Hart of Dixie

• Rachel Bilson as Zoe Hart, a medical doctor. Graduated from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University medical school, Zoe is a very smart and talented apprentice surgeon with a heart of gold and also a beautiful glamorous privileged young lady in her late 20's who aspires to become a heart surgeon like her famous, rich and brilliant adoptive father. Unfortunately, after four years of residency at a New York hospital, she is refused the position she wanted and told she needs more experience dealing with patients and their families. She moves then to Bluebell in Alabama after learning a respected deceased physician -who enjoyed her graduation speech years before- bequeathed her his half of a general medical practice in the small town. If Zoe thought at first spending a quiet year there before returning to her normal life in Manhattan, she quickly realizes it will be otherwise. In fact, she constantly bumps heads with the co-owner of the place, Bertram "Brick" Breeland and the strange inhabitants of Bluebell and discovers really soon that the old nice doctor from whom she inherited was her biological father. The shock is hard to take for her, especially when the father who raised her starts avoiding her phone calls and multiple tentatives to contact him and rekindle their former close relationship and decides to treat her as a simple friend and colleague from that moment. Zoe will suffer a lot of the situation throughout the episodes but will remain brave and stay in Bluebell to achieve her goals. Over time, we discover that despite the distances she puts between her patients and her, the young physician really cares about them and is ready to do anything - including putting her reputation at risk - to help them. Open-minded and understanding, she never judges them and knows how to question herself when necessary. She later becomes a regular in helping the town through its never-ending dilemmas and gains there some loyal and sincere friends such as the mayor Lavon Hayes (her new best friend in town), George Tucker, Annabeth Thibodaux and the young Rose Hattenbarger for example. In season 2, she begins dating her handsome neighbor and friend Wade Kinsella... However, he ends up cheating on her when he loses Battle of the Bands and she breaks up with him. In the season finale, Zoe sleeps with Wade again and decides to go back to New York to get over everything. In the season 3 premiere, six months have passed and Zoe returns to Bluebell with a new boyfriend, Joel, a writer whom she moves in with in town. For the rest of season 3, she remains in a relationship with him until one of his books is made into a movie and he has to move to Los Angeles in California to assist with the production. In the season finale, Zoe realizes she is still in love with Wade Kinsella and tells him that she is going to do everything she can to win him back. In the season 4 premiere, Zoe is still trying to prove to Wade that they should be together, and seduces him, resulting in her getting pregnant with his baby. They eventually get back together and get married in the series finale as Zoe is giving birth to their child, an unnamed boy Hart-Kinsella. Throughout the series, Zoe and her partner's elder daughter, Lemon Breeland, hate each other but end up becoming friends in Season 4.
• Scott Porter as George Tucker, a local lawyer in Bluebell. When the series events start, George is a local lawyer engaged to Lemon Breeland, his high school sweetheart. In the past, he once moved to New York City to work for the prestigious Cravath, Swaine and Moore law firm as a corporate lawyer but returned to Bluebell after only two years, missing his hometown and relatives a bit too much. Helpful, nice, caring, well-educated, sincere, smart, athletic and charming, George is highly respected and appreciated by the Bluebell community. He's also Wade Kinsella's best friend since childhood. At the end of season 1, he calls off his wedding with Lemon after learning about her affair with the mayor Lavon Hayes, this combined with the realization of his own romantic feelings for Zoe Hart. But the pretty physician turns him down and George then begins to date other women, ending up with Wade's ex-wife, Tansy Truitt, in season 2. In season 3, he starts a new romantic relationship with Lavon's cousin, Lynly Hayes. In the meantime, George goes into partnership with his former fiancée, Lemon, by helping her invest in Fancie's Restaurant but eventually pulls out his part of the place when it burns down, leaving Lemon as sole owner and manager of the business from that moment. Troughtout the series, once their rivalry buried for good, he develops a close friendship with Lavon Hayes, the mayor of the town. Although he is the city lawyer, George seems to have a lot of time to experience in other opportunities, such as touring for a summer, singing in Lily Anne Lonergan's band or becoming the Talent Manager for both The Truitt Brothers and Meatball. He lives on a houseboat owned by Annabeth Thibodaux who he finally starts dating and ends up with in season 4. George has rich parents that tend to meddle in his life when they come for the occasional visit. He also has a brother, Harry, who is a successful lawyer, senior associate in their huge family law firm, and a married man with a daughter, Lily Louise Tucker.
