If, sight unseen, you asked me to run something to introduce a group of people to story games, and you wouldn't tell me anything about them, though, I'd probably pick Primetime Adventures, myself.
Also, keep in mind that In A Wicked Age creates an anthology of stories (a series of stories somewhat connected but with a rotating cast of main characters). So I see it as good for creating the feel of ‘folklore’. I’ve also discovered how Vincent Baker planned to ‘hack it’ (besides just rewriting the oracle) to work for other genres [edit: besides sword and sorcery] (detective stories, romance, etc.), which i can talk about more another time.
Primetime Adventures creates a serial narrative, much like the old radio shows (The Lone Ranger, Little Orphan Annie, Boston Blackie, etc.) and modern serial TV shows (Alias, LOST, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, The Sopranos), and perhaps series of Novels or Epic cycles too (the Odyssey, Beowulf, Lord of the Rings). It doesn’t create ‘episodic’ narratives, those TV shows and stories that you can watch in any episodic order (like Law and Order, MASH, etc.). I would ‘hack’ Primetime Adventures to make it less TV-focused, but otherwise I agree that it makes a great introductory game.
I find this part fascinating, because by choosing (or hacking) the right game, you can create different types of stories. Episodic, serial, anthology. Jason, you mentioned Burning Wheel, which I suspect would create something more like a series of Novels, or the old Epic cycles, about the same main characters.
If you want to introduce your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/sweetheart/crush/other-person-you-desire-romantic-or-sexual-liasons-with, you might want to take a look at Breaking the Ice.
Have you played this? Do tell!
Also, I have totally hijacked this thread. If this converations keeps going this direction, I’ll just split it off into yet another thread on story! woo hoo!