The Hills



The Hills is an MTV television series that premiered on May 31, 2006. The show uses a reality television format, following the personal lives of several young adults living in Los Angeles, California. The series originally followed the personal life of former Laguna Beach star Lauren Conrad and her friends' new lives in Los Angeles. After five seasons, Conrad chose to leave the series, and was replaced by another former Laguna Beach star, Kristin Cavallari, beginning in the second half of season five. Cavallari signed on for two additional seasons following the fifth.[2]

The series' sixth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season, was announced on December 1, 2009, during The Hills Aftershow. It began filming on January 13, 2010, and debuted on April 27, 2010.[3] Filming wrapped on July 2, 2010 the final episode aired on July 13.

Entertainment Weekly ranked The Hills 82nd on their list of "The 100 Best Shows of the Last 25 Years," stating that the series was a "New Classic."[4]

{| class="toc" id="toc"

Contents
[hide]*1 Overview
 * 1.1 Cast
 * 1.2 Ratings
 * 1.3 Spin-offs
 * 2 Criticism
 * 3 Episodes
 * 4 Series finale
 * 4.1 Final scene
 * 4.2 Aftershow
 * 5 DVD releases
 * 6 See also
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links
 * }

[edit] Overview
The Hills follows the lives of several young women in Los Angeles. The series' four original starring members are Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, and Heidi Montag; Kristin Cavallari, Stephanie Pratt, and Lo Bosworth subsequently become focal points following the departures of Port, Conrad, and Montag. Despite being billed and formatted as a reality series, scripting is used for production purposes.[5]

After MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County became one of the network's highest-rated programs, producers wanted to continue the story of one of its more popular characters, Lauren Conrad, as she moved to Los Angeles. When Laguna Beach ended, the same producers followed Conrad as she left her home in Laguna to move to Los Angeles. For the first five seasons, The Hills followed the daily lives of Lauren and friends, documenting the drama that eventually ensues.

Lauren originally moved in with her friend Heidi Montag, whom she met while attending art school in San Francisco. Lauren also attends the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and landed an internship with Teen Vogue alongside new friend Whitney Port. Soon after, the pair befriended their new neighbor, Audrina Patridge. As the series progresses, Lauren and Heidi's friendship ends after rumors of a sex tape with Lauren and her ex-boyfriend Jason Wahler surfaces, a feud that would continue through each subsequent season, with Audrina providing a stabilizing influence in Lauren's life. Lauren suspects that Heidi's boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, spread the rumor, whom Heidi stood by when Lauren confronted her. Lo Bosworth, Lauren's best friend, moved in with Lauren and Audrina and became a factor in the distance between Lauren and Audrina during the third season. Audrina was in a rocky relationship with Justin Brescia, whom Lo jokingly titled "Justin-Bobby". Lauren befriended Brody Jenner after their brief relationship, followed by a memorable trip to Paris. Stephanie Pratt, Spencer's sister, eventually becomes friends with Lauren after joining the cast in the third season, causing a rift between her relationship with Heidi and her brother. Whitney eventually moved to New York City, and Heidi and Lauren seemed to come to common terms in the fourth season, though Lauren's suspicions still hung over them.

Upon conclusion of season four, rumors were widespread that Conrad wanted to leave the series. Despite this, the producers persuaded her to film ten more episodes at the start of season five in order to settle her relationships before her exit. As Heidi and Spencer decided to marry, Heidi wanted Lauren to attend their wedding. After much debate, Lauren decided to attend the wedding and makes peace with Heidi in her final appearance on the show. The episode also marked the arrival of Lauren's high school rival from Laguna Beach, Kristin Cavallari, who caught the bouquet at the wedding. The season continued with Cavallari as the series' lead. She flirted with Justin at Heidi and Spencer's honeymoon party, which led to a fight between her and Audrina. The enmity between the girls was a major plotline over the rest of the season. Also, after their wedding, Heidi wanted to start a family while Spencer didn't; this was also a major plotline.