• Jaime King as Lemon Breeland, the elder daughter of town physician, Bertram Breeland or "Brick". At the beginning of the series, Lemon is the prideful, conservative, despotic, picky and somewhat uptight young president of the Belles of Bluebell association that she leads with the help of her two childhood best friends, Annabeth Thibodaux Nass and Crickett Watts. Now in her late 20's, she's graduated from a college but never had a real job and is still living with her father. She's engaged to George Tucker whom she has been dating for fifteen years and is preparing the wedding of the century. However, she had an affair with the Mayor Lavon Hayes while her fiancé was working in New York and developed strong romantic feelings for him that she is now struggling to bury. When Lemon first meets Zoe, she instantly begins a deep rivalry with her because she feels that the young surgeon is interfering in her "perfect" life and so they often clash, owing to their different ways of thinking. Over the course of seasons 2 to 4, although she wouldn't admit it to anyone, Lemon does seem to come around to being civil with Zoe and they even befriend in the end of the series. Despite her sometimes despotic and manipulative nature, she has a sweet and charming disposition and is mostly a high-strung young woman dedicated to what she wants and how to achieve it. Caring, she is also able to sacrifice herself for the good of the people she is close to (like when she gives Annabeth her blessing to date Lavon despite her own deep romantic feelings for him, for example). During season 2, Lemon founds a catering business with Annabeth, then, becomes co-owner and co-manager of the bar "Rammer Jammer" with her long time friend, Wade Kinsella. She later buys the Fancie's, the town's "best" dinner restaurant, and takes over its management, leaving the Rammer Jammer to her ex-partner. Lemon has a reputation of being persistent and somewhat scheming when it comes to getting what she wants. After her wedding to George is called off, she finds herself without a true profession or a place to live. At one point, in order to move out of her father's house, she accepts the opportunity to live on AnnaBeth's houseboat, only to discover she suffers from seasickness. She eventually trades living arrangements with her former fiancé, George, trading him living on the houseboat, for living in what was once his apartment in town. Throughout the series, Lemon is seen having issues with her mother, Alice, who abandoned her and her sister Magnolia twelve years before the events of season 1 when Magnolia -whom Lemon raised like her own daughter- was only two years old. However, in season 4, she finally confronts Alice, with whom she remains hostile, but she does come around to accept that she has a little maternal half-sister, Scarlett Kincaid, and makes extra efforts to come to know her. In the series finale, Lemon finally gets married to Lavon Hayes, her one true love and becomes a successful businesswoman.
• Cress Williams as Lavon Hayes, Mayor and Co-Chair of the Tourism Council of Bluebell. Before becoming the mayor and co-chair of the Tourism Council of the small town of Bluebell, Lavon Hayes was a famous international football champion. For several years, in fact, he played as a linebacker in a team of the American NFL with which he won two Super Bowls and was selected to four Pro Bowls. Before that, he was also part of the football team of the University of Alabama from which he graduated. Back in Bluebell, he lives in a big colonial mansion located on a beautiful plantation and has a pet alligator named Burt Reynolds. Lavon is a charismatic politician truly attached and dedicated to his town and citizens, a caring and sweet person, a loyal friend and an open-minded and enlightened man a little shy with the women he is attracted to as well as a positive and enthusiastic nature. It is revealed in season 1 that he had an intimate relationship with Lemon Breeland while she was still engaged to the Bluebell lawyer, her long-time boyfriend George Tucker. He was really in love with her back then but she ends up turning him down when her fiancé came back from New York, breaking his heart in the process. Throughout the series, Lavon also develops a close friendship with Zoe Hart and often gives her meaningful advices on the town's traits. At the beginning of the first season, he even offers her to live into the carriage house on his estate grounds, next to the gatehouse in which he allows his best friend, Wade Kinsella, to reside. During the series, he has different romantic relationships : first with Didi Ruano, then with his former high school sweetheart, Ruby Jeffries, and finally with Annabeth Thibodaux, Lemon's childhood best friend. Although, during each of these romances, he remains deeply attached to Lemon. After a while, Lavon builds also a close friendship with George Tucker, although at times this relationship is strained due to his love for George's former fiancée, Lemon. The young mayor is a big fan of the television personality, Don Todd, and eventually gets to closely know him, which later helps him on when it comes to negotiations with rival Fillmore Mayor, Todd Gainey Senior. In the series finale, Lavon and Lemon finally marry each other.
