Speaker 1: And I'm Stephanie Savage. You're the creators and executive producers
Speaker 1: of Welcome Girl. Welcome back listeners, do your one and
Speaker 1: only source into all things gossip grow. You know you
Speaker 1: love it. X O x O. Here we are again,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to x O x O. I'm Jessica's or
Speaker 1: and the weight is over. People. Today you're going to
Speaker 1: hear the second half of my conversation with Josh Swartz
Speaker 1: and Stephanie Savage, the co creators of Gossip Girl. I
Speaker 1: am so happy that you all love the first part
Speaker 1: of our conversation and it makes me so excited to
Speaker 1: share the second part with you all. So last time
Speaker 1: we talked about how the show got adapted, the casting process,
Speaker 1: and the early reviews and reactions to it. Well, today
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into more aspects of the show.
Speaker 1: Why we filmed in Paris, use movies for episode titles,
Speaker 1: and so much more. It's incredible in film and television
Speaker 1: how every little thing you see on screen is a
Speaker 1: specific decision. Someone has to make the music, the script,
Speaker 1: the locations, but also every hair clip, the cup someone
Speaker 1: drinks out of the food they eat, the flower arrangement
Speaker 1: in the back of the shot, literally everything, and these
Speaker 1: two were the final say on all of those decisions
Speaker 1: on Gossip Girl. It's so much work being a showrunner
Speaker 1: and senior vision come to life. But they did it
Speaker 1: also beautifully. Now once again, let's jump back into this
Speaker 1: conversation with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Did you always
Speaker 1: know you were going to shoot New York? I know
Speaker 1: that's a silly question because New York is also a
Speaker 1: character in the show. Not a silly question. Not a
Speaker 1: silly question. They wanted us to shoot a Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1: They took us on a tour of the of the
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers lot, which you do well as two Stars Hollow,
Speaker 1: you know where they shot Gilmore Girls, And they were like, great,
Speaker 1: this will be Central Park and there were some New
Speaker 1: York streets and we were like, that can't make the
Speaker 1: show if it's not set in New York. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: And then Steph being the brilliant producer, figured out how
Speaker 1: to do it. Well, it wasn't that hard. There was
Speaker 1: like a big tax incentive in New York at the time,
Speaker 1: and I think everyone at Warners was just nervous about
Speaker 1: doing a show in New York because they hadn't done it,
Speaker 1: so it just seemed very like, well, how are we
Speaker 1: going to do that, Like who's going to produce it?
Speaker 1: Like who's going to be the prop master? And you're like,
Speaker 1: people will work it who live in more in New York,
Speaker 1: We'll find them. Um. And then once once we started
Speaker 1: putting that crew together, we had an amazing crew. I
Speaker 1: will say we had Rock Orginado, who was an incredible
Speaker 1: cinematographer who shot the Basque yapp movie. We had on
Speaker 1: the pilot Joe Ready as our a D who was
Speaker 1: Martin Scorsese's a D. Like he's thanked at the Accademy Awards.
Speaker 1: Because people were just in New York and there was
Speaker 1: not that much shooting that wasn't Law and Order. So
Speaker 1: even though they were like, I don't really get it,
Speaker 1: like a show about spoiled kids, like write mean stuff
Speaker 1: about them on the internet, But I'll do it. It's creative.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. You know, we're shooting on location. We got
Speaker 1: a lot of crew from the Sopranos and Sex in
Speaker 1: the City, and it was really imprompate, know, and it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, coming off of the O C
Speaker 1: and getting the gospel col books. It was like another
Speaker 1: teen drama. I don't know, I feel like we just
Speaker 1: did this, but it's said in New York and that
Speaker 1: is cool, and that's a whole other vibe in a
Speaker 1: different world. And that was for us, was like the
Speaker 1: selling point. This idea, or one of the key selling points,
Speaker 1: was the idea of like, but it's the New York
Speaker 1: version and you haven't really seen that, and so it
Speaker 1: was just it had it had to happen. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the world of Catcher in the Rye, like it goes
Speaker 1: all the way back, and that had never been on TV.
Speaker 1: That like wealthy New or Upper east Side high school experience.
Speaker 1: It was also cool whenever you came to saturay're in
Speaker 1: the Silver Cup offices because we shared offices. It was
Speaker 1: Gossip Girl, Sopranos, and thirty Rock. Yeah, got some rad companies. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We also were talking about how much like we lived
Speaker 1: it up in New York and how good the city
Speaker 1: was to everyone. The city basically like every venue or
Speaker 1: art gallery or restaurant or club, everyone wanted to be
Speaker 1: some part of the show. So they literally it didn't
Speaker 1: matter if it was Madonna at Madison Square Garden or
Speaker 1: art exhibit and Chelsea. Everything was just always like here here, here, here, here,
Speaker 1: And we were like, yeah, you guys are asked. You
Speaker 1: guys are real assholes. You had a whole thing. It
Speaker 1: was awesome and was like can you believe everything we did?
