Songwriting & Starfish

"Ooh, I love a story! Tell me everything!"

- Officer Dumphry

"Songwriting & Starfish" is the 11th episode in Season 1 of Austin & Ally. It first aired on March 11th, 2012 This episode, and Soups & Stars, are tied for the least watched Austin & Ally episodes.

Overview
The gang tries to help Austin get ready for the Hot Summer Jam Contest on the beach, where he could win a chance to have his song played on the radio. Meanwhile, Ally tries to put her previous, unpleasant beach-going experiences behind her.

Episode Summary
Team Austin emerges from an ice cream shop called "Scoop, There It Is," and appears to be in the process of committing a crime, but are questioned if whether or not they are. First Dez walks out with an ice cream cone in one hand and a starfish on his face, and is spotted by a local police officer, named Dunphy (no first name given). Then, Austin and Trish leave the store and are stopped by the cop as well. Austin is covered in sand and Trish is wearing pajamas and has curlers in her hair. Trish insists that she works at the store, although with her work history this becomes more difficult to prove. After Austin denies robbing the place, Ally come out of the store with a ski mask, and a huge cardboard barrel of ice cream in one hand. All four appear to be guilty.

At the local police precinct, Team Austin tries to explain that their activities were part of the process of writing a song for Austin for the FM 109 Hot Summer Jam contest. In a flashback, Ally runs into the Sonic Boom desperately trying to preserve a melody stuck in her head, and rushes to the nearest piano. Once she finally reaches the one in her office, she starts to play it. Austin spots her playing it, but convinces her to change the key from minor to major. When she starts off with the lyrics, they make a day at the beach seem less than promising. Since Ally has nothing positive to base beach life on, they try to help her by bringing her to the beach for a good time, which doesn't work so well. Trish lugs an ice cream cart from the store in the sand, Dez winds up with a starfish stuck to his face, but when Austin rips it off, he decides to keep it. When Ally finally thinks of some lyrics, she decides to write them down in her songbook, only to find it covered with Dez's gum, and Trish decides to put it in her ice cream cart in order to freeze the gum off. Trish, Austin and Ally decide to lounge around on the beach for more inspiration, and Austin requests a bottle of sunblock from Dez. In the meantime, Ally has trouble unfolding her beach chair, and when Austin tries to help her, they both spring backwards as Austin lands in the sand, and finds some of it is stuck to his body. Dez reveals that he accidentally gave him glue so he could stay on the surfboard. Ally winds up tangled in his beach chair, and Dez later put the same starfish back onto his face.

Later that night, the songwriter and pop-star are still struggling to come up with lyrics, but Ally thinks she can find a solution in her songbook. The only trouble is, she can't find it, but realizes she left it in the ice cream cart that Trish brought onto the beach. Desperate, she calls Trish to wake her up at 4:00 A.M., to get her to unlock the store. Austin accidentally finds out it's already opened, and Trish tells them that she never locked it in the first place. In the process of looking for her songbook, Austin breaks the door handle, and they get locked in the freezer. As they struggle to keep warm, Austin decides to call Dez on his cell phone, but the phone has a bad reception, which causes Dez to misunderstand his message. Still waiting for Dez, Trish offers Ally a ski mask that she keeps in the room so that she doesn't freeze her face off when she uses it to take naps. Austin starts getting hungry and decides to eat some of the ice cream in the freezer. The three flavors he chooses turn out to be "chocolate chip," "cookie dough," and "fruity-mint swirl." The latter of these three turns out to be Ally's childhood favorite, and she quickly joins in. Right then, she tells Austin and Trish that the flavor reminds her of a rare good time at the beach where she and her father were on the boardwalk listening to a song on the radio that happened to be broadcasting a concert of the band that was playing that song nearby. Both Austin & Ally realize she does have good memories of the beach after all, and it becomes the inspiration for the song "Heard It on the Radio." Dez finally arrives to save them, but for some reason drags in Gus the janitor, and shaves off half of his beard.

Officer Dunphy now understands the situation but refuses to let them go. Impulsively, he begins drumming on his desk with two pencils, which Ally notices, and the rest of the team is impressed by. He later explains that he originally wanted to be a drummer, but his father talked him out of it because of the slim chances of success, but they coax him into letting him join the band for the Hot Summer Jam on the condition that he sets them free. The officer seems to refuse to budge, then the scene is cut to Dunphy himself on the drums for Austin's band at the beach. Austin plays the song that they came up with in the ice cream freezer. After the show, Dunphy tells them that the shop owner dropped the charges because Ally left money to pay for all the ice cream they ate. Trish, on the other hand was fired once again for various reasons, and seeks a job at the precinct. The episode ends with Team Austin listening to his latest hit, which won the contest. Dez becomes excited for the team and offers a group hug, but they get stuck together as they eventually realize he mistook his sunblock for glue once again.

Main Cast

 * Ross Lynch as Austin Moon.
 * Laura Marano as Ally Dawson.
 * Raini Rodriguez as Trish.
 * Calum Worthy as Dez.

Guest Cast

 * Kelly Perine as Officer Dunphy.
 * Patrick J. Nicolas as Lead Guitar
 * William Sturtevant as Gus (uncredited)

Trivia

 * The outside of the Miami Police Station is the same as the Denver Police Station used in Good Luck, Charlie.
 * This is the 3rd episode to feature an animal. The 1st was Kangaroos & Chaos, the 2nd was Zaliens & Cloud Watchers, the 4th was MyTAB & My Pet and the 5th was Everglades & Ally-Gators.
 * This episode premiered to 2.6 million viewers.
 * When Ally comes out of the ice-cream shop, looking like she broke into the shop, it is very similar to in the WildSide episode Wild School when Rachel and Justice really looked like they broke into the school, but they didn't.
 * This episode has a commercial break only about six minutes in.
 * This is the first time we see Austin shirtless.
 * This is first time Dez sings on the show.
 * There is a rule in the ice cream shop to not hug the ice cream.
 * Trish is hired and fired from her job at Scoop, There It Is.
 * This episode title refers to Austin and Ally trying to write a new song, and Dez's starfish that he had stuck to his face.
 * The whole episode is told in a flashback, apart from the very beginning and the ending.  Its also the first episode to feature a flashback.
 * In the part before the theme song, a poster for "Battle of the Bands" is shown. This is a competition from another Disney show: Good Luck Charlie.
 * While Ally is coming up with the melody, the sheet music to "Eine Kleine Machtmusik" can be seen. It can be assumed that this music MAY have been the inspiration behind Heard It on the Radio.
 * There was a cake in the freezer that looks like it's in a Baskin Robbins box.

Goofs

 * The officer told Trish that she served him a bad latte at the Coffee Kiosk, but in Burglaries & Boobytraps, the Coffee Kiosk was named the Coffee Shop.
 * When Austin fell in the sand after trying to help Ally open up the chair, there's sand on his chest, but when we see a bigger shot of him when he stands up, there's sand all over his body.
 * When Austin performed the song "Heard It on the Radio", he changed out of his bathing suit and washed off the sand and changed into a new outfit, though Trish, Dez, and Ally were still wearing their clothes (PJs, bathing suit) from the police station.
 * The live version of "Heard It On the Radio" (heard in this episode) heavily differs that the album version on the soundtrack to Austin & Ally.
 * When Austin fell in the sand after trying to help Ally open up the chair, his necklace guitar pick is stuck to his back, throughtout the rest of the show, it is in the front.