"The Hills" notes

I owe many thanks to Teresa Howell, my graduate research assistant in the Fall of 2007, for her help in gathering research for this article.

1. During the final weeks of Season 3, The Hills was also ranked as the top cable “time-shifted” show; The Hills was most frequently recorded by a digital video recorder, like TiVo (Gorman).[return to page 1 of essay]

2. For a discussion of the links between the restaurants and clubs that appear in the series and MTV’s corporate partnerships, see Elizabeth Affuso’s article in JC 50 (2009).

3. These parameters shift depending on the text being consulted. Yabroff’s Newsweek article defined members of Generation Y as anyone born after 1982 and an article in International Journal of Consumer Studies dates the generation to those born between1977 and 1994. Still others define this generation as anyone born after 1970.

4. See, for example, Gina Bellafante’s “Career Climbing, With Claws Bared” and Karina Logworth’s “5 Ways In Which The Hills is JUST LIKE An Antonioni Film.”

5. Seinfeld was famously described as a show about “nothing.” However, each episode did, in fact, center around defined (albeit silly) character goals, and plots were structured through cause and effect relationships.

6. See Ken Lee’s “Jail Time for Jason Wahler of The Hills” in People magazine.

7. Elana Levine defines the egg as

“the shot at the end of many daytime soap scenes in which an actor holds an expression for several beats until the scene fades out. The egg is an effective technique in soaps because viewers spend so much time with the characters that they learn to read into their faces…”

8. Levine has described this phenomenon as “meaning-without-meaning”:

“We get [for example] that Lauren is unsure about getting back together with Jason, her philandering ex-boyfriend, because the music and her smile-free face communicate it. But we understand this not so much because we understand who Lauren is but because we’ve seen enough music videos and soap-like scripted drama to read the codes.”

9. While the story was not covered by mainstream news sources, it was a fixture on gossip sites like Perez Hilton, US Magazine, The Superficial and Gawker throughout the summer of 2007.

10. In the finale of Season Two, Heidi moved out of Lauren’s apartment to move in with Spencer. However, the women are still friends when the episode concludes.

11. In another interview with Entertainment Weekly just one year later Avi Di Santo recognizes that his creations are now out of his control and worries that soon there will be very little “reality” left for his cameras to film:

“We have a hard line because we really enjoy the world of The Hills we’ve created…[but] as they get more and more famous, their non-fame lives get smaller and smaller” (qtd. in Stack 31).

12. In 2008 MTV’s film crew had to strike up an alliance with lurking paparazzi in order to shoot footage for Season 4. Lauren Conrad explains “We’ll be filming at a restaurant and it will be us at a table, three cameras, and then a row of photographers behind the cameras” (qtd. in Stack 31). [return to page 2]

12a. In the weeks following Spencer and Heidi’s elopement, it was revealed that their Mexican wedding ceremony was merely “symbolic” since the couple never went through the procedures necessary to make their Mexican wedding ceremony legally binding. As a result, the couple was able to further milk this storyline on The Hills as audiences wondered whether they would go through with a legal marriage ceremony in California.

13. For example, after Us Weekly published a cover story on Lauren Conrad, with the headline “How I Was Stabbed in the Back” (one of the few salacious stories about Lauren to appear in the media), she fired back with a post on her MySpace page explaining her side of the story:

“Hey! I just wanted to take a moment to clear something up. I recently did an interview to talk about the show coming back on and what everyone had to look forward to. Unfortunately it was turned into yet another ‘poor me’ story. The article itself is a nice one but it follows headlines that, in no way, represent my words or feelings. I do not feel betrayed by Audrina or Brody. I love them both and said nothing to contradict this. I understand that headlines sell magazines, but I value my friendships above magazine sales any day.”

14. Jason Gay also notes the similarities between Lauren and television’s other “career women”: “Like with Mary Tyler Moore or Carrie Bradshaw, viewers relate to Lauren because she’s a searcher — for true love, the perfect job and friends that never let her down.” (46).

15. Indeed, in Episode 4.18 “Dream Boy, Dream Job” Whitney is informed by her new boss, Kelly Cutrone, that she will be interviewing for a job with designer Diane von Furstenberg in New York City. Once again, she is awarded this position despite a lackluster interview. This particular job opportunity is arranged so that Whitney can star in her own Hills spin off, The City.

