that's not true. PLENTY of shows have banged it out right from the get. i can go down a laundry list of shows that have kicked ass with the first ep. it's that first one that's gonna reel you in to keep watching week after week. it has to.
i'll admit to giving some shows the benefit of the doubt and will watch beyond the first ep in hopes that it improves. the cleveland show, for me, being the most recent example of that (i didn't like it). first ep wasn't great but stomached half of the 2nd ep till i had to cut it from my schedule. it just wasn't doing it for me. in the case of sdsu, i knew right away that it wouldn't be good enough so i cut it off before finishing the first ep. i wasn't laughing at all.
only reason i watched the whole ep of goode was cuz of mike judge. i expected his usual quality but didn't get it. so i didn't watch any other eps beyond that.
another example of a first ep snafu is 'the league.' at first, i felt the first ep wasn't all that good. but i kept thinking about it and laughing throughout the week. so i put it back on my schedule and it turns out, for me, to be one of the best shows of the season, if not the best along with it's always sunny.
i'm not the type to jump into any new series w/o watching the first ep. if it does it's job, people will keep watching.