Ashley Tisdale talks about her character “Savannah” in the show, in this article from crushable.com.

“My hair color has definitely changed,” a brunette Ashley joked at the Television Critics Association panel of her new series.

“For me, Savannah is completely different from Sharpay. She’s been in her own little bubble. She’s a cheerleader. She’s very religious. She’s Christian. She’s very naive.”

Oh, and this little note. Savannah has a heart.

“She’s a little bit soft,” Ashley pointed out, noting how Savannah isn’t above putting the best gal on the cheerleading squad, even if she does loathe law-student-in-desperate-need-off-scholarship Marti (portrayed by newcomer Alyson Michalka)

Read the full article at crushable.com

Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment for The CW Television Network, has released an interview during the TCA on Thursday. She talks about the network’s upcoming programming and how it will fit in with it’s current slate of shows. Read below…

What prompted you to put Nikita and Hellcats on your schedule?

Dawn: Hellcats was a different story because it was one of the underdogs. It was a script that we developed, having no real sense of what it would be, in the end. It was based on a book and, when we read it, we really all were so surprised that we liked it as much as we did. It had characters that had some depth to them. We liked the idea that the main character was really struggling to be able to stay in school, had a real drive to become a lawyer and was doing this as a way of keeping a scholarship. And, it just felt a little older too, particularly when you get into college. They’re kids in their 20s, so it’s not the same as some of the other shows that we had read about. And, with the fact that it had big production numbers in every episode, and that people loved watching the cheering and the dancing, we knew it could really work for us after Top Model.

Read the full article at Collider

There are 3 more stills for the episode 1×01 – Pilot of the show. Make sure to check them into the gallery! Plus we’ve added more pics from the CBS Summer TCA Panel, featuring Tom Welling and Kevin Murphy.

GALLERY LINKS:
The Show > Season 1 > Production Stills > 1×01 – Pilot
Events and Appearances > Cast > 2010 > 2010 CBS Summer TCA Panels – Day 2

Tom Welling talks about Hellcats in this article from Seattle PI.

“I think there’s a lot of heart,” said Smallville star and executive producer Tom Welling at Thursday’s Television Critics Association fall preview. “I think there’s a lot of struggle from all the characters, especially our lead. And it’s sort of that journey [of] her finding her identity and what she’s going to do with her life.”

Welling, 33, will spend this year pulling double duty as producer of Hellcats and the star of Smallville. Fortunately, both CW series shoot in Vancouver, and Welling said both crews understand his passion for the new show. “I’m doing everything I can,” said Welling, “with a lot of support from both shows to facilitate what each needs from me.”

Read the full article at Seattle PI

There are some spoilers about Hellcats from E!Online. Do not read below if don’t want spoilers!

What It Is: Enter the world of competitive college cheerleading, with rebel cheerleader Marty, played by Aly Michalka, as your pilot. New for the fall.

Anti-Glee? No way. The cast and powers that be behind Hellcats think this show is for optimists and it inspires, if anything. “Dancing is a huge component, but it exists with one foot in the world of the characters. People are going to tune in for the central characters,” EP Kevin Murphy says.

Law-Abiding Citizen: The prelaw storyline for Marty will be a huge factor throughout the season. Gale Harold will play her law professor and will be issuing a “three strikes” rule for Marty while she juggles both her academics and cheerleading.

Call Them Athletes, Dangit! EP Tom Welling thinks people will be surprised by all the athleticism in each episode. The cast also made a point to ensure critics that they are dedicated to showcasing “cheerleaders as athletes, working hard, and struggling through extreme workouts.” So prepare to feel really bad about sitting on the couch while watching this show.

Graduated: Ashley Tisdale calls her Hellcats character Savannah “completely different” from her High School Musical role, Sharpay. On Savannah’s list of attributes: Southern, Christian, very naive and a little bit soft.

Source: E!Online

Gale Harold will join Hellcats as Marti’s law professor.

We spoke to Michalka after the panel to get the scoop on Harold’s character. “That storyline begins in episode three,” she tells us. “A friend of Marti’s gets into some trouble with the law, and she has to go to her law professor for help with the case.”The story begins when a friend of Marti’s goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

“This very good man is behind bars for what amounts to a minor robbery, that was really a set-up,” Michalka explains. Marti reaches out to Harold’s character, and he takes the case, which involves Memphis’ three-strike law. The law sends offenders to jail for a life sentence after any third conviction.

Source and more infos: Zap2It

Ashley Tisdale and Aly Michalka attended the CBS Summer TCA Panels and we’ve added some pics to the gallery. Make sure to check them out!

GALLERY LINKS:
Events and Appearances > Cast > 2010 > 2010 CBS Summer TCA Panels – Day 2

There are new behind the scenes pics from the set of Hellcats on July 29th. We’ve added to the gallery a bunch of pics, so make sure to check them out!

GALLERY LINKS:
The Show > Season 1 > Behind the Scenes > July 29th, 2010

Ashley Tisdale and Matt Barr attended the CBS Showtime CW Summer TCA Party yesterday (July 28th). Added to the gallery some photos from this event, so make sure to check them out!

GALLERY LINKS:
Events and Appearances > Cast > 2010 > CBS Showtime CW Summer TCA Party

Here’s an interview from Starry Costellation Magazine with Robbie Jones. He talks about Hellcats and more!

Q. What are some of the recent projects that you’ve been working on?

A. “Hellcats” has pretty much taken up all of my time and it’s a very involved project where there are aspects of cheer and dancing that are involved in the character. We have to do cheer rehearsals and dance rehearsals and stuff like that along with shooting. It’s pretty time consuming so there hasn’t been a whole lot of time for anything else.

Q. How draining has all of that training been on you?

A. I wouldn’t say it’s been taxing, it’s actually been fun to get more in touch with my masculine dancing side. It’s been fun learning some things and learning about something I had no knowledge of prior to the start of this project. Coming from an athletic background, I just knew about athletics, I grew up playing on athletic teams but I had no idea about cheerleading and the whole concept of just cheers as a true athletic art form.

Q. What can you tell us about the show and about your character?

A. The show is based around a young girl named Marti Perkins and her mother works on campus and she has a scholarship because the school extends scholarships to the kids of the workers of the campus. They cut the financing for that program and her mom didn’t really tell her about it until the last minute. She’d depressed and in a funk because she doesn’t have the money to keep her in school so she needs to apply for some sort of scholarship to stay in school. She has a background of gymnastics and as a last ditch effort she rents Bring It On and tries to put together some moves that encompass her own unique dance style and her gymnastics background and bring it to cheerleading tryout. It’s about her and her journey to try and keep her scholarship and her joining the cheerleading squad. They are down one man and they needed her and it turns out to be a little more than they bargained for. My character Lewis is an ex football player who ends up coming out for the squad to keep his scholarship because he had some issues with the football team and he ends up coming out for the squad because of his girlfriend who is on the squad. He ends up liking it for obvious reasons, his girlfriend is around him all of the time, it’s kind of a cooler thing than what he thought it would be. It follows him and the progression of his relationship with Marti and his relationship with his on again, off again, girlfriend Alice.

Read the full interview at Starry Costellation Magazine