A visit to the front page of the Hunter website reveals one of schools headlines, an episode of CW Network smash hit Gossip Girl recently filmed scenes on campus.
The lives of Serena, Dan, Blair, Chuck and Nate have been diligently followed since Gossip Girl’ debut on September 18, 2007. The show has developed a big cult following, from teens to fashionistas and even to parents (possibly watching because of the sex-alcohol-drug cavorting and gamboling). With New York Magazine’s proclamation in late April that it was the “Best Show Ever” – it depicted the entire lead cast dressed in white underwear lying on top one another – one wonders if the series can’t get any hotter.
Gossip Girl is based on the eponymous novels by Cecily Von Ziegesar in 2002, the narrator of the stories writing under the pseudonym Gossip Girl Marisa Verde, a 20–year-old student studying stenography at the New York Career Institute, has been a fan from the beginning. Casually dressed on a Tuesday afternoon in late April, downtown on Broadway, she said, “The characters lives are so opposite of my own, that reading the books and watching the series is like a guilty pleasure, a bit of an escape.”
Verde as well as College of Mount Saint Vincent junior Jillian Stark, both Brooklyn natives, said that they were pleased that one of their favorite readings was brought to life. Stark, a communications major, said, “It’s not like in the movies when the film is completely different from the book, the television series stays pretty true to form other than some small variations.”
Stark also said that the changes weren’t drastic, “Some small character quirks, nothing too major, production of the show stayed pretty true to the characters,” she said.
Both the novels and the television series tell of a group of teenagers, mostly rich, from the Upper East Side of Manhattan as they negotiate family scandal, backstabbing, sex, cheating and drug abuse. Viewers tune in each week for a new twist or turn, such as wondering if Blair and Nate are still together? Will she tell him she slept with his best friend and the he was a better lover?
The clothes of these affluent teenagers have also developed a following. “Well I love the fashion so that is one of the many reasons,” Ruth LaSalle, 20, said about the show’s attraction. After each new episode airs, the fashion magazine website fabsugar.com always has a rundown of the latest outfits that the cast has sported.
The show is shot in locations across New York City including, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. La Salle, a media studies major from Coop City, Bronx, said she wasn’t aware of the shooting at Hunter but was sure she’ll recognize her campus when the show was to air on April 28. “They shot across the street from my job for the first half of the show,” she said.
Recent advertisements with pictures of Serena and Nate as well as Blair and Chuck in salacious and scandalous positions with the abbreviation “OMFG” – Oh My Fucking God – underneath have viewers really gossiping about what to come next. Gina Cristiano, a 20-year-old pharmacy major at LIU, said via a phone interview that she and friends actually gossip about the show. “This show gives my friends and I something to talk about, sometimes it feels as though we really know these people,” said Cristiano.
The Nielson Ratings reveals just how much ‘gossip’ Gossip Girl has gotten. On average for every new episode that has aired this season, there has been 2.61 million new viewers. Janine Ciraolo, a 20-year-old liberal arts major graduating Kingsborough Community College this June, said, “I clear my schedule for Gossip Girl: I’ve never been so addicted to a TV show before.”
Ciraolo, who was interviewed via phone, also said, “After every episode I call my mom who lives in Pennsylvania just to recap, I even have her hooked on the show.”
The WORD’s Marguerite Rogers can be reached at maroger@hunter.cuny.edu