Pretty Little Liars

**Pretty Little Liars** is an teen drama mystery thriller television series developed by I. Marlene King and is loosely based on the novel series of the same name written by Sara Shepard.

## Premise

Set in the suburban town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, the series follows the lives of five high school girls: Spencer Hastings, Alison DiLaurentis, Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin and Emily Fields, whose clique falls apart after the leader of the group, Alison, goes missing. One year later, the remaining estranged friends are reunited as they begin receiving messages from a mysterious villain named "A" and later from "A.D.", who threatens and tortures them for the mistakes and lies they have made and told before and after Alison's death. At first, they think it is Alison herself, but after her body is found, the girls realize that it is somebody else who wants revenge.

## Production

### Development

The intertitle in the opening credits used since the show's inception.
Originally developed as a television series by book packaging company Alloy Entertainment, the idea was described as "*Desperate Housewives* for teens." Alloy met with author Shepard and gave her the property to develop into a book series. With Alloy and Warner Horizon Televisioninterested in producing *Pretty Little Liars* as a television series for years, it was first planned for The WB in 2005 with a different writer until the network shut down in early 2006 and reestablished as The CW later that year. The first novel was published by HarperTeen in October 2006. In June 2008, Alloy noted that it was developing a *Pretty Little Liars* television pilot for ABC Family, with the novels adapted for television. After the pilot was shot in Vancouver in December 2009, filming for the rest of the series moved to Los Angeles. The series was primarily filmed at the Warner Bros.studio and backlot in the city of Burbank, near Los Angeles. In June 2012, the series was selected by lottery for a California film and TV tax credit.

### Casting

ABC Family began casting for a *Pretty Little Liars* television pilot in October 2009. Lucy Hale was cast as Aria Montgomery in the project, followed by Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings and Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz in November 2009. In December 2009, The Futon Critic confirmed the casting of Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin and Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields, as well as the addition of Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin, Nia Peeplesas Pam Fields, Roark Critchlow as Tom Marin, and Bianca Lawson as Maya. Mitchell had initially auditioned for the role of Spencer and then tried for Emily. *The Hollywood Reporter* also noted that Torrey DeVitto and Sasha Pieterse landed recurring roles in the pilot. The Alloy website later confirmed that Pieterse would be playing Alison DiLaurentis and DeVitto would be Melissa Hastings, also mentioning the casting of Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal. In April 2010, the role of Aria's father Byron was recast with Chad Lowe, and Holly Marie Combs was cast as Aria's mother Ella. Jenna Marshall is played by Tammin Sursok.

On January 13, 2011, Tilky Jones was cast as Logan Reed. On April 8, 2011, Annabeth Gish was cast for the role of Anne Sullivan, a therapist who tries to find out the main characters' secrets. On May 23, 2011, Andrea Parker signed up to appear as Jessica DiLaurentis, Alison's mother. On June 29, 2011, it was announced that Natalie Hall would be replacing Natalie Floyd as Hanna's soon-to-be stepsister, Kate. On January 30, 2012, *The Hollywood Reporter* reported that Tyler Blackburn had been promoted to series regular for the third season. In March 2012, Janel Parrish was also promoted from recurring to series regular for the third season. On March 16, 2016, *TVLine* reported that, Andrea Parker was added as a series regular for the seventh season.

### Music

The music was composed by Michael Suby, who known for his work in *Kyle XY* and *The Vampire Diaries*. The series' theme song "Secret" by The Pierces, which was suggested by one of the show's stars, Ashley Benson.A soundtrack album titled *Pretty Little Liars: Television Soundtrack*, was released by WaterTower Music on February 15, 2011. The soundtrack featured songs by artists The Fray, Ben's Brother, MoZella, Katie Herzig and Colbie Caillat. ZZ Ward performed with the songs "Til the Casket Drops" and "Last Love Song" from her debut album *Til the Casket Drops* (2012), to promote the series' third and fifth seasons, respectively.