{alltv} "Pretty Little Liars" may pay homage to Hitchcock

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" is not "Mad Men," nor does it try to be.

The saucy drama, in which an omnipresent person named "A" causes psychological, physical and emotional harm to Aria (Lucy Hale), Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Hanna (Ashley Benson) after their best friend Alison (Sasha Pieterse) dies, "Pretty Little Liars" doesn't hold back when it comes to tackling the big issues. Stealing from a bank, a kid coming out and a student-teacher relationship are some of the featured storylines.

Last we left off, Ian (Ryan Merriman), the prime suspect for "A" was found hanging in the bell tower of the town's church -- but when the group returned to show the police, he was gone.

Executive producer Oliver Goldstick spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the second season, premiering Tuesday.

WHAT'S OUTSIDE THE LIMIT FOR YOU GUYS? WHAT IS CROSSING THE

LINE?

Goldstick: As far as content, as long as we can produce it and as long as it is within our limit (we'll do it). There are several major Hitchcock fans in the writers' room and we've talked about wanting to do an homage of certain films. I've wanted to do a train episode, where that becomes, "Can we really do that? Will this really look terrible? Can we pull this off?"

As far as content, we've got a network that has been supportive with how edgy the show has been. I said to (creator) Marlene (King) when I first saw the pilot, "It's a very different family than I thought." There was the dilemma of how can you make people who are lying or deceptive or deceitful sympathetic. With teenage protagonists, everybody is lying; that's what's interesting. The books tapped into something organic because we're all trying on identities but at that age, it's daily. You're posing and you're praying no one's going to call you out. The "A" of it all is also a huge part of today's culture, where people -- because of the internet and blogs - aren't taking responsibility for their actions in the same way.

BEING THAT THE SHOW IS ADAPTED FROM A BOOK, HOW MANY

LIBERTIES WERE TAKEN WITH THE PACING AND THE WAY THE PLOT

POINTS WERE REVEALED?

Goldstick: We have to stretch this out. Granted, when Sara Shepard conceived the books, she had no idea she'd be writing eight of them so she also had to reconceive it. We knew as a television series that Warner Bros. would want several seasons, ABC Family as well, and therefore we have to parse out information and figure out how to pay allegiance to the books and deploy the plot points that are there, but also build on things that aren't there. For example, the parents are almost ciphers in the books -- some of them don't even have first names -- and it was the idea that once you put actors on-camera, you have to develop them, fleshed out and with their own story and their own dilemmas and their own lives.

HOW LONG CAN THE "A" STORY LINE GO ON FOR?

Goldstick: I think we felt Alison's killer, it looked like it was resolved at the end of last season but there may be some twists and turns. Ian may not even be dead, for all you know, so there you go. Just when you think you know something, it's our job to keep spinning the yarns and keeping you hooked and going, "Oh my god. I thought I understood this and you're telling me now, this person has a motive to kill her?" All I can tell you is Alison made a lot of enemies.

BUT IF THE SERIES LASTS FOR YEARS AND YEARS, WILL IT BE IN

THE SERIES FINALE WHERE WE'LL FINALLY FIND OUT WHO "A" IS?

Goldstick: Yeah, that's the hope and maybe some series aren't meant to go beyond four seasons, I don't know. This could be a four-season show. In the world we live in now, some things can live on for 12 seasons, some times are really meant to be delicious for three, four, five seasons. It doesn't mean they aren't successful, it means they told the story they needed to tell.

SO YOU THINK THIS SHOW FALLS IN THE LATTER CATEGORY?

Goldstick: Probably, but I'll get in trouble for that one. Watch, the fifth season will be completely recharged. By the fifth season, maybe something happens that reenergizes the series and you go, "Oh my god, this character has brought an entire new energy and now we have a whole other story to tell."

HYPOTHETICALLY, IF "A" WAS REVEALED THIS SEASON AND A

SECOND ARC WAS INTRODUCED, WHAT WOULD THAT LOOK LIKE?

Goldstick: Well in the books, there became a second "A."

IS THERE AN END GAME IN PLACE?

Goldstick: No.

SO YOU'RE GOING SEASON BY SEASON?

Goldstick: Yes, season by season. We know where we want to go at the end of the season and we work backwards from there. But we don't have an end game as far as the series. We've talked about it, but we concentrate much more on the particular season.