Summerland is an American drama television series created by Stephen Tolkin and Lori Loughlin. It is centered on a clothing designer in her 30s, Ava Gregory (Loughlin), raising her niece and nephews after their parents die in a tragic accident. They live in California with three of Ava's friends who also help raise the kids.

Summerland premiered on June 1, 2004 on the defunct television network The WB. The series ran for a total of 26 episodes over two seasons. Its cancellation was announced on May 15, 2005 and the last episode aired on July 18, 2005. A soundtrack was released on March 19, 2005 and the show has been syndicated in many countries.

Production

Music

Each episode of the show features a number of songs from various artists in addition to an original score. The music is usually used as a background element, however, occasionally the music heard is mentioned on the show. "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers, also used in the film Ghost, is heard in an episode when the film is shown, and an episode starring Christy Carlson Romano features her song "Dive In" as her character's song.

Other bands and musicians heard in the show include The Beach Boys, The Penguins, Howie Day, John Mayer, Ryan Adams, Blink-182, Maroon 5, and Lifehouse.

Soundtrack

On March 19, 2005, a soundtrack was released featuring music from both seasons of the show. It included the opening theme as well as a song by cast member Jesse McCartney, "Get Your Shine On", which also appeared on his first album and was released as a single.

Track listing

1. "Undertow" - Bowling For Soup
2. "General Attitude" - Collective Soul
3. "All Downhill from Here" - New Found Glory
4. "Get Your Shine On" - Jesse McCartney
5. "Feel So Free" - Ivy
6. "The Crying" - Kristian Leontiou
7. "My Paper Heart" - The All-American Rejects
8. "Struggle" - Ringside
9. "Try" - Lisa Loeb
10. "Alive" - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
11. "My Way Home" - Citizen Cope
12. "Beautiful Day" - Steve Plunkett

Plot

Synopsis

The series follows Ava Gregory (Lori Loughlin), a fashion designer, and her house mates and niece and nephews as they learn to cope with a life-changing event and each other. After the death of their parents, Bradin (Jesse McCartney), Nikki (Kay Panabaker), and Derrick Westerly (Nick Benson) leave their home in Kansas to live with their Aunt Ava in Playa Linda, California. They live with three other house mates; Johnny Durant (Shawn Christian), Ava's ex-boyfriend, Susannah Rexford (Merrin Dungey), Ava's best friend and business partner, and Jay Robertson (Ryan Kwanten), an Australian surfer who owns a local surf shop. The show follows the struggles that these friends and family face as they adapt to their new lives together. Jay has an on-again-off-again relationship with Erika Spalding (Taylor Cole), who becomes Bradin's surfing instructor. Cameron Bale (Zac Efron) is Nikki's friend and classmate.

Cast

Main characters

Summerland initially featured a main cast of eight characters. In the second season, after appearing as a recurring member in the first season, Zac Efron was added to the main cast. This brought the total number of main characters to nine.

• Ava Gregory (Lori Loughlin) is a woman in her mid 30s who is raising her niece and nephews, Bradin, Nikki, and Derrick Westerly, after their parents' tragic deaths. She lives in a beach house with the children, her on again/off again boyfriend Johnny, her best friend Susannah, and another close friend, Jay. Ava has a very hectic life and also faces the stressful task of raising three children, who are all devastated at the loss of their parents and who deal with their loss in very different ways.

• Johnny Durant (Shawn Christian) is Ava's ex boyfriend who still remains her roommate until Season 2. He gets along tremendously with the kids and opens up his own restaurant. Despite hiding it, he is desperately still in love with Ava.

• Susannah Rexford (Merrin Dungey) is Ava's best friend, business partner and roommate.

• Jay Robertson (Ryan Kwanten) is an Australian native, who lives with Ava in Playa Linda and is the "big brother" to the children. He was dating Erika, despite his notorious behavior for being a playboy.

• Bradin Westerly (Jesse McCartney) is the oldest of the three children. He copes with the loss of his parents by drinking, getting involved in drugs and earns a reputation as a wild child. He is also as an exceptional surfer and is offered a sponsorship by many major companies but his personal problems seem to get in the way on more than one occasion.

• Erika Spalding (Taylor Cole) is Jay's girlfriend. She helps coach Bradin with his surfing. She leaves to take care of her mother, but returns and begins dating Bradin.

• Nikki Westerly (Kay Panabaker) is an exceptionally bright child. She starts off trying to take over the "mother" role, but eventually settling in and making many friends including Cameron, who would later become her on/off boyfriend.

• Derrick Westerly (Nick Benson) is the youngest child. Despite being very close to his Aunt Ava, he can't quite get over the loss of his parents at such a young age.

• Cameron Bale (Zac Efron) is Nikki's best friend and on/off boyfriend. He lives with his troubled, divorced, alcoholic father (portrayed by C. Thomas Howell). In season two Efron became a part of the main cast after appearing as a recurring star in season one.

Recurring characters

• Sarah Borden (Sara Paxton) is a troubled teen with an addiction to pot. She becomes Bradin's girlfriend and pressures him to use drugs.

• Mona (Carmen Electra) is Johnny's partner, who invests in a bar with him and later starts dating and living with Johnny. However in a tragic motorcycle accident Mona is killed leaving Johnny heartbroken. He changes the name of his bar to "Mona's Sandbar" in memory of Mona who transferred her share of the property to Johnny before she died.

• Callie (Danielle Savre) is a girl from the Midwest who becomes one of Bradin's girlfriends and helps him recover from his relationship with Sarah.

• Amber (Shelley Buckner) is one of Nikki's friends and Cameron's past girl friend. Amber and Nikki didn't get along at first, but eventually they became best friends.

• Chris (Tyler Patrick Jones and Cole Petersen), is Derrick's best friend and often plays with Bradin, too.

Episodes

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
	1	13	June 1, 2004 - August 17, 2004
	2	13	February 28, 2005 - July 18, 2005

Season 1: 2004

#	Total	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate	Prod. code

Season 2: 2005

#	Total	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate	Prod. code

Broadcast history

Cancellation

On May 15, 2005, The WB released early information on their 2005-06 season. Summerland, along with eight other shows, was cancelled. Jesse McCartney responded to the cancellation in an interview, saying the show was "in a crazy time slot and...the writers were having trouble, and it was just a bad call." Like many other cancelled TV series, fans quickly started a campaign to save the show, however, it was unsuccessful.

DVD Release

In October 2009 Summerland received a test release on DVD , this was seen as an effort to test the market for a full scale release in the wake of numerous fans petitions calling for one.

Syndication

The series has been syndicated on The N & Ten Network in Australia, Living in the United Kingdom and Ireland, TV2 in Norway, and on MBC 4 in the Middle East. In Spain, Summerland (which retains its English language title) has been used as a filler during the summer months. In July 2008, Telecinco aired all of the episodes again in the 9am time slot, the same time slot in which it aired in the summer of 2007.

Awards

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
2005	Teen Choice Awards	Nominated	Choice TV Actor: Drama	Jesse McCartney
	Young Artist Awards	Nominated	Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Leading Young Actor	Jesse McCartney
			Best Family Television Series (Drama)	-
		Won	Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Leading Young Actress	Kay Panabaker
2006	NAACP Image Awards	Nominated	Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series	Janice Cooke-Leonard
	PRISM Awards	Won	Performance in a Drama Series Storyline	Lori Laughlin

References

1. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=6904
2. http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/transcripts/index.asp?artist=1123&tranID=552
3. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/summerlandcancelled

External links

• Official website at TheWB.com (Archived)
• Summerland DVD