Pilot

Pilot (also known as Make It Shine) is the series premiere for Victorious. It aired March 27th, 2010, right after the Kids' Choice Awards 2010. It first aired in the United States, as a sneak preview of the show. This episode started filming on February 19th, 2009.

Plot
The series premiere starts with Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) working on a mold-related science project with her science partner, Ian (Ellington Ratliff). Tori's older sister, Trina (Daniella Monet), storms into the house. Trina is very upset that her partner for the annual showcase at Hollywood Arts High School is André Harris (Leon Thomas), who is a tenth grader. Trina becomes worried, as there are going to be important talent scouts and musical industry workers at the show. Trina kicks Ian out and insists that Tori helps her and André with the song that she will perform, Make It Shine.

While working together, Tori and André form a fast and friendly friendship despite Trina driving them insane. André sits down at the piano and plays a little tune, which impresses Tori deeply.

Tori skips school to attend the showcase with her parents. The family is called backstage, before the performance starts, only to find out that Trina's tongue has swelled due to an allergic reaction to a Chinese herb gargle that she drank, which was said to help her sing better. Lane Alexander (Lane Napper), the very calm and sensible guidance counselor at Hollywood Arts, asks if anyone can take Trina's place. André assumes that Tori can, because she had listened to the song many times during rehearsals throughout the week. Tori first refuses but is forced by André. She slips into a fancy dress and is forced onto the stage. Seeing nothing to lose, she decides to sing.

Her top-notch performance surprises the audience, even herself. Principal Eikner takes Tori and her parents backstage and offers Tori a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend the elite Hollywood Arts High School. At first, Tori doesn't think she is talented enough. André, upset that Tori may not attend school there after such a strong performance, pulls up the curtain and asks the audience if Tori should go to school at Hollywood Arts. They all chant, "Yes!", after which Tori accepts.

On Tori's first day, she gets lost at the school and meets Robbie Shapiro (Matt Bennett), a shy boy who often speaks through his ventriloquist dummy, Rex. Tori also meets Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande), a hyper and sensitive girl who is easily upset, often shouting, "What's that supposed to mean!" when she feels offended. Robbie (speaking through Rex) gives Tori directions to her first period, Acting with Mr. Sikowitz (Eric Lange). When she enters the class, she accidentally bumps into Beck Oliver (Avan Jogia), and spills her coffee on him.

When Beck's short-tempered and overprotective girlfriend, Jade West (Elizabeth Gillies), walks in, she becomes angry at Tori for trying to rub the coffee out of Beck's shirt, which she saw as a flirtatious move. During a lesson of Improv (acting without a script), Mr. Sikowitz chooses Jade to choose four people to do a scene with. Jade chooses Cat, Beck, Tori, and Eli.

Sikowitz asks Robbie to pick a setting that the scene takes place in, and Robbie chooses "home." Sikowitz chooses André to choose a situation that involves "big news." Before the scene begins, Jade asks Tori to go wait in the hallway. The scene starts with Beck ("the husband") getting fired from his job, and Cat and Eli ("the kids") complaining about this situation. Jade tries to cheer them up by telling them that she got Tori ("a dog"). Jade claims that dogs usually have fleas and ticks in their fur. As a scheme, she tells the kids that coffee is a good way of getting bugs out. Ignoring Beck and André, who are saying stop, Jade dumps an entire cup of coffee on Tori's head, as revenge for "flirting" with her boyfriend.

Tori runs out of the room, embarrassed and upset. Tori attempts to call her mother, hoping she can take her out of the school. André meets up with Tori in the hallway, taking Tori's phone. Tori feels that she should just give up and face the fact that she isn't unique at all. André then says that everybody is unique and special in their own way. He also states that Tori shouldn't give up, because of Jade, and that she was truly amazing in the showcase when singing. On Tori's second day, during a game of Alphabet Improv, Tori kisses Beck, as revenge on Jade.

