Valley Girls (Gossip Girl)
Encyclopedia
"Valley Girls" is the twenty-fourth episode of the second season of the The CW Television Network
television series Gossip Girl
. The episode served as a backdoor pilot for a potential Gossip Girl spin-off
series set in the 1980s, entitled Valley Girls. The episode was directed by Mark Piznarski
and written by Josh Schwartz
and Stephanie Savage
(this was the first episode of the series since "Much 'I Do' About Nothing" to be co-written by Schwartz). It was filmed on location in New York City
, New York and in Los Angeles
, California. References to elements of 1980s popular culture were heavily accentuated in the episode, which the producers hoped would bridge the generation gap
between the characters and audience. "Valley Girls" aired on the CW in the United States
on May 11, 2009 and was viewed live by an audience of 2.31 million Americans. Although the episode received generally positive reviews, the spin-off series was not picked up.
"Valley Girls" provides insight on the mysterious past of character Lily van der Woodsen (played by Kelly Rutherford
as an adult and Brittany Snow as a teenager) through a series of flashback
s to her life as a teenager in the 1980s
. In the past, Lily runs away from her wealthy parents to live in the San Fernando Valley
with her sister Carol Rhodes (Krysten Ritter
), the black sheep
of the family. In the present, Lily's daughter Serena van der Woodsen
(Blake Lively
) rebels against her mother while her classmates prepare for the Prom
. The episode introduces the main cast of Valley Girls as guest actors.
) although Lily drops the charges on which she had Serena arrested. Rufus (Matthew Settle
) is also angry with Lily for Serena's arrest; Dan (Penn Badgley
) and Jenny(Taylor Momsen
) inform Vanessa (Jessica Szohr
) that Rufus returned home without proposing to Lily and has remained in his bedroom ever since. Lily feuds with CeCe for telling Rufus about their lovechild. From jail, Serena encourages Blair (Leighton Meester
) to enjoy the Prom with Nate (Chace Crawford
) in the way Blair had chronicled in a scrapbook
as a preteen
, but each of the couple’s Prom plans, such as the limo, hotel reservation, and Blair's dress, inexplicably go awry. Nate suspects Chuck (Ed Westwick
) of sabotaging the Prom in an effort to win Blair back, but Chuck denies involvement. Dan convinces Serena to allow him to pay her bail
and escort her to the Prom.
At the Prom, Chuck foils a plot by Penelope (Amanda Setton
), Hazel (Dreama Walker
), Isabel (Nicole Fiscella
), and Nelly Yuki (Yin Chang
) to humiliate Blair during Prom royalty elections. Chuck admits to Serena and Dan that he has secretly been altering Nate and Blair’s Prom night in order to recreate the scenes from Blair's Prom scrapbook. Meanwhile, Blair feels disconcerted while dancing with Nate and ends their relationship by the end of the night. Blair explains to Serena that after completing high school with Nate, he feels like simply a high school boyfriend. The girls reminisce about growing up together through crazy times, like sisters. Lily apologizes to Rufus and CeCe. Rufus expresses concern that Lily is too unpredictable and too much like her mother. CeCe remains indifferent, but agrees to return to Lily's home.
Throughout the episode, dialogue and objects prompt Lily to recall the events of her own first arrest. During flashbacks, a seventeen year old Lily Rhodes, having deliberately gotten expelled from her Santa Barbara
boarding school
, travels to Malibu, California to meet with her father, Rick Rhodes (Andrew McCarthy
), the wealthy owner of Rhodes Records. Sadly for Lily, Rick already phoned her mother CeCe, who drove to Mailbu from Montecito
to deal with Lily. When Rick rejects the idea of Lily living with him in Malibu
, Lily decides to find her sister Carol rather than move in with CeCe, whom Lily detests. Carol, an aspiring actress, had rejected the Rhode’s upscale life and moved a year earlier to the San Fernando Valley
. While searching for Carol, Lily meets Owen Campos (Shiloh Fernandez
), who takes her to a club where they find Shep, Owen’s musician friend, and Carol. Carol and Shep are in the midst of a dispute with Keith van der Woodsen (Matt Barr
), the rich, antagonistic director of Shep’s music video
in which Carol stars, and are headed to his party to confront him for raising his price and holding the video hostage. When Lily asks why Carol does not simply use their father’s company, Carol insists she does not want anyone to know of their privileged background. When the antagonism escalates to a fight at the party, security arrests Owen and Lily although Carol and Shep manage to escape. From jail, Lily calls CeCe. CeCe calls her daughters irresponsible. Carol, who has come to pay Lily’s bail, overhears Lily defend Carol's lifestyle. Carol takes the phone from Lily, informs CeCe that Lily will be moving in with her, and takes Lily back to the city.
. The spin-off television series would chronicle the life of Lily Rhodes while attending high school and living with Carol in 1980s Los Angeles.
