Hollywood Heights (TV series)

This article is about the television series. For the neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, see Hollywood Heights, Los Angeles.
Hollywood Heights
Genre
Developed by Josh Griffith
Written by Josh Griffith
Starring
Theme music composer
Opening theme "Something in the Air", performed by Cody Longo
Country of origin United States, México
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 80 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s)
Running time 43 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor Viacom Media Networks
Release
Original network
Picture format
Audio format Stereo
Original release June 18 (2012-06-18) – October 5, 2012 (2012-10-05)
External links
Website

Hollywood Heights is an American family drama, which aired on Nick at Nite and TeenNick from June 18 to October 5, 2012.[1][2][3][4] Loosely based on the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una estrella (To Reach a Star), the series follows aspiring singer-songwriter Loren Tate (Brittany Underwood), whose life changes forever when she crosses paths with her rock star idol Eddie Duran (Cody Longo).[1][3][5] Hollywood Heights was executive produced by six-time Emmy Award-winner Jill Farren-Phelps, and co-executive produced by Hisham Abed and Josh Griffith, who also served as head writer.[1]

The series was announced in May 2012 as a coproduction between Sony Pictures Television and Televisa, the Mexican production company which owns the rights to the original telenovela.[1] As with the Latin American telenovela format, Hollywood Heights would run every weeknight at 9 p.m. EST through October.[1][6] Nick at Nite previewed the first episode several times starting on June 11, 2012 before the 80-episode limited series' official premiere on June 18, 2012.[1][2][5] The show initially ran on weeknights at 9 p.m. (EST).[1] In May, the network had announced that actor James Franco would appear in a multi-episode story arc as Osborne "Oz" Silver, an eccentric and ruthless movie mogul.[1] Franco's first appearance was on June 29, 2012.[2] Halfway through the series on August 13, 2012 it was moved to Nick at Nite's sister channel TeenNick at 8 p.m. EST.[4] The series was not renewed for a second season.

Plot

Loren Tate (Brittany Underwood) is a high school senior dreaming of a career as a singer-songwriter—and of hunky rock star Eddie Duran (Cody Longo). Eddie, meanwhile, is not happy with the direction his career has taken—toward shallow pop music rather than the soulful material he prefers. But with Loren's cool single mom Nora (Jama Williamson) and sassy best friend Melissa (Ashley Holliday) egging her on, she enters and wins Eddie's own songwriting contest, and worlds collide. As Loren is increasingly dazzled by (and welcomed into) Eddie's celebrity world, he is realizing how unhappy he is, trapped in a machine of his own making and at the mercy of his many fans and demanding manager Jake (Brandon Bell). Meanwhile, Loren and Melissa navigate the intrigues of high school life and mean girl Adriana (Hunter King); Melissa's brother Phil (Robert Adamson) gets mixed up with the wrong people; Eddie's father, 1980s musician Max Duran (Carlos Ponce), hopes to end his son's relationship with the duplicitous climber Chloe (Melissa Ordway), who is cheating on Eddie with the ambitious Tyler (Justin Wilczynski).[7]

Cast and characters

Pictured: (standing, l-–r) Melissa (Ashley Holliday), Nora (Jama Williamson), Eddie (Cody Longo, on ledge), Chloe (Melissa Ordway), Kelly (Yara Martinez), Adam (Nick Krause) (sitting, l-r) Max (Carlos Ponce), Loren (Brittany Underwood), Tyler (Justin Wilczyniski), Traci (Shannon Kane), Jake (Brandon Bell)

Main

Recurring

Episodes

In the tradition of Latin American telenovelas, Hollywood Heights was conceived as a limited series, in this case 80 episodes, with its storylines resolved by the end of the run.[1][2][5] The first 40 of these were broadcast on Nick at Night, with the series moving to TeenNick for the remaining 40.[1]

Background

The original telenovela was first broadcast on Canal de las Estrellas in 1990, and later on Univision in the United States.[1] Alcanzar una estrella won a TVyNovelas Award for "Best Telenovela of the Year" in 1991. The telenovela's success led to the making of a film, Más que alcanzar una estrella, and a sequel telenovela, Alcanzar una estrella II, starring Sasha Sokol and Ricky Martin.[1]

