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They tanned, they smushed, they conquered.
29 Ridiculous Lines from the Cast of ‘Jersey Shore’
And more importantly, they became a family.
The now coed series moved to MTV, where it debuted.
She shows me a stock-footage tape called Americas Biggest Guido, the origins of which I cant remember.
You are doing this.
Doron Ofir:My job was to go and find them.
Whoever was throwing fists in the dance circles at nightclubs were the people we were approaching.
Mike the Situation was the first cast.
He was also featured in the original tape, so we already had an iconic archetype to build from.
Mike Sorrentino (a.k.a.
Someone told me that VH1 was trying to do a show about guidos from the East Coast.
It was supposed to be aChallenge-pop in show at first.
I did the pilot.
I was like, What?
I have never in my life met someone that felt more comfortable upon not knowing you.
Hes like, Enough said, right?
Having casted a million of these, we had never really seen anyone do that before.
Nicole Polizzi (a.k.a.
Snooki):I saw an audition posting on Facebook for a show calledGuidos and Guidettes.
I went there drunk, because it was at a bar, and the rest is history.
Doron Ofir:Nicole showed up in a miniskirt and she literally did cartwheels and flips.
What spilled on it?
Pauly DelVecchio (a.k.a.
They said they liked my look for a potential show.
Then a casting director called my phone and said, Wed like to film a day in your life.
I didnt take it too seriously, until they showed up at my house with cameras.
Im like, Well, what do you want me to do?
They said, Just do what you normally do.
A tanning booth is like $10,000.
Whos saving up coins and then buying a tanning booth?
Angelina Pivarnick:I was going through a breakup.
My girlfriends were like, Youre coming out tonight.
Were in this club, and I feel some girl tapping me on the shoulder.
She goes, Listen, Ive been watching you for half an hour, and I think youre amazing.
I want to interview you for something.
Jenni Farley (a.k.a.
JWoww):I worked at a nightclub in Long Island.
We held casting calls all the time.
He kept trying out, and I was like, Listen, try out at my club one night.
Ill try out with you.
They called me a couple weeks later We really think we would love you for thisNumber One Guidoshow.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro:I had a shore house with my friends already in Belmar.
She was like, Listen, you fit the criteria of somebody that were casting for a show.
Would you like to try out?
Then I did a video audition.
Of course, I acted like a completecrazy person.
Took my shirt off, fist pumped.
You know, what we do best acting like maniacs.
The camera guy was dying.
Doron Ofir:At one point, there was a guy named Joey Fist Pumps in the mix.
He was literally called Joey Fist Pumps.
He was a union contractor, which is one of the reasons he wasnt able to do the show.
He had arms that were tremendous.
He was a Jersey Shore regular.
Girls wore Joey Fist Pumps T-shirts when they walked around him.
Nicole Polizzi:Before the show, no one really called me Snooki.
They were looking for nicknames on the utility.
Then I was like, Oh, shit.
Now that its stuck, I wish Id put something else.
Jenni Farley:JWoww was my nickname in the club scene.
When we were at work together, he was like, You need a stage name to go by.
And I was like, Well, you always call me Wow.
you’re free to say Jenni Wow.
And then it shortened over time to JWoww.
Sounds a little stripper-ish, now that I look back at it.
SallyAnn Salsano:Brian Graden was overseeing both MTV and VH1.
Its going to MTV.
Jacqueline French (executive producer):I believe we filled those last two slots with Vinny and Ronnie.
Vinny Guadagnino:I actually had a friend, as a joke, send me the system form.
They were looking for big, muscular guidos with spiky hair.
I wasnt like that.
Then I got a call back a year later.
They were like, Hey, remember you filled out that thing?
Im like, What thing?
Next thing you know, I was in the house with those crazy people.
We wanted to see this in action.
Where does that happen?
Im Going to the Jersey Shore, Bitch!
Mike Sorrentino:Seaside was a place you went to for your senior prom or junior prom.
Once you turned 21, you would go to a Headliner or Karma or Bamboo on a Friday night.