Discussion about a Gossip Girl spin-off began in 2008. Despite believing the project was "unlikely," Gossip Girl executives explored potential concepts including an adaptation of the Gossip Girl book series
' spin-off, The It Girl
. However, they felt that The It Girl' s world, centered on character Jenny Humphrey
's stay at boarding school
, was too small and insular to sustain a television series. They were also concerned about disrupting Gossip Girl' s chemistry by taking away any of the show's cast members. In December 2009, Variety
magazine reported that while the "Gossip Girl spinoff [was] still in the very early stages of development", CW had begun to consider making a backdoor pilot. Such a pilot would allow the company to evaluate viewer interest in a spin-off while saving money.
On January 14, 2009, CW green-lit a back-door pilot for an untitled spin-off series starring a young Lily van der Woodsen. The concept was based on an original idea by Gossip Girl producers Schwartz and Savage. The pilot episode, eventually named "Valley Girls", was written by Stephanie Savage
and Josh Schwartz
and directed by Mark Piznarski
, all of whom had previously worked the same roles for the Gossip Girl pilot
. "Valley Girls" was shot on location in New York City, New York and in Los Angeles, California beginning in February 2009. Flashbacks were set apart from present day scenes through a grainy, sepia tone. A scene in which Lily conceives and carries out an "elaborate plan to kiss a boy, and then lie about it" in order to violate her school's honor code and be expelled, was cut from the final episode. "Valley Girls" aired on May 11, 2009.
to Nip/Tuck
, Savage and Schwartz found her "perfect" and "pulled out all the stops" to convince her to come back to TV. Ryan Hansen had previously starred as "Douche" on Schwartz's web series Rockville CA. Schwartz deemed Hansen's performance there "so unlikable in such a likable way, that we cast him on the Gossip Girl spin-off." On March 6, 2009, Entertainment Weekly
reported that Cynthia Watros and Andrew McCarthy were in final talks to join the show as Lily's parents, thereby filling Valley Girls' last starring roles.
The producers worked to incorporate 1980s fashion into the show in a way that "felt fun, definitely, but also grounded in a reality where [they] could tell dramatic stories." The styles featured were therefore constructed so that viewers would not be distracted from an emotional scene by characters wearing 80s makeup, hairstyles, or shoulder pads
. In addition, show makers wanted to make the series feel "like something that you'd want to be a part of, rather than make fun of", and that young women would be inspired by the clothing styles featured in the spin-off as well as on Gossip Girl. During flashbacks in "Valley Girls", Lily dresses in two styles of clothing. She appears in a preppy
, upper-crust riding outfit while associating with her rich parents, but changes into a dress more typical of the "underground punk-rock scene
" after running away to the San Fernando Valley. Snow describes her hairstyle as "a little teased, feathered like Farrah Fawcett
with curly bangs like Brooke Shields
." In present day scenes, Blair and Serena both attend Prom in designer dresses; Blair dons a black and gold gown from the Marchesa
Spring 2008 collection, while Serena wears a pink halter
dress from the Christian Dior
Spring 2009 collection. Belinda Goldsmith of Reuters
cited the episode's Prom scene as an example of the media's glamorization of U.S. formal dances, which she says has caused the cost of formal dances around the world to rise.
Songs featured within "Valley Girls" were taken from both the Los Angeles punk rock
scene and mainstream 80s hits in order to represent the two worlds surrounding character Lily Rhodes. "Jumping between these two worlds is important to the show. Lily is living with her sister in the Valley and kind of hanging out in the punk rock scene, but she and her sister come from a wealthy family and their parents are more aligned with a Pacific Palisades/Beverly Hills/Malibu, Less Than Zero world. So her struggle... is to try and figure out what kind of world she wants to be in", says Savage. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas
oversaw music selection for the episode. With the exception of Fountains of Wayne
's "Prom Theme
" (1999), every song featured within "Valley Girls" was released prior to or in 1983, the year in which Lily's flashbacks take place. Savage explains that the show makers hoped to introduce modern audiences to bands and music they had not known before. No Doubt
makes an uncredited guest appearance during the episode as a fictional band called "Snowed Out", a play on words of "No Doubt". During the cameo, part of the band's return to music after a four year hiatus, No Doubt premiered their cover of Adam and the Ants
' "Stand and Deliver
", the band's first new song in five years. The band performs in the Sunset Strip
club where Lily meets Carol for the first time in a year.
wrote on her blog, Deadline Hollywood, that despite enthusiasm of CW executives, "the show went from hot, to lukewarm, to 'fading but wouldn't count out', to now dead, according to my insiders." CW eventually chose to pick-up Melrose Place
, The Beautiful Life
, and The Vampire Diaries
.