Trivia

 * This episode was shot months before The Bird Scene. As a result, there are many differences in this episode from other episodes (see the differences section further down).
 * The original broadcast of this episode was an extended version. Some scenes were removed to fill its time slot in subsequent airings (such as when Sikowitz climbs through the window).
 * Rex's head is bigger in this episode than in any other episode. This is very likely because the pilot was filmed almost a year before any other episode. His body is also big and his skin tone is darker.
 * When Tori enters Hollywood Arts for the first time with Trina, you can hear the same music that was played in the iCarly episode "iSaved Your Life" when Carly was playing Violin Hero.
 * For some reason, Jade didn't get detention, even though she poured coffee all over Tori.
 * Twitter is only shown during the first half of this episode. For the remainder of this episode, TheSlap is shown.
 * In this episode, Tori's PearPhone 2G looks more like the original iPhone during the cutaways, as it has a round home button. Though seeing as this is the pilot episode, this makes sense.
 * When André asks Tori for aspirin, she gives him a handful. But after André claims his pills, if you look closely, Tori's hand is empty. This infers that André may have taken all the pills from Tori. (Note: Some of the pills fall onto the piano when Tori shakes the bottle; this may have happened to the remaining pills in her hand.) It could also be a simple continuity error.
 * Scenes in the extended version that are not in other airings: Trina attempting to rehearse saying her song needs to be a power ballad, the staff dressing Tori up for the big showcase, Sikowitz coming in through the window on Tori's second day, and a few other quotes (i.e. Beck saying "Little weird..." before he says "Let's do it" at the very end). The extended cut version is on the iCarly DVD iSpace Out.
 * This episode has included many different appearances of certain characters:
 * Trina has darker hair.
 * Trina is skinnier in this episode unlike other episodes.
 * Cat's hair is curly in this episode, as opposed to straight in later episodes. Ariana Grande's natural hair is curly and brown, and her hair was dyed magenta (so the entire cast would not be brunette) for the series.
 * Mr. Vega's hair is much longer than it appears in other episodes.
 * Robbie's afro is shorter than for the rest of season 1 and he dresses geekier.
 * Beck's hair is shorter.
 * Tori's hair is straightened (like Victoria's appearances when she was younger), unlike many other episodes. (Excluding the scenes that take place at the showcase, and after Jade pours coffee on her head.)
 * Tori wears showing toe shoes, skirts & dresses. Most other episodes including this show Tori wearing jeans, sneakers and boots.
 * Jade has a slightly different appearance. This could be due to more eye makeup and different styling of hair.
 * The scenes showing the showcase may have been filmed after the original pilot was done and just prior to The Bird Scene. This is obvious as Tori and Trina have their season 1 hairstyles in those scenes, and Matt Bennett is shown wearing his outfit and hairstyle as Robbie in this season, though it is unclear as to whether he is portraying Robbie in those scenes or a different character before the scene that takes place the next day, where Tori meets Robbie and Rex. It is possible that a full second pilot was filmed after the first pilot, yet the aired pilot contains a mix of scenes from both pilots, and elements from both pilots were carried over to the actual series.
 * An alternate name for this episode, used in some listings, is Series Premiere.
 * Even though this was the series premiere, promos say that "The Bird Scene" was.
 * Pilots for TV series usually have a card of the title before going directly into the episode, with no theme song (like the pilot for Psych or Supah Ninjas). As such, the Victorious title card is the only indication of what series this is.
 * The Vegas' house has a different backyard porch area than in later episodes.
 * The locker prop that eventually became Tori's locker appears to be occupied in this episode. In later episodes, the locker shifts to the right and the locker that was first next to it is gone. In The Bird Scene, when Tori flirts with Robbie, you can see the locker that disappeared.
 * Jade's voice sounds different in some scenes of this episode. E.g.: That explains his pants (talking to Sikowitz). Liz Gillies mentioned in an interview that the reason for this was that in this episode, she portrayed Jade similarly to how she portrayed Lucy from the Broadway musical, 13. This included the way she spoke for the role.
 * The black boots Beck wears in the episode actually belong to the actor who portrays him, Avan Jogia, as the costuming department didn't have shoes for him to wear by the time filming began.
 * When Tori tweets that she's ditching school for the big showcase, below her post is a post from JaxieCat that says, "More cat food please...NOW." Jackson is Dan's real life cat. Jackson has a Twitter account named JaxieCat.
 * Ending Tagline: "You're a demon!" - Robbie

