How to Rock, Episode 1: How to Pilot

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How to Pilot, also known as How to Preview (UK) or How to Rock (Canada), is the first episode of the first season of the television series How to Rock. It is the first episode overall and stars Joline Briggs as Abby Harris, the main protagonist for the episode, Colleen Langsdorf as Max Justice, Abby's best friend, and Jonathon Craw as Jay Johnson, Abby's admirer and best friend.

Plot
Abigail "Abby" Harris and her two best friends, Maxine "Max" Justice and Jayson-Kyle "Jay" Johnson are sitting together at lunch like they usually do. Max and Jay just happen to make a bet that if Jay compliments Abby in any way or says that he loves her to her at any time during the week, which he has done many times before, he will have to pay Max $20 for every compliment and/or "declaration of love". Jay finds this bet difficult and fails miserably within the first five minutes, paying Max the money angrily. Abby then notices that Jay's cousin Emily is signing up for a talent contest and discovers from a bunch of girls that the winner will get a recording contract. Abby tries to urge her friends to sign up, but both refuse to do so as "they don't wanna look like idiots riding a tricycle".

Abby tries to get somebody else to join her group and get to ally with her, even going as far to plead Jay's "ancient and weird" great-grandmother, but they all refuse to join as Emily is great at singing and threatened to crush anyone who signed up going against her. Abby signs up as a solo act but it tormented by Emily and her cronies because of it. On the night of the act, she promises herself she will sing to the best of her abilities and show everyone, especially Jay and Max, that she can do whatever she sets her mind to.

Unfortunately, Emily senses more talent in Abby than expected and plans to ruin her chances of having a good show. She gets two of her cronies, Ashley and Megan, to help her ruin Abby's chances of shining on the show. They ruin her dress, put cream in her compact and switch the song from what she was originally meant to sing on the sheet. However, Jay and Max catch Emily ruining the dress and they bring one of Max's mother's old ones, which looks fantastic. The two cannot do anything about the music or the song, but they make up with Abby when she discovers what they had done for her, and notes that this was a very special time because the two had worked together without arguing too much.

When Abby goes on stage and finds that there is a different song playing from the one she rehearsed, she panicks. Max thinks quickly and stops the music that is currently playing and tells Jay to go over to the drums and get ready to play a song that the three made up called How to Rock. She herself takes the guitar and informs Abby of what song they are playing and they all rock the stage. The audience gives them a standing ovation and some kids from school climb on stage to dance with them.

At the end of their performance, it is announced that they have won and Mitchell Angelo walks over to them to congratulate them, promising that he thinks they have a great career ahead of them. The three scream with excitement and wish for the best. Emily stalks off with disgust, her cronies following her. Later on, Max hosts a congrats party at Abby's house, which shocks (and, after the shock, pleases) Abby and Jay, who were at Abby's house drinking soda and talking about the day's events when the people stream in.

During the ending credits, the week is over and Max has over $200 because Jay told Abby that he loves her and/or complimented her various times over the course of the week (at least ten times). She tells Jay that there was a catch to her bet, and that was the fact that Jay could have told her, or anyone else, a compliment about/that he loves Abby without paying anything, as the bet only said that Jay could not tell Abby.

Trivia

 * This episode only features three out of seven main characters, those present being Abby, Max and Jay. The four missing were Josh Harris (Oliver Davis), Abby's older brother; Lee-Ann Gibson (Chelsea Brooks), a future enemy of Abby's; Alex Kalahari (Alexander Rodriguez) a future friend of the trio's and Jacob Fields (David Sanders), an old-time friend of Jay's and Lee-Ann's girlfriend.
 * Isabella Allgood, who plays Bella Shay, is also absent in the episode.
 * The original airing of this episode was an extended episode, but since then a shorter version has been used. The original airing has only been shown after its first airing in two specials, "Extended Episode Evening" and "Premiere Night".
 * Originally the show was supposed to be called Rock On!, but was changed later to How to Rock On and, just before the show was finished casting, it was called How to Rock.
 * Jonathon Craw, who stars as Jay Johnson, was originally chosen to be in an episode of Danny & Dave as Rebecca Berg's (Colleen Langsdorf's character's) love interest. This episode never aired, but was a included in a box-set DVD of season 3 Danny & Dave episodes.
 * Colleen Lansdorfwas originally given the part of Abby, but after Jonathon Craw got the role of Jay she was cast as Max.
 * In this episode, Max says that she doesn't have a sister. The later episode, Max and Sam, proves differently, as this episode is centered on Max and her sister. However, the reason for this was proved as Max admitted she didn't want Jay or Abby to know what she had done to her sister.
 * Abby is wearing a red dress with a yellow belt on stage, but when the camera's cut to her singing in the next scene, Max is wearing the belt and she is not.
 * Jay admits that he loves Abby several times in this episode, making it obvious he has a crush on her.
 * Lee-Ann was mentioned in this episode as a "pretty cool person" who left the school by Abby. This could be because Lee-Ann had gone to Abby's school and befriended her before becoming famous, thus leaving the school. However, her stardom is not at all mentioned.
 * It is disovered in this episode that Max hates dresses.
 * Abby has never made an enemy before this episode, as Jay says, where she becomes enemies with Emily.
 * In a future episode, Emily's Return, Emily returns. However, she seems much nicer and doesn't have her cronies around in a sense that they do everything she does. This could be because after this episode, Emily becomes a better person.
 * This episode has a reference to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in it as Abby says to Jay once he claims he loves her for the last time that episode, "Shut up and eat your pears."
 * Max is known to be sneaky when placing a bet, often leaving out vital facts in it.

Quotes
Max: I bet that you can't last a week without complimenting Abby, or telling her you love her. If you do, you'll have to pay me 5 bucks for every compliment and/or "declaration of love".

Jay: Fine.

Max: Starting ... now.

[a moment's pause]

Jay: I love you, Abby! Oh darn it!

Abby: Really?!

Abby: Hey, guys! There's a talent contest sign-up sheet. Maybe we should sign up!

Max: Who's signed up so far?

Abby: Um, Jay's weird and mean cousin Emily.

Jay: She's not weird and mean. She's just mean.

Max: And weird!

Abby: How much money did you get at the end of the week, Max?

Max: Over $200.

Abby: Jay.

Jay: What? I love you!

Abby: I know, but do you have to say it so much?