Pretty Little Liars (franchise)
A franchise of mystery, secrets, and teen drama.
Pretty Little Liars is a multimedia franchise that began with a 2006 novel and expanded to include two book series, four television series, and one web series. The first television series, also titled Pretty Little Liars, premiered on ABC Family in June 2010 and became a cultural phenomenon, spawning multiple spin-offs and sequels across different platforms.
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Sara Shepard
- Origin
- Pretty Little Liars (2006)
- Years
- 2006–2024
- Books
- Pretty Little Liars (book series); The Perfectionists (book series)
- Short stories
- Various short stories
- TV
- Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017)
- Ravenswood (2013–2014)
- The Perfectionists (2019)
- Pretty Little Liars (2022–2024)
- TV specials
- "A Liars Guide to Rosewood"
- "We Love You to DeAth"
- "5 Years Forward"
- "A-List Wrap Party"
- Soundtracks
- Pretty Little Liars (2011)
Facts from the source article.
Literature
The Pretty Little Liars novel series, written by Sara Shepard, is set in the fictional Rosewood, Pennsylvania, a wealthy Philadelphia suburb. It follows four teenage girls whose clique dissolves after their queen bee leader, Alison DiLaurentis, disappears. Three years later, the girls receive threatening messages from an anonymous figure called "A," who threatens to expose secrets they thought only Alison knew. Alison's body is later discovered buried in her yard. The series comprises 21 books divided into four arcs of four books each, plus five short stories and companion novels. The books have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. The franchise has been licensed for non-canon ebooks through Amazon.com's Kindle Worlds. An audio podcast sequel titled The Liars was released on Audible on June 16, 2022, with an audiobook version following on February 14, 2023. The Perfectionists, another young adult series by Sara Shepard, began with a first book released on October 2, 2014, and a sequel, The Good Girls, on June 2, 2015. It involves five high school girls who jokingly plan a perfect murder for a boy who hurt them; when the boy is found dead as planned, they become suspects and seek the real killer.
Television
The Pretty Little Liars franchise includes five television series, one of which is a web series: Pretty Little Liars (2010), Pretty Dirty Secrets, Ravenswood, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, and Pretty Little Liars (2022). Together they total 206 episodes across 12 seasons. The flagship series, Pretty Little Liars, is an American teen drama mystery thriller developed by I. Marlene King, loosely based on the novel series. It follows four high school girls whose clique falls apart after their leader disappears; a year later, they reunite upon receiving messages from "A" threatening to expose their secrets. The ensemble cast includes Troian Bellisario, Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Sasha Pieterse, and Janel Parrish. It premiered on ABC Family on June 8, 2010, and ended on June 27, 2017. Its early ratings success extended the book series beyond the initial eight novels. Freeform confirmed the series would end after its seventh season. The series finale drew an estimated 1.41 million viewers, the second-highest rating of any cable TV series that night. Pretty Dirty Secrets is a mystery web series set between episodes of the third season, in a Halloween store in Rosewood. Ravenswood, the first spin-off, is a supernatural teen drama mystery-thriller created by I. Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick, and Joseph Dougherty. It aired on ABC Family from October 22, 2013, to February 4, 2014, and follows five strangers in the fictional town of Ravenswood, Pennsylvania, whose lives are linked by a deadly curse. It was cancelled after one season due to low ratings.
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