Randy Cunningham The pitch pilot

The pilot was the original concept for the series used to pitch it to Disney Television animations.

Plot

After he defeats the school bully Bash Johnson, Heidi asks the Ninja (Randy Cunningham) to Homecoming at "Macchio High School"; he at first smoke-bombs away, leading her to take it as a "maybe"; later that night, he dreams of dancing and kissing Heidi at the dance and awakes to find himself kissing his pillow. After getting his foot untangled from his blanket, he stumbles out of bed and unlocks his secret Ninja lair, revealing the Ninja suit, a training dummy, a map marking all the places Crime, Inc., had hit the most, and finally the NinjaNomicon with a picture of a koi fish over the head of it. The scene cuts to the school, where Heidi is rehearsing her cheerleading routine, when the Ninja appears and joins in. After talking with her, he agrees to take her to the dance. The excited Heidi says she can't wait and that he should buy some lip-balm, because "There's a 99% chance of us makin' out." This shocks Randy, causing him to lose control of his flips and to flip out of the gym into a hallway, where he first gets tied into a human knot and then knocks his head into the lockers, causing them to open and spilling their contents onto his body. After composing himself, he drops a smoke bomb and vanishes, leaving the janitor to clean up the mess quietly.

Randy gladly tells Howard the exciting news, only for Howard to explain that taking Heidi to the dance would break the Ninja rule "Numero Uno." Randy exclaims he said rules were made to be broken, just as Howard himself had stolen a kid's nachos, though Howard simply states that he remembers the nachos and nothing else. Matters take a turn when Heidi goes to the salon and asks Chin-sun to "french my tips and gloss my lips" because she has a date with the Ninja; The Judge overhears this and tells Deputy Mayor Kranski and Viceroy to meet him at HQ in five minutes—though after Janet (his pedicurist) tells him something horrible about his toenails, he changes it to ten, as she furiously digging into his toes.

The scene cuts to the Walla (Homecoming), but after Randy has waited outside the Weinerman house for an hour-and-a-half, Howard comes out and says that he got stood up and that he should come inside. Randy, however, refuses, saying he's not going in without Heidi. Howard goes in, while Randy decides to call it a night; he starts to head home when he suddenly hears someone yelling and discovers Heidi, with her wrists and feet tied, sitting on the goalpost of the football field. Kranski, Viceroy and The Judge appear under the bleachers, with Kranski saying that this plan needs to be good because she's missing her child's tee ball game.

When Kranski and Viceroy ask what the plan was, The Judge simply shouts, "THIS!" then presses a button which causes the Tyranobot to emerge, shaking the school. Heidi tries to warn Randy that it's a trap but to no avail—when she compliments his tux, it causes him to become flustered and babble broken compliments, until he notices the Tyranobot appearing from under the bleachers. Relieved, he rips off his tux and runs towards the beast, only for it to roar so loudly that it pushes Randy towards Heidi. Randy checks the Nomicon for "anything on a robot dinosaur," but it has nothing for him. The Tyranobot bellows, causing Heidi to scream as well; Randy, on the basis that "a Ninja must always be awesome, especially when hotties are around," runs towards the beast and throws shuriken, which bounce off. The terrified Randy flees the looming robot, but it cuts him off. Randy continues to avoid the robot as Viceroy finally becomes fed up and shouts "land snakes judge, just destroy him already!" The Judge is offended by Viceroy, but still aggressively presses the button.

As for Randy, he does a multi-exposure arm swirl and strikes a pose on a refreshment stand's roof, finally ready to fight. Despite some minor frustrations, he whistles and signals for the robot, who falls for his trick. As the robot dinosaur stomps, he attempts to slide down with the assistance of some pennants, only to be stopped by the Tyranobot. Even with his grapple, he gets swung by the Tyranobot instead. But then, after some nauseating swirls, he discovers the plate that hides the dino's power lines, and comes up with the plan of destroying the robot by grappling and popping a bottle of soda to cause the robot dino to malfunction. As he flips onto the goal post, he gazes into Heidi's eyes, but also not forgetting to declare on continuing to defeat Crime Inc, who have just arrived at the scene, and then drive away after being threatened by the Ninja after realizing they don't have another plan.

After swooping Heidi with a bridal carry via his scarf, Randy and Heidi stand on the bleachers at the destroyed field. They are about to kiss, only for the Ninja to cut the moment short, and he tells Heidi that they are not meant to be together. He then departs with a flashy Smoke Bomb entrance, which Heidi comments as fart-like.

Back at the Homecoming, Randy is all alone at the punch table, when Howard gives him a consultation corn dog. As they watch the others dance, Randy tells Howard that he finds being a Ninja both a blessing and a curse. Howard then claims he feels the same about corn dogs, which are just hot dogs on a stick, except with extra layers of corn coating that enhances their deliciousness. The boys' friendship moment is interrupted when an ugly nerd girl bursts into the venue, telling others that Hensletter gets wedgied by Bash. Randy decides to go transform offscreen, even if it means his corn dog will get eaten by Howard. The pilot ends with Randy transforming into the Ninja, and slashing his blades.