Speaker 1: I'm like no. I remember we went to a rap
Speaker 1: party at the Box one night that you know that club,
Speaker 1: and Ed walked up to the doorman was like, this
Speaker 1: is my club because it was actually where we shot
Speaker 1: his club you on the show, his fake club, Vitrol. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Dorman was like, what are you talking about? This is
Speaker 1: but let him in. But we were making the pilot.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew who we were, nobody knew what the show was.
Speaker 1: We could shoot in like Grand Central Station, you know,
Speaker 1: like that was an actual New York location, but everybody
Speaker 1: else was like no. And Pete Homeburg managed the Palace Hotel. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was like, I know, I know that name. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he was the guy who was like in charge
Speaker 1: of saying yes you could shoot there or not. Literally,
Speaker 1: no one would let us shoot anywhere. They didn't know
Speaker 1: what the show was. They were turned off by the
Speaker 1: idea of teenagers drinking at the bar whatever it was.
Speaker 1: She was like, I read the script and I think
Speaker 1: it's fabulous, and he was like he was, so he
Speaker 1: was so in on the show. So that's why we're
Speaker 1: at the palace. And from the palace everything kind of
Speaker 1: built from there too. Then people were, you know, knocking
Speaker 1: down the door being like can we shoot here? I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, I felt like everyone wanted to be
Speaker 1: So it was like season one people didn't know, and
Speaker 1: then it trickled from there, and then it grew and
Speaker 1: then actually it was funny. So for um Lily's wedding,
Speaker 1: which was the end of season one, I'm like cooking
Speaker 1: up like what this wedding should be, which is like
Speaker 1: literally a million dollar wedding, Like it's gonna cost a
Speaker 1: million dollar to shoot it. It's gonna be outside in
Speaker 1: the garden at the Frick, and she needs a Vera
Speaker 1: Wang dress and like at the time, Sylvia Weinstock probably
Speaker 1: still makes these cakes, but she made this cake that
Speaker 1: was like matched the bride's dress, which I just thought
Speaker 1: was like the most elegant thing, and like, we've got
Speaker 1: to do that, and then uh, our line producers looking
Speaker 1: at me Amy Kapman going like, we cannot afford this
Speaker 1: like this is this is a real event that you've
Speaker 1: planned that we do not have the money to make.
Speaker 1: So it was like, well, will Vera Wang give us
Speaker 1: a dress if you know, we say Vera Wang, And
Speaker 1: will Sylvia Weinstock give us a cake if she comes
Speaker 1: on the show and like plays herself. And that was
Speaker 1: kind of the beginning of doing that, and then it
Speaker 1: really grew to you know, everybody in town wanting a
Speaker 1: cameo and wanting to come beyond the show. And I
Speaker 1: don't know that anybody ever said no to us, and
Speaker 1: we had a mayor in Everyone wanted to embrace what
Speaker 1: the show was, whether it was a musical performer or
Speaker 1: whether it was a socialite or yeah, Lady Gaga making
Speaker 1: an early early performance. Yeah, yeah, I did a scene
Speaker 1: with Layton and I Floren St Vincent and incredible. I
Speaker 1: was talking about Stephanie as a writer, but Stephane as
Speaker 1: a producer equally as brilliant and figured out how to
Speaker 1: get so much money on the screen and product integrations,
Speaker 1: and was like, I mean, obviously we shot in the
Speaker 1: Hampton's the season two premiere, which is very expensive and
Speaker 1: hard to do. There may have been a pyramid of
Speaker 1: vitamin water in the background, but like I remember, paid
Speaker 1: for it, and Stephanie figured that out. And Stephanie's seventies
Speaker 1: dream was to shoot an episode in Paris. And everybody's like,
Speaker 1: you're insane. There's literally no way you'll ever be able
Speaker 1: to afford shooting in Paris, and Stephanie's like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to show you. We're doing it. Figured it out
Speaker 1: when you guys got there. I remember, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was utterly telling me when they when they
Speaker 1: got back, like how crazy it was the fans there
Speaker 1: in Paris. Oh yeah. We were told be prepared, like
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get the same crowds you get in
Speaker 1: New York in Paris when you're shooting there because the
Speaker 1: show is on but people don't really watch it or whatever.
