'Pretty Little Liars' Creator Marlene King's Got Some Secrets!

With it’s blend of thoughtful personal stories wrapped up in a fantastical mystery, it’s four smart, talented and stunning stars and its spot-on supporting cast, ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars has found a recipe for success that holds appeal far beyond the core teen demographic it depicts, and showrunner and creator Marlene King is a key player in that success.

With it’s blend of thoughtful personal stories wrapped up in a fantastical mystery, it’s four smart, talented and stunning stars and its spot-on supporting cast, ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars has found a recipe for success that holds appeal far beyond the core teen demographic it depicts, and showrunner and creator Marlene King is a key player in that success.

No stranger to writing about teen girls, King penned 1995’s coming-of-age crowd-pleaser Now and Then, produced by Demi Moore and starring Cristina Ricci. While teen material may appear to be King’s raison d'être, she also tackled writing about the weighty subject of abortion throughout the decades in HBO’s If These Walls Could Talk, which Moore also produced.

Based on Sara Shepard’s teen novels of the same name, King wrote the pilot for Pretty Little Liars that brought Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily life on the small screen. Since the pilot premiered in 2010 the show has become a juggernaut of a success teeming with pop culture touchstones – including plenty of Hitchcock references – and compassionate personal stories of the four pretty little liars’ friendships, loves and losses. Not to mention that King and the gang have managed to turn the mystery of “Who is A?” into watercooler, Twitter and Facebook conversation. It’s just the cherry on top that Pretty Little Liars features a compassionately told coming out story for the show’s lesbian character Emily that has garnered accolades and awards throughout the LGBT community.

King chatted with SheWired about Emily’s status as Rosewood’s lady killer, the show’s amazing Hitchcock homages, just who’ll be returning for the back side of Season 2 and Pretty Little Liars / Revenge viewing parties.

Thanks so much for chatting with me. Can you talk about your professional trajectory? How did you become the queen of teen material?

Marlene King: I got into the business just by writing. I went to college at Pepperdine out here in Malibu, California. I didn’t major in film or writing. I was a broadcast major, and I just realized I loved writing. I had a great teacher, a great broadcast/writing teacher and I started writing screenplays and I met Demi Moore. She produced Now and Then and she sort of gave me my first big break. After that, I did several movies for her and really this was my first television project.

How did the Pretty Little Liars material come to you?

I had a general meeting with the folks at ABC Family because they loved Now and Then, and it seemed like we had very similar sensibilities. They developed programs for the target audience that I really seemed to have a lot of fun writing with and for... I left that meeting and the very next day they called and said “Hey, we have a book for you to take a look at.” It was Pretty Little Liars.

So, what was your response after reading that book?

I loved it! I read it in one sitting and called and said, “Can I have the next book please? And when can I come in and talk about the television show?”

What were the challenges in trying to take that book from book form to the television show?

The challenge…it was actually really fun for me. It wasn’t extremely challenging or taxing. I remember writing the pilot with a smile on my face the whole time. The book was so much fun. The pilot was based on the very first Pretty Little Liars book. It’s a very literal adaptation of the book. The Executive Producer of the pilot with me was Bob Levy, and I remember calling him everyday and say “Bob this is so much fun, I cant wait for you to read it.” He was like, “Stop calling! You’re getting my hopes up to high.” It was just a lot of fun.

Judging by the show’s almost cult-like status your having paid off for everyone. What do you think of the devotion so many fans have to the show?

It’s really exciting for all of us who work on the show because we really do work hard and try to create something that feels special, that people are satisfied while they watch and talk about after they watch… So to get this kind of reaction really makes it all worth it. We work so many hours here so we feel like were a family. We’re definitely a Pretty Little Liars family and people are understanding what were doing and liking it and appreciating it and wanting us to do it more.

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