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"Hey, aren't you Sam from iCarly?"
— A food truck worker saying the first line of the series

#Pilot
Season 1, Episode 1
Sam and Cat in the Pilot
General information
Air date

June 8, 2013[1]

Prod. code

101

Writer(s)

Dan Schneider

Director(s)

Steve Hoefer[2]

Viewership

4.156 million[3]

Episode guide
Next

#FavoriteShow

Gallery (images · videos)

#Pilot is the 1st episode of Sam & Cat.[4]

Sam and Cat meet in the back of a moving garbage truck. They become roommates and decide to start their own babysitting service.[5]

Plot[]

The food truck worker from Pilot

At the beginning, Sam Puckett is seen motorcycling down a street. She is in Los Angeles, saying she is 'looking for fun', due to Carly moving to Italy. Cat Valentine, a few moments later, rides a bike down the street and encounters two kids looking for a kitten named "Pawsley." She looks in a trash can and falls in, and pops out with the kitten, which the kids take and walk off. She drops her gum in the trash can and reaches back down to pick it up, but a garbage truck drives by and lifts up the trash can, with Cat still inside looking for her gum. Sam is standing nearby, eating a burrito and sees Cat get poured into the garbage truck. She throws her burrito into the street (a little sadly) and begins to run after the truck to tell the man driving that there is a girl inside. Sam climbs inside the garbage truck when she cannot get the drivers attention and finds Cat flung upside down inside. She pulls Cat's head out of the garbage and stands her upright, to which Cat exclaims: "Oh my gosh! That was so much fun!" Sam halfheartedly agrees. Cat recognizes Sam from iCarly and seems very excited to meet her, but Sam is worried about being stuck in the truck and tells Cat they have to get out. Just then, the garbage truck picks up another garbage can and dumps it into the truck with a loud noise. Cat nervously asks what the noises are and Sam says it's the sound of two girls about to be crushed by garbage. True to her ditsy nature, Cat says: "You don't mean us, right?" Sam tries to help Cat out of the truck, but Cat faints because she is scared. Sam saves an unconscious Cat from the truck.

Sam using a leafblower to clean Cat in Pilot

After getting out of the truck, Sam wakes Cat by using a leaf blower on her. Cat asks Sam where they are and what the horrible smell around them is. Sam informs her that the smell is the two of them because they went "swimming in garbage." Sam says she needs to find a place to hose herself off. To thank Sam for her help, Cat offers to let Sam come with her to her Nona's for a bath. The two pretend to be the daughters of a rich British doctor in order to get a ride in a limo to Nona's. After Sam showers, Sam meets one of Cat's neighbors, Dice, a preteen boy who deals various items, including "celebrity hair." As Cat goes nuts over Justin Bieber's hair and buys it, Dice notices Sam for the first time. Sam offers to sell some of her hair to balance out the cost of Cat's purchase. As Dice leaves, two kids push Cat's grandmother, Nona into the house. She, a part-time babysitter, laments over her inability to cope with such crazy children, and considers moving to Elderly Acres, a nursing home. Cat protests, but Nona is distracted from making her argument by Sam's presence, and agrees to let her stay for the night.

During a rough night's sleep on Cat's sofa-bed, complete with Nona's recurring sleepwalking and getting folded into the sofa itself, Sam admits to Cat that she is in no rush to go back to Seattle. As Carly is in Italy and her mom is ‘‘kind of a nut job," she chooses to travel around Americans rica on her motorcycle and "see where it takes her." Cat tries to tell Sam that it is she herself who has the power to control her journey and her destination, but phrases it wrong and confuses Sam.

The next morning, Nona asks Sam to take her to Elderly Acres, and Sam proceeds to do so. Cat panics and immediately runs over to the building with two kids and a baby that Nona was supposed to babysit. She figures out that Nona actually wants to stay, and asks her to come visit as much as she can. Meanwhile, Sam has the three kids ride on a nearby scooter, and also does voluntary tattoo work in the requested tattoo man's place, however, screws up at least one of the tattoo requests by tattooing a chicken leg on one man's arm.

Unbeknownst to her, the kids drive to Inside Out Burger, a restaurant, and order food there. They run into some trouble when they realize they do not have money to pay for it, and end up being chased around the parking lot by the manager.

Sam and Cat return to the apartment. Cat starts contemplating how nice it might be to have an apartment to herself, and Sam says she has experience in that area. Cat is confused, saying that she thought Sam lived with her mother. Sam says that living with her mother is a lot like living alone. Dice returns with the scissors and bags for Sam's hair. They realize the kids aren't with them. Dice mentions that he just saw them at Inside Out Burger. They rush over to see that the kids are being chased by the manager. The manager passes out from exhaustion caused by chasing the kids, and Sam and Cat work together to revive him by using a creative form of CPR. As a way to thank them, the manager allows the two to have free cheeseburgers from the restaurant for a lifetime.

