Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret

Plot

The episode starts with Hannah Montana — who is actually Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) — and Robby Ray Stewart (Billy Ray Cyrus) singing the song "This Is The Life" for a sold out concert in Los Angeles the next day. Miley's personal fashion designer Fermaine is measuring her for her costume. Fermaine and Hannah start dancing and Fermaine's pants rip. Fermaine leaves. Miley's older brother Jackson (Jason Earles) is on the phone trying to ask a girl out. He says he knows Hannah Montana and has two incredible tickets for tomorrow night's concert. When he puts the phone down he says to Miley (dressed as Hannah) "I need two incredible tickets for tomorrow night."

Hannah/Miley refuses, so Jackson seeks help from his dad, who says to Miley/Hannah, "Think about it this way, he goes out with the girl, they fall in love, they get married and move out." Hannah then agrees. The phone rings and Miley's best friend, Lilly (Emily Osment) is on the line. She says "incoming in 20 seconds" and Hannah/Miley takes her Hannah wig off and puts a blue jacket over her Hannah clothes. Lilly enters on a skateboard. She says "I have two incredible tickets to the one, the only, Hannah Montana!"

Lilly questions Miley why she doesn't want to go to the concert. Miley 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) 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

Guest starring

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 to portray Hannah for one year, they decided to look at Cyrus again. The decision was between her and a 16-year-old with lots of 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. 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.