Differences

Randy's design changed drastically throughout development. This pilot shows the first concept of the main character, which appears to resemble Shaggy from the "Scooby-Doo" franchise, besides having a large mullet and long-sleeved shirt and being somewhat hunchbacked when standing.

Heidi also changed drastically, having originally been a brunette and head cheerleader, in contrast to her final canon career of hosting the "Third Most Popular 'Me-Cast.'" Heidi was also Randy's original love interest and, for a brief moment in her development, McFist's daughter. She appears very confident, with a "can do" attitude: her "glass of lemonade is always half full," according to her voice actress PDF.

The Judge (rather than Hannibal McFist) was the original antagonist in the pilot, being an actual judge on the court of what was, at this point of development, the town of "Macchio Falls," as well as the head of a criminal organization known as "Crime, Inc.," which is behind most of the town's crimes, and having the Deputy Mayor as well as among his minions. The Judge is "loud, brash, and always angry. He yells A LOT; he has two speeds—seething and outraged. He enjoys berating his fellow Crime, Inc., cohorts," as stated by his PDF. The Judge's design and personality bears many similarities to McFist's: he wears his Macchio High School class ring, just as McFist still has his Mustache Society ring and jacket. The Judge received a specific backstory for his hatred of the Ninja: he hates him for having humiliated him back in the 1970's when he went to Macchio High (while McFist, who replaced him later in the series' development would hate him for having ruined his friendship with Mac Antfee at Norrisville High in the 1980's).

McFist was also to have been "former military"; the brain in his arm was originally a fish, not monkey, as stated by Jhonen Vazquez in a tumblr post showing his concept art.

The Sorcerer's stank was originally designed to be a "black mass that operated the victim," but was changed for unknown reasons.

Kranski was the original "part-time mayor" of the series. As well as being a member of Crime, Inc., she is also president of the PTA and the Troop Leader of a Girl Scout-esque group called "AdventureGirlz!". She "is pretty, polished, and possibly dabbles in witchcraft. A master of manipulation—she has everyone from the Chief of Police to the Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation under her thumb. Kranski wants to use the power of Crime Inc. to become Mayor and rule Macchio Falls as a full-fledged dictator. She always sounds sugary sweet, even when she's being utterly sadistic," according to her voicetrax PDF. Like the Judge, Kranski was removed for being too sadistic and dark for Disney's taste, as well for implying corruption in the educational and governmental systems.

Kranski was also originally Morgan's mom, and from one of her quotes, it seems that Morgan was originally interested in tee ball, rather than dance.

The series was originally held in a town called "Macchio Falls"; the local high school had a fighting koi fish as its mascot instead of a more generalized carp. The Ninja's backstory differed significantly in having an entire organization of Ninjas instead of supposedly having one 800-year old immortal one continually replaced by a student. It's unknown why the developers changed this.

The NinjaNomicon also changed in many respects, originally not having magical properties and appearing rather to be a mere handbook, which Randy reads normally during the fight with Tyranobot/Dinobot. It had a blank cover rather than an ornately worked one.

The Ninja suit (as described by Heidi) formerly appeared to be entirely plain black, with no scarf nor sash. It had no magical properties. This suit design was changed by Jed and Scott seventeen times until they arrived at the final series design.

The suit would have been much more "inhuman," having big glowing eyes and an exclamation mark-ish symbol on the forehead and what appear to have been chopsticks on the fingers, as stated by Jhonen.

In direct contrast to his attitude in the actual series, Howard appeared not only to have no problems with following the Nomicon's rules, but even encouraged Randy to do so whenever he wanted to break them. He also didn't seem to mind that Randy was trying to date his sister; this was changed due to the creators' believing his hating it would be "more believable."

Theresa Fowler didn't exist at this point, but was later created when the idea for Heidi being Randy's love interest was dropped. She retained much of the love-interest's original personality, but was changed from cheerleader to baton-twirler.

The Ninja would originally have dealt with school bullies as well as criminals, but Disney objected to this aspect of the series as likely to disturb the young audience. The creators changed this circumstance in an effort to avoid too dark a tone for the series.

Levander Hart was originally a boyband by the name of "Levander Heartbreak," described in Heidi's PDF as her favorite band; it's unknown why this was changed from a band to a single boy, though cost is a likely consideration.

The robot that appeared in the pilot, Tyranobot, was later reworked and redesigned by Aaron Alexovich to appear in the season 2 episode "Brolateral Damage."

Norrisville, as well as Mt. Chuck, are plays on the name of the famous action star, Chuck Norris; however, the pilot's hometown is named after the lead actor in the movie The Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio, just as Lake LaRusso was named after that film's main character, Danny LaRusso.

Flute Girl, who appeared in the end of the pilot had glasses, braces and two braids. However, in the finalized version of the series, her appearance has changed to from ugly nerd girl to a band geek.