With the kids safe and a new burger discount, they return to the apartment, where Cat plays video games with the kids while Dice procures three bags of hair from Sam. The mother of the kids comes back. While the kids explicitly tell her everything, Sam and Cat manage to censor these events by saying it is all part of a video game. The mother pays Sam $150 on the spot, and asks if they can babysit them again. Sam explains that she doesn't live there, but Cat accepts the opportunity.

Sam and Cat staring at each other in the Pilot

As the family and Dice leave, Sam jokingly claims she will keep most of the money, but instead gives it all to Cat to support her as she will be living alone for a while. Sam gets ready to leave, but Cat tells her she thinks that they had fun together and hints at a possible future adventure between them. Sam says she doesn't have anywhere she needs to be, and Cat looks like she needs a roommate.

Sam and Cat on the Motorcyle heading to Inside Out Burger

Cat asks her to stay with her in LA for a while and help her find a roommate, but Sam reveals she has already found Cat a roommate: Her! Cat is overjoyed as "This is the best day ever!" They end the day on a high note by riding on Sam's motorcycle on their way to eat at Inside Out Burger with Cat teasing Sam and Sam says "This is gonna be a long ride."

Quotes[]

[first lines of the series]
Food truck worker: Hey, aren't you Sam from iCarly?
Sam: You a cop?
Food truck worker: No.
Sam: Yeah, I'm Sam.
Food truck worker: What are you doing here in LA?
Sam: Looking for fun.
[Cat passes by on a bike]
Sam: How are your breakfast burritos?
Food truck worker: Disgusting.
Sam: I'll take a jumbo.

Kid 1: Pawsley!
Kid 2: Here, Pawsley!
Kid 1: Pasley, where are you?
Both kids: Pawsley?!
Cat: I'm stopping my vehicle. Hi, what's wrong?
Kid 2: We can't find our cat.
Cat: [gasps] Shut up! My name is Cat!
Kid 1: Can you help us find our cat?
Cat: Oh, I heard a meow. Oh, kitty, wait.
Kid 2: Pawsley! Here, Pawsley!
Cat: Hold on, kitty, I'm coming.
Kid 1: Pawsley!
Cat: [garbage can lid slips off] Oh, the hinge! Oh, I see the kitten! Give me a boost, come on! [the kids lift Cat into the garbage can to rescue the kitten] Oh! Oh, here you go.
Kids: Awesome! Thanks!
Cat: Bye! Oh! Oh, dang it! My gum fell out of my mouth! Hey gum, where did you go?
Sam: What's that red-headed chick doing in a trash can ...and why is there a battery in my burrito?

[after Sam catches up with Cat in the garbage truck, where the latter gets picked up and dumped inside]
Cat: [laughs] Oh my gosh! That was so much fun!
Sam: Not so much for this guy!
Cat: Whoa! You're Sam from "iCarly"!
Sam: Yeah, now let's get out of here [some bangs are heard]
Cat: What was that noise?!
Sam: I think it's the sound of 2 girls about to be squashed inside a garbage truck!
Cat: Well, you don't mean us, right?
Sam: We gotta get out of here!
Cat: I can't! I'm gonna faint!
Sam: You're not gonna faint!
Cat: Are you sure? We're never gonna escape! [collapses but Sam catches her in time]
Sam: Alright, I'll save your life. But you're buying me a new burrito.



Cat: Oh, please! You saved me from being squished in garbage! Let me repay you with the gift of bathing.
Dice: Guess what I got!
Cat: Ooh! Is it something?
Sam: It's me, Sam! Let me outta this couch!
Cat: That's not how you sleep in a sofa bed!
Cat: I'm gonna faint, I'm gonna puke, I'm gonna fuke!
Old man: I told you I wanted a tattoo of Abraham Lincoln!
Sam: Well, too bad! You got a chicken leg!
Sam: Do you have another robe I could wear? You know, one that doesn't make me look like a vomiting rainbow?
Cat: No, but don't worry. Your clothes are in the dryer.
Sam: And when will they be ready?
Cat: When my Nona comes home and shows me how to start the dryer.
Cat: But I can't live here alone! What if I fall in the toilet and get stuck again?
Nona: I'll just be five blocks away!
Cat: Five blocks?! Nona that's too— [starts arguing with Nona]
Sam: Hey. Hey. Hey! Hey! If she gets stuck in a toilet again, will you please text me a pic of that?
Nona: Why is she here?
Cat: She's visiting. Is it okay if she stays here with us tonight?
Nona: Uh, sure. I assume you don't have a prison record.
Sam: Yeah, you assume that.
Sam: Yeah. I'm going wherever my motorcycle takes me.
Cat: I thought the person controls the motorcycle.
Sam: Man, how much Bieber did you sniff?!
Cat: [tickles Sam]
Sam: Don't tickle me.
Cat: [puts her fingers in Sam's ears]
Sam: Take your fingers out of my ears.
Cat: [plays bongos on Sam's helmet]
Sam: This is gonna be a long ride.