• Wilson Bethel as Wade Kinsella, a bartender and Zoe's gorgeous neighbour. Wade has an eccentric personality. Initially, he appears to be an immature, unambitious, womanizing and sarcastic handsome bartender in his late 20's who doesn't care about anyone but himself. But slowly it is revealed that he deeply cherishes the people around him (though he always puts his best efforts into hiding his feelings), especially his best friends -George Tucker, Lavon Hayes, Zoe Hart and Lemon Breeland- and his father, Earl Kinsella, the town drunk he often provides with money for food and clothes and is a generous man with a heart of gold. He falls deeply in love with Zoe and tries to change his lifestyle and ambitions for her. For the most of season 2, he is in a monogamous relationship with the young surgeon until he is caught cheating on her. Wade is graduated from Cyrus Lavinius Jeremiah Jones High School just like George, Annabeth and Lemon but never went to college after that. He's very athletic (he was even part of his high school football team) and good at manual works, so he fixes things at Lavon's in exchange for being able to continue living in the gatehouse of his plantation. Furthermore, he's a talented musician (he sings, plays guitar and writes and composes songs) involved in a country music band but is also gifted in inventing cocktail recipes and has always dreamed of owning his own bar. He eventually gets that chance by becoming co-owner and co-manager of the local "Rammer Jammer" with his long-time friend, Lemon Breeland in season 2, then, its only owner and manager in the next season. During part 3, he tries at first to win back Zoe's love but then starts a serious romantic relationship with Vivian Wilkes, Zoe's paternal cousin, who finally breaks his heart by reconciling and moving away with her estranged husband. At the beginning of season 4, Wade sleeps again with Zoe, which leads to her becoming pregnant of his child, causing him to finally come around and do his best to mend his "flirtatious" ways and grow up, in preparation of his new role as a family man. In episode 10, Zoe goes into labor, and at the hospital, she and Wade get married before their baby is born. Eventually, Zoe gives birth to an unnamed baby boy Hart-Kinsella.
• Tim Matheson as Bertram Breeland -also named Brick- (recurring, episodes 1–14; starring, episodes 15–76), Bluebell's local medical practitioner. At the beginning of the series, Brick discovers he will have to share the town's general medical practice with Zoe Hart, which bothers him a lot. Indeed he was eager to have the clinic to himself after so many years working in a partnership with Harley Wilkes and her arrival ruines his project. He makes then Zoe's first weeks in Bluebell extremely difficult and constantly stands in her way, fomenting plans to take away her parts of the business and openly criticizing her medical diagnoses and inexperience of Southern hospitality as much as he can. Both very stubborn to prove their point, they clash a lot but, over time, develop a sort of "father-daughter" relationship. In fact, despite his rough and wild appearance, Brick is a benevolent man dedicated entirely to his patients and their well-being, highly respected and appreciated by the Bluebell community in which he has many friends. He's also the father of two girls: Lemon and Magnolia. Their mother, Alice -his ex-wife- left them twelve years before the events of season 1 to pursue a career as an actress and never contacted them again. After her departure, Lemon -who was only 17 at that time- took care of him and their home and raised her 2-year-old sister like she was her own daughter. From his side, Brick, very depressed, has never been able to move on and has been living in the past since then, unable to date again. Eventually, he starts a brief romantic relationship with Emily Chase in season 1, then, in season 2, meets Shelby Sinclair, an exuberant local talent personality much younger than he is and falls for her. At first, their big age difference poses a problem to Brick so he quickly decides to break up with her, fearing the town's people opinion on their affair. However, he later realizes that he really likes Shelby and tries to win her back. Then begins between the two of them an on and off romantic relationship. In season 3, Shelby becomes pregnant with married Lieutenant Governor of Alabama Alex Byrd's baby girl, Ethel Sinclair. At first, she will try to raise the child with the father but quickly dumps him and moves in with Brick again, rekindling their love relationship. One of Brick's main goals is to be voted as "Man of The Year (MOTY), an honor bestowed upon outstanding male town personalities, by the local Fraternal Order of The Owl. The local practitioner is also well known as the repeated winner of the annual town Gumbo competition.