The sixth and final season began with Heidi's much publicized plastic surgery procedures, as she revealed herself to her family for the first time. Kristin, Audrina, Lo, and Stephanie spent the Super Bowl weekend in Miami, though Kristin's wild partying lead to rumors about possible drug use. Heidi and Spencer alienate their family and friends to the point where no one wants to be involved in their crazy antics. Meanwhile, Brody and Kristin began flirting again, though he starts dating McKaela Line, who is friends with Kristin's old rival, Allie Lutz. McKaela befriends Lo, but immediately clashed with Kristin, with whom she and Allie had confrontations with. Audrina was dating singer Ryan Cabrera. When the relationship ended, Justin tried to come back into Audrina's life, and the pair became friends. Stephanie found it difficult to start dating after her DUI, but soon met Josh, one of Brody's friends. Lo is happy with her boyfriend of one year, Scott, and moves in. In the final scene, it looks as if Brody is seeing Kristin off to Europe and watching on as she leaves. With the camera on Brody, the Hollywood Hills backdrop is pulled away and the camera pans back to reveal that the entire scene was filmed on a backlot. Kristin hadn't actually left for Europe and gets out of the car that hadn't really driven off to hug Brody, warranting the questioning of whether or not the show was real. Brody stated, "I think the show has always battled with what's real and what's fake, and this ending was perfect because you still don't know what was real, what was fake and it's kind of like L.A. in a sense."[6] An alternative ending was filmed that included Lauren.[6]

[edit] Cast

 * This is the main cast for all seasons according to MTV. For a full list of current and former cast members of The Hills, see the list of cast members.

1 These are the only cast members to receive star billing in opening credits, and are credited simply by their first name.

[edit] Ratings
The Hills premiered the same day as the Laguna Beach season two finale, resulting in roughly the same viewership between the programs. MTV's ratings were some of the highest for any cable network. There was a ratings dip after the season 2 finale as viewers reacted poorly to the developing story. Viewership remained relatively steady from that point on. Ratings for the season four premiere were down 9% among the 12-to-34 demographic (2.1 million) and down 5% among total viewers (3.5 million) in comparison to the show’s third season premiere[7], with the total season four average going down 25% from that of season three.[8] The season five premiere back-to-back episodes averaged 3 million viewers, which is lower than the season four premiere. The finale of the season five's first half brought in 2.7 million viewers, slightly less than the season premiere yet still higher than the season four's finale of roughly 2.5 million viewers.[9] Season five's second half had a 30% decline in ratings, premiering with 2.1 million viewers, nearly a million less than had seen the previous season's premiere. Since its premiere, the show's ratings increased a bit, with the second half's viewership averaging 2.5 million viewers per episode. The final season beat the season five, part two's premiere and equaled season five part one's finale at 2.7 million viewers.

[edit] Spin-offs

 * Whitney Port received her own spin-off from The Hills, named The City.[10] The series centers around Port as she moves to New York City to work for fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg.[10] [11] The series debuted December 29, 2008 on MTV. Its final episode aired on July 13, 2010, and was announced by Port on October 25, 2010 that the series was cancelled.
 * Kelly Cutrone, PR fashion maven and mentor to Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port, had a huge presence on The Hills and The City, resulting in her own show, Kell on Earth. It debuted on Bravo February 1, 2010.[12] [13]
 * Audrina Patridge and her family star in Audrina, a VH1 reality series that premiered on April 17, 2011.[14] [15]
 * Lauren Conrad was supposed to star in a documentary-style reality show following her life as a fashion designer.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15">[16] However, MTV later dropped the series.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16">[17]

[edit] Criticism
On December 17, 2008 the Associated Press released an article titled "Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt nuptials questioned"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ap_17-0">[18] which noted that Pratt and Montag acknowledged that their wedding in Mexico was "entirely symbolic." The article also noted that a Los Angeles Superior Court official confirmed that MTV had obtained permission to shoot in the Beverly Hills courtroom, but it was after office hours and a county court judge would not be present. The civil ceremony was inaccurately portrayed as well, because "if a judge does preside, it is typically in chambers during a break". The Associated Press also checked for marriage records, but found none filed by Pratt or Montag in Los Angeles County.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ap_17-1">[18]

Audrina Patridge's official website biography states that she was cast in her role as a new friend for Lauren and Heidi, as she was approached by a producer to join the cast.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ap2_18-0">[19] During an appearance on Chelsea Lately, Chelsea Handler suggested that they improvised. Audrina stated, "If that's what you want to call it..." When pressed further, she replied, "We're put in situations where however we'd react and that's what comes up [on TV]." She did state that there were no scripts, and Handler joked that "if it is a reality show" that the cast has really good actors. Audrina laughed and said, "Thank you...It is a big compliment."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19">[20]

