Secrets straight from one of the brains of Pretty Little Liars!

Glitter got to chat with one of the head writers/producers of the hit TV show Pretty Little Liars, Oliver Goldstick! Read below to find out the secrets he shared, how he got started, and something about Alison that NO ONE knows.

GLITTER: What other shows have you produced or worked on?

OLIVER: Oh my god, how much time do you have? I’ve been doing this for years. Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, American Dreams, Popular. You wanna go back to the 90s to?

GLITTER: That’s amazing. Have you always wanted to be in this business? What were you doing before?

OLIVER: I was in the theater! My training was in theater and I knew I couldn’t make a living doing that, because it’s a difficult way to pay bills, but I came out here to California in 1988 or 1989 from NY and was very fortunate to be able to start writing with a partner and get on a show really quickly. I was in the sitcom world for about seven years and then I did a show called Popular, which was Ryan Murphy’s first show. That was a great show, I had a good time.

GLITTER: So you just took off from there! So how did you get on the Pretty Little Liars team?

OLIVER: Marlene was asked to develop the book series, by Sara Shepherd, into a television show, and she had never worked on a series before. My folks at Warner Brothers who I work with gave me a call and asked me to screen the pilot. I had worked on sitcoms a lot, but I was itching to do a cable series for a multitude of reasons. There is more freedom, smaller staff. I have two small children, and the show was shooting ten minutes from my house! That was a bonus! But I was intrigued by the pilot because I didn’t know the books. I was fresh eyes to this whole world.

I thought the bullying aspect and the whole anonymous texting thing as an un-seen bully was very taking for me. I read stories and heard first hand of kids who came to school on a Monday morning, and there was a false Myspace page created. The whole incredible case was a Myspace situation, and a mother had gotten on under a good disguise from her daughter. The teen later committed suicide. There is just something underneath all this. The girls on the show were lovely, and I thought… this could really turn into something exciting!

GLITTER: And now it’s one of the top teen shows on the air right now! Is it challenging to come up with new ideas? We know you are wrapping up season 4, you are on for Season 5 AND doing Ravenswood. How are these two shows kept in balance?

OLIVER: It’s a lot. Ravenswood is shot in New Orleans, which is even more of a challenge. I’m leaving for there next week actually. PLL is a very controlled environment, because it’s shot pretty much on the back lot of Warner Brothers, only a few times we’ve gone off the lot to shoot something, or to a nearby park. You get to know the back lot. Having the perimeters that we do, has made it easier to do this show. When you know what your limitations are, that actually frees you up in some ways to pitch and create. We’ve had a lovely whirlwind past, and we don’t have everyone under contract so some of our recurring characters will disappear for a bit…

GLITTER: Or they have children! (In reference to the actress who plays Jenna Marin, Tammin)

OLIVER: Yeah! Or they have a child! But I just brought back Alison’s brother in an episode that I just directed, which is the second to last episode of season four. I brought back Jason, who we haven’t seen in a year!

GLITTER: Last time we saw him was when he just left the hospital bed!

OLIVER: Yeah, we took pleasure in that. The book supplied a real nice foundation for us. When we started we read the first four, and we knew that we would burn through most of the plots within three episodes. So we knew from the beginning we would have to embellish and elaborate on what was there, and thrush out characters who were just shadows in the books, such as the parents, who didn’t even have first names! We had to get a family life for these kids, focus on the turmoil, and let that play out dramatically with what is happening with “A.”

GLITTER: So you would say that you are still following in line with the books? We know you guys have said you aren’t going to do the twin theory, not gonna make it exactly like the book, but do you think you are keeping it within the book boundaries?

OLIVER: Yes and no. We have great respect for the books, we love them. But we would say in the first season we started to diverge from what was in the books, we are not gonna follow in the plot that closely. The idea is that this is a series that has opened up this world and created a lot of other suspects, and therefore we have to honor what we put into motion in the first couple of seasons.

GLITTER: Does Sara Shepherd ever come on set?

OLIVER: She hasn’t been on in about 3 years! We put her in an episode in the first season, and she came out in the second, but I think she had a baby so she is come taking care of her children!

GLITTER: So you just got the main idea from the book?

OLIVER: Yes, we took the temperals and just built a new world around.

GLITTER: You know we can’t talk to you without trying to get some details out of you! Our readers love spoilers, and teasers!

OLIVER: Especially after Halloween, I’m like… oh my god, where are the going?! One thing I can say as a spoiler is that we aren’t messing with them. What’s so great is that, if you look back, we DO plant things in earlier episodes and see for Season 3 as an example, when Aria was about to reach for something in Ezra’s drawer, and he wouldn’t let her go there. There are moments that are in this series that we are so delighted we can pay off finally. We have been putting things in motion for some time.

GLITTER: Wow! Have there been any fan theories that you get ideas from?

OLIVER: I don’t. I’ve been doing this a long time, as much as I LOVE the feedback, and they are so smart. We just can’t because we already know where we are going. The episodes were written and produced months in advanced.

GLITTER: Ok. So the Halloween episode was insane. Fans are going crazy and theories are flying everywhere. We think a lot of fans are in denial about Ezra. “Is he doing this for Aria?” They are just in love with Ezra! They don’t want him to have any reason to want something NOT good for the girls. Is there still hope?

OLIVER: I would say, don’t give up. This show is always full of twists and turns. I say buckle your seat belt, don’t get out of the car. The ride isn’t over, and there is more surprises to come. People are jumping to conclusions, saying say can’t watch the show anymore, but I say to HOLD ON! Just wait and see. There might be a really, REALLY cool explanation to why people are acting strangely.

GLITTER: You are killing us! Our readers want to know so bad!

OLIVER: They have to just sit tight! There is gonna have to be a blow up once in a while, but you have to understand that it will be grounded and that you will be glad you stuck around.

GLITTER: Would you say there is NO ONE? Not even their parents who they can trust?

OLIVER: Nope! No one. The show IS called Pretty Little Liars. There is something in the water in that town and no one is honest.

GLITTER: Are you going to do something crazy with the parents?

OLIVER: We already have with Aria’s dad! He was pretty scary for a couple episodes.

GLITTER: What happened to Meredith anyway?

OLIVER: People usually resurface in those woods, she’s getting those shock treatments and she may be back.

GLTITER: Did you guys know you were always going to keep Alison alive?

OLIVER: We went back and forth. We were at a place where we didn’t know she was coming back alive, but by the third season it was in our heads we were going with this. But again, that doesn’t mean she will stay alive. Just because she’s alive right now doesn’t mean she is going to stay alive. Someone is after her.

GLITTER: You just wanna tease people!!

OLIVER: I live for that.

GLITTER: Hannah took a journal from A’s lair in the last episode we saw in Season 4, not including the Halloween episode. Does that help? You say that Hannah is getting smart now, is it HIS journal? Tell us!

OLIVER: That was very smart of you to pick up on that. That’s a really smart observation. That journal is going to carry us in MANY episodes in 4B, and it’s going to clear things up on what’s going on. Why is she hiding? How did she end up here? What transpired that summer that made of these events? That’s all I’m going tell you!

GLITTER: What is one thing that you can tell us about Alison that you don’t think many people know?

OLIVER: I would say… there is more drama going on in her house than you are ever going to believe. It all starts in the Dilaurentis house, that’s all I’m going to tell you.