Trivia

• Randy's secret lair is hidden with the Konami code, a famous code used in many games popularized by the gaming company of the same name
• Randy's training dummy is covered in many weapons, but also has strange objects sticking out of it such as a pair of scissors, an indelible marker (with its lid still on), a fork, and a spoon.
• There was a second "pilot" that was a 2-minute-ish “trailer” that Titmouse did as sort of a proof-of-concept for the updated version. It wasn’t a full episode, just a quick action sequence which can be found here. The full sequence has not been found yet, as stated by the background designer, Jack; it was supposed to have been a two-minute fully voiced and fully colored animation.
• Randy owns a wooden training dummy of the kind called a "Mu Ren Zhuang," a wooden dummy used in Chinese martial arts training. It is associated with the martial art of Wing Chun and other Kung Fu styles of Southern China. Traditionally made from wood, the dummies are now also made from synthetic materials such as steel and plastic.
• When Flute Girl comes into the dance, she announces, "Bash is giving Hensletter the wedgie of the century!" suggesting that his first name, "Bucky," wasn't finalized yet.
• It's revealed in the 224th issue of Animation Magazine that the series didn't have any in-depth material when it was pitched with three other ideas that were completed, such as one with a girl who would gain superpowers with a dog as her partner, and another where a young boy would find a item that would give him superpowers, which was dropped due to its being to similar to another franchise and would likely provoke lawsuits, which the creators thought would be "a headache."

Quotes

Kranski:

1. (After The Judge's outburst about the Ninja) Geez, take 'er easy there, Judge. You got that little vein thing happening again.
2. (Kranski's phone rings during the Crime Inc. meeting. She answers it) Deputy Mayor Kranski. Oh, hi, Hon! Nope, I'm in a meeting. There's a meatloaf in the fridge... (The Judge tells her to get off the phone) Gotta go. Love you, too. (Then, to the Judge) How 'bout we just kill the Ninja?
3. (While waiting for The Judge to spring his trap on the Ninja) This'd better be good. I'm missing my kid's tee ball game.
4. (Talking to her husband on the phone about dinner) Now this is very important, Gary. Which tuna casserole did you heat up? I ask this because the one on the left has cyanide in it, and the one on the right is for dinner tonight. Mmm-hmm. Okay, you're gonna want to bury that one in the backyard. No, sweetheart, don't let the dog lick the pan. Whoo! Really dodged a bullet there, didn't we? Alright, hon, I'll be home around six.

1. (Talking to her daughter, Morgan, before Morgan's big date) Morgan, this is your first big date, so I want to make sure you take protection. I don't care if the bullet-proof vest makes you look fat. Mommy works for a nefarious crime syndicate. Poop happens, honey! And please take off that lipstick. It makes you look cheap.

Heidi:

1. (After the Ninja defeats bully Bash Johnson) That was some first class Ninja-ing! So...the Homecoming Dance is Friday and I want you to take me. And I won't take "no" for an answer. (Ninja throws a smoke bomb and disappears) I'm putting you down for a "maybe."
2. (The Ninja appears, startling Heidi during cheerleading practice) Ninja! You scared the pep out of me! (He asks her to the dance) I can't wait! Oh, and Ninja, you might want to pick up some lip balm...'cause there's a 99 percent chance of us makin' out!
3. (Heidi bursts into the nail salon, excited about the dance) Chin-sun, I'm gonna need you to French my tips and gloss my lips! I've got a date with the Ninja!
4. (Crime Inc. has tied Heidi to the top of a goal post) When I get down from here, you guys are gonna be in serious trouble!
5. (The Ninja appears) Ninja, you have to go! It's a trap. You look really handsome in your tuxedo, by the way.
6. (Ninja says they can't be together and disappears in a cloud of a smoke bomb) Someday, my sweet Ninja. Someday. (coughs, waving the smoke) Man, those things smell like fart.

The Judge:

1. (Furious as he discusses the Ninja at a Crime Inc. meeting) I hate the Ninja! I just wanna punch him! In the face! He just makes me so mad!
2. (After Kranski suggests they just kill the Ninja) Nice brain-fart, Kranski! We need an actual plan, morons! If we only knew his weakness. We could set a trap. Capture him. Serve him up on a silver platter...with some fries...maybe a side of slaw... (slams fist down) We need to order lunch!
3. (When the Ninja begins to beat Crime, Inc.'s mechanical monster, TyranoBot, Viceroy tells The Judge to do something. The Judge holds up the remote that controls T-Bot) This thing's got one button, Viceroy. One button! And I pushed it! Want me to push it again? (pushes button) There, ya happy?!

1. (The Ninja stops the T-Bot, The Judge yells, getting angrier and angrier) You think you can stop Crime, Inc., Ninja, but you can't! We're like a weed that keep sprouting no matter how times you pull it! And suddenly the rose garden your doctor told you to plant to lower your blood pressure looks like a disaster! ... What was I saying...? Oh, yeah. You're going down, Ninja!

1. (After being thwarted by the Ninja, The Judge plots his revenge) Someday, Ninja. Someday I will defeat you. And then we will rule this town with an iron fist! (pounds his fist down, then cries out) Ah, my fist! I broke it! Or maybe it's just a sprain! Somebody get me some ice!

Gallery

Video

Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja Original Pilot