Pilot | |
Season 1, Episode 1 | |
First Aired | March 27th, 2010 |
Production Code | 101 |
Writer(s) | Dan Schneider |
Director(s) | Steve Hoefer |
Viewed By: | 5.77 Million |
Episode Guide | |
previous "N/A" |
next "The Bird Scene" |
Pilot is the series premiere of Victorious. It aired in the U.S. on March 27, 2010, the same day as Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, as a "sneak peek" of the show.
Plot[]
The series premiere starts with Tori Vega working on a science project with her lab partner Ian, when her older sister, Trina, storms into the house. Trina's upset that her partner for an annual talent showcase called "The Big Showcase", at Hollywood Arts High School is André Harris (referred to in this episode as Andrew by Trina), 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 out and insists that her sister helps her and André with the song that she'll perform (Make It Shine).
While working together, Tori and André form a friendship despite Trina driving them insane, and André awes Tori with his talent as he sits down at the piano and plays a little tune.
Outside the front porch, André is calling his grandma, When Tori comes by and asks him who he is calling. He says that his grandma will be attending the Big Showcase. André then explains that it is the first time that his grandma has left the house in 6 years.
Tori skips 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 an herb gargle that she drank, which she said was to help her sing better. The guidance counselor, 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 André forces her to, so she slips on a fancy dress and gets on stage. Realizing 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 his coffee on his shirt. Tori then attempts to rub the coffee off of his shirt. When Beck's short-tempered and overprotective girlfriend, Jade West, walks in, she is mad at Tori for rubbing her boyfriend, which in her books is a flirtatious move.
Tori meets Sikowitz, who she gives $2 to after mistaking him for a homeless person.
During an improv exercise, Sikowitz asks Jade to choose four other students to act with. She chooses Cat, Eli, Beck, and Tori. 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. At first, Tori did not play the proper way of a dog, but then Jade told Sikowitz to tell Tori to act like a real dog. Tori then does so. Jade adds that Tori has bugs in her fur, and schemingly tells the kids that coffee is a good way to get them out. She takes another student's iced coffee, Beck and André try to warn her not to pour it on Tori, but Jade pours the entire cup of coffee on her head, as revenge for 'flirting' with Beck.
Embarrassed and upset, Tori runs from the room and attempts to call her mother, Holly Vega, to take her back to Sherwood High 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.
At home, Tori is watching the video of her performing at the Big Showcase. Trina then comes over, convincing her to stay at the school. Tori does not want to come back though. Trina tells Tori that she actually liked Tori’s performance, which Tori thanks her for, but then she claims that if she performed, she would’ve been amazing.
On Tori's second day at Hollywood Arts, Tori is chosen to pick the actors for a game of Alphabet Improv. She picks André, Cat, Beck, and Jade. During the game, Jade and Tori are fighting (but they follow the rules) while the other actors are out. Beck also fainted, which left Jade and Tori for most of the game. Tori tries her best to push Jade hard enough to get out of the game, until Jade gets eliminated, leaving Tori and Beck. Tori gets Beck to wake up again, and she tries to make him feel better by kissing him, as a way for Tori to get her revenge on Jade, which starts Jade and Tori’s rivalry. (see: Jori)
Guest Stars[]
- Eric Lange as Erwin Sikowitz
- Jennifer Carta as Holly Vega
- Jim Pirri as David Vega
- Lane Napper as Lane Alexander
- Mikey Reid as Sinjin Van Cleef
- David Starzyk as Principal Eikner
Status updates[]
- 5 DAYS helping Trina and André rehearse. Trina's driving me INSANE! (André: I hear ya)
- ditching school - going to Trina's BIG SHOWCASE (JaxieCat: more cat food please...NOW)
- My 1st day at Hollywood Arts. EPIC!!!! (Mood: Freaking)
- worst day ever. GOING HOME (Mood: Wrecked)
- [Tori Vega] is feeling...conflicted. (Mood: Lost)
Trivia[]
- Expo whiteboard markers are seen in Sikowitz's room. At one point, you can see the logos.
- 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 instead of wavy (like Victoria's appearances when she was younger), unlike many other episodes. (Excluding the scenes at the big showcase and after Jade pours coffee on her head)
- This is similar to Shelby Marx's appearance to in that iCarly episode, iFight Shelby Marx. It was probably filmed not long before Victorious was filmed.
- Tori wears open toe shoes, skirts and dresses. Most other episodes show Tori wearing jeans, sneakers and boots.
- Tori's profile picture is different than the rest of the season.
- 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 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.
- Tori's hair is straightened instead of wavy (like Victoria's appearances when she was younger), unlike many other episodes. (Excluding the scenes at the big showcase and after Jade pours coffee on her head)
- The original broadcast of this episode was an extended version, but some scenes were removed to fill its time slot in subsequent airings. The extended version can be found on the Season 1, Volume 1 DVD. On iTunes, it says it is extended, though it is the normal version. 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 school nurse telling Trina to keep her mouth open.
