That’s right, CW: rub it in.
Be sure we completely and totally remember that you cancelled “Veronica Mars” by starting a new show called “Gossip Girl” (based on the popular series of teen novels) and, for the voiceovers provided by the never-seen title character, hiring the former Ms. Mars herself, Kristen Bell.
(Frankly, I was surprised that there wasn’t more of an uproar about that during the course of the panel, but, no, the big question people wanted answered was whether or not Bell’s voiceover was a one-off for the pilot…and, if you’re wondering that, too, the answer is, no, she’s supposedly here for the long haul.)
So the good news about “Gossip Girl” is that one of its executive producers is Josh Schwartz, late of “The O.C.” and also currently an executive producer on NBC’s “Chuck.” Schwartz has always had a wit about him, as well as a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, so that would appear to bode well. Unfortunately, from what I saw of the series, it really didn’t offer much in the way of that usual wit; it basically seemed to be yet another series about rich kids suffering through teen angst and shitty morals, despite (or possibly because of) having a buttload of money.
“Well, we’ll try to get funnier in the future,” replied Schwartz.
As to the despicable actions of some of these kids, from underage drinking to date rape, Schwartz says, “These are flawed characters, and they’re trying to do good, (but) in the environment that they grow up in, they don’t always have the best role models. They don’t always have an example set for them. But I think as long as we understand that they’re searching to do the right thing and that we see conquences for their actions, the world isn’t nearly as depraved as it appears to be. In fact, the Humphrey family (the main characters of the series) is an incredibly important component of that. I think they’re our audience surrogate. They’re our proxy, our way into that world, and they have a great perspective on that world.
“The sort of the money that those kids in Orange County grew up with was nice,” Schwartz continues, unabashedly referencing his former gig, “but compared to the these kids and these families, it’s chump change. This is really royalty, or the closest thing we have to it, these sort of young socialites-to-be. You have to be born into this level of wealth. So that’s a big difference. And these kids — you know, in Orange County, it was very suburban. It was very sort of protective. It was very safe. And those kids weren’t necessarily as well-traveled. And I think education is incredibly important to this crowd, and these kids are really worldly and very well-traveled as well.”
There is at least one moment within the plot that does seem to lend itsself toward amusing possibilities: Mr. Humphrey was apparently a member of a band that has been declared one of the Best Forgotten Bands of the 1990s. The name of the band? Lincoln Hawk, named after Sylvester Stallone’s character in “Over the Top.”
Okay, now that’s funny…