16. See Episode 3.19 “Paris Changes Everything.”

16b. This approach to the depiction of the work place shifts somewhat in the fifth and final season of The Hills, which premiered in April 2009. In the episode entitled “Crazy in Love,” Lauren arranges for Stephanie Pratt to have an internship at The People’s Revolution. Stephanie, however, proves to be an inept intern, incurring the wrath of boss Kelly Cutrone on several occasions. After Stephanie makes a mistake counting inventory, Lauren starts to explain the importance of professionalism. But Stephanie begins doodling mid-lecture:

“I think maybe, when you come here, its important just to kind of...focus. I think it’s just balancing that...Are you listening to me? Why are you, like, doodling? Stop.”

I believe that the show is increasingly invested in displaying Lauren’s professionalism since, once The Hills is over, she will be expanding her “brand” to writing young adult books and producing, among other ventures.

17. When Lauren was featured on the August 8, 2008 cover of Entertainment Weekly she admitted “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I think I’m being filmed” (qtd. in Stack 31).

Works cited

Armstrong, Jennifer. “‘The Hills’ Are Alive.” EW.com 9 Aug. 2007. 23 May 2008
<http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20050690,00.html >.

Arthur, Kate. “Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt: ‘We’re Entertainers’.” Los Angeles Times 11 May 2008. 23 May 2008
<http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/
tv/la-ca-hills11-2008may11,0,2852624.story>.

Balderrama, Anthony. “Generation Y: Too Demanding at Work?” CNN.com 26 Dec. 2007. 23 May 2008
<http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/12/26/cb.generation/>.

Bellafante, Gina. “Career Climbing, With Claws Bared.” Rev. of The Hills. The New York Times 24 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9
A00E3D8123BF937A15750C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon
=&&scp=2&sq=career%20climbing,%20with%20claws%20bared&st=cse>.

Conlin, Michelle. “Youth Quake; They’re Called Millenials—and They’re Fed Up.” Business Week 21 Jan 2008: 32.

Erickson, Tammy. “Gen Y: Really All That Narcissistic?” Business Week Online 3 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008
<http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/
feb2008/ca20080228_450510.htm>.

Franklin, Nancy. “Frenemy Territory: The hills are alive with the sound of girl talk.” The New Yorker 21 Apr. 2008: 136-137.

Gay, Jason. “Are They for Real?: Why MTV’s ‘The Hills’ is the Show you Love to Hate—or Hate to Love.” Rolling Stone 15 May 2008: 40-42, 44, 46, 48.

Gorman, Bill. “The Hills Tops Cable TV Time-Shifting with 35.5% Increase.” TV by the Numbers 28 May 2008. 30 May 2008
<http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/28/ the-
hills-tops-cable-tv-time-shifting-with-355-increase/3926>.

Guarente, Gabe. “I Cried Myself to Sleep.” US Weekly 25 Feb. 2008: 72-75.

“Hills Premiere Breaks Ratings Record.” US Magazine.com 26 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008
<http://www.usmagazine.com/hills_
premiere_breaks_ratings_records>.

Jayson, Sharon. “Gen Y’s Goal?: Wealth and Fame.” USA Today.com 10 Jan 2007. 23 May 2008
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/
2007-01-09-gen-y-cover_x.htm>.

Kleinhans, Chuck. “Webisodic Mock Vlogs: HoShows as Commercial Entertainment New Media.” Jump Cut 50 (2008). 15 Jul. 2008
<http://www.ejumpcut.org>.

Lee, Ken. “Jail Time for Jason Wahler of The Hills.” People.com 6 Mar. 2007. 15 Jul. 2008
<http://www.people.com/people/
article/0,,20014216,00.html>.

Levine, Elana. “The New Soaps? Laguna Beach, The Hills, and the Gendered Politics of Reality ‘Drama’.” FlowTV 4.10 (2006). 23 May 2008
<http://flowtv.org/?p=19>.

Logworth, Karina. “5 Ways In Which The Hills is JUST LIKE An Antonioni Film.” Spout Blog. 25 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008
<http://blog.spout.com/2008/03/25/5-ways
-in-which-the-hills-is-just-like-an-antonioni-film/>.

McClellan, Steve. “‘The Hills’ is Alive: MTV research links cross-platform marketing to brand affinity among Web users.” AdWeek 5 May 2008. 30 May 2008
<http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/
news/agency/e3i26f1bfd408799a
204314aa22cf15c8a5?pn=1>.

Montag, Heidi and Spencer Pratt. “Heidi Montag Speaks.” Interview. Perez Hilton.com. 6 Feb.2008. 23 May 2008
<http://perezhilton.com/2008-02-06
-heidi-montag-speaks>.

