[1] The series was announced in May 2012 as an international co-production between Sony Pictures Television and Televisa, the Mexican production company which owns the rights to the original telenovela.

[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.

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).

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 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).

[7] 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] 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] 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.