Behind the Scenes: Gossip Girl
One of my favorite shows is Gossip Girl. It is set in Upper East Side Manhattan and is based off of a twelve book series by Cecily von Ziegesar. The show has six seasons, all filled with new schemes and adventures. The characters are all true upper east siders: Serena, Blair, Chuck, and Nate. There are also a few characters from Brooklyn- Dan and Jenny. These people all have more money than most people can imagine. They have credit cards with no limit and more parties and benefits to attend each week than have ever happened in Manchester. The making of this show was complicated as it was filmed on the streets of New York City.
To prepare for the role of rich and privileged teenagers, the cast had to not only read the books but also read numerous interviews of actual teens in Upper East Side private schools. The interviews were courtesy of the Co-Creator and Executive Producer of the show, Stephanie Savage. She went to New York City for multiple weeks in order to research and prepare for the show. Something interesting about this is the time that the books were being written, cell phones and internet gossip blogs were a thing of the future, something that Von Ziegesar never imagined would exist in real life, however when the show was being written it was in fact a reality. The book was first brought to life and the script picked up with a pitch that consisted of a Gossip Girl scrapbook filled with pictures of designer clothes, expensive restaurants, parties, and everything else that makes up the East Side. Out of the six main characters that appeared in the pilot, nine hundred and seventy five auditioned but most of them were not the perfect fit.
During filming in New York City, they shoot every day. Penn Badgely who plays Dan Humphrey made a few changes to his character, as he felt he had played similar roles to what was written in the past. Apparently the writers and producers of the show were very welcoming of the cast’s feedback. I was surprised to hear that Chuck Bass was not supposed to be a recurring character. He is such an important part of the series, specifically his family drama and his relationship with Blair. I had not known that this was a decision made by the producers after production had started. Another thing about Ed Westwick that surprised me was that, as he is from England, the production team faced major difficulty with immigration issues and his lack of visa. A main setting for the show is Blair’s penthouse apartment, where the staircase is supposed to lead to her bedroom, however on set it leads to nothing but scaffolding and wires, in fact all of their houses are in the same building- split up room by room all in a partially built set. Blair’s bedroom itself does not have a wall behind it, instead it has a green screen and a bunch of lights.
There are eight days of filming per episode, the last day also being dedicated to the first scenes of the next episode. Though the show received many rave reviews, the cast and crew did face some negative critiques such as “a nasty piece of work,” “wildly inappropriate” “every parent’s nightmare,” all from large news and tv reviewers. However, the marketing team used this to their advantage by displaying these quotes on posters and billboards promoting the show. Doing this caused the show to receive attention from rebellious teens and regular teen drama watchers. This creativity is why the job I would like to have on a TV set, if not starring in the show itself, would be to be a part of the marketing team.