MTV Remote Control. 2007. MTV. 24 Jul. 2008
<http://remotecontrol.mtv.com>.

Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. “Generation Y.” Business Week Online 15 Feb. 1999. 23 May 2008
<http://www.businessweek.com/1999/
99_07/b3616001.htm>.

Newman, Michael. “The Hills is Too Real.” Zigzigger 13 May 2008. 24 May 2008 <http://zigzigger.blogspot.com/2008/
05/hills-is-too-real.html>.

O’ Leary, Kevin. “Heidi & Spencer: Yes, We Eloped!” US Weekly 8 Dec 2008: 46-53.

Reinstein, Mara. “How Spencer Betrayed Me.” US Weekly 17 Mar. 2008: 54-59.

Rikleen, Lauren Stiller. "How the "Millennial" Generation Works. " The Young Lawyer 1-2 (2008). 14 Jul. 2008
<http://www.abanet.org/yld/tyl/
may08/may08.pdf>

Stack, Tim. “They Shoot. She Scores.” Entertainment Weekly. 8 Aug 2008: 26-31.

Trunk, Penelope. “What Gen Y Really Wants.” Time.com 5 Jul 2007. 15 July 2008
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
article/0,9171,1640395,00.html>.

Twenge, Jean. Generation Me:Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable than Ever Before. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2008.

Wolfe, Henry. “The Hills Season 3 Finale.” songs about buildings and food 11 Dec. 2007. 23 May 2008
<http://songsaboutbuildingsandfood.wordpress.
com/ 2007/12/11/the-hills-season-3-finale/>.

-------“The Hills Season 3, Episode 20, “Back to L.A.” songs about buildings and food 2 Apr. 2008. 23 Jul. 2008
<http://songsaboutbuildingsandfood.wordpress.com/
2008/04/02/the-hills-season-3-episode-20-back-to-la/>.

Yabroff, Jennie. “Here’s Looking at You, Kids.” Newsweek 24 Mar. 2008. 3 Jun. 2008.
<http://www.newsweek.com/id/123484>.

Yeaton, Kathryn. “Recruiting and Managing the ‘Why?’ Generation: Generation Y.” The CPA Journal 78.4 (2008): 69