Speaker 1: And then it turned out that they don't. They didn't
Speaker 1: watch it on whatever television station was on, but everybody
Speaker 1: got it on satellite or I forget what other way
Speaker 1: that they were illegally streaming the show in France, and
Speaker 1: it was I have pictures from that shoot. The biggest
Speaker 1: crowds the show ever got were the streets of Paris
Speaker 1: lined out outside of the hotel, so That was another
Speaker 1: instance of like, more people are watching this show than
Speaker 1: we are aware of, they're just not watching it via
Speaker 1: the conventional means. But I don't think the cast could
Speaker 1: really go anywhere in Paris. I think they actually ended
Speaker 1: up just like staying in their hotel. Now Ed couldn't
Speaker 1: leave his hotel. Fortunately it was I think World Cups
Speaker 1: and he just sat in his room and watched soccer,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't leave his hotel. They were like girls
Speaker 1: camped out on the sidewalk. And the friends produced is
Speaker 1: that we worked with. They did the Sopranos, they did
Speaker 1: Sex in the City, they did the Tourists with Johnny
Speaker 1: Depp and Angelina Jolie, and they were like, We've never
Speaker 1: seen crowds like this, that's crazy. I think that's a
Speaker 1: real testament to know you guys knew your vision so
Speaker 1: much and believed in what you wanted to bring from
Speaker 1: the page to real life. And that's really amazing because
Speaker 1: in the industry we're in, there's a lot of talented people,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of shows out there now, but
Speaker 1: there's not a lot that hit and that are special
Speaker 1: in the way. And even though the ratings weren't hitting,
Speaker 1: which I don't think everyone really knows that it was
Speaker 1: still so special in such a hit everywhere that it
Speaker 1: still ended up going on for so many years, even
Speaker 1: if the numbers weren't through the roof. The numbers of
Speaker 1: that audience stuff was talking about like women eighteen and
Speaker 1: thirty four. That's where it really started to pop and
Speaker 1: do a really big number, and that was incredibly appealing
Speaker 1: to advertisers, you know, So the network was happy with that,
Speaker 1: and then I think the show just got a whole
Speaker 1: rocket booster on it when it went to Netflix for
Speaker 1: a whole other generation because it is so binge worthy
Speaker 1: and if you didn't grow up in that time, it's
Speaker 1: a perfect way of experiencing the mid two thousand's in
Speaker 1: New York. Yeah, but then it also was like timeless,
Speaker 1: even the fashion like the other days, Like if you
Speaker 1: watched it and they didn't have a sidekick, you could
Speaker 1: still see the fashion today. No. Eric Gammon was such
Speaker 1: a Eric Gammon, who did you know as a costume designer,
Speaker 1: he's doing the new Gossip Girl. I mean, he's such
Speaker 1: a visionary. He was so ahead of the trends that,
Speaker 1: as you said, it's it's it feels like contemporary or
Speaker 1: we've caught or those trends have come back around so
Speaker 1: long it's come background. So when you guys were did
Speaker 1: you take a bunch of meetings with stylists or did
Speaker 1: you know Eric? Was it from Jump? Well, Eric actually
Speaker 1: came from Amy Kaufman, our line producer. She'd worked on
Speaker 1: an Indian movie with him, and she was like, I
Speaker 1: just think he's really special and you should meet with them.
Speaker 1: And I'm someone who when we do a show, I
Speaker 1: do like my own book of terrors for all the characters,
Speaker 1: which a lot of producers do not do. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure a lot of costume designers do not appreciate that
Speaker 1: you're meeting and you've brought your own book book and
Speaker 1: like that's kind of their job. Um. But Eric had
Speaker 1: also done tears, and we had such similar tears, like
Speaker 1: literally some of the same images that we were both
Speaker 1: just like oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Like just Ali McGraw love story references for Blair and Nate. Um,
Speaker 1: we both had the idea of dressing coatian Is as
Speaker 1: not twins, but always echoing each other, which I was
Speaker 1: I thought that was a very special out their idea
Speaker 1: and he had exactly the same idea. So we left
Speaker 1: that initial meeting just completely in love with each other
Speaker 1: and on the same page. And then for really season
Speaker 1: one of the show, my job just became protecting Eric
Speaker 1: so that he could do what he wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the ideas that he were pitching
Speaker 1: were not mainstream ideas, like Serena has a look in
Speaker 1: the you know exactly what I'm gonna say, Serena has
Speaker 1: a look in the pilot where she's wearing shorts with tights,
Speaker 1: and I got so much pushback, why is she wearing
Speaker 1: shorts with tights? Can't she just wear a skirt? And
Speaker 1: then every time that happened, I would just write an
Speaker 1: essay about why shorts with the new minister and then
Speaker 1: like put links into like magazine articles show pictures of
Speaker 1: like people wearing shorts, and they just be like, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: we have to say yeah, yeah. And then eventually, once
Speaker 1: it took off, they backed off and they understood that
Speaker 1: Eric knew what he was doing because fashion was a
Speaker 1: character in the show itself, so that was super important
Speaker 1: to kind of like stay on that. So again doing
Speaker 1: that with Eric and staying on the network or pushing
Speaker 1: them back to like fight for That is also why
Speaker 1: people fell in love with the fashion of it. I
Speaker 1: remember going to be shocked, this fashion is not really
Speaker 1: my thing. And I remember saying to Stephanie wants fingerless gloves, Really,
Speaker 1: I don't understand it. Are you wearing gloves if they
Speaker 1: have no fingers? And she's like, just trust me, okay,
Speaker 1: let me do my thing. It work so and even
Speaker 1: that I was like, I have to say, I don't
Speaker 1: totally get fingerless gloves. It was a Jenny outfit when
Speaker 1: she had her fashion show. She was wearing a fascinator.