TeenNick had already embraced the daily soap opera format starting with the tenth season of the Canadian teen drama Degrassi in 2010, airing four episodes weekly.[3][8] The teen supernatural mystery series House of Anubis (based on a Dutch/Belgian series) followed in 2011, with serialized daily episodes airing on Nickelodeon (and later TeenNick).[3][9] These successes led to Hollywood Heights, which would run for 16 weeks with, in the tradition of telenovelas, a resolution of storylines.[1] Ed Martin of MediaPost.com called it "in every way a major experiment for Nick at Nite, from production to scheduling to publicity and promotion."[5]

Broadcast and reception

Nick at Nite previewed the first episode of Hollywood Heights several times starting on June 11, 2012, before the 80-episode limited series officially premiered on June 18, 2012.[1][2] The show initially ran every weeknight at 9 p.m. (EST), but halfway through the series on August 13, 2012 it was moved to Nick at Nite's sister channel TeenNick at 8 p.m. EST.[4]

Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times noted that the series was produced by executive and creative personnel "whose combined credits include what seems to be every major network soap opera of the last 50 years as well as 21st-century reality soaps such as The Hills and The City."[3] He wrote, "If Heights is not particularly novel—it is, after all, based on a series two decades old—neither does it reek of must and mildew. Nor do the musical performances seem contrived, or rather they seem authentically contrived, staged as they would be staged by a performer like Eddie, who deals in thumping aspirational party anthems."[3] Lloyd added, "what I've seen, if not exactly appointment television for a person of my age and interests, is pretty appealing; by the standards of most other TV shows about teens and pop stars, it is well observed, well informed and (so far) plausible."[3] Joe Caramanica of The New York Times wrote, "Even though the melodrama, highly structured scripting and stilted camera shots are indebted to the telenovela form, Hollywood Heights owes the most to the rat-tat-tat rhythms of Gilmore Girls."[7] Ed Martin of MediaPost.com noted that creatively the series "so far has been a bit on the safe and sterile side, even more than Degrassi and certainly more than the often quite edgy fare on ABC Family."[5] Variety's Brian Lowry wrote that though Hollywood Heights was "tailored to [Nickelodeon's] demo with a musical component and teen-tempting leads ... For a show with a pop undercurrent that proclaims itself 'sizzling', Heights is pretty tepid and lacks a hit song’s most basic element: A catchy hook."[6] Suggesting that daily episodes were difficult to reasonably keep up with, Caramanica still called it "comfort TV with narrative soul."[7] Martin agreed that daily episodes "may be too much of a demand to place on potential viewers in the new media world of ever-increasing competition and ever-shrinking attention spans."[5]

Of James Franco's performance Caramanica wrote, "Mr. Franco chews more than his share of scenery, which turns out to be a necessary strategy. In an environment like this, in which all the performances have soft edges, and no one is steering the scenes too aggressively, acting out is the only sort of acting that gets noticed. His frazzled energy isn’t realistic but is instead fantastical and a running commentary on the stiltedness of the rest of the proceedings."[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 "Nick @ Nite Press Release: Hollywood Heights". NickPress-HollywoodHeights.com. May 23, 2012. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Staskiewicz, Keith (June 11, 2012). "James Franco to return to soaps in Hollywood Heights on June 29". InsideTV.EW.com. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Lloyd, Robert (June 18, 2012). "Television review: Stars in their eyes in Hollywood Heights". LATimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 "Nick at Nite's Hollywood Heights Moves to TeenNick Tonight, 8/13". BroadwayWorld.com. August 13, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Martin, Ed (June 29, 2012). "Hollywood Heights: A Bold Summer Experiment on Nick at Nite". MediaPost.com/HuffingtonPost.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Lowry, Brian (June 7, 2012). "Review: Hollywood Heights". Variety.com. Variety. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Caramanica, Joe (July 9, 2012). "Going Steady With a Telenovela". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  8. The Canadian Press (July 15, 2010). "Degrassi tackles transgender storyline". CTV.ca. CTV News. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  9. Barnes, Brooks (October 30, 2010). "Making Sure Nickelodeon Hangs With Cool Kids". NYTimes.com. The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
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