However, on May 21, 2009, the day CW's fall schedule was formally announced, CW President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff
told reporters at a CW upfront
that Valley Girls was still in contention for use as a midseason replacement
. Said Ostroff,
Ostroff finally pronounced Valley Girls dead on August 4, 2009 at a television press tour. When asked if the series would
ever be green-lit, Ostroff said, "Not right now." She explained that she believed using "Valley Girls" episode as a backdoor pilot "instead of doing a full pilot" put the potential series at a disadvantage because "it was hard for everybody to understand what the world would be like on its own." However, she stated that if Schwartz and Savage were interested in creating a different Gossip Girl spin-off, CW would "of course [...] be open to it."
' s Jennifer Sankowski enjoyed the episode and believed the producers had captured all aspects of popular 80s teen culture well, but that "at times it felt like they were trying too hard, throwing everything and anything '80s at us" such as a montage of 80s outfits worn by Lily and mentions of MTV
videos, fanny pack
s, Rubik's Cube
, and Jane Fonda
workout videos. "At this rate," said Sankowski, "they won't have anything left to showcase." Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly "loved" the episode and complimented the casting choices, but agrees with Sankowski in that "if this ends up being an actual series, they need to dial down the '80s references a tad." Kona Gallagher of Cinema Blend
said the premise was interesting and that "[Valley Girls] has the potential to be a strong spinoff, and [she] hope[s] that CW decides to pick it up this fall." Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times
writes that he "especially liked the moxie of Brittany Snow as young Lily and Krysten Ritter [...] as her sister, Carol. And of course the retro soundtrack was a total trip." A few review sites took issue with the episode's script, such as BuddyTV
, which claimed it was cliché, and Television Without Pity, which found it repetitive. While writing for TheFrisky.com, Sara Benincasa praised the clothing styles and called the overall episode "awesome fun! [...] weirdly sentimental, and sweet". She also believed that the confrontation between the Valley dwellers and the rich attendees of Keith's party was "clearly a giant, dance-friendly metaphor for Reaganomics
and the woes of a trickle-down
world." Michelle Graham for Film School Rejects liked both the 80s and present day scenes separately, but when put togetether, "the overall effect was disjointed and showed it for what it was: an attempt to shove two shows together in order to save money on a proper pilot."
"Valley Girls" was viewed live by an relatively small audience of 2.31 million in the United States according to Nielsen Media Research
. However, Schwartz notes that "Gossip Girl became the first show that indicated that the way people watch television is changing. You can go on iTunes
, every episode is No. 1, ahead of all these bigger shows. The streams are high, the DVR time-shifting
number was something like 40%. There’s a much bigger audience for the show than the (Nielsen) numbers might indicate."
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
television series Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl (TV series)
Gossip Girl is an American teen drama television series based on the book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series was created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, and premiered on The CW on September 19, 2007...
. The episode served as a backdoor pilot for a potential Gossip Girl spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series set in the 1980s, entitled Valley Girls. The episode was directed by Mark Piznarski
Mark Piznarski
Mark Piznarski is an American director and producer of film and television.He has directed episodes from a number of television series, including, amongst others, Veronica Mars, The Lying Game, Gossip Girl, 90210, NYPD Blue, Friday Night Lights, Everwood, My So-Called Life, Relativity and To Love...
and written by Josh Schwartz
Josh Schwartz
-Film school at USC:In 1995, Schwartz realized his boyhood dream of attending film school to study screen and television writing at the University of Southern California...
and Stephanie Savage
Stephanie Savage
Stephanie Savage is a Canadian screenwriter and television producer. Savage is best known for developing The CW's teen drama series, Gossip Girl from the novel series, and being an executive producer of the Fox series The O.C....
(this was the first episode of the series since "Much 'I Do' About Nothing" to be co-written by Schwartz). It was filmed on location in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York and in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California. References to elements of 1980s popular culture were heavily accentuated in the episode, which the producers hoped would bridge the generation gap
Generation gap
The generational gap is and was a term popularized in Western countries during the 1960s referring to differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between children and parents....
between the characters and audience. "Valley Girls" aired on the CW in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on May 11, 2009 and was viewed live by an audience of 2.31 million Americans. Although the episode received generally positive reviews, the spin-off series was not picked up.
"Valley Girls" provides insight on the mysterious past of character Lily van der Woodsen (played by Kelly Rutherford
Kelly Rutherford
Kelly Danne Melissa Rutherford is an American actress known for her roles of Stephanie "Sam" Whitmore on Generations, Megan Lewis on Melrose Place from 1996 to 1999 and currently as Lily van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl...
as an adult and Brittany Snow as a teenager) through a series of flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s to her life as a teenager in the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
. In the past, Lily runs away from her wealthy parents to live in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
with her sister Carol Rhodes (Krysten Ritter
Krysten Ritter
Krysten Alyce Ritter is an American actress and former model. Ritter is well known for her critically acclaimed turn as Jane Margolis on AMC's Breaking Bad where she first appeared as the property manager and neighbor of Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman...