Speaker 1: She was wearing a really really short dressed with a
Speaker 1: Peplin skirt, and I was just like, I know, it's
Speaker 1: Isabella blow like UK reference. We're just gonna We're not
Speaker 1: gonna like micromanage it. If Eric says finger those clouds
Speaker 1: were doing to those clubs. Yeah, a certain point, you
Speaker 1: hire people you believe in and you trust them to
Speaker 1: do their best work and you try to get out
Speaker 1: of the way. With Eric, you would never disappoint for sure.
Speaker 1: He's just amazing. And it's funny because some of the
Speaker 1: storyboard that you brought Stephanie that we're the same as
Speaker 1: him lived in the wardrobe room for the whole show,
Speaker 1: which is like so cute and cool. And also shout
Speaker 1: out to Jenn and Amy hair and makeup for sure,
Speaker 1: I mean incredible, you guys, Really the whole puzzle was
Speaker 1: just epic. Everyone really brought it, brought different colors and
Speaker 1: and it was just great. And I was just gonna
Speaker 1: say shout out to Mark Pisnowski, who directed the pilot
Speaker 1: and some other key episodes along the way, including the
Speaker 1: Paris episode Thanksgiving Season one, the Paris episodes, and Mark
Speaker 1: Pisnowski the Piz was someone who Dawn had a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence in and a lot of faith in because
Speaker 1: he had done Vroonica, Mars and some other shows for them,
Speaker 1: and and so his involvement also gave us a lot
Speaker 1: of support the network in the studio side as well.
Speaker 1: So shout out to the pist I was watching. I
Speaker 1: also told David Rappaport at the time, I like didn't
Speaker 1: even realize how much you guys were touching on real
Speaker 1: major like addiction, coming out to your parents, UM, a
Speaker 1: lot of things, eating disorders, partying, drugs, divorces, heartbreak. Um,
Speaker 1: can you guys play Clip three don't let some stupid
Speaker 1: scandal make you run away like it did me, like
Speaker 1: it does everyone in our worlds. Everything's horrible. My whole
Speaker 1: life is falling apart. So rebuild it, Earl Waldorf. Remember, okay, well,
Speaker 1: don't tell you where you are, you tell them staying fine,
Speaker 1: I'll fight with you. Basically, when I was watching that,
Speaker 1: I felt like Blair wanted to get away because Gossip Girl,
Speaker 1: they they're living under like a magnifying glass, which is
Speaker 1: basically kind of what life is now for a lot
Speaker 1: of not just teenagers for people, but no one lives
Speaker 1: in a glasshouse. People make mistakes, and Blair is so
Speaker 1: worried about making a mistake that she wants to get
Speaker 1: away because she's so worried what's going to go on
Speaker 1: Gossip Girl, what people are going to think and judge,
Speaker 1: And the way those two were in Serena being there
Speaker 1: for her and saying it's okay and you guys just
Speaker 1: I just felt like really hit that one. Serena's telling
Speaker 1: her like just stay rebuild. Learned from it? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: for of all, I've like cousins who are in high
Speaker 1: school who like watching goss Girl on Netflix because it's
Speaker 1: vintage um, but I do think a lot of the
Speaker 1: themes still hold up. You know that that there is
Speaker 1: a timelessness to a lot of the fanatics, which is
Speaker 1: why it continues to resonating. See now it's on HBO
Speaker 1: Max and hopefully to just give you. But one of
Speaker 1: the other things I wanted to mention that Stephanie really
Speaker 1: so brilliantly brought to the show and a total credit
Speaker 1: to her, is the complexity of female friendships and that
Speaker 1: idea of the front of me and that your best
Speaker 1: friend could also be your worst enemy. And I think
Speaker 1: that's something that also really resonated for a lot of
Speaker 1: women who were watching the show. And that was so
Speaker 1: part of Blair and Serena's relationship that one minute they arrivals,
Speaker 1: in the next minute their sisters, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think that was something that infused so much of Stephanie
Speaker 1: writing those characters. Well, thank you, Josh, but I do
Speaker 1: think that was like something that was under represented on television.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just about even though obviously Serena and Blair
Speaker 1: have a conflict over Serena having slept with Nate, there
Speaker 1: was still this feeling that, like female friendships are going
Speaker 1: to be as important on this show as romantic relationships
Speaker 1: and written with as much depth and complexity, and that
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's the Serena. Our
Speaker 1: relationship is really what you're watching. There's lots of other