Goofs

 * In this episode, Rex reminds Cat that she didn't have a date to the prom last year. But later in Prom Wrecker, we learn that Tori hopes to host the first ever Hollywood Arts prom. Also, they were in 9th grade the previous year, and prom is usually for mainly 11th and 12th graders.
 * In the promo for the whole TV show, Rex's voice sounds very different from the way it normally sounds
 * Rex also physically looks different e.g. his head is bigger than in other episodes.
 * In Tori's picture on TheSlap mobile, you can see the locker that says "Tori's Locker" on it in the background. However, this was not even in existence until The Bird Scene.
 * When Tori posted her last post she wrote 'is feeling conflicted'. However when she posted it the post said 'Tori is feeling...conflicted' and Tori didn't write her name and the ellipse.
 * When "Jade" is picking her partners for Improv, Ariana starts to stand up before Liz can say her line (choosing her to participate), meaning that Ariana did her blocking while anticipating the line instead of waiting for motivation.
 * If Andre had taken that many pills, he would have gotten very sick, so we can assume that he did not take them all.
 * When André asks Tori for aspirin, she gives him a handful. But after André claims his pills, if you look closely, Tori's hand is empty. This infers that André may have taken all the pills from Tori. (Note: Some of the pills fall onto the piano when Tori shakes the bottle; this may have happened to the remaining pills in her hand.) It could also be a simple continuity error.
 * In the alphabetical improv, when Jade leaves, the letter to be used next is F. However, Tori said "Get up, Alien."

Transcript
For the transcript of this episode, go here. It is incomplete. Help the wiki by adding to it!

Quotes
Tori: Please, go take a shower.

Jade: Quit telling me what to do!

Beck: Relax, girls, let's all try to get along.

Cat: Totally!

Sikowitz: [imitates buzzer] Cat, your line had to start with an "S"!

Cat: Salami!

Sikowitz: Too late, Cat.

Cat: Oh, my life's the worst!

Sikowitz: Here's a piece of candy.

Cat: Yay, I love candy!

André: Something just bit my toe!

Tori: Turtle! That turtle just bit his toe!

Jade: Unbelievable that you are even here!

Beck: Very immature for you to say that.

Tori: I know what could make you feel better.

Beck: Jumping jacks?

Tori: Kiss me.

Jade: [Makes a shocked face]

Beck: Little weird... let's do it.

Tori and Beck: [Kiss]

Tori: Man, I love this school!

[Tori spills coffee on Beck]

Tori: Oh my God! I'm sorry.

Beck: It's cool. [Tori tries to rub the coffee out and looks at Beck]

Jade: [Enters and sees Tori rubbing Beck] Dude! Why are you rubbing my boyfriend?!

André: Hey... what'chu doin'?

Tori: I'm calling my mom to tell her I wanna go back to my old school.

André: Why?

Tori: Cause I don't like having black coffee in my hair!

André: Then I'll get you some cream with sugar, everything will be chill.

Tori: [on her phone] Hey, mom, I need-

André: M-m, no!

Tori: Give me back my mom!

Tori: As if I care what you think.

Jade: Better watch yourself.

Tori: Can't take it?

Jade: Don't push me!

Tori: Eat your pants!

Jade: You eat your pants! [suddenly realizing her mistake] Wait!

Sikowitz: [imitates buzzer] Sorry, but the next letter was...

Jade: F! I know!

Cat: Sikowitz really wants you back in class!

Rex: And you really wanted a date to the prom last year but you didn't get one!

Cat: What's that supposed to mean?!

Robbie: Rex!

Cat: Tell your puppet to quit being mean to me!

Robbie: Don't call him a puppet! That's an offensive term!

Cat: It's true.

Tori: That normal is boring?

Cat: No, that no one asked me to the prom!

Beck: Apples are falling out of my butt.

André: Bring those apples so that we may all enjoy the fresh fruit from Beck's butt.

Tori: Hi there. I'm the new family dog. Woof!

Jade: Sikowitz, can you please tell this amatuer that dogs down speak English. And they don't walk on two legs? Sikowitz!

Sikowitz: Sorry. I was just sucking the milk out of this coconut. But it's true, Tori. If you are asked to be a dog, be a dog.

Songs

 * Make It Shine by Tori Vega