Pilot

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

- Tori to André.

Pilot (a.k.a. Make It Shine) is the first episode of Victorious. It aired in the U.S. on March 27th, 2010—the same day as Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards—as a preview of the show. Production of this episode started on February 19th, 2009.

Plot
The series premiere starts with Tori Vega working on a science project with her lab-partner, when her older sister, Trina, storms into the house. Trina's upset that her partner for the annual showcase at Hollywood Arts High School is André Harris—a 10th grader. She knows that there are going to be important talent scouts and musical industry workers at the show, which is making her nervous as she really wants to impress them. Trina kicks Ian—Tori's partner—out, and insists that her sister help her and André with the song that she'll perform (Make It Shine).

Whilst working together, Tori and André form a friendship (See:♙Tandré) despite Trina driving them insane. And when André sits down at the piano and plays a little tune, it has Tori in awe.

Tori skips school (Sherwood High School) to attend the showcase with her parents. The family is called backstage before the performance starts, only to discover that Trina's tongue has swollen up because she was allergic to a herb gargle that she drank, which she said was to help her sing better. The guidance counsellor, Lane Alexander, who is a very calm and sensible man, asks if anybody can take Trina's place. André assumes that Tori can, because she'd heard the song numerous times during rehearsals throughout the week. At first, Tori refuses, but she's forced to by André. She slips on a fancy dress, and gets on stage. Realising that she has nothing to lose in front of a crowd of strangers, Tori decides to sing.

Her top-notch performance surprises the audience, and even herself. Principal Eikner takes Tori and her parents backstage and offers Tori a once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend the elite performing arts high school. Tori doesn't think that she's talented enough, but after watching such a strong performance, André believes otherwise. He pulls up the curtain, and asks the audience if Tori should join them, to which they all chant, "Yes!" After a moment, Tori accepts the offer.

During her first day at Hollywood Arts, Tori gets lost, and meets Robbie Shapiro, a shy boy who often speaks through his ventriloquist dummy—Rex. Tori also meets Cat Valentine, a hyper and happy, but sensitive girl who is easily upset, often shouting, "What's that supposed to mean!?" when she feels offended.

Robbie (through Rex) gives Tori directions to her first class with Mr. Sikowitz, and when Tori enters the classroom, she accidentally bumps into Beck Oliver, spilling her coffee on his shirt. When Beck's short-tempered and overprotective girlfriend, Jade West, walks in, she becomes mad at Tori for rubbing her boyfriend, which in her books is a flirtatious move.

During an improvisation exercise, Sikowitz asks Jade to choose four other students to act with. She chooses Cat, Beck, Tori, and Eli. He asks Robbie to pick a setting, and he chooses 'home.' And André chooses 'big news,' as the situation. Just before they begin, Jade asks Tori to go and 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 them a new dog, and Tori enters and gets onto the stage. Jade claims that dogs usually have fleas and ticks in their fur, and schemingly tells the kids that coffee is a good way to get them out. Ignoring Beck and André's instructions to stop, Jade pours an entire cup of coffee on Tori's head, as revenge for 'flirting' with her boyfriend.

Embarrassed and upset, Tori runs from the room and attempts to call her mother, Holly Vega, hoping that she can take her out of the school. André meets up with Tori in the hallway, and takes her phone from her. Tori feels that she should simply give up, and face the fact that she isn't unique at all. André then tells her that everybody is unique and special in their own way, and dissuades her from walking away because of Jade.

On Tori's second day at Hollywood Arts, during a game of Alphabet Improv, Tori got her revenge by passionately kissing Beck. This could possibly be the cause of later rivalry between the pair (See: Jori).

Trivia

 * This episode was shot months before The Bird Scene. As a result, there are many differences in this episode from other episodes:
 * 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 and dresses. Most other episodes show Tori wearing jeans, sneakers and boots.
 * Robbie's afro is shorter than for the rest of season 1 and he dresses geekier.
 * Rex's head is bigger in this episode than in any other episodes. His body is also big and his skin tone is darker. In the promo for the whole TV show, Rex's voice sounds very different from the way it normally sounds.
 * Jade has a slightly different appearance. This could be due to more eye makeup and different styling of hair. Her 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.
 * 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 red (so the entire cast would not be brunette) for the series.
 * Beck's hair is shorter.
 * Trina has darker hair and is skinnier in this episode unlike other episodes.
 * Mr. Vega's hair is much longer than it appears in other episodes.
 * The Vegas' house has a different backyard porch area than in later episodes.
 * Tori's PearPhone 2G looks more like the original iPhone during the cutaways, as it has a round home button.
 * 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.
 * The original broadcast of this episode was an extended version. Some scenes were removed to fill its time slot in subsequent airings. 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 version can be found on the iCarly DVD iSpace Out.
 * 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, unless Sikowitz gave Jade detention off-screen.
 * It could also probably be because of how eccentric Sikowitz is.
 * Twitter is only shown during the first half of this episode. For the remainder of this episode, TheSlap is shown.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * This is the only Dan Schneider show to do that so far.
 * 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." JaxieCat is the name of the Twitter account of Jackson, Dan Schneider's real life cat.
 * Tori calls Cat bipolar when she tells Andre that her old school didn't have 'barefoot teachers, nerds with puppets, bipolar cats and mean girls who make you bark like a dog'.
 * Ending Tagline: "You're a demon!" - Robbie
 * This is the first time Tori asks what a certain thing or word means. For example she asked what Improv and Alphabetical Improv was.

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.
 * Though, Rex may have been joking.
 * 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.
 * An in universe explanation for this could simply be that Cat knows Jade well enough to know she'll pick her.
 * 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 Alphabet Improv, when Jade leaves, the letter to be used next is F. However, Tori said "Get up, Alien."

Quotes
[Tori spills coffee on Beck]

Tori: Oh my God! I'm so 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?!

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

Jade: Sikowitz, will you please tell this amateur that dogs can't talk and that they don't walk on two legs? Sikowitz!

Sikowitz: Oh, I'm sorry. I was sucking the milk out of this coconut. But it's true, Tori. If you're gonna play a dog, be a dog.

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!

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: 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 of you to say that.

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 Jade, but the next letter was...

Jade: F! I know!

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!

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

Songs

 * Make It Shine by Tori Vega