Speaker 1: super fun stuff, but they were the backbone of that world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you do throughout the things you're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: wish you know, you want a friend like that, or
Speaker 1: you want someone to handle a situation the way they
Speaker 1: do with each other, even if they're trying to kill
Speaker 1: each other on the field hockey. But the way that
Speaker 1: is so good, so good. But by the way, by
Speaker 1: the end, you know, when Georgina shows up in town,
Speaker 1: like the people can you know, realign and they like
Speaker 1: work together. There's that sense of the non judging breakfast
Speaker 1: club that was established to go back to what you
Speaker 1: were saying about vulnerability and like everyone makes mistakes. Hopefully
Speaker 1: the show, even though obviously it you know, told a
Speaker 1: lot of stories about people getting their secrets, supposed that
Speaker 1: the reality was if you had good friends, they really
Speaker 1: didn't care and they loved you for you, and they
Speaker 1: had also made mistakes and screwed up, and like everyone
Speaker 1: could just hold each other and get through anything that
Speaker 1: was thrown. Oh my god, that just gave me like
Speaker 1: all these fields because it's so true. The other thing
Speaker 1: that I remember blowing people's mind in the pilot between
Speaker 1: Blair and Serena is when they go to have drinks
Speaker 1: at the Palace Hotel and they're sitting at the bar,
Speaker 1: and the idea that like two high schoolers were sitting
Speaker 1: like they were, you know, women in their thirties at
Speaker 1: the bar at the Palace Hotel and like teenagers do that,
Speaker 1: and so many New York kids were like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what we do. Yeah, yeah, that's what happened. What we do.
Speaker 1: There's one more clip I just want to play on
Speaker 1: talking about the friendship because this was wild to me
Speaker 1: and I forgot that this happened. And you can't real
Speaker 1: part of this. What are you talking about? You're starting
Speaker 1: to scare me. Hey, hey, hey, where sisters? You're my family?
Speaker 1: What is you as me? There's nothing that you could
Speaker 1: ever say to make me let go? I love you?
Speaker 1: What is it? I killed someone? You guys? That's like
Speaker 1: why old? And she and she goes to Blair and
Speaker 1: tells her, But it's just on that of like just
Speaker 1: how deep their friendship is and you guys just always
Speaker 1: kept everyone at the edge of their seat. It's literally
Speaker 1: the last thing I thought she was going to say.
Speaker 1: And I was a part of the show and watched
Speaker 1: it years ago, and I still was like, what killed someone? No,
Speaker 1: And that was all that was, Like, I mean, we
Speaker 1: had to look each other, but I who are really
Speaker 1: doing this? Because it was also at the end of
Speaker 1: the episode. So if someone says that and you go
Speaker 1: away and you have a commercial and you come back
Speaker 1: and you explain what really happened, people can be like, oh, right, right,
Speaker 1: But then we're going to give people a whole week
Speaker 1: talk about that was could be good or like could
Speaker 1: really make people bad? Um, I know you both obviously
Speaker 1: have six sick taste of music. Did you guys bond
Speaker 1: on that initially or did that come out from producing shows?
Speaker 1: Because you guys like when I go back and listen,
Speaker 1: you should see my spot my um to Sam, it's
Speaker 1: like I made playlist from rewatching the show because it's
Speaker 1: so good. And it wasn't always these like major justin
Speaker 1: Timberlake Beyonce. It would be like rocker bands that people
Speaker 1: didn't know, like Florence and the Machine was big in Europe,
Speaker 1: but when she was coming on the show, she wasn't
Speaker 1: really big here yet even and I was a huge
Speaker 1: fan like Ed and I used to always trip on
Speaker 1: like who you guys would have come on? Even Kings
Speaker 1: of Leon were really big over there, But until Sex
Speaker 1: on Fire hit in the States, people didn't even know
Speaker 1: who they were here, So you guys were always like
Speaker 1: ahead of the game, like, yeah, we love music music.
Speaker 1: Josh is definitely like a big music head. I loved
Speaker 1: music growing up, but I had kind of like given
Speaker 1: up on music. I was like, I have Sonic, Youth, Pavement,
Speaker 1: sebadohe like I have my Hands nineties, but I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna roll with and I don't need any more music
Speaker 1: because I just wasn't responding to anything. And then when
Speaker 1: we did the o C, Josh and Alex pasavas our
Speaker 1: music supervisor, really kind of like brought me back to
Speaker 1: life of liking indie music and recognizing that that stuff
Speaker 1: was out there. You just had to dig a little.
