Don't Expect a Hills Reunion And Other Lessons Learned From Laguna Beach's Liz Gateley

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In September of 2004, MTV aired the first episode of Laguna Beach. The series, launching off the likes of similar MTV reality shows like The Real World, followed a group of high schoolers living in the titular oceanside city in Southern California, capturing their breakups, makeups, and search for the perfect outfit to go to a party.

I came to Laguna Beach in a roundabout way, being a fan of the show's spin-off series The Hills (2006). That show premiered the year I graduated high school and, in going back to watch Laguna Beach, it certainly hit me as I was about to prepare to leave my own high school world for adulthood...and a recession. Now, twenty years after audiences said goodbye to Laguna, those (now) adult viewers are getting a reunion. The Reunion: Laguna Beach brings everyone back from the show's first season to discuss not only how their lives have changed since being on the series, but to give audiences a glimpse of how reality television has changed.

"Nothing really happened in the episodes," Laguna Beach creator Liz Gateley tells The Film Maven. "But everything happened because to a teen girl what is really important in high school is your relationships. What you're wearing. Who is bringing who to prom. That's also what's so special about high school is there's not huge stakes. They're all emotional. They're all relationship."

As Gateley explains, the 2021 Friends reunion special was a big influence as it showed that audiences would watch people just reminiscing about that time. The reunion retains much of the verite style conversations swathed within the opulence of Laguna Beach itself.

Laguna Beach touted a similar "realistic" edge as The Real World but the show toed the line between relatable and aspirational. As Jesse Schlotterbeck writes, this was partly because the world of high school was shot and set-up the same way a movie would be. "[Laguna Beach] dispensed with the stripped-down techniques of reality television for a more cinematic look."

"We also added the additional layer of not doing interviews," says Gateley. "So we had to kind of invent the pickup which was like, 'Oh, can you go to the nail salon and talk about what happened?' Because we can't just get that in an interview bite. So we made our jobs harder for ourselves." To look back at not just Laguna Beach, but the reality landscape around it, it does seem like, as Gateley calls it, the Wild West. "No one knew what the show was going to become," she says. "They were their authentic selves. There wasn't social media. They were a real group of friends. So they weren't vying for more camera time...We didn't have to manufacture anything was[n't] already ongoing."

It's part of why Laguna Beach probably couldn't be done in the same way today. The lack of social media meant the kids weren't online 24/7. "Facebook came out the week we delivered the test tape to MTV," Gateley says. By the time The Hills debuted in 2006, starring Laguna Beach breakout Lauren Conrad, the more modern-day reality show was already on full display. "It became really hard to control, the paparazzi and what was happening at the clubs," says Gateley. "Their lives got so much bigger that it became harder to control the story before we showed it in the show and then we realized, like, 'Okay, well, we just have to embrace what's going on, because we're never going to be able to control it.'"

For Gateley, the show is a time capsule. Not only for the Laguna Beach participants who have a reminder of their senior year – and those who were part of it – but for audiences who want a sliver of their childhood. "What draws people to these nostalgic moments is...Every generation has their nostalgia, but I feel like it's a particular moment in time right now where it feels dangerous. No one trusts social media and this feels really safe, and it's also high school so it's like an innocent time that I think everyone longs to go back to," she says.

Laguna Beach also has the benefit of focusing on an established friend group. The petty squabbles depicted on the show seem quaint to a group of forty-somethings now raising children of their own. That being said, Gateley says don't anticipate a Hills reunion anytime soon. "That was a very different show, and because this show was about a group of friends who are really still all friends, it felt safe to go back there," says Gateley. "It's been twenty years. Lauren's a mom. She's happily living in Laguna Beach with her amazing husband, William, and two boys. She's happy and I think, for her, it would be hard to drum back up that emotion but I will let her speak to that."

The Reunion: Laguna Beach will air on the Roku Channel April 10.

Watch the entire interview with Liz Gateley below or by subscribing to The Film Maven's YouTube channel.

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