Trivia[]

  • The title of this episode (#Pilot) follows the trends of prior Schneider shows (i.e. Victorious, iCarly and Drake & Josh) which also contained a form of "Pilot" in the premiere title.
  • Instead of #Pilot, the episode is titled #TheFirstEncounter in Belgium and the Netherlands.
  • Filming of this episode began on September 19 and ended on September 22, 2012.[6][7]
  • In this episode, Sam and Cat have the same hairstyles than in their originals shows. Also, the sets of Apartment 22 and Elderly Acres are different. It shows than this episode was produced a time before the others.
  • This episode premiered on National Best Friends Day 2013.[8]
  • The first seven minutes was released on iTunes as a promo.
  • Sam and Cat were seen together in the iCarly and Victorious crossover special, "iParty With Victorious," but they didn't interaction directly to each other then, so that's why this episode seems like this is their first time meeting each other.
  • The two boys looking for their missing cat, Pawsley, are actually the Harris brothers in real life.[9]
    • Curtis Harris stars as Miles Preston in another Nickelodeon show named The Haunted Hathaways.
    • His brother, Caleel, originally voiced as Clyde McBride in the animated show, The Loud House until the episode, Teachers Union.
  • The street where the first scene is shot is the same location where, in Drake & Josh, Josh tried to drive his new car (a stick shift) with Drake and Megan in "My Dinner with Bobo," and where the giant cupcake scenes were shot in the Victorious episode "Terror on Cupcake Street."[9]
  • In the first draft of the pilot script, Sam entered the scene when some mean, tough girls were trying to steal Cat's bike from her. However, this was later changed with the garbage truck rescue.[9]
  • While Sam and Cat are in the garbage truck, the garbage is closing in (compacting) on the girls.[9]
  • Maree insisted that she didn't use a stunt double for her fall out of the grocery cart onto the couch and wanted to do it herself.[9]
  • Cat is wearing her pink dress backwards because the costume designer thought "it looked better that way."[9]
  • When Cat opens the lid of the green garbage can, Dan Schneider didn't expect the lid to fall off, but it did so every time. He decided to add the line "Oh the hinge!" for Cat to say when it falls off.[9]
  • Jennette and Ariana actually hit the door really hard in the scene when they ran out of the apartment.
  • The couch had an opening on the back as revealed in a 'How we did it'.[10]
  • This is presumably the only time the original design for Cat's apartment (from this episode onward she sublets from Nona and shares with Sam) is shown on screen. From the next episode forward, it will be redecorated to showcase essences of both Sam and Cat.
  • The end credits show a rerun of Nona's recurring sleepwalking and folding Sam and Cat into the sofa, this time, with Cat laughing.
  • Unlike most shows aired on Nick, the end credits were shown on TV similar to what iCarly did in the first season.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Nona and Dice and the reappearance of Sam and Cat.
  • This is the fourth time characters from a past Dan Schneider show return in another show. The first time was the iCarly episode "iStart a Fanwar", where Craig, Eric and Gavin from Drake & Josh, as well than Stacey Dillsen from Zoey 101, have been in a minor role as fans. The second was in the episode "iHire an Idiot", where Stacey appears a second time for an one scene role. The third was in the Victorious episode "Helen Back Again", where Helen from Drake & Josh appears as an important role.
    • This is, however, the first time returning characters have a new show implying an important presence.
    • This is also the first time these characters are main characters. Every Drake & Josh and Zoey 101 characters who have returned were recurring characters.
  • We can barely see Tandy during a transition and his face shows "DanWarp".
  • This episode competed with Disney Channel's night of premiers with Good Luck Charlie, Dog With A Blog, and Austin and Ally. This episode beat all of those shows with 4.1 views.

Allusions[]

  • Inside Out Burger is a parody of In-N-Out Burger. It was also mentioned in Drake & Josh episode, "Driver's License", iCarly episode, "iStart a Fan War", and Victorious episode, "Robarazzi."
  • When Sam is talking at the beginning, we can see DanWarp in the background.

Character revelations[]

  • Sam is apparently a good tattoo artist.
  • Cat sometimes forgets to open the door before she goes outside.

