation

de:Unausgestrahlte Pilotfolge

  1. http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/disney-renews-fish-hooks-picks-up-gravity-falls/
  2. 2.0 2.1 Alex Hirsch (16). I am Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls. Ask me anything! (English). Reddit.
  3. [J. McLean] (8). Disney Renews ‘Fish Hooks,’ Picks Up ‘Gravity Falls’ (English). Animation Magazine.
  4. Goldberg, Sara. Sara Goldberg Stan promo art. Retrieved on April 15, 2016. “at 80-something, he sees himself at the top of his game...”
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