Speaker 1: And then the o C was such a great platform
Speaker 1: that we could dig a little, and then we could
Speaker 1: bring it to a larger audience and that was actually
Speaker 1: really powerful. So then when we were coming to do
Speaker 1: Gossip Girl. It was just about thinking of what is
Speaker 1: that musical palette that maybe it's not exactly the same
Speaker 1: as d O C because the O C is like,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of wide shots of beaches and oceans,
Speaker 1: and it's very sort of more like strummy and emo
Speaker 1: and New York City shots can like take a different
Speaker 1: you know, musical sensibility. So figuring out what that was
Speaker 1: and how to make that work. Yeah, we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about pop music and or you know, and pop
Speaker 1: music was having a great moment when we were doing
Speaker 1: the pilot, and that stuff that we wouldn't have played
Speaker 1: on the OC because it didn't fit the the palette
Speaker 1: of the show or it wasn't indie enough or whatever,
Speaker 1: actually worked for gospel because there's something about New York
Speaker 1: that just leans into that sort of pop music. Just
Speaker 1: super what's coming out of people's car windows, what you're
Speaker 1: walking into a club, what you're hearing like, it's just
Speaker 1: such a melting pot of so many different sounds totally
Speaker 1: so um it became an opportunity, and there was one
Speaker 1: moment where we didn't get a song cleared and we
Speaker 1: the last minute we put in a death Cap song
Speaker 1: and we love death Cap and obviously, but that was
Speaker 1: such a big part of the o C that we
Speaker 1: felt like, yeah, don't mix the peanut butter and the chocolate,
Speaker 1: you know a little bit right, right, So we we
Speaker 1: tried not to go back to the well of our
Speaker 1: OC bands with Gossip Girl and kind of forged a
Speaker 1: new a new sound and that was super exciting and
Speaker 1: we had like I remember we played um Lady Gaga
Speaker 1: the Paparazzi in like the Hampton's episode that was the
Speaker 1: very beginning of season two. I don't think anyone knew
Speaker 1: her at all, but she remembered that well, which is
Speaker 1: part of why she came on the show in season
Speaker 1: whatever that was four or five and did a performance
Speaker 1: for us, which was like she did that when she
Speaker 1: was in New York doing her Saturday Night Live, so
Speaker 1: that was like a huge deal. We played Florence before
Speaker 1: she was on the show. Yeah. It's funny though, because
Speaker 1: when you watched we actually sent us Florence. I think
Speaker 1: she had seen her in London or something. When you
Speaker 1: watched The Island, there's so much music in the pilot.
Speaker 1: It's kind of it was like the record for most
Speaker 1: amount of money that they had ever spent on music,
Speaker 1: and they just wanted it to be this. It was
Speaker 1: more even than we were comfortable with at times, but
Speaker 1: it was just like all these it's pretty wall to
Speaker 1: wall at times and it all worked, but it was
Speaker 1: it was very expensive and we're like, how are you
Speaker 1: guys going to pay for all of this music? And
Speaker 1: you know, and they were willing to. They were willing
Speaker 1: to step and spend the money. Yeah, amazing. How did
Speaker 1: it come about that you guys would use like titles
Speaker 1: of movies for the titles of the episodes, like The Departed,
Speaker 1: the Wild Brunch. Yeah. I think it started a little
Speaker 1: bit as laziness of like just puns or it's just
Speaker 1: so creative, but then they got really good. They started
Speaker 1: like The Wild Brunch and The Blair Project. Yes, so
Speaker 1: good that they started making posters. Yeah, and then the
Speaker 1: art department would make posters for a thin Line between
Speaker 1: Chuck and Nate Death are script supervisor came up with
Speaker 1: that because that was episode we shot during the writers strike.
Speaker 1: It didn't have a title, and I was very like,
Speaker 1: I wanted the episodes to be produced, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: going to write anything for them because it was supposed
Speaker 1: to be pencils down. So I was like, I can't
Speaker 1: come up with an episode title that the crew has
Speaker 1: to come up with the title, and he came out,
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite titles, and he came up
Speaker 1: with how it's awesome? Was it bitter sweet when the
Speaker 1: show was coming to an end? Or were you ready
Speaker 1: for the next job? Or how how was that? Um?
Speaker 1: I think it was a really nice arc because for me,
Speaker 1: the most important thing was getting to a hundred episodes.
Speaker 1: When you do add yeah, they throw you what used
Speaker 1: to be a thing they probably don't do anymore. They
Speaker 1: throw you a party and mate and you get a
Speaker 1: big cake. The O C went to what Josh nine
Speaker 1: so close? Um, and Chuck went to, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like just give me a hundred. I'm like, I'm getting
Speaker 1: my cake. That I want my cake. So the cake
Speaker 1: was like halfway through season five, Blair's wedding to the
Speaker 1: Prince was a hundredth episode. So for me that was like,
Speaker 1: we did it. And then they wanted half of the
Speaker 1: season six and we were a little like, okay, but
Speaker 1: we don't want to push our luck. But then season
Speaker 1: six was really beautiful because everyone kind of knew the
Speaker 1: show was ending, and we were only doing ten episodes.