• Kaitlyn Black as Annabeth Thibodaux -or Annabeth Nass as a married woman- (seasons 3–4; recurring, seasons 1–2); a member of the Belles association and Lemon Breeland's and Crickett Watts's best friend. She is occasionally nicknamed "A.B." as an abbreviation of her first name. Annabeth is a pretty, cheerful, creative, perceptive and empathic strong lady in her late 20's. She's graduated from Auburn University where her family is considered as a sort of "Auburn Royalty" and in which she was part of the cheerleading team. At the beginning of the series events, she was a housewive really involved in her city life, being an active member of the Belles of Bluebell and even taking the lead of The Memory Matrons spot, a well-known society devoted to preserving Bluebell's history. Back then, she was eager to have a child and married to Jake Nass, a man who eventually leaves her for a waitress from Baton Rouge by the end of season 1. She was also keeping a blog -Annabeth's Blog- featured on Bluebell's website. Annabeth is really gifted in cooking and so, during season 2, starts running a catering business with her best friend, Lemon Breeland. She then develops feelings for the Mayor Lavon Hayes but decides at first not to pursue a romantic relationship with him because of Lemon's love for him. However, her best friend later gives them her blessing and so Annabeth and Lavon can start dating. Throughout the series, Annabeth also becomes a close friend to Zoe Hart. During season 3, she is employed by Bertram "Brick" Breeland as a medical secretary for the practice and this job eventually leads her to develop an interest in the health field and enroll in a school for nurses in season 4. In the meantime, she dates the nephew of the rival town's mayor, Davis Polk, who proposes to her, but she declines, telling Lemon she did so because she is still in love with Lavon who now loves Lemon back again and wants staying with her for good this time. During season 4, Annabeth realizes she no longer loves Lavon and starts dating George Tucker with whom she ends up in the series finale.

On February 1, 2011, it was announced that The CW had ordered a pilot for Hart of Dixie.[8][9] On May 17, 2011, the network officially picked up Hart of Dixie to series, set to air in fall 2011.[10] The series marks the second time executive producer, Josh Schwartz, and series star, Rachel Bilson, have worked together on television.[10] The first time the duo worked together was on the Fox teen drama The O.C., created by Schwartz.[11] The show's executive producer, Josh Schwartz, compared the show to The WB classics such as Felicity, Everwood, and Gilmore Girls.[12]

With the reveal of The CW's fall 2011 schedule, it was announced that Hart of Dixie would air on Monday at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central, following Gossip Girl.[13] It premiered on Monday, September 26, 2011.[14] On October 12, 2011, the series was picked up for a full season, which will consist of twenty-two episodes. Along with pick-up for all other CW dramas, Mark Pedowitz said "We believe in the creative strength of these dramas, and by giving them back nine orders we can give our audience the chance to enjoy complete seasons of all three of them."[15] On May 11, 2012, The CW renewed the show for a second season,[16] which premiered on October 2, 2012. The CW renewed the show for a third season on April 26, 2013.[17]

• Official website
• Hart of Dixie on IMDb
• Hart of Dixie at TV.com