*JUMP CUT* A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

	Notes I owe many thanks to Teresa Howell, my graduate research assistant in the Fall of 2007, for her help in gathering research for this article. 1. During the final weeks of Season 3, The Hills was also ranked as the top cable “time-shifted” show; The Hills was most frequently recorded by a digital video recorder, like TiVo (Gorman).[return to page 1 of essay] 2. For a discussion of the links between the restaurants and clubs that appear in the series and MTV’s corporate partnerships, see Elizabeth Affuso’s article in JC 50 (2009). 3. These parameters shift depending on the text being consulted. Yabroff’s Newsweek article defined members of Generation Y as anyone born after 1982 and an article in International Journal of Consumer Studies dates the generation to those born between1977 and 1994. Still others define this generation as anyone born after 1970. 4. See, for example, Gina Bellafante’s “Career Climbing, With Claws Bared” and Karina Logworth’s “5 Ways In Which The Hills is JUST LIKE An Antonioni Film.” 5. Seinfeld was famously described as a show about “nothing.” However, each episode did, in fact, center around defined (albeit silly) character goals, and plots were structured through cause and effect relationships. 6. See Ken Lee’s “Jail Time for Jason Wahler of The Hills” in People magazine. 7. Elana Levine defines the egg as “the shot at the end of many daytime soap scenes in which an actor holds an expression for several beats until the scene fades out. The egg is an effective technique in soaps because viewers spend so much time with the characters that they learn to read into their faces…” 8. Levine has described this phenomenon as “meaning-without-meaning”: “We get [for example] that Lauren is unsure about getting back together with Jason, her philandering ex-boyfriend, because the music and her smile-free face communicate it. But we understand this not so much because we understand who Lauren is but because we’ve seen enough music videos and soap-like scripted drama to read the codes.” 9. While the story was not covered by mainstream news sources, it was a fixture on gossip sites like Perez Hilton, US Magazine, The Superficial and Gawker throughout the summer of 2007. 10. In the finale of Season Two, Heidi moved out of Lauren’s apartment to move in with Spencer. However, the women are still friends when the episode concludes. 11. In another interview with Entertainment Weekly just one year later Avi Di Santo recognizes that his creations are now out of his control and worries that soon there will be very little “reality” left for his cameras to film: “We have a hard line because we really enjoy the world of The Hills we’ve created…[but] as they get more and more famous, their non-fame lives get smaller and smaller” (qtd. in Stack 31). 12. In 2008 MTV’s film crew had to strike up an alliance with lurking paparazzi in order to shoot footage for Season 4. Lauren Conrad explains “We’ll be filming at a restaurant and it will be us at a table, three cameras, and then a row of photographers behind the cameras” (qtd. in Stack 31). [return to page 2] 12a. In the weeks following Spencer and Heidi’s elopement, it was revealed that their Mexican wedding ceremony was merely “symbolic” since the couple never went through the procedures necessary to make their Mexican wedding ceremony legally binding. As a result, the couple was able to further milk this storyline on The Hills as audiences wondered whether they would go through with a legal marriage ceremony in California. 13. For example, after Us Weekly published a cover story on Lauren Conrad, with the headline “How I Was Stabbed in the Back” (one of the few salacious stories about Lauren to appear in the media), she fired back with a post on her MySpace page explaining her side of the story: “Hey! I just wanted to take a moment to clear something up. I recently did an interview to talk about the show coming back on and what everyone had to look forward to. Unfortunately it was turned into yet another ‘poor me’ story. The article itself is a nice one but it follows headlines that, in no way, represent my words or feelings. I do not feel betrayed by Audrina or Brody. I love them both and said nothing to contradict this. I understand that headlines sell magazines, but I value my friendships above magazine sales any day.” 14. Jason Gay also notes the similarities between Lauren and television’s other “career women”: “Like with Mary Tyler Moore or Carrie Bradshaw, viewers relate to Lauren because she’s a searcher — for true love, the perfect job and friends that never let her down.” (46). 15. Indeed, in Episode 4.18 “Dream Boy, Dream Job” Whitney is informed by her new boss, Kelly Cutrone, that she will be interviewing for a job with designer Diane von Furstenberg in New York City. Once again, she is awarded this position despite a lackluster interview. This particular job opportunity is arranged so that Whitney can star in her own Hills spin off, The City. 16. See Episode 3.19 “Paris Changes Everything.” 16b. This approach to the depiction of the work place shifts somewhat in the fifth and final season of The Hills, which premiered in April 2009. In the episode entitled “Crazy in Love,” Lauren arranges for Stephanie Pratt to have an internship at The People’s Revolution. Stephanie, however, proves to be an inept intern, incurring the wrath of boss Kelly Cutrone on several occasions. After Stephanie makes a mistake counting inventory, Lauren starts to explain the importance of professionalism. But Stephanie begins doodling mid-lecture: “I think maybe, when you come here, its important just to kind of...focus. I think it’s just balancing that...Are you listening to me? Why are you, like, doodling? Stop.” I believe that the show is increasingly invested in displaying Lauren’s professionalism since, once The Hills is over, she will be expanding her “brand” to writing young adult books and producing, among other ventures. 