Developed as a spin-off of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, the series focused on the personal and professional lives of several young women and men residing in Los Angeles, California.

The series originally focused on Lauren Conrad, who had already appeared in Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, as she pursued a career in the fashion industry.

Looking to pursue other career opportunities, Conrad left the series halfway through the fifth season, and was subsequently replaced by fellow Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County cast member Kristin Cavallari.

However, the series was often criticized for tending towards a narrative format more commonly seen in scripted genres including soap operas, and appearing to fabricate much of its storyline.

[1] The program was created by Liz Gateley and documented the lives of several students attending Laguna Beach High School as they completed secondary education.

[4] Television producer Adam DiVello developed the spin-off program The Hills to follow one of its predecessor's original cast members, Lauren Conrad, as she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

[12][13][14] During this time, Conrad wished to leave the series to pursue other career opportunities, though she filmed ten episodes in the following season to close her storylines.

[15][16] After departing halfway through the fifth season, she was replaced by Cavallari, a fellow former Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County cast member.

[31] In its series premiere, The Hills first introduced Lauren Conrad, who moved from Laguna Beach, California to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

[32] She and her housemate Heidi Montag originally planned to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, though the latter left the college after receiving employment with Bolthouse Productions.

[45] Conrad and Port eventually left their positions at Teen Vogue after receiving employment from Kelly Cutrone's PR firm People's Revolution.

[56] Before filming for the sixth season commenced, Montag garnered significant criticism after undergoing ten cosmetic surgery procedures in one day.

[66] Robert Abele of LA Weekly complimented the program for being "insanely watchable",[67] while Variety's Brian Lowry criticized the storylines as being "as old as they come".

[69] After the falling-out between Conrad and Montag in the third season, Heffernan also commented that The Hills "is more convincing than Friends and just about any other comedy about female relationships because—as anyone who has ever been a young woman knows—undying friendships die".

Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly expressed interest in the route the series would take, writing that the latter would "be fully prepared to stir things up".

[71] After the premiere of the first episode under her lead, a writer from PopSugar criticized Cavallari's "sassy, bad-girl attitude" for lacking originality and preferred Conrad for "[keeping] it real".

[72] In contrast, Amy Kaufman from Los Angeles Times opined that Cavallari was more intriguing than Conrad, whose storylines she felt had been overshadowed as the series progressed.

Emily Exton from Entertainment Weekly described it as "probably a bit confusing" for the series' earlier viewers, in light of the casting adjustments in later seasons.

[80] Lindsey Weber from Vulture suggested that the footage felt like a "total soap opera" in that it seemingly acknowledged that portions of the series were fabricated.

[86][87] In one instance, the president of entertainment for MTV, Brian Graden, commented that the series benefits from the media coverage it receives in between seasons, which he described as a "six-month commercial for the show that doesn't give away the narrative in full."

He elaborated that MTV wants "viewers to watch Lauren and the girls as the characters we know instead of in a show about being the stars of The Hills"; the sex tape rumors were consequently presented like a personal conflict between the women and was intentionally not addressed as a highly publicized controversy.

[90] In 2008, Montag and Pratt acknowledged that their Mexican elopement was "entirely symbolic", while their civil ceremony was filmed after office hours without a county court judge present.

[91] An additional source of suspicion arose during the fifth season, where Conrad was shown to be moving out of her house the day prior to Montag and Pratt's nuptials.

[18] However, Conrad and Bosworth had actually left the property several months prior in January, leading to speculation that addressing the wedding as "the next day" was pre-planned.

[18][92] After leaving The Hills, Conrad appeared on The View in June 2009, where she was asked how she felt about her apology from Pratt involving the sex tape rumors.

She elaborated that scenes would be reenacted if cameras were not present for a significant occurrence between cast members, and commented that her relationship with Jenner was "pretty brief" and "definitely [edited] to drag it out".

[99] In July 2013, when discussing the filming of several alternate finale endings, MTV acknowledged that "maybe the term 'reality TV' didn't perfectly apply to The Hills".

[101] During the third season, the series achieved its most-viewed episode, "Paris Changes Everything", on March 17, 2008; it had attracted 4.8 million viewers in its original airing.

[50][113] When she appeared on the original series' earlier seasons, she limited the exposure of her personal life, commenting that focusing on her career would make people "take [her] seriously".

[114] During the first half of the debut season, the program highlighted her transition to New York City after receiving employment from Diane von Fürstenberg.