), the black sheep
Black sheep
In the English language, black sheep is an idiom used to describe an odd or disreputable member of a group, especially within a family. The term has typically been given negative implications, implying waywardness...
of the family. In the present, Lily's daughter Serena van der Woodsen
Serena van der Woodsen
Serena Celia van der Woodsen is a fictional character in the young adult novel series Gossip Girl and its television adaptation. Serena is featured on the blog of the novel series' mysterious "Gossip Girl" narrator...
(Blake Lively
Blake Lively
Blake Christina Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl...
) rebels against her mother while her classmates prepare for the Prom
Prom
In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
. The episode introduces the main cast of Valley Girls as guest actors.
Plot
To prove she is able to handle her own affairs, Serena refuses to leave jail with either Lily or CeCe (Caroline LagerfeltCaroline Lagerfelt
Caroline Eugenie "Carolyn" Lagerfelt is a French-born stage, film, and television actress of Swedish descent, long-based in the United States.-Early life and education:...
) although Lily drops the charges on which she had Serena arrested. Rufus (Matthew Settle
Matthew Settle
Jeffrey Matthew Settle is an American actor best known for playing Captain Ronald Speirs on the HBO show Band of Brothers and Rufus Humphrey on Gossip Girl.-Career:...
) is also angry with Lily for Serena's arrest; Dan (Penn Badgley
Penn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, and Easy A....
) and Jenny(Taylor Momsen
Taylor Momsen
Taylor Michel Momsen is an American actress, musician and model who portrays the character of Jenny Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl and portrayed the role of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless.-Early life and career:Taylor...
) inform Vanessa (Jessica Szohr
Jessica Szohr
Jessica Karen Szohr is an American actress. Szohr began her screen career starring on television shows such as CSI: Miami and What About Brian...
) that Rufus returned home without proposing to Lily and has remained in his bedroom ever since. Lily feuds with CeCe for telling Rufus about their lovechild. From jail, Serena encourages Blair (Leighton Meester
Leighton Meester
Leighton Marissa Meester is an American actress and singer. Meester first garnered attention for playing Blair Waldorf in the CW television series Gossip Girl...
) to enjoy the Prom with Nate (Chace Crawford
Chace Crawford
Christopher Chace Crawford , better known as Chace Crawford, is an American actor. He currently portrays Nate Archibald on the CW television drama Gossip Girl.-Early life:...
) in the way Blair had chronicled in a scrapbook
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of a scrapbook. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling...
as a preteen
Preteen
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and prior to adolescence. It may be defined as ending with the beginning of puberty or with the beginning of the teenage stage, the time frames in which adolescence is considered to begin. In terms of age in years,...
, but each of the couple’s Prom plans, such as the limo, hotel reservation, and Blair's dress, inexplicably go awry. Nate suspects Chuck (Ed Westwick
Ed Westwick
Edward Jack P. "Ed" Westwick is an English actor and musician, best known for his role as Chuck Bass in the main cast on the American television series Gossip Girl.-Early life and career:...
) of sabotaging the Prom in an effort to win Blair back, but Chuck denies involvement. Dan convinces Serena to allow him to pay her bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
and escort her to the Prom.
At the Prom, Chuck foils a plot by Penelope (Amanda Setton
Amanda Setton
Amanda Setton is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her role as Penelope Shafai in the teen Gossip Girl and for her role as Kimberly Andrews on One Life to Live...
), Hazel (Dreama Walker
Dreama Walker
Dreama Walker is an American actress. She is known for her role as Hazel Williams on Gossip Girl, based on the book series .-Personal life:...
), Isabel (Nicole Fiscella
Nicole Fiscella
Nicole Fiscella is an American actress and model, of Indian and St Lucian ancestry, who rose to fame through the book-based TV series Gossip Girl as Isabel Coates.-Early life:...
), and Nelly Yuki (Yin Chang
Yin Chang
Yin Chang is an American actress most recognized for her role of Mei Kwan, a lead character in Prom . The film was released in theaters on April 29, 2011 by Walt Disney Pictures. Previously, Chang was a recurring character in The CW series Gossip Girl...
) to humiliate Blair during Prom royalty elections. Chuck admits to Serena and Dan that he has secretly been altering Nate and Blair’s Prom night in order to recreate the scenes from Blair's Prom scrapbook. Meanwhile, Blair feels disconcerted while dancing with Nate and ends their relationship by the end of the night. Blair explains to Serena that after completing high school with Nate, he feels like simply a high school boyfriend. The girls reminisce about growing up together through crazy times, like sisters. Lily apologizes to Rufus and CeCe. Rufus expresses concern that Lily is too unpredictable and too much like her mother. CeCe remains