Season 4 Episode 7 Gossip Girl
Christel Malden
Gossip Girl is an American teen drama television series based on the young-adult book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar, and developed for television by The O.C. creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The series follows the lives of the young, wealthy, and social elite residing in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and is narrated by an unseen and seemingly omniscient character, "Gossip Girl", whose blog is widely read among the characters.
One special episode, not part of the official continuity, was produced to complement the first season and was broadcast on The CW on January 28, 2008. A retrospective of the entire series aired on December 17, 2012, before the series finale.
Gossip Girl is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six seasons from September 19, 2007, to December 17, 2012.
The success of Gossip Girl led to many adaptations outside the United States. The series received numerous award nominations and won 18 Teen Choice Awards. The CW officially renewed Gossip Girl for a sixth and final season on May 11, 2012.[1] The final season, consisting of 10 episodes, premiered on October 8, 2012, and ended on December 17, 2012.[2][3]
The series focuses on a group of privileged teenagers who attend a prestigious high school in the Upper East Side of New York City as their private lives are constantly commented upon by an unknown blogger under the pseudonym "Gossip Girl".
Gossip Girl chronicles the scandals and intimate details of these characters' lives during high school, college, and after. All of their ups and downs are available for the public to read about. Throughout this time, the characters strive to unveil Gossip Girl's true identity.
The series is narrated by Kristen Bell as the voice of "Gossip Girl", an online anonymous figure. Bell appears via voice-over in every episode but is uncredited. She also appears in person as herself in the series finale.
The Gossip Girl book series was originally supposed to be adapted into a film starring Lindsay Lohan with head Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.[10] When the film project did not get off the ground, Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz took over the project to create a television series. As of October 2006, Schwartz was working on the pilot. He said, "I was very skeptical. I don't want to do The O.C. NYC. But I thought the books were smart. The characters are worldly in a way that Orange County kids aren't."[11] The characteristics for each character in the pilot were based on the first Gossip Girl book.[12] In January 2007, the show was given the green light by The CW.[13]
The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and fellow writer Stephanie Savage served as the show's executive producers throughout the series' run, followed by Bob Levy and Leslie Morgenstein of Alloy Entertainment, who were assigned in aiding the adaptation of the novels into the series.[13] Following the success of Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls co-producer, John Stephens was approached by Schwartz and Savage, having previously worked with him on The O.C., and hired him as an executive producer.[14] Joshua Safran, who started as a writer/consulting producer before becoming co-executive producer, was later added as an executive producer. On April 24, 2012, it was announced that he would leave the show at the end of the fifth season to be the new showrunner of NBC's now-cancelled musical series Smash.[15] To fill in Safran's void, co-executive producer Sara Goodman was promoted to executive producer for the sixth season.[16] Alexandra Patsavas who worked with Schwartz on The O.C. was in charge of the music.[17] Eric Daman was at the head of the costume department; he previously had assisted Patricia Field on Sex and the City.[18]
I read [the Gossip Girl pilot], and I knew I was sort of old to play any of the kids. I called Dawn Ostroff [...] and said, "Hey, I did so much narration on Veronica Mars, can I narrate this show?" [...] It was so clear to me how sassy and catty she needed to be.[28]
Jessica Szohr was signed on to portray the recurring role of Vanessa Abrams and received regular status during the fourteenth episode of the first season.[29][30] Kaylee DeFer joined the series in the eighteenth episode of the fourth season and was promoted to series regular for the show's fifth season.[31]
At the conclusion of the fourth season, Momsen, who went on an indefinite hiatus during the season while retaining regular billing,[32] and Jessica Szohr both left the show.[33] Throughout the series' run, Connor Paolo consistently declined to elevate his recurring role of Eric van der Woodsen to regular status, citing personal reasons for his decision.[34] After becoming a regular on the ABC series Revenge, Paolo confirmed his departure from Gossip Girl in August 2011.[35]
As the show progressed, numerous recurring guest stars appeared in the show. Michelle Trachtenberg signed on to portray Georgina Sparks.[36] The role had previously been offered to Mischa Barton who declined the role.[36] Francie Swift and Sam Robards took the parental roles of Anne and Howard Archibald, respectively.[37][38] Caroline Lagerfelt portrayed Celia "CeCe" Rhodes, Serena and Eric's grandmother and Lily's mother.[39] Sebastian Stan made several appearances as Carter Baizen throughout the show's first three seasons.[40]
