Hidden Palms

Origin

The series, produced by Lionsgate Television, 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 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, whilst premiering later in other countries around the world, including Bulgaria on Fox Life on July 21, 2007, Thursday at 10:00 pm EET, Brazil and Latin America on the A&E Network, Hungary on Viasat3, Serbia on Fox televizija, Spain on Cuatro TV, Portugal on RTP1, Sweden on TV3, Italy on Raidue, Denmark on TV3, Norway on TV3, on Fox Life in Poland, on Prime in New Zealand and on Sky One the United Kingdom in September 2007, Go in South Africa. The Nine Network in Australia has acquired the rights to broadcast it.

Cast and characters

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 and The CW decided to keep it for the summer. In a press release, The CW announced that it would stop airing encores on Sundays and that the series would air two new episodes on Wednesdays, replacing what would have been One Tree Hill repeats, and wrap up two weeks earlier.

Critical reception

As of May 31, 2007, the show had a composite score of 45% based on 22 reviews at Metacritic. Linda Stasi of the New York Post 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".

However, there was also negative reception of the show. Mike Duffy of the Detroit Free Press said the show is "luridly derivative" and that "there's nothing remotely hip" about it. Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News said the show "spends far too much time exploring the whiny angst of the teens". Tom Shales of The Washington Post said of the show, "you're likely to find more fascinating figures and intriguing dramatis personae in the latest catalogue from J. Peterman."

The show has also come under fire from the Parents Television Council, which called the pilot episode "cliché-ridden" and claimed the overall plot was inappropriate for its teenage target audience because of its depiction of underage drinking, parental suicide and sex, the pilot and finale episodes being named the most offensive television programming of the weeks of their respective broadcasts on the CW network.