Let’s go back, back to the beginning. The cast of season 1 of Laguna Beach just reunited for the first time ever and did not hold back. In a video shared via Instagram on Friday, October 23, Lauren Conrad, Stephen Colletti, Kristin Cavallari, Trey Phillips, Dieter Schmitz, Loren Polster, Lo Bosworth, Talan Torriero, Christina Sinclair and Morgan Smith reunited via Zoom to encourage fans to vote in the 2020 election — and to reminisce on old times.
News of the reunion broke on October 3 when Lauren, Stephen, Kristin and Trey created an Instagram video, saying that if they could get 500 fans to register to vote or check their registration status, they’d hold a reunion. It turns out, through their partnership with HeadCount, they reached 20 times their goal.
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Here is the FULL season 1 #LagunaBeach cast reunion! Enjoy — and go vote!
A post shared by Emily Longeretta (@emilylongeretta) on Oct 23, 2020 at 12:46pm PDT
During the reunion — which was the first time the season 1 cast was all together (virtually) since the 2004 finale — the group answered fan questions, played trivia and revealed some secrets about what didn’t make it to air.
“Reality TV was not really a thing before Laguna Beach, so I thought it was going to be, like, True Life,” Christina shared, noting that when they were asked to reshoot a scene or talk about prom three weeks later, it didn’t make sense to her. “In retrospect, had we been exposed to reality TV the way that we have now, but in a way, that’s what’s made Laguna Beach so iconic because we really went in with no expectations, having no idea what we were doing.”
The group also shed light on the editing of the show. When asked if anything on the show was edited in a way that surprised them, Kristin laughed and asked, “I mean, how much time do we have? Too soon, I’m triggered!”
Another highlight of the reunion was when the Uncommon James designer called out Stephen by name — in the voice that only she could do.
“People are always asking me to say it. I’m like, ‘C’mon man! I don’t even know if I can say it like that,’” she said. The One Tree Hill alum added, “The best is people will try to say it to me and it’s really, really, funny because they just look pretty ridiculous. It’s nowhere close!”
Laguna Beach, which aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2006, is available to stream on CBS All Access.
Scroll through the gallery below for more revelations from the reunion:
Everyone in the cast admitted that sometimes they’d warn their families before a specific episode aired. Ahead of the Cabo episode — in which Stephen and Kristin get into a nasty fight and he calls her names — he called his grandmother.
“I gave her a heads-up, [like] ‘Maybe don’t watch this episode,” he said. “And then I saw her, we talked about it and I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and I remember she just said to me, she was like, ‘I think she kind of deserved it.’”
The group’s reaction to his reveal was just as great as the statement itself.
MTV
The cast also shed light on the editing of the show, in which some scenes were filmed out of order or awkwardly cut together to create drama.
“There was one time that they had me walking down the street — they had a producer on the other side of the street and they were, like, ‘Just look at her,’” Kristin recalled. “She was, like, giving me these dirty faces and I’m, like, ‘Oh, my God, look at her!’ Of course they made it seem like I was looking at Lauren being like, ‘Oh, my God.’ We had no idea what was going on!”
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Speaking of editing, the famous Catalina incident, in which Stephen dressed up as a bear to scare the girls as they camped out, didn’t actually take place in Catalina.
“They put a tent up in Trey’s backyard and we had to pretend that you were in the tent putting Stephen in a bear suit again, while Trey’s mom was, like, doing the dishes five feet away,” Dieter revealed.
During that episode, Stephen also did an incredible front flip off a mountain — but what wasn’t shown was pretty scary. “There’s a part in that episode where I jump off this cliff, and there’s a good 30 minutes before actually getting up there that I was stuck trying to climb up, and I thought I was actually going to die. I thought I was going to fall off. I was hanging on by just, like, one little root or plant,” he explained. “All I could think about was, ‘Oh, my God, I’m gonna be in one of those videos where somebody caught on film the moment this person died.’”
While the Cabo episode may not have been Stephen’s best look, he did create quite the memories — including in one scene that didn’t make it to air.
“I have a very clear memory — I don’t know if this ever made it into the show — but us filming in Cabo, Stephen getting so drunk that he tried to go jump in a fountain,” Lauren shared. “There was, like, a sound guy chasing you trying to get the mic off you before you make it!”
While Stephen didn’t remember doing that, he does remember hearing about it. However, neither he nor Lauren were sure if he actually jumped into the fountain.
“I think so,” Lauren said. “I don’t know if we saved the mic.”
MTV
During the reunion, Christina shared that she and Stephen are “godbrother and sister” since his mother is her godmother! In fact, their mothers went to Laguna Beach High School 30 years before.
Stephen also revealed that when he and Christina got caught ditching school once, they were worried about their parents’ reactions, but both of their moms laughed it off. “They’re like, ’30 years before you guys, we would have done the same thing,’” he said.
Courtesy Beach Babe Fitness/Facebook; Sebastien Nogier/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
During a trivia segment, the group was asked which celebrity both LC and Lo wanted to go to prom with. While neither women could remember, Talan did, and revealed to the group it was Chad Michael Murray. Both Lo and Lauren were shocked that they’d said that.
“It’d probably because we liked his show [One Tree Hill], and then Stephen went and got on it,” she said. Stephen then chimed in, “And ruined it for you? You can say it!” (Stephen landed a role in the CW drama in 2007 and starred in 56 episodes.)
Stephen also shed light on why his shorts were so low all the time during filming, exposing his butt crack. “It’s one thing to sag my shorts or pants a little bit but it was worse because I didn’t wear underwear for a long time,” he said. “I hit puberty in college and realized I should start wearing underwear!”