Primarily filming in New York, Gossip Girl has been declared by New York Magazine as the "Most Restauranty Show Since Sex and the City", citing the pilot episode filming locales such as the Japanese restaurant Geisha, the Campbell Apartment where Nate and Serena were filmed having sex, and the New York Palace Hotel bar Gilt.[41] Other New York City landmarks and well-known establishments were filmed throughout the first season. Victor/Victrola filmed the fictional infamous Chuck Bass burlesque club, Victrola, at The Box Manhattan, a sister club to The Box Soho in London.[42] The fictional Constance Billard-St.Judes School, based on novel writer Cecily Von Ziegesar's alma mater, Nightingale-Bamford used external shots of the Museum of the City of New York.[43]
The second season premiered at the Hamptons and began filming in mid-June. The season premiere opening montage showed a scene at Cooper's Beach that was instead filmed in Rockaway Beach followed by an elaborate white party.[44][45] For the sixth episode of the season, Columbia University was used to film the Yale campus, an episode that followed disappointment from Yale fans due to its erroneous portrayal of the admissions process and reliance on Ivy League university stereotypes.[46] During the season's seventh episode, the Brooklyn Inn was integrated into the show.[47] Remaining true to its New York locations, the show filmed at the Russian Tea Room.[48][49]
The fourth season premiered on September 13, 2010, with the first two episodes filmed in Paris.[50][51] New York Magazine revealed several locations shot at the French University, La Sorbonne in the Latin District (or Quartier Latin) of Paris on July 5.[52][53] Other locations include the Muse d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, the Gare du Nord, Avenue Montaigne.[54] and Saint-Germain-des-Prs. Columbia University became the primary filming location for the first few episodes of the season following the Paris story arc.[55]
Because of its location in New York, executive producer Stephanie Savage said, "We were quickly told it would be too expensive, too complicated" at the beginning of the series. She said that it had been proposed to shoot in a Los Angeles studio that would recreate Central Park, but they eventually filmed the series in New York.[57] Savage explained their choice to film there, "There's no New York City on TV, or there wasn't when we started making the pilot, except what you could see in the background behind the dead bodies on cop shows. We've never seen the city from the point of view of teenagers. It felt like a world with high stakes for young people." Schwartz added, "What's funny about these teenagers is they grew up watching Sex and the City, even though it wasn't about them. And I think they've probably incorporated that into how they mythologize New York. I fought really hard to shoot the show in New York because we want New York to be a character in the show."[58] Many scenes were filmed in the Empire Hotel on the Upper West Side.[59]
Each episode begins with the home page of the Gossip Girl website and Serena's picture from the pilot episode. Afterward, a recap of events relevant to the upcoming narrative is shown, which ends again with the home page of the website, only this time with a picture from other character(s) with a text about a recent event connected with the picture.
The narrator is Gossip Girl, voiced by actress Kristen Bell. She begins the recap with the sentence, "Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite," and ends the recap with whispered voices saying "Where has she been?" and "Serena." Then, the voice of Gossip Girl says, "And who am I? That's one secret I'll never tell! You know you love me... XOXO, Gossip Girl."
During each episode, there is always a social event taking place, whether small or large. Joshua Safran explained, "We structure it [the show] so that every week, the episode leads to an event. I feel like it is much like a procedural."[12]
All of the episodes' titles are based on the name of a film or a novel.[60] For example, episode "The Wild Brunch" evokes western film The Wild Bunch and "Seventeen Candles" Sixteen Candles.[60] Episode "All About My Brother" refers to Pedro Almodvar's All About My Mother while "Pret-a-Poor-J" came from Prt--Porter.[60] "There Might Be Blood" took its title from 2007 film There Will Be Blood.[60] "The Serena Also Rises" was titled after novel The Sun Also Rises. The fifth-season episode "The Big Sleep No More" was named for the film The Big Sleep and the New York-based production Sleep No More. Episode "Easy J" was titled after Emma Stone's hit movie Easy A. Episode "The Age of Dissonance", which was titled after Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence, saw a high school production of the novel taking place,[60] and "The Blair Bitch Project" was named after The Blair Witch Project. "Victor, Victrola" is named after the British-American musical comedy Victor/Victoria. "Bad News Blair" was named after the 1976 movie The Bad News Bears.
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