The apartment community that both Lauren and Heidi initially moved in together was labeled as Hillside Villas in West Hollywood, California in the show. In reality, the apartment complex they lived in was actually The Villas at The Palazzo East at Park La Brea on Third Street in Los Angeles. The neighborhood is known as Park La Brea. It is not in the City of West Hollywood, but it is close to the city boundary.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20">[21]

On a June 18, 2009 episode of The View, Lauren Conrad was asked how she felt about the apology she had received from Spencer Pratt involving the sex tape rumors. She responded "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't on the other line of that call...That was filmed and I wasn't on the other end...so I didn't know about it until--So, no, I never did get an apology."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21">[22]

In the August 2009 issue of the Dutch Cosmopolitan extra light was shed on Lauren's exit and her reunion with her friend and former co-star Heidi Montag on the fifth season of The Hills. What wasn't published in the July issue of the American Cosmopolitan, was that there were actually more reasons for her to end her run on the show than had previously been revealed. She claimed that, over the course of the filming of The Hills, she felt like being on the show had become more of a job than a thing she loved doing, as she had in the past. She said that she felt like she was living in two separate worlds. Furthermore, Conrad's relationship with paparazzi was becoming increasingly difficult, an aspect of her life not seen on the show.

She also revealed that, during production on the fifth season, producers kept on coming up with ideas for her and Montag to reunite. Conrad revealed she no longer wished to fight on the show and was trying to put her friendship with Montag behind her. Producers did not allow for that to happen, to the point where Conrad felt producers were pushing her into directions she did not see as her own. She also revealed that during her surprise birthday party in the fifth season, upon seeing Montag, she actually left the room with producers having to calm her down before being able to continue filming. This was not aired.

Kristin Cavallari, when asked about joining the cast, stated "It’s work! And drama sells. I think that’s why they’re bringing me in, because I know what works." And later said: "Its a TV show, why not? You gotta make it fun!" Also in the interview, Kristin stated "I saw Lauren at the wedding, she was really sweet and gave me a big hug, and that's it", when on the show, it was portrayed differently.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22">[23]

In February 2011, Kristin Cavallari told Access Hollywood that the cast would follow a "schedule" of events to be shot that day. "We only filmed The Hills three days a week, and we did three different scenes each day and a change of clothes to film a specific scene," she said. "They were pushing it as far as they could go without an actual script… They give you a schedule like, ‘You have lunch with Heidi [Montag] at 3 to talk about the party coming up' or whatever the situation may be.”<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">[24]

[edit] Episodes
Main article: List of The Hills episodes

[edit] Series finale
The series' sixth season was announced on December 1, 2009 during The Hills Aftershow. It began filming on January 13, 2010 and debuted on April 27, 2010. On March 25, 2010 The Hills producer and creator Adam DiVello announced that it would be the final season.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-finalseason_2-1">[3] Filming wrapped on July 2, 2010 and aired its final episode on July 13. Despite much speculation from the cast as well as Adam DiVello concerning Lauren Conrad's possible return, the former series star confirmed she would not appear in any of season six episodes or the series finale, however it was confirmed that Lauren Conrad would be featured on a live special following the finale.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24">[25]

[edit] Final scene
In the series' final scene, Brody sees Kristin off to Europe and Brody looks on as she rides away. As the camera pans out of the scene, it is revealed that it was being filmed on an outside set at a movie studio. Thus, the series confronts the common question by critics of whether certain elements of the show, or the entire show itself, are real, fake, or a combination.

However, cast member Lo Bosworth later confirmed that the show was real. In an article on her website, Bosworth said that the cast was poking fun at the rumors of being scripted. While some cast members knew each other from the beginning, producers influenced other relationships, and became real relationships once pushed. Kristin stated that the show was not real and that she would never put her real friends on television. Brody and Kristin were both making statements that no one will know if their relationship was ever real or not. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-lodown_25-0">[26]

Brody Jenner's relationship with Avril Lavigne was widely publicized but never mentioned in the series.

[edit] Aftershow
After the final episode of The Hills and the season finale of The City, a live aftershow, The Hills Live: A Hollywood Ending, aired to celebrate the finale.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26">[27] The cast members that were present at the event:

[edit] See also

 * The City
 * Audrina
 * Freshwater Blue
 * Fade Street
 * Baldwin Hills (TV series)
 * The Only Way Is Essex