"Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is the first episode of the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

series ''

Hannah Montana ''Hannah Montana'' is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between March2006 and January2011. The series centers on Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), a ...

''. It was written by Gary Dontzig, Steven Peterman, and

Michael Poryes Michael David Poryes (born March 22, 1955) is an American television producer, screenwriter and filmmaker, best known for co-creating the Disney Channel shows ''That's So Raven'' and ''Hannah Montana''. Filmography Executive producer *'' Hanna ...

. It originally aired on March 24, 2006. The episode title is a reference to

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

song "

Do You Want to Know a Secret? "Do You Want to Know a Secret" is a song by English rock band the Beatles from their 1963 album ''Please Please Me'', sung by George Harrison. In the United States, it was the first top ten song to feature Harrison as a lead singer, reaching No ...

Plot

The episode starts with teen pop sensation Hannah Montana — who is actually Miley Stewart (

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip hop ...

) — and her father Robby Ray Stewart ( Billy Ray Cyrus) singing the song "This Is The Life" in preparation for a sold out concert in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

the next day. After she reluctantly gives her older brother Jackson (

Jason Earles Jason Daniel Earles (born April 26, 1977) is an American actor. Known for his role as Jackson Stewart in the Disney Channel sitcom ''Hannah Montana'' and his role as Rudy Gillespie in the Disney XD series '' Kickin' It''. Early life Earles was ...

) two tickets for him and a girl he is trying to ask out to the concert, Miley's best friend, Lilly ( Emily Osment), who is unaware of her dual identity and a big fan of Hannah, calls to announce that she is "incoming in 20 seconds". Miley takes her Hannah wig off and puts a blue jacket over her Hannah clothes. Lilly enters on a skateboard and says she has two tickets for herself and Miley to the concert. As Miley is Hannah, she has to decline, and to protect her secret, she says she wants to spend quality time with her brother (hoping Lilly will believe her). Lilly tries to force her to come but Miley doesn't agree. Miley's other best friend, Oliver Oken (

Mitchel Musso Mitchel Tate Musso (born July 9, 1991) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his three Disney Channel roles as Oliver Oken in ''Hannah Montana''; Jeremy Johnson in the animated series ''Phineas and Ferb''; and his Disney XD role ...

) has a crush on Hannah Montana (before he knew she was Miley) and somewhat stalks her. Before the episode ended, Lilly finds out Miley is Hannah and keeps her secret. It is in the following episode, "Miley Get Your Gum," that we learn Hannah Montana has already been around for 2 years when we are first introduced to her. Oliver says, "Well, there goes 2 years of my life," when Miley shows that she's really Hannah Montana.

Starring

as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana * Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott *

Oliver Oken This list of ''Hannah Montana'' characters includes characters appearing in the Disney Channel series ''Hannah Montana'' as well as the related film '' Hannah Montana: The Movie''. The characters listed are almost all fictional, except for stars ...

as Jackson Stewart * Billy Ray Cyrus as

Robby Stewart Robby Ray Stewart is a fictional character from the Disney Channel series ''Hannah Montana'', portrayed by Billy Ray Cyrus. Robby is the single father of Jackson Stewart (Jason Earles) and Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus). He appears in all episodes ...

Guest starring

Corbin Bleu Corbin Bleu Reivers (; born February 21, 1989), known professionally as Corbin Bleu, is an American actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film ''Catch That Kid''. He has since appeared in the Discovery Kids dra ...

as Johnny Collins *Shanica Knowles as Amber Addison * Anna Maria Perez de Tagle as Ashley DeWitt * Matt Winston as Fermine *Derek Basco as an MTB host

Cultural references

Every ''

'' episode title references a song; "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is a play on the title of

song "

". Jackson's line of "When you got it, flaunt it" references a song from the musical, '' The Producers''.

Production

Cyrus received the script for the pilot, before then auditioning for Hannah Montana for 6–7 months, totally changing her father's plans to cut an album, do a tour, and retire. Creators Poryes, Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien looked in Los Angeles and New York for someone to play Hannah, but couldn't find anyone. Cyrus sent in an audition tape, but while the creators were impressed, they were not convinced, leery of putting the show in the hands of a 12-year-old with no acting experience. As they looked fruitlessly for an

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

to portray Hannah for one year, they decided to look at Cyrus again. The decision was between her and a 16-year-old with much sitcom experience. The room was evenly split on who should play Hannah, and Marsh made the decision to go with Cyrus. Garry Marsh's exact quote was "We pride ourselves not just on creating great television, but on creating stars; not just on launching careers, but on launching franchises for the entire Walt Disney Company. So, after consulting with everyone involved, I'm ready to pull the trigger on Miley." On the day the pilot was shot, the show was to star a girl named Chloe. According to Billy Ray Cyrus, when the writers heard him calling his daughter Miley, who at that time was still called Destiny, they changed their minds and said "Everything Chloe is Miley."

Promotion and reception

The Disney Channel used three Hannah Montana music videos to promote the series in the weeks leading up to its debut.Abigail Azote
"The not so secret life of Miley Stewart"
, ''Media Life Magazine'', March 31, 2006. Retrieved on July 31, 2007. The music videos used were " Best of Both Worlds", " Who Said" and "This is the Life". David Cornelius of DVDTalk.com felt that "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" was awkward and that it overused musical interludes, due to it being the pilot episode. An ultimatedisney.com review felt that the pilot was "coincidence-riddled." "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" had the highest-rated series premiere on a kids network in seven years, scoring 5.4 million viewers. It was also the highest ratings ever for a Disney Channel series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lilly, Do You Want To Know A Secret? Hannah Montana episodes American television series premieres 2006 American television episodes