Revisiting the 'Game Of Thrones' Pilot 10 Years Later Before it was a worldwide phenomenon, it was just a new HBO show with a hell of a good hook. HBO This essay is part of our series Episodes, a column in which senior contributor Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry looks back on the Game of Thrones pilot, “Winds of Winter,” for its tenth anniversary. You could call it a Very Special Episodes. Even the biggest show in the world has to start somewhere. Before Game of Thrones won a record-breaking fifty-nine Emmys, dominated a decade’s worth of watercooler conversations, and changed the scope of television forever, it was simply a new HBO show with something to prove. And on April 17, 2011, the pilot episode, “Winter is Coming,” started off with a bang — or, more specifically, a beheading.