Development The
Gossip Girl novel series by
Cecily von Ziegesar was originally supposed to be adapted into a film starring
Lindsay Lohan with head
Gilmore Girls creator
Amy Sherman-Palladino. When the film project did not get off the ground, Stephanie Savage and
Josh Schwartz took over, to create a television series. By October 2006, Schwartz was working on the pilot. He said: "I was very skeptical [of the series]. I don't want to [repeat]
The O.C.. [von Ziegesar's] books are smart [and] the characters are worldly". The characteristics for each character in the pilot were based on the first
Gossip Girl book. In January 2007, the show was given the
green light by
the CW. 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.
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 show runner of
NBC's now-cancelled musical series
Smash. To fill in Safran's void, co-executive producer Sara Goodman was promoted to executive producer for the sixth season.
Alexandra Patsavas who worked with Schwartz on
The O.C. was in charge of the music.
Eric Daman was at the head of the costume department; he previously had assisted
Patricia Field on
Sex and the City.
Casting Featuring nine regular speaking roles, the majority of the
ensemble cast was assembled from February to April 2007.
Leighton Meester and
Blake Lively–who started auditioning in December 2006–were the first two actresses to be chosen in February for the lead roles of
Blair Waldorf and
Serena van der Woodsen, respectively.
Penn Badgley, who had previously worked with
Stephanie Savage on
The Mountain, Badgley at first turned down the part of Dan since he originally auditioned for Chuck Bass. In an interview with Vulture, he stated that he turned down the role of Dan at first because of frustration; Lively—who planned to attend college—also initially turned down the role of Serena. Actors for the roles of
Chuck Bass and
Rufus Humphrey were found in April when British actor
Ed Westwick, and
Matthew Settle were cast. Westwick first read for the role of Nate but was then asked to try Chuck. Of the casting, Bell said:
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.
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. At the conclusion of the fourth season, Momsen, who went on an indefinite hiatus during the season while retaining regular billing, and
Jessica Szohr both left the show. 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. After becoming a regular on the
ABC series
Revenge, Paolo confirmed his departure from
Gossip Girl in August 2011. As the show progressed, numerous recurring guest stars appeared in the show.
Michelle Trachtenberg signed on to portray
Georgina Sparks. The role had previously been offered to
Mischa Barton who declined the role.
Caroline Lagerfelt portrayed Celia "CeCe" Rhodes, Serena and Eric's grandmother and Lily's mother.
Sebastian Stan made several appearances as
Carter Baizen throughout the show's first three seasons.
Filming locations ,
Paris, France 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. During the season's seventh episode, the Brooklyn Inn was integrated into the show. Remaining true to its New York locations, the show filmed at the
Russian Tea Room. The fourth season premiered on September 13, 2010, with the first two episodes filmed in
Paris.
New York Magazine revealed filming had taken place at
La Sorbonne in the
Latin Quarter of Paris on July 5. Other locations included the
Musée d'Orsay, the
Eiffel Tower, the
Gare du Nord,
Avenue Montaigne and
Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Columbia University became the primary filming location for the first few episodes of the season following the Paris story arc. The fifth season premiered on September 26, 2011, with the first two episodes filmed in
Los Angeles, California. 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. 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." Many scenes were filmed in the
Empire Hotel on the Upper West Side.
Episode format 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." For example, episode "The Wild Brunch" evokes western film
The Wild Bunch and "Seventeen Candles"
Sixteen Candles. During their contract, Verizon Wireless offered exclusive
Gossip Girl content and created a website where ringtones of the songs featured on the show could be downloaded. Barbra Robin, the CW's senior vice president of Integrated Marketing, stated: "It was really about showing features on a device. [...] Initially, it was just a wireless phone, but eventually that became a smartphone, a tablet, all these other types of technology that took them through their day and showed how they used it to get from one place to the next." In mid-2008, executives of
VitaminWater approached the CW for a placement deal. During the second season, the drinks were mentioned several times in dialogues. The partnership helped pay the costs of shooting on location in the Hamptons. An
HP TouchPad was prominently displayed in an episode of the sixth season. According to OneNewsNow.com, other sponsors have included
Procter & Gamble,
L'Oreal,
Target and
Johnson & Johnson, which allowed the series to earn $28.2million in advertising revenue in 2007. ==Distribution and release==