- The staff dressing Tori up for the big showcase.
- Robbie explaining to Tori where Sikowitz's classroom is but being interrupted by Rex.
- Sikowitz asking Tori if she's familiar with improv, and Tori replying "Both. Yes and no".
- Cat saying "Daddy's a loser" after Beck says he got fired.
- Beck asking Jade if the dog can sleep in their room, and Jade replying "No, honey. It can't".
- Sikowitz coming in through the window on Tori's second day.
- Cat saying "Salami" after Sikowitz tells her her line had to start with an S.
- André saying "Hey, the alien's moving" before Sikowitz tells Tori and Beck to keep the scene going.
- Beck saying, "Little weird" before "Let's do it" at the very end of the episode.
- This episode has the shortest title than any other episode.
- 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.
- Jade didn't get detention, even though she poured coffee all over Tori, unless Sikowitz gave her detention off-screen.
- It could also probably be because of how eccentric Sikowitz is.
- TwitFlash is only shown during the first half of this episode. For the remainder of this episode, TheSlap is shown.
- When the transitions where it shows Tori's TwitFlash page, on the bottom right of the page you could see trending topics with one of them being iCarly as the third trend.
- After the UK credits due to removing adverts from TheSlap (for this episode), the Schneider's Bakery logo screen is 4:3 and there was no sound during the bumper, is because to the credits, it goes straight to the Sony Music logo for this episode.[1]
- A Yatsabishi sticker can be seen on the keyboards André is playing. In name Yatsabishi is a play on Yamaha and Mitsubishi. The actual models shown appear to be Roland Fantom G keyboards.
- This episode was filmed in February 2009, with the scenes at the big Showcase being re-filmed on January 6, 2010.[2]
- 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 pilots for Psych or Supah Ninjas). As such, the title card is the only indication of what series this is.
- 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.
- The part where Jade says to Tori, "What's the prob, dog?" has become a popular internet meme.
- 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 André 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.
- According to the end credits, this was filmed/taped at Ren-Mar Studios Hollywood, California, now known as Red Studios Hollywood. This is the first and only episode to mention this. This can be seen in the end credits found on the Season 1 volume 1 DVD.
- There is an iCarly.com sticker seen in the background on the fridge while Tori and Ian were doing their science project.
- Trina's singing problems, specifically her pitching, are less exaggerated than in the rest of the series, specifically during the scene when she is rehearsing "Make It Shine", where she manages to stay on key (in the extended version) and the tuning problems could have been resolved with André lowering the key to the song to match her voice. She also seems to be slightly self-aware and insecure about her singing voice, to the point of trying an herb gargle to sing better.
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.
- Also, since many plot details change from a pilot episode to the rest of the series, Hollywood Arts may have originally had a prom before it was changed.
- Principal Eikner didn't know if Tori was a student or not at Hollywood Arts. The school doesn't appear large enough that he wouldn't know all of the students.
- Though, Principal Eikner also may have been joking, impressed with Tori's talent.
- 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, Cat starts to stand up before Jade can say her line (choosing her to participate), meaning that Cat 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.
- The same thing also happens when Tori is selecting her partners for the alphabet improv.
- 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. Instead, Tori said "Get up, Alien." Sikowitz, however, told them to continue by the letter G.
- Since Jade corrected herself by angrily saying, "F! I know!" before walking off, Sikowitz chose to continue the game with the next letter.
- As a teacher, Sikowitz would've had to report Jade to Principal Eikner for being disruptive, i.e., for humiliating Tori on her first day by pouring ice coffee over her head. She also should've been given detention.
- Robbie's ventriloquist dummy Rex is bigger in this episode but for the rest of the show he is smaller.
Quotes[]
Trina: We got the comedy stuff down so let's start with my song.
André: And by your song I'm guessing you mean the song that I wrote.
Trina: No one cares who wrote the song!
[During the practice performance]
Trina: Let's take it from where I make it shine...When I make it SHINE!!!
[André looks to Tori]
André: Do you have any aspirin?
Lane: Does anyone else know Trina's part?
André: Her sister does!
Tori: Me sister?!
André: You know this whole thing inside and out the song the choreography you can do this!
Tori: Uh uh!
André: She said she'll do it!
Tori: Let go! My dad is a cop!
Lane: Put this on her head!
Tori: That's not my head!
Cat: My name's Cat.
Tori: Oh, like the animal!
Cat: What's that suppose to mean?!
Tori: Nothing, I love cats...
Cat: Me, too! They're so cute!
Sikowitz: First I would like to introduce our new student Tori, and I'd like to thank Tori for her donation of $2 not necessary but much appreciated!
André: Why did you give him $2?
Tori: I thought he was homeless!
[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 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 are you doin'?
Tori: I'm calling my mom to tell her I wanna go back to my old school.
André: Why?
Tori: Because 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, did ya?
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: 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[]
Promo[]
Gallery[]
Click here to see the photo gallery for Pilot.