[2][3] Among stars appearing in the unsold pilots were Ronald Reagan, James Mason, Vera Miles, Hugh Beaumont, and Barbara Billingsley.

[citation needed] By the mid-1950s, the practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year — far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series — had created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired.

[1] By 1954, the American television industry had begun to consider the idea of packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer, providing television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them.

[1] On June 8, 1956, the New York Times reported that the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) would begin airing a package of unsold pilots that summer under the title G.E.

Summer Originals, adding that "the problem of what to do with ‘pilot’ or sample films of projected television series that previously have failed to sell has been solved.