The Hills (TV series)

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The Hills
Genre	Reality
Created by	Adam Divello
Opening theme	"Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Production
Running time	20–22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV
Original airing	May 31, 2006
Chronology
Related shows	Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Hills is an MTV reality television series^[1] and a spin-off of the popular MTV show Laguna Beach. It documents the life of Lauren Conrad and her friends after leaving her home in Laguna Beach, California. The show has been named the greatest TV Show of all time by Chuck Norris.

1 Cast
2 Synopsis
3 Ratings information
4 Spoofs and goofs
5 Criticism and controversy
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Cast

The following is a list of current cast members as of Season 3 (May 2008).

Main Cast Member
Secondary Cast Member

NAME	INFORMATION
Lauren Conrad	Attends FIDM pursuing Fashion Design and works for People's Revolution.
Audrina Patridge	Lauren's current housemate who works at Epic Records.
Whitney Port	Lauren's good friend and co-worker at People's Revolution.
Heidi Montag	Lauren's former roommate who works for "Bolthouse Productions"^[2].
Kelly Cutrone	Lauren and Whitney's new boss and owner of People's Revolution.
Brent Bolthouse	Heidi's boss and owner of "Bolthouse Productions"^[3].
Brody Jenner	Lauren's good friend and Spencer's former best friend.
Spencer Pratt	Heidi's boyfriend.
Stephanie Pratt	Spencer's sister and mutual friend of Heidi and Lauren.
Justin "Bobby" Brescia	Audrina's Ex-Boyfriend.
Lo Bosworth	Lauren's current housemate and good friend from Laguna Beach.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Season 1

US Premiere Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2006
DVD Release Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Number of Episodes: 10

Lauren's road to independence was documented shortly after leaving Laguna Beach and moving to Los Angeles where she met up with close friend, Heidi Montag. During her time in LA, Lauren spent her days balancing school at FIDM and working at Teen Vogue. After a hard day of work, Lauren received a shocking phone call from Jason Wahler. After much consideration, Lauren decided to give Jason a second chance. Meanwhile, Heidi confessed that school was not for her; she unofficially withdrew and began working for an event-planning firm, Bolthouse Productions. Heidi was also seen dating Jordan Eubanks, a relationship that grew strong but eventually ended. In the season finale, Lauren was offered a summer internship in Paris that she ultimately turned down so that she could spend the summer with then boyfriend, Jason. Fellow intern, Whitney Port, was offered an internship in New York, but when the one in Paris opened up, Whitney immediately took the offer. Heidi confessed to new friend, Audrina Patridge, that she is completely over Jordan. Heidi and Audrina then spend their summer nights enjoying single life in Los Angeles.

[edit] Season 2

US Premiere Date: Monday, January 15, 2007
DVD Release Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Number of Episodes: 12

Lauren realized that staying with Jason was a huge mistake, and the two had a tearful breakup. Lauren then focused all of her energy at work where she found herself "competing" with Whitney against the New York intern, Emily Weiss, who occasionally visits the LA offices. In turn, Whitney visited with the New York executives to interview for a higher position within Teen Vogue, one that Emily was also interviewed for. Meanwhile, Heidi was seen dating Spencer Pratt, to much concern from Lauren. Heidi soon learned that Spencer was being unfaithful and declared their relationship to be over. Despite this, the two evidently got back together, and Lauren subsequently turned to Audrina for friendship. In the season finale, Spencer and Heidi moved in together, citing a possible end to Lauren and Heidi's friendship. Lauren then decided to invite Audrina to move in with her, and she accepted.

[edit] Season 3

US Premiere Date: Monday, August 13, 2007 (part 1)
DVD Release Date: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 ^[4]
US Premiere Date: Monday, March 24, 2008 (part 2)
Number of Episodes: 28

