''Hidden Palms'' is an American
teen drama
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
television series that ran on
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
in the United States from May 30 until July 4, 2007. It was canceled after eight first-run episodes. The series, created by
Kevin Williamson, portrays the fictional lives of a group of teenagers and their families residing in
Palm Springs, California.
Production
Origin
The series, produced by
Lionsgate Television
Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lionsgate, which is a Canadian–American entertainment company.
History
The company was established in July 1997 as Lions Gate Television, Inc. with the establishment of Lionsgate Films. It ...
, began production in late 2006 with the tentative title ''Palm Springs''. The pilot episode was subsequently leaked onto the Internet before the series premiered.
In early 2007, ''Hidden Palms'' was announced to begin on March 6, 2007, at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central on The CW, but this timeslot later became occupied by ''
Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll''. The series eventually premiered on The CW on May 30, 2007 at 8:00 pm Eastern/7:00 pm Central. It was announced on June 12, 2007, that ''Hidden Palms'' would wrap up two weeks earlier on the CW, which would stop rebroadcasting it on Sundays.
Filming
Because of the high labor costs of filming in
Palm Springs, California, ''Hidden Palms'' was actually filmed at a studio in
Avondale, Arizona. In the promos, mountains are shown in many (if not most) clips. However, parts of the pilot episode were filmed in Palm Springs, including downtown Palm Springs.
Broadcast
''Hidden Palms'' premiered on
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
in the United States on May 30, 2007, at 8:00 pm Eastern/7:00 pm Central. ''Hidden Palms'' also simultaneously premiered in Canada on
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
, whilst premiering later in other countries around the world, including
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
on
Fox Life
Fox Life is an international pay television network, launched by the Fox Networks Group in 2004. The network has been discontinued in several markets over time, except for the Middle East, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Balkans, India and Greece.
The ...
on July 21, 2007, Thursday at 10:00 pm
EET
"Eet" is a song from Regina Spektor's fifth studio album, ''Far (album), Far''. It was released as the album's second official single in October 2009. In Europe it was released as a digital download on November 27, 2009.
Music video
A Viral vide ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
on the
A&E Network,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
on
Viasat3
Viasat 3 is a Hungarian TV channel. It began broadcasting on October 23, 2000.
Viasat 3 aired Hungary's first reality show in 2001 called ''A Bár'' ( The Bar).
In 2015, the Sony Pictures Television acquired the Hungarian Viasat channels from ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
on
Fox televizija
Prva (; sr-Cyrl, Прва) or Prva Srpska Televizija ( sr-Cyrl, Прва српска телевизија, lit=First Serbian Television), is a Serbian commercial television network with national coverage.
Launched on 31 December 2006 at 7&nbs ...
, Spain on
Cuatro TV
Cuatro (stylized as cuatro°, "Four") is a Spanish free-to-air television channel that was launched in November 2005. Owned by Mediaset España, the Spanish subsidiary of the Italian Mediaset group, it is broadcast on TV frequencies licensed to ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
on
RTP1
RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainst ...
,
Sweden on
TV3, Italy on
Raidue
Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's second television channel, and is known for broadcasting ''TG2'' news bulletins, talk ...
,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
on
TV3,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
on
TV3, on
Fox Life
Fox Life is an international pay television network, launched by the Fox Networks Group in 2004. The network has been discontinued in several markets over time, except for the Middle East, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Balkans, India and Greece.
The ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, on
Prime
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and on
Sky One the United Kingdom in September 2007, Go in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. The
Nine Network in Australia has acquired the rights to broadcast it.
In the Netherlands, the entire series was released on DVD by RCV Entertainment in the summer of 2009.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Michael Cassidy as Cliff Wiatt
*
Taylor Handley
Taylor Laurence Handley (born June 1, 1984) is an American actor.
Early years
Handley was born in Santa Barbara, California. He attended Santa Monica City College.
Career
In 1998, Handley played Rory Buck in the movie ''Jack Frost''. In 20 ...
as Johnny Miller
*
Amber Heard
Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film ''All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'' (2006), and went on to star in films such as '' The Ward'' (2010) and '' Drive Angry'' (2011). S ...
as Greta Matthews
*
Sharon Lawrence
Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence (born June 29, 1961) is an American actress who played Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in the ABC drama series '' NYPD Blue''. The role garnered her three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in ...
as Tess Wiatt
*
D. W. Moffett as Bob Hardy
*
Gail O'Grady
Gail Ann O'Grady (born January 23, 1963), an American actress and producer, is best known for her roles on television. Her roles include Donna Abandando in the ABC police drama '' NYPD Blue'', and Helen Pryor in the NBC drama series ''American Dre ...
as Karen Hardy
* Ellary Porterfield as Liza Witter
*
Tessa Thompson
Tessa Lynne Thompson (born October 3, 1983) is an American actress. She began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College. She appeared in productions of '' The Tempest ...
as Nikki Barnes
Recurring
*
Leslie Jordan
Leslie Allen Jordan (April 29, 1955 – October 24, 2022) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Supporting characters on Will & Grace, Beverley Leslie on ''Will & Grace'' (2001–2006 and 2017–2020) ...
as Jesse Jo
*
J. D. Pardo
Jorge Daniel Pardo (born September 7, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Jack Toretto in '' F9'' (2021), as well as the lead role of Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes in the television series '' Mayans M.C.'' (2018–present).
Early life ...
as Edward "Eddie" Nolan
* J.R. Cacia as Travis Dean
*
Valerie Cruz
Valerie Cruz (born July 18, 1976) is an American actress. Cruz was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey of Cuban ancestry. She attended Florida State University and received a BFA theatre degree.
Career
She has appeared in films such as '' Cellula ...
as Maria Nolan
*
Kyle Secor
Kyle Ivan Secor (born May 31, 1957) is an American television and film actor. He is known for portraying Detective Tim Bayliss on the crime drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999).
Early years
Secor was born in Tacoma, Wash ...
as Alan 'Skip' Matthews
Episodes
''Hidden Palms'' was first slated to be a mid-season show and 13 episodes had been ordered. During production, the show's episode number was lowered to 8.
Ratings
Critical reception
As of June 2007, the series received mixed reviews. It had a composite score of 45% based on 22 reviews at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
.
Linda Stasi of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' called it "the best rich kid show to appear on TV since
that other California show died." Diane Werts of ''
Newsday'' said the show "is enough to make me forgive The CW's entire sorry first season".
Conversely, Mike Duffy of the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'' said the show is "luridly derivative" and that "there's nothing remotely hip" about it. Charlie McCollum of the ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' said the show "spends far too much time exploring the whiny angst of the teens".
Tom Shales
Thomas William Shales (born November 3, 1944) is an American writer and retired critic of television programming and operations. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which Shales received the Pulitzer Pr ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' said of the show, "you're likely to find more fascinating figures and intriguing dramatis personae in the latest catalogue from
J. Peterman."
Controversy
The show came under fire from the
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers ...
, which called the pilot "cliché-ridden" and claimed the overall plot was inappropriate for its teenage target audience due to depictions of underage drinking, parental suicide and sex. The pilot and finale
were named the most offensive television programming of the weeks of their respective broadcasts.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidden Palms
2007 American television series debuts
2007 American television series endings
2000s American mystery television series
2000s American teen drama television series
American television soap operas
The CW original programming
English-language television shows
Television series about families
Television series about teenagers
Television series by Lionsgate Television
Television shows set in Palm Springs, California
Television series created by Kevin Williamson