“The Hills,” in its original incarnation, featured many hallmarks: dramatic confrontations at LA hot spots, lingering shots of cast members staring at one another through mascara-tinged tears and, of course, sound bites that have been endlessly quoted and turned into memes long after its six-season run.
In honor of this week’s premiere of “The Hills: New Beginnings,” TODAY asked some of the stars to weigh in on the most unforgettable lines from the reality soap.
“Justin Bobby is a quote machine,” said Spencer Pratt, referring to Audrina Patridge’s on-off love interest Justin Bobby Brescia. "I love ‘Truth and time tell all.’ What else did that poet say?”
“I always said, ‘I'm done,’ said Patridge, noting that "I want to forgive you and I want to forget you,” Lauren Conrad’s zinger to frenemy Heidi Montag, was also among the series’ most memorable.
“I would have to give it up to ‘Truth and time tells all,’” said Brescia, adding, “‘I want to forgive you and I want to forget you.’ I remember ‘Get out of my car.’”
“I more had faces or looks rather than anything,” said Whitney Port, who often served as a sounding board for Conrad’s dilemmas.
“The most savage thing anyone ever did was ‘You know what you did,’ when nobody did what they supposedly did,” said Pratt, referring to a particularly emotional season-three argument between Conrad and Montag over Conrad’s suspicion that Pratt started a rumor about her.
He continued, “I get ‘You're making yourself cry, thinking about what you did’ a lot quoted.”
Pratt said his all-time favorite moments from the show were his wedding to Montag in season five and their dates at Mexican eatery Don Antonio’s.
“I think mine was probably going to Paris for the Crillon Ball, when we got to go for Teen Vogue,” said Port.
“It's always the traveling,” Patridge said. “Mine was when the whole cast went to Costa Rica. It was the best time.”
Asked who was most — and least — like the way they were portrayed on the show, Patridge said, “I think we were all kind of ourselves, but at times you never know how they're going to edit things out. So sometimes you watch the scene and you're like, ‘Why didn't you show what I said?’ So you kinda feel like they didn't show you in a certain light that you remember.”
“Totally,” Port agreed. “I mean, there's so many different ways a conversation can get chopped up. I think, for me, a lot of who I was didn't show. I feel like I was very much at work with Lauren and I was always kind of talking about what was going on with her, which was awesome. I was happy to be a good friend. But I think there was so much else going on in my life that I didn't really share, that people didn't really get to see until I was on (spinoff) ‘The City.’”
“I think everybody was pretty true to self,” said Brescia. “I know I shied away from the camera quite a bit. It was very hard for me to give it my all.”
“I think Justin Bobby was probably the most like he was portrayed on the show, and I think you were the least,” Montag told Pratt.
As for the show’s place in the reality-TV zeitgeist, Montag said, “I think that it became so big because it was one of the first soap operas about real people living in Los Angeles, and had a lot of relatable stories. And what we were going through also was very glamorous and beautiful, and Los Angeles. Who doesn't love living the dream in LA?”
“I think all the fans could relate to us,” said Patridge. “And they're kind of on this journey with us, even now with the new show. A lot of people are married and have kids. And this time around it's not about going to clubs and partying. It's, like, we're dealing with real adult things now.”
Port agreed. “The people that watched it were also in their early 20s, trying to make a career for themselves and having boy drama and friend drama, and so I think everyone could kind of live vicariously through us.”