Lauren's feud verses the newly engaged Heidi took a turn for the worse after Lauren alleged that she spread a rumor and cut all ties with her former best friend. At Teen Vogue, Whitney struggled with her new position as the Direct Supervisor of all the interns, and after a trip to Paris, she decided to call it quits and interviewed with People's Revolution. She asks Lauren to help her run a show and Whitney's boss Kelly notices Lauren's work ethic and extends an invitation to come work for her. Lauren accepts. Lauren's living situation with Audrina was turning into that with Heidi, in which she was uncomfortable with her roommate's new boyfriend, Justin. Lauren continued to stay close with her childhood friend, Lo, and the two decided to buy a house together in Hollywood, choosing to invite Audrina to live with them. Lauren found out Brody had a girlfriend while in Paris, and chose to move on by reuniting with former flame, Stephen Colletti. Meanwhile, Heidi focused all of her energy into her work at Bolthouse Productions and struggled with her engagement to Spencer who had a different view about their upcoming wedding. The two went on a "relationship vacation", and Spencer consequently moved in with his sister, Stephanie, who managed to put herself in the midst of the 'Lauren vs. Heidi' feud after befriending Lauren while taking a class at FIDM together. In the season finale, Audrina argued to Lauren that it was Lo who was pulling their friendship apart, and Heidi put her job at Bolthouse in jeopardy after going home with Spencer who surprised her during a business trip to Las Vegas.

[edit] Season 4

MTV has renewed The Hills for a fourth season. Season 4 is to start airing in August 2008 with a total of 19 episodes. ^[5] A preview for the fourth season shown at the end of Season 3 included scenes of a rivalry between Audrina and Lo while Stephanie's loyalty to both Lauren and Spencer is pushed to the limits. Meanwhile, Kelly Cutrone offers Whitney a job in New York.

[edit] Ratings information

The first episode of the extended portion of season three in March 2008 was the year's highest rated cable telecast up to that point, as well as the highest rated telecast of an episode of The Hills, with a rating of 5.0 among viewers ages 12 to 34. It averaged about 4.7 million viewers and was the most watched television show of the night (March 24, 2008) among the ages 12 to 34 demographic. On the following day, March 25, the episode was streamed 1.8 million times on MTV.com, while The Hills content in general was streamed about 2.2 million times on that day.^[6]

According to MTV, the season three finale on May 12, 2008 was the most watched show in its time period among the 12 to 34 year old demographic. There were about 3.77 million viewers, and about 2.94 million of them were part of the 12 to 34 year old demographic.^[7]

[edit] Spoofs and goofs

MADtv filmed a parody of the show, featuring Nicole Parker as Lauren, Arden Myrin as Heidi, Crista Flanagan as Whitney, and Ike Barinholtz as Jason.
Current TV's SuperNews! created a cartoon version of the show, set after the Earth is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust.^[8]
Animator Scott Bateman created an animated video of a strange conversation of the show for Salon.com.^[9]
James Franco and Mila Kunis spoof Justin Bobby and Audrina of The Hills^[10]
In the movie Interview, Sienna Miller watches herself on Fox network playing the lead in a spoof of The Hills called 'City Girls'
Fueled By Ramen recording artist Powerspace spoofed The Hills in a YouTube video^[11]
The Soup frequently makes fun of The Hills.

[edit] Criticism and controversy

There have been a lot of rumors and speculations stating that the show is not reality and, although not scripted, scenes may be set up specifically for filming. Examples include:

In #3 episode 11 where Conrad goes on a date with male model Gavin Beasley, she is seen wearing red nail polish. When she goes home and calls Jenner directly afterward, she is seen with flesh-colored nails. Beasley is quoted by VH1's Best Week Ever as saying that producers set up the date.^[12]
In an interview, Lauren Conrad defends The Hills by stating the show is a reality cut into bits and pieces to create a storyline. ^[13]
As posted by TMZ.com, Heidi and Spencer were seen filming a scene at Los Angeles International Airport where Heidi was departing to visit her family in Colorado. They were then photographed an hour later in different clothing, filming a reunion scene at the same airport on the same day.
A celebrity gossip blogger, Perez Hilton, reports that a source from The Hills states, "she [Heidi] doesn't really work [at the event-planning company] when the cameras are off."^[14]
When the show airs in the UK on Channel 4 a disclaimer states that some of scenes of the show are created for "entertainment purposes".
In #3 episode 10 Spencer has a full beard in the previous episode, it is shaved during the first scenes but fully grown when Heidi arrives home from lunch.
In #3 episode 27 Spencer is seen walking to Heidi's doorstep wearing black shoes. In the next scene, he enters Heidi's apartment wearing white shoes.
In an interview with EW, Lauren Conrad states that The Hills is merely an edited reality, an unscripted drama ^[13]

Lauren Conrad, stated in November 2007: "There have been some rumors in the press about The Hills being fake. Many of you have been asking me if the rumors are true. There are false rumors every week about me, and I can’t address every rumor out there, but I feel like this was important for me to respond to. The show is not fake and this is really my life."^[15]