• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 13, 2006

There's at least one sad aspect about MTV's "The Hills," the new spin-off of the popular guilty pleasure "Laguna Beach." There's no way it will be as fun or fascinating as the original. History hints at that.

For starters, "Laguna"'s second season wasn't as good as the first--the principal reason being that if there was some reality in the love triangles and dream-teenage life in season one, the second go-round was all playing to the cameras.

As a general rule, follow-up seasons of a reality show that becomes a surprise hit always lose some appeal. That's because producers tinker with the format, unwilling to leave well enough alone. And, sometimes more ominously, advertisers get involved with production, looking to benefit from the show's appeal.

The most glaring example is "The Apprentice," which started as a shot in the dark: Give Donald Trump a TV show and let contestants battle it out via genuine challenges on the streets of New York for the chance to work for him. Then, the show became an overnight sensation and by season two, it was moving toward its current state of serving as a petri dish for advertisers to paste their brands and logos all over. The competitions became more about serving as a showcase for marketers than creative challenges to determine a contestant's fitness for the business world.

"The Hills" runs a similar risk of both lacking authenticity from a programming standpoint and becoming too dominated by a marketer--in this case Conde Nast's Teen Vogue. Much of the story line--at least in the May 31 premiere (evaluated and ranked via research firm iTVX as one of the five most effective product placements last week)--revolves around the magazine with ex-"Laguna" star L.C., now Lauren Conrad, moving up the freeway to Los Angeles to go to school and serve as an intern there.

At times, the show feels as if it were sort of a video news release for Teen Vogue, with editors referring to "the 'Teen Vogue' style," scene after scene shot inside the magazine's office where the publication's name is on near-constant display, shots of a Teen Vogue party featuring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, and Conrad acting as an evangelist for the publication. She refers to her new occupational opportunity as "a killer internship" and mentions how she gets some of her own fashion inspiration from the magazine.

On one level, Conde Nast's willingness to get involved with the show is surprising, since the company is very protective of its brands and has historically been gun-shy about "loaning" them to television. To wit: A Vanity Fair or GQ television show would have considerable potential and could go in many different directions--Bravo would surely love to develop either--but probably will never happen.

So it appears as if Conde Nast truly believes that the appeal of "Laguna"--and perhaps its signature star, Conrad--has staying power (more evidence comes in her appearance on this month's cover, showing that Teen Vogue is looking at this as a multi-dimensional marketing effort).

That seems risky. As Variety writes, after going through the second "scripted" season of "Laguna," Conrad is "schooled in the ways of reality TV," which likely means "The Hills" will feel contrived. Also a negative is some evidence that the appeal of "Laguna" and its characters may be limited. Kristin Cavallari's UPN show went belly-up in a hurry and Stephen Colletti doesn't seem to have done much besides land a guest VJ gig on MTV earlier this month, probably as a promotional stunt for "The Hills."

A clever Vogue tagline goes: "Before it's in fashion, it's in Vogue," but the magazine's little sister may be behind the trend this time.