Goofs[]

  • When Nona stuffed Sam and Cat in the sofa bed, they could have died due to lack of oxygen. However, on the Secrets from Set article on the Nick website, there was a hole cut out at the back so their heads could slide through.
  • When Cat turns on the light, the same scene when Nona folds up Sam, the lamp turns on. But when Sam uses the lamp to turn off the light, all the lights turn off.
  • Cat laughs after Nona says that she assumed Sam didn't have a criminal record, but Cat should know Sam had a criminal record because in the iCarly episode, "iToe Fat Cakes", they say that Sam had just went ten days without getting into trouble and that she hadn't done that since she was four.
    • Despite Cat knowing about iCarly, she's probably not a fan at the point to have seen every webcast.
  • At the end of "iGoodbye", Sam rides out of Seattle without packing. However, in the beginning of this episode, she was wearing different clothes.
    • She may have bought new clothes while riding to Los Angeles.
  • Sam and Cat have seen each other in iParty With Victorious. For some reason, Cat only acknowledged Sam from iCarly the fourth time they see each other, which is at the beginning. Also, Sam called her "red-headed chick" when she first sees her but she should know her name. However, Sam knew her name after Cat said "Shut up, my name is Cat!" when she runs into the two boys looking for their cat.
    • Dan Schneider explained that the reason is that he thought the characters didn't really interact during that episode, so it's like they never met before.
      • However, it is said that either iParty with Victorious or Sam and Cat may be non-canon, but nothing has been confirmed so far.
  • It is unknown how Sam got her motorcycle back since she rode in the limo on her way to Cat's apartment.
    Mistake

    Mistake

  • Dice couldn't have possibly known Sam and Cat were babysitting Max and Chloe because they didn't tell him, plus Nona was going to babysit them.
  • When they were playing the Xbox, no cable was plugged in to output it to the TV.

Running gags[]

Series continuity[]

  • The episode begins with Sam riding a motorcycle into Los Angeles, a continuation from when she rides out of Seattle into the iCarly finale "iGoodbye", and Cat riding her bike in LA after she moved there in the Victorious episode "Star Spangled Tori". Cat's living situation was mentioned in the latter episode.
  • Cat's stuffed giraffe, Mr. Purple, from Victorious, is seen in her bike basket in the beginning (and continues to appear through the show).
  • Sam briefly mentions Carly going to Italy with her dad.
  • Cat fainted when she was afraid, like she did in Victorious episode. "The Worst Couple".
  • Nona asks Sam if she has an arrest record, and Sam hesitantly replies. This is a nod to the fact that Sam has been arrested several times, which was often brought up in iCarly.
  • Sam asks Cat how school was, which means Cat still attends Hollywood Arts High School
  • Both Sam and Cat are continued characters from iCarly and Victorious respectively.
  • Cat's bike was featured in Victorious.
  • Cat's backpack from Victorious appears.
  • The iCarly web-show was mentioned multiple times during the first episode.
  • Nona was mentioned in Victorious.
  • This episode begins the running gag of Sam and Cat hugs.
  • Despite being the first episode of the show and the first time Sam and Cat are babysitting in the show, this is the second time that Cat does babysitting. The first was when she kept Mabel and Wilson for Trina in iParty with Victorious.
    • Both times, she lost the kids.

International premieres[]

  • August 12, 2013 (Canada, YTV)
  • September 7, 2013 (Canada, Nickelodeon)
  • September 28, 2013 (Germany, Netherlands, Poland)
  • September 29, 2013 (Scandinavia)
  • October 11, 2013 (Australia & New Zealand, Southeast Asia)
  • October 14, 2013 (UK & Ireland)
  • October 19, 2013 (Latin America)
  • October 30, 2013 (France)
  • November 4, 2013 (Italy, Portugal, Spain)
  • November 11, 2013 (Turkey)
  • December 31, 2013 (Quebec)
  • February 16, 2014 (Hungary)
  • February 24, 2014 (Greece)
  • April 2, 2014 (Japan)

Reception[]

The episode premiered to 4.156 million viewers. Due to this, it became the first scripted live-action Nickelodeon program to break the 4 million barrier in 2013.[3] It also hit #1 on iTunes on the morning of June 9, 2013.[11]

Joe of Hit Zone gave the premiere episode a good review, saying "Dan Schneider never fails to bring the funny and it looks like he has another hit on his hands with Sam and Cat." [12]

References[]

vedEpisodes
#Pilot#FavoriteShow#TheBritBrats#NewGoat#TextingCompetition#BabysitterWar#GoomerSitting#ToddlerClimbing#MommaGoomer#BabysittingCommercial#RevengeOfTheBritBrats#MotorcycleMystery#SecretSafe#OscarTheOuch#DollSitting#PeezyB#SalmonCat#Twinfection#MyPoober#MadAboutShoe#MagicATM#Lumpatious#TheKillerTunaJump#YayDay#BrainCrush#BlueDogSoda#BlooperEpisode#FresnoGirl#StuckInABox#SuperPsycho#DroneBabyDrone#FirstClassProblems#KnockOut#WeStealARockStar#GettinWiggy

[#Pilot Credits]

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