Pilot (Vinyl)

In New York City 1973, Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale) buys a quarter of cocaine from a local drug dealer. After snorting in his car, he calls a police detective named Eric Voehel. However, he hangs up when he is distracted by a crowd of people rushing to the Mercer Arts Center. He enters the building, and is fascinated when the New York Dolls play "Personality Crisis".

Five days earlier, Richie travels to Germany to represent his label American Century Records in a potential deal with PolyGram executives. He is joined by his head of promotions Zak Yankovich (Ray Romano), and his head of sales Skip Fontaine (J. C. MacKenzie). Richie hopes to sell the company, with an impending distribution agreement with Led Zeppelin part of the package. However, upon returning to New York, Richie gets confronted by Robert Plant (Zebedee Row) as their royalty shares were cut in half without warning. This also angers Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant (Ian Hart), for not consulting him on the deal.

Richie visits station owner Frank "Buck" Rogers (Andrew Dice Clay), who refuses to play songs by the label after Donny Osmond insulted him. Accompanied with promoter Joe Corso (Bo Dietl), Richie tries to convince Buck in signing back with them. However, he is taken aback by Buck, who is heavily intoxicated. When he makes an advance on Richie, both men fight until Corso kills Buck by hitting him in the head. Now both involved in murder, they dump the body elsewhere in an attempt to pass it as a failed drug deal.

Jamie Vine (Juno Temple), an assistant at American Century's A&R Department, tries to get to sign a band, Nasty Bits, after meeting the lead singer, Kip Stevens (James Jagger). She schedules a performance, but the crowd hates the band for its proto-punk sound, prompting the band members to fight the attendees. Afterwards, Jamie tries to convince Kip in changing his sound, but he is adamant in sticking with his style.

As PolyGram is ready to accept the buyout, Detective Eric Voehel wants to question Richie, leaving him his card to call him. Richie panics when Buck's body is found by the police, causing him to break his sobriety to distract him. His wife, Devon (Olivia Wilde), finds him and scolds him for his actions. Back to the opening scene, Richie continues staring at the New York Dolls performing. Suddenly, the walls in the building start shaking and the building collapses due to the capability and performance. Richie emerges from the rubble and leaves smiling as police sirens are heard approaching.

In flashbacks to the 1960s, Richie works at a nightclub, where he is fascinated by singer Lester Grimes (Ato Essandoh). He convinces him in making him his manager, signing him with a record company. However, the company owner demands that Lester drop his blues style and that he now records under the name "Little Jimmy Little." Richie intends to form his own record company and take Lester with him, but his share is bought by Corrado Galasso (Armen Garo), a powerful gangster, who decides to keep Lester. During a fight with Corrado, Lester gets his throat damaged, killing his career.

In February 2016, HBO announced that the first episode of the series would be titled "Pilot", and that it would be written by Terence Winter and George Mastras from a story by Rich Cohen, Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese and Winter, and directed by Scorsese.^[1]