Everyone would flock from Long Island to come down here.
Michael Loundy (owner, Seaside Realty):I got a call from a production company.
They didnt say who they were, they didnt say what the show was.
They called looking for a six-bedroom home.
Every week theyd have someone come in and check the house.
At the very end, SallyAnn came in, cursing and saying all this crazy stuff.
She was nothing like the other people I met.
She was like, How long will it take you to get all of your stuff out of here?
And I was like, Well, I dont know, a couple of days.
Can you do it in 24 hours?
She handed me an envelope, and I was like, All right, no problem.
SallyAnn Salsano:Our art director went out and goes, I saw this duck phone.
I said, We cannot leave that in the house.
It doesnt make sense.
Then the show started and Im like, Oh my God, we left that duck phone in there.
Now the duck phone is the national symbol ofJersey Shore.
Jenni Farley:I didnt know I was gonna end up on the shore and have roommates.
It was very secretive.
Two days later, theyre like, Heres the directions to the house, so well see you there.
Vinny Guadagnino:I honestly didnt know what the hell it was.
Just a one-shot thing.
Nicole Polizzi:I was training to be a veterinary technician.
We would help deliver cows.
I had one more semester until I could graduate and then venture to get my license.
This was a huge thing for me because I was missing all my classes.
I felt very guilty.
What am I gonna put my stuff in?
I literally just took my stuff and threw all of it in garbage bags.
I drove down to Seaside and I walked in the house with garbage bags.
Ill never live that one down, but hey.
Pauly is the only one that looked legit.
Vinnys pale and doesnt tan.
I felt like I was in the wrong house.
Im like, Where are you from?
Shes like, Poughkeepsie.
I was like, They make guidos in Poughkeepsie?
I guess this is an epidemic or something.
Vinny Guadagnino:I felt like an alien landing in guidoland.
Im from Staten Island.
I grew up around those people.
But at the same time, I was like, Wait, do they still exist?
That whole fad was a couple years before that.
This is going to be a long summer.
He ended up being my best friend, ironically.
SallyAnn Salsano:The sheer amount of footage we shot on this show is unprecedented.
There were 42 cameras inside the house, inside the Shore Store, and on the boardwalk.
In Seaside, we had them up and down the boardwalk, down to the Ferris wheel.
We would treat the cameras like baby monitors.
If it was quiet, you ran upstairs and went to sleep.
The minute you heard them chirping, you ran back downstairs.
Pauly DelVecchio:The only time youre off camera is when youre in the bathroom.
We took long showers to get away from cameras.
But it does become second nature.
SallyAnn Salsano:At first,I remember panicking in the control room.
Thats not a TV show.
Then we got lazy and just started writing GTL.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro:Its everything we did.
Typically theyd tan like 10, 12 minutes.
Jenni Farley:We all did the same things.
We all ran in the same groups.
Mike Sorrentino:Sunday family dinner was very important because it brought us together.
Everyone loved sausage and peppers.
They loved chicken parmesan.
They loved the fresh tomato sauce.
We would make sauteed vegetables.
We would grill steaks and chicken.
We came together on Sunday dinner and put our differences aside, and we always had differences.
We dont have any money.
Id just graduated college, I didnt have a job.
Ronnie was doing real estate at the time, so he was making real-estate calls on the duck phone.
He would say, Hey, do you consent to being recorded?
Im on a TV show, and then would go into a spiel about some deal hes doing.
One night, they paid us to promote at Club Karma.
I think they gave us like 500 bucks.
At the time, if you handed me 500 bucks, that was like handing me a million dollars.
I was good for the rest of the summer.
You live in a beach house for freeandget 20 bucks an hour?
It was great money!
Mike Sorrentino:For some reason, they rode me on every job.
I dont know if producers told them to.
Maybe it was because I was a bit of a slacker.
Danny Merk:Mike sucked.
Mike worked hard at not working.
Her best year was when she was pregnant because she was sober and she didnt have a hangover.
The very first day, man, Pauly took it seriously.
Vinny was always trying to pick up an extra shift.
Jenni and Sammi, I would always put them on the register because they were great.
Jenni was a fantastic upseller.
Shed bully people into buying things.
Jenni Farley:Im a daughter of a used-car salesman.
I honestly would not let customers check out unless they bought a shot glass for $5.
I gave no options.
Cabs Are Here
Nights onJersey Shorewere all about partying.
Pauly DelVecchio:T-shirt time was probably around 10:30.
That means, everybody put your T-shirts on, cause were about to go out.
And the shirt has to be a cool-looking shirt, whether its a cool color or a cool phrase.
Everything has to work together.
Actually, Im surprised I didnt get bronchitisbecause we never opened a window.
We all had to have spray tans, layers of hairspray, thin eyebrows.
It was at least two or three hours because of the rotation of the bathroom.
Deena Cortese:We always had false eyelashes, hair extensions, and lots of bronzer.
We basically had bronzer prints everywhere because wed get it on our hands.
It would get on our door.
It would get on our dresser.
The poor boys would have bronzer everywhere in the house.
Pauly DelVecchio:The blowout process is kind of wild.
It has to be straight from the shower.
Your hair has to be clean.
And then I put in the product.
The products so strong, its like Elmers Glue.
Perfecting it takes forever.
Its like 25 minutes.
Nicole Polizzi:The pouf basically took me five seconds.
My hair is so thick that I can literally just clip it and its done.
You would see a group of kids and a big crew, but everybody ignored them.
By the end, it was a totally different situation.
It was like people watching a movie being filmed, waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Id just be completely nauseous and hugging the toilet for eight hours.
Nicole Polizzi:We drank a ton.
I dont even know how were alive.
When you listen to the song, it makes you feel high.
It takes over your body and it alters your state.
I dont think a lot of people even knew it was LMFAO.
Now they like to call it twerking.
But I made it up, and its the Jersey Turnpike.
The reason we call her a grenade is because she always blows up at the end of the night.
Theyre always like, I dont have anybody to meet, so I wanna go home.
It could be any-looking person its just someone your friend has to sacrifice himself for.
Come at Me, Bro
Jersey Shorewas infamous from the very beginning.
Multiple advertisers pulled their commercials from the show.
Footage of Snooki getting punched proved to be particularly controversial.
Pauly DelVecchio:We had so much controversy in the beginning.
I cant really even hate on the haters.
I gotta thank them.
They showed the cast being intoxicated, acting very dumb.
I saw violence against women.
And they were specifically saying, These are Italian-Americans.
Not all the people that were onJersey Shorewere even Italian-Americans.
To me, that was even worse.
That was like a minstrel show.
Deena Cortese:I thought it was silly.
We were young kids and thats what we called ourselves, so I dont know why theyre getting offended.
We werent representing for Italians.
We were representing for ourselves, just going down the shore and having a good time.
My family is straight off the boat from Sicily.
Theyd be like, Look at these stupid Americans.
The first was Dominos Pizza.
We requested that our spots not air on future episodes.
We do not consider men hitting women to be entertainment.
Doron Ofir:Snooki had never been away from home.
The other roommates didnt like her.
She didnt fit in.
She wanted to quit the show.
At that moment, they became a family.
Nicole Polizzi:I remember ordering shots for the roomies.
The guy was so drunk, he kept taking the drinks we were ordering.
I just yelled at him, and right when I did, he punched me.
I was like, Oh, thats cool.
I think I just died.
SallyAnn Salsano:Everyone was shocked.
In that moment, everyone became so much more human.
Pauly DelVecchio:We wanted to kill this guy.
Its like we saw our sister get punched in the face.
Jacquelyn French:The punch did air once.
It aired in the super-tease at the end of episode two.
We dont want to pretend it didnt happen.
We ended up showing everything that led up to it, and then showing the aftermath.
We dipped to black at the point that he actually made contact with Snookis face.
Nicole Polizzi:That was actually my parents doing.
They demanded MTV not show it.
It was nice that they listened, because my dad was really, really upset about it.
The anger is still there, nine years later.
Vinny Guadagnino:I think thats what made the show so big Ive never seen that on TV.
Nicole can take a punch too, man.
She has a strong chin.
Everybody would come in and sit in the Snooki chair.
Vinny Guadagnino:The first season, I didnt get laid at all.
I kissed one or two girls, that was the extent of it.
Then, obviously, it went anywhere from 20 to 30, 20 to 40.
Jenni Farley:I mean, six seasons, you divide it by three single guys.
I would say at least 100 [overnight guests], 15 to 20 a season.
There was a lot that you guys didnt even get to see.
Pauly DelVecchio:The smush room was absolutely disgusting.
Im a neat freak, so Im not trying to use a community bed that people smush on.
Id rather use my own bed.
SallyAnn Salsano:People are literally given a field sobriety test to get into the house.
Also, if someone is that inebriated, wed ask people to leave.
Doron Ofir:My thoughts were, initially, that JWoww and Mike would have coupled off.
I did hope that Sammi and Ronnie would couple off.
They became the the most organic, volatile duo, I think, in the history of reality television.
Mike Sorrentino:It was hard cause we all started to get close.
Then out of nowhere it gets turned on you: Stop meddling in my relationship.
It was a very fine line.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro:I was always the one that said, Dont fall in love on the Jersey Shore.
I guess it was just something that clicked between us, you know?
Shes a great girl and I hope shes happy in life.
I learned what you shouldnt do in a relationship, obviously.
Nicole Polizzi:Ron and Sam drama was so crazy.
We were hoping if she found it, she would think a producer was giving her a heads up.
But the producers made sure to tell her, No, it wasnt us.
It was one of your roommates.
Jenni Farley:It completely backfired.
She really was more mad that someone wrote the note than about what was written in the note.
It was so hard for us in Miami.
Me and Nicole were like, Wow.
We were finally getting what we felt like we deserved.
Sammi Giancola (a.k.a.
Sammi Sweetheart):[Declined to be interviewed.]
Barbara Walters included them on her 2010 list of Most Fascinating People.
They were eventually the subjects of both aSouth Parkepisode and anacademic conferenceat the University of Chicago.
Danny Merk:When they moved out after season one, I thought the show was over.
Theres a million reality shows out there, lets be honest.
Its not my house anymore its like a museum.
Vinny Guadagnino:Back then, Facebook was everything.
I remember, the night of the premiere, I had like 80 requests.
I was like, Oh my God, 80 Facebook requests!
Nicole Polizzi:We went to L.A. for press during season one.
None of us went to the West Coast before.Kimmelwas our first big show.
We were only supposed to be there for that, then come back.
We ended up staying a couple extra days because they were booking us for all these other shows.
And then, going out that night, we were hanging out with Leonardo DiCaprio and Lindsay Lohan.
Thats when we knew our show is a big deal, because even celebrities know who we are.
It was a really big deal at that time.
Doron Ofir:Jersey Shorewas the No.
1 show in Asia and it was calledMacaroni Rascals.
And I was just like, What?!
Bad or indifferent, I could have cared less.
I was just like, He knows who I am?
SallyAnn Salsano:When we went back for season three, it was packed.
They would tell them, These guys are still working.
Cant talk about the show.
That made us feel comfortable.
We never felt like we were celebrities.
We were just being us.
Danny Merk:Out of the sayings from the TV show, Yeah Buddy was on fire.
I sold so much Yeah Buddy merchandise, especially when Pauly was inside the store.
Come at Me, Bro was on fire, and T-Shirt Time.
Thats a classic saying no matter what.
Michael Loundy:It was a tremendous shot in the arm, fiscally, for our area.
Across the board, everybody was up 20 percent.
Were still renting theJersey Shorehouse very aggressively at$1,200 a night.
We get multiple calls per day, people asking availability.
Weve got pictures of grandmothers fist-pumping in front of the front door.
Every time we went outside, the whole block would scream.
It was like being at a Yankee game when they chant everybodys name.
Nicole Polizzi:Obviously, were grateful.
But it got to be too much.
It was just a huge production.
Wed have security guards all around us, paparazzi getting us, then the fans everywhere.
It was a lot to take in, especially if youre not used to it.
Vinny Guadagnino:When drunk people saw the cameras, it was a very hostile experience.
We almost got into fights every single night we went out.
Obviously, Nicole still got arrested in season three, but they werent trying to be hostile towards us.
I blacked out, but I remember thinking, How do I get on the beach?
So I just said, Wheres the beach?
Pauly DelVecchio:I loved Italy, but it was a bit of a culture shock for me.
Here I am, this big Italian from the East Coast.
I go to Italy and Im like, Whoa, this is real.
These are real Italians.
I was like, Wheres breakfast?
They didnt have breakfast.
It was like cappuccinos and all this other stuff.
Im like, What is going on with these four-hour lunches?
At least lets appreciate the art while were punching each other in the face.
Mike Sorrentino:Italy wasnt my best season, only because I was not very healthy that year.
I was arguing and fighting with everyone.I banged my head on a concrete wall.
To be honest with you, I actually thought the wall was sheetrock.
It was a very big miscalculation.
I was in that neck brace for, I dont know, two to four weeks, probably.
Sprained neck and concussion.
Vinny Guadagnino:We went to Sicily to visit my family.
That was probably my favorite moment from all of the show.
Their town in Sicily is really small, almost a horse-and-buggy key in of town.
They did not flinch at the cameras for a second.
Theyd probably never seen cameras that big in their life.
We were having dinner around the table.
They didnt pay attention they cared about their food.
By the beginning of season six, Nicole was pregnant and engaged to now-husband Jionni LaValle.
I was like, Listen, Im pregnant.
I dont want to be in that house, its filthy.
Everyones gonna be drinking.
I didnt really do much.
I just sat in my room the entire time.
Mike Sorrentino:I stayed sober season six.
It was very challenging at that time.
Having a lot of education and knowing myself now, I was almost setting myself up for failure.
I was just doing it by willpower.
I did a good job, but I relapsed when I got home.
Jenni Farley:We were all settling down.
Family, engagements, and weddings.
We were all getting older.
Angelina Pivarnick:Watching from the outside, I had a mix of emotions.
I thought, Wow, maybe I dont have to hear about it anymore.
Im not a jealous hater like that.
Mike Sorrentino:I remember all of us production, everyone being very teary-eyed and upset at the time.
They said, Listen, we want to revisit this and refilm in a different way in the future.
And I guess were here now.
A revival,Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, premiered in 2018.
They were incredibly cinematic.
They were about the very aspirationally motivated lives of young adults.
AndJersey Shorebulldozed through that.
Nicole Polizzi:Im grateful that the show helped me meet my husband.
Watching me and Jionni meet, I wish it was something romantic.
But I love the fact that I met him while I was down the shore.
SallyAnn Salsano:I think its the first time you had a cast live their life unapologetically.
These guys would be like, Well, that was a disaster.
All right, today is a new day.
Pauly DelVecchio:I have a theoryits like music.
The music that works is the music thats relatable.
Like Taylor Swift songs when youre having a breakup, you put those on, cause theyre relatable.
You wanna party, you put on a Lil Jon track.
And then theres always a party guy.
Mike Sorrentino:I have over two years clean and sober now.
I dont do drugs.
It was like a train wreck.
I wouldnt change a thing, because I wouldnt be here today, in an awesome place.
Deena Cortese:Were like a bad car crash, you know?
You have to look at it.
Angelina Pivarnick:What has everybody else done when they were 21 years old?
I bet if there was a camera on most people, you would be shocked.
This is the way young kids back then would talk and make mistakes.
Its not this sugar-coated thing where everyone is monitoring everything theyre saying just so they can appease everybody.
Nicole Polizzi:I think we were the realest reality show.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro:We were young, so people watched us grow up.
And we werent produced.
We didnt have people to say, Do this, act this way, this is where youre going.
We were put into the water and we swam.