Speaker 1: We're going to be finished by Thanksgiving. So it was
Speaker 1: like senior year of high school where everyone could be
Speaker 1: in a good mood and be happy to be there
Speaker 1: because they could kind of they were starting to get
Speaker 1: nostalgic and starting to realize that this was actually gonna
Speaker 1: be over, which some people were looking forward to. But
Speaker 1: even those people were like, oh, there's actually the things
Speaker 1: that all miss right for sure? Uh um? And are
Speaker 1: you guys having so much fun with the new one?
Speaker 1: We are? I mean, you know, Josh Saffren, who obviously
Speaker 1: was a writer and uh and eventually executive producer on
Speaker 1: the original show, is really the guy who is running
Speaker 1: that show and boots on the ground there. But the
Speaker 1: cast is amazing and beautiful. Well yeah, but also she
Speaker 1: really lovely and they had a real tall order of
Speaker 1: being like the first thing to shoot in New York
Speaker 1: post COVID or not even post COVID during COVID, and
Speaker 1: so they had a real um trial by fire in
Speaker 1: that way where they kind of became their own pod,
Speaker 1: you know, the only thing they were allowed to hang
Speaker 1: out with, and it forged really beautiful bond and not
Speaker 1: being able to go home for holidays. You know, if
Speaker 1: they have an intimate scene with someone, they have to
Speaker 1: have a isolate over the weekend. Like it's it's a lot, wow, definitely,
Speaker 1: just definitely. I just roll into town and we're like,
Speaker 1: let let us tell you about the mid Auks in
Speaker 1: New York Cities. Know you about a sidekick telephone lady?
Speaker 1: I know what had ever heard of her? Were like
Speaker 1: those people and they like those stories for sure? And
Speaker 1: is the is everyone like are their crowds outside and stuff?
Speaker 1: Is it different now? COVID has definitely changed the game
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know in terms of like large
Speaker 1: hordes of people waiting. Um. But it's definitely starting to
Speaker 1: draw attention and catch on and hopefully everybody stays you know, grounded,
Speaker 1: and and the shorter seasons now they only do like
Speaker 1: ten episodes, so they have more time off. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's not quite the same schedule that you guys
Speaker 1: were were put through. They were working ten hour days
Speaker 1: because we did I don't think we knew that. Yeah
Speaker 1: that was called then that was the morning. That was
Speaker 1: the morning for you guys. Yeah, one other thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, you know how you you were talking
Speaker 1: about like the age group like women was it, would
Speaker 1: you say thirty five or well, I think the medium
Speaker 1: age of the show is actually older than you. The
Speaker 1: average age of the show was like thirty two. Okay,
Speaker 1: because now too, I feel like Brad plays hockey and
Speaker 1: I meet all these hockey guys that are like, it's
Speaker 1: my favorite show. I'll go over to Europe and it's like,
Speaker 1: oh the women, oh their men, people in high school.
Speaker 1: So I feel like it really hit everyone outside of
Speaker 1: that which you guys were going for. Sometimes when people
Speaker 1: come up and I'm like, oh do I know this person,
Speaker 1: They're like, were you Vanessa? And I'm like, you watched it?
Speaker 1: It's like not not the demographic at all, which is
Speaker 1: just really cool that so many different people and ages
Speaker 1: just really got into it. And I think that's just
Speaker 1: so cool. In the beginning, a lot of guys would
Speaker 1: be like, it's my girlfriends the background watching it. But
Speaker 1: I really like, Chuck, you know you watched the show
Speaker 1: just to make you watch the show. It's fun. Just
Speaker 1: say it. Yeah, And now I think, yeah, now people
Speaker 1: have no problem saying it. But I feel like more
Speaker 1: now is like these athletes are men even more than ever.
Speaker 1: So I just think it's cool because it just really
Speaker 1: hit everybody. Well, I'm so pumped and happy for everything
Speaker 1: you guys have going on. This has been such a
Speaker 1: fun walk down memory natural. Thank you. That's very nice.
Speaker 1: Um it just like you guys just brought so much
Speaker 1: joy to so many people, a lot of moments where
Speaker 1: people learned and we're growing and laughed, cried. We personally
Speaker 1: all went through a lot. We professionally all went through
Speaker 1: a lot. And to be able to be a part
Speaker 1: of all these viewers and fans that like change their
Speaker 1: life watching the show is so special. Yeah, that's so sweet.
Speaker 1: And we are just curators. You know. You guys are
Speaker 1: all amazing at what you do and all special and
Speaker 1: your chemistry will never be recreated again. We were just
Speaker 1: hopefully wise enough to like put you all in the
Speaker 1: same room and like give you some stories to tell
Speaker 1: where you could all be on screen together. We had
Speaker 1: so much fun. And I also like want to bring
Speaker 1: on some of the new ones and talk about all that,
Speaker 1: because it's just awesome and beautiful what you guys are
Speaker 1: now doing again. One of the nice things too is
Speaker 1: how much they love the original show and for them
Speaker 1: to be able to like walk the same halls at
Speaker 1: the same school that you guys walked is like it's
Speaker 1: an honor, you know, that's something they're excited about. They
Speaker 1: look up to the work that you guys all did. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's like so nice to hear because I know what
Speaker 1: you guys are doing is just amazing and people are
Speaker 1: loving it. And again, like being part of Gossip Girl,
Speaker 1: you look at it in a different lens being a
Speaker 1: part of it and all the things that came with it,
Speaker 1: and even watching it back it was like watching a
Speaker 1: different show kind of in a way. And also that
Speaker 1: might be because I'm a mom now you know you
Speaker 1: look at things differently that way. But it's so crazy
Speaker 1: and then now you know there's different I don't want
Speaker 1: issues or different things that kids go through. Um, and
Speaker 1: you guys just always did a really good job on
Speaker 1: shining light and trying to keep it grounded and real
Speaker 1: but also flashy and edgy. You guys, just the mix
Speaker 1: that you put into this bowl and put out is
Speaker 1: just like can't be done by anyone else and it's
Speaker 1: just super super rad. Thank you. You do look at
Speaker 1: it differently as a parent because my oldest is going
Speaker 1: to turn ten next month, and she's like, I want
Speaker 1: to watch Gossip Girl. And I'm like, oh god, this
Speaker 1: is the big karmic you know, like my kids are
Speaker 1: watching gossip Girl and I'm not okay with it. Before
Speaker 1: I had kids, I was like relaxed, and now I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh god, yeah, well and kind of like some of
Speaker 1: the things in ours, like on the c W, you
Speaker 1: could only push it so far. Like I remember the
Speaker 1: threesome with Hillary Duff and you know, Dan Vanessa and
Speaker 1: like we we didn't show anything and we kissed and
Speaker 1: it was like the worst thing. And now like if
Speaker 1: on HBO, you know, we had to cut it into
Speaker 1: two parts so that one part of it was in
Speaker 1: one episode and part of it was in another episode,
Speaker 1: because it was just it was, yeah, people saw it
Speaker 1: all over one piece. I just love a sentence begins.
Speaker 1: When I was doing My three Son with Hillary Duff,
Speaker 1: there was not like you we couldn't show very much
Speaker 1: or do that, and we you know, pushed it however
Speaker 1: far and people were like tripping over it. And now
Speaker 1: on TV anything you turn on and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: that was a conversation. That was a big conversation with
Speaker 1: the new one that we have with Saffron quite a bit,
Speaker 1: and you know, and he was always saying like, it's
Speaker 1: not just because we can get away with it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we should. It doesn't have it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be euphoria, you know, which is a great joy but
Speaker 1: obviously extremely provocative. You know, we can obviously more swearing
Speaker 1: on scirl and there's more. It's kind of gender fluidity
Speaker 1: or sexual issues that are getting brought to the forefront
Speaker 1: a little bit more boldly than pause than we were
Speaker 1: allowed to do back then. But we're not just doing whatever.
Speaker 1: We're still respectful it exactly. But I also definitely don't
Speaker 1: want my kid watching that version. It is a different
Speaker 1: way when you look. It's it's so crazy. But thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on, you guys look awesome. Well thanks for
Speaker 1: thanks for coming to my pool party all those years ago.
Speaker 1: I mean it changed my life. And it's so funny
Speaker 1: you guys that you both knew that the whole time
Speaker 1: I was there and didn't bring it up. That's very
Speaker 1: gangster of you guys. By the way, on a weekend,
Speaker 1: we want people to have a nice time, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to feel like, yeah, everyone who walks through
Speaker 1: the front door needs to audition, and right, I had
Speaker 1: no idea. I was just like going about it. It
Speaker 1: was it was, yeah, that's awesome. Well, it's great to
Speaker 1: see you. Thank you for having us you too. Al Right, guys,
Speaker 1: we'll talk soon for sure. Okay, bye, Okay. I know
Speaker 1: I already said it one hundred times, but I am
Speaker 1: so thankful that they created this show, not just for
Speaker 1: what it did for me, but for the people around
Speaker 1: the world who connected with it and really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Josh and Stephanie, you are truly amazing at what you
Speaker 1: do and I just couldn't be happier that I had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to work with both of you. Thank you
Speaker 1: everyone for listening, and be sure to check out my
Speaker 1: conversation with the amazing Kelly Rutherford also known as Lily
Speaker 1: vander Woodson, which is also released today and like, comment
Speaker 1: and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time.
Speaker 1: Xl xl x O XO is produced by Propagate Content
Speaker 1: and Meat Jessica's or Our show is executive produced by Langley.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Diego Teppia, Emily Carr, and Hannah Harris.
Speaker 1: Original music by Moxie and Lune, and the episode was
Speaker 1: mixed by stathol Lansky