I also couldn't get past the refrigerator in Pilots for a long time; my dad and I gave up, but my mom would occasionally try to open it, and one day, she finally succeeded. And our first problem arose even on the very first level, at the gate; in the end, one of my classmates showed us how to get past it.
I didn't get stuck too badly at the gate, but overall, it seemed like a hardcore quest for that time; there were enough challenges even without that.