Definitely Dumbo.Photo Courtesy CW
Stop the presses! We have some very important, breaking Gossip Girl news. (No, it’s not that they’ve been filming in New York all week, surrounded by the real-life girls they are absurdly meant to portray.) The producers of the Greatest Show of Our Time have reached out to Daily Intel to once and for all put to rest the Most Obnoxious Real-Estate Conundrum of Our Time. That is, whether the Humphrey family lives in Williamsburg, as mentioned in the pilot episode, or Dumbo, where all exterior shots and activities around their loft have taken place. Behold, an e-mail from executive producer Stephanie Savage:
When we wrote the pilot script, we felt like Williamsburg was the appropriate place to situate the Humphrey family, and we shot all our Brooklyn locations in Williamsburg (Rufus’ gallery, Dan and Serena’s date, Dan and Rufus put up flyers). However, the interior of the Humphrey loft was shot at a private residence at The Foundry, in Long Island City, so that wouldn’t work for the exterior shot.
We were never able to find a satisfying exterior location in Williamsburg that seemed right for the loft (matched the shape of the windows, height of ceiling, brick on the walls, etc.), but it matches perfectly with the beautiful building at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO. By the time we realized this, we had already shot Jenny and Dan in the cab in “The Wild Brunch,” where Williamsburg is mentioned for the last time, ever. Since then, we have mentioned neither DUMBO nor WILLIAMSBURG by name, referring to where the Humphreys live only as “Brooklyn.”
Often it’s the case that when you move from pilot to series, you can’t have complete continuity. We had the unfortunate choice of committing to a lesser location for the rest of the life of the series, or having to live with an inconsistency in the pilot and first episode.
Of course, they were doing it on purpose. FOR US! To make sure we viewers weren’t saddled with a subpar location shoot. Thank you, Gossip Girl, we knew you wouldn’t let us down. We ceremoniously re-award you all points we docked for this discrepancy. Now, you’ll have to excuse us. Our idols just sent us a personal e-mail, and we have to go die now.