17. When Lauren was featured on the August 8, 2008 cover of Entertainment Weekly she admitted “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I think I’m being filmed” (qtd. in Stack 31). Works cited Armstrong, Jennifer. “‘The Hills’ Are Alive.” EW.com 9 Aug. 2007. 23 May 2008 <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20050690,00.html >. Arthur, Kate. “Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt: ‘We’re Entertainers’.” Los Angeles Times 11 May 2008. 23 May 2008 <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/ tv/la-ca-hills11-2008may11,0,2852624.story>. Balderrama, Anthony. “Generation Y: Too Demanding at Work?” CNN.com 26 Dec. 2007. 23 May 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/12/26/cb.generation/>. Bellafante, Gina. “Career Climbing, With Claws Bared.” Rev. of The Hills. The New York Times 24 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008 <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9 A00E3D8123BF937A15750C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon =&&scp=2&sq=career%20climbing,%20with%20claws%20bared&st=cse>. Conlin, Michelle. “Youth Quake; They’re Called Millenials—and They’re Fed Up.” Business Week 21 Jan 2008: 32. Erickson, Tammy. “Gen Y: Really All That Narcissistic?” Business Week Online 3 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008 <http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/ feb2008/ca20080228_450510.htm>. Franklin, Nancy. “Frenemy Territory: The hills are alive with the sound of girl talk.” The New Yorker 21 Apr. 2008: 136-137. Gay, Jason. “Are They for Real?: Why MTV’s ‘The Hills’ is the Show you Love to Hate—or Hate to Love.” Rolling Stone 15 May 2008: 40-42, 44, 46, 48. Gorman, Bill. “The Hills Tops Cable TV Time-Shifting with 35.5% Increase.” TV by the Numbers 28 May 2008. 30 May 2008 <http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/05/28/ the- hills-tops-cable-tv-time-shifting-with-355-increase/3926>. Guarente, Gabe. “I Cried Myself to Sleep.” US Weekly 25 Feb. 2008: 72-75. “Hills Premiere Breaks Ratings Record.” US Magazine.com 26 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008 <http://www.usmagazine.com/hills_ premiere_breaks_ratings_records>. Jayson, Sharon. “Gen Y’s Goal?: Wealth and Fame.” USA Today.com 10 Jan 2007. 23 May 2008 <http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/ 2007-01-09-gen-y-cover_x.htm>. Kleinhans, Chuck. “Webisodic Mock Vlogs: HoShows as Commercial Entertainment New Media.” Jump Cut 50 (2008). 15 Jul. 2008 <http://www.ejumpcut.org>. Lee, Ken. “Jail Time for Jason Wahler of The Hills.” People.com 6 Mar. 2007. 15 Jul. 2008 <http://www.people.com/people/ article/0,,20014216,00.html>. Levine, Elana. “The New Soaps? Laguna Beach, The Hills, and the Gendered Politics of Reality ‘Drama’.” FlowTV 4.10 (2006). 23 May 2008 <http://flowtv.org/?p=19>. Logworth, Karina. “5 Ways In Which The Hills is JUST LIKE An Antonioni Film.” Spout Blog. 25 Mar. 2008. 23 May 2008 <http://blog.spout.com/2008/03/25/5-ways -in-which-the-hills-is-just-like-an-antonioni-film/>. McClellan, Steve. “‘The Hills’ is Alive: MTV research links cross-platform marketing to brand affinity among Web users.” AdWeek 5 May 2008. 30 May 2008 <http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/ news/agency/e3i26f1bfd408799a 204314aa22cf15c8a5?pn=1>. Montag, Heidi and Spencer Pratt. “Heidi Montag Speaks.” Interview. Perez Hilton.com. 6 Feb.2008. 23 May 2008 <http://perezhilton.com/2008-02-06 -heidi-montag-speaks>. MTV Remote Control. 2007. MTV. 24 Jul. 2008 <http://remotecontrol.mtv.com>. Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. “Generation Y.” Business Week Online 15 Feb. 1999. 23 May 2008 <http://www.businessweek.com/1999/ 99_07/b3616001.htm>. Newman, Michael. “The Hills is Too Real.” Zigzigger 13 May 2008. 24 May 2008 <http://zigzigger.blogspot.com/2008/ 05/hills-is-too-real.html>. O’ Leary, Kevin. “Heidi & Spencer: Yes, We Eloped!” US Weekly 8 Dec 2008: 46-53. Reinstein, Mara. “How Spencer Betrayed Me.” US Weekly 17 Mar. 2008: 54-59. Rikleen, Lauren Stiller. "How the "Millennial" Generation Works. " The Young Lawyer 1-2 (2008). 14 Jul. 2008 <http://www.abanet.org/yld/tyl/ may08/may08.pdf> Stack, Tim. “They Shoot. She Scores.” Entertainment Weekly. 8 Aug 2008: 26-31. Trunk, Penelope. “What Gen Y Really Wants.” Time.com 5 Jul 2007. 15 July 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,1640395,00.html>. Twenge, Jean. Generation Me:Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable than Ever Before. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2008. Wolfe, Henry. “The Hills Season 3 Finale.” songs about buildings and food 11 Dec. 2007. 23 May 2008 <http://songsaboutbuildingsandfood.wordpress. com/ 2007/12/11/the-hills-season-3-finale/>. -------“The Hills Season 3, Episode 20, “Back to L.A.” songs about buildings and food 2 Apr. 2008. 23 Jul. 2008 <http://songsaboutbuildingsandfood.wordpress.com/ 2008/04/02/the-hills-season-3-episode-20-back-to-la/>. Yabroff, Jennie. “Here’s Looking at You, Kids.” Newsweek 24 Mar. 2008. 3 Jun. 2008. <http://www.newsweek.com/id/123484>. Yeaton, Kathryn. “Recruiting and Managing the ‘Why?’ Generation: Generation Y.” The CPA Journal 78.4 (2008): 69 To topPrint versionJC 51 Jump Cut home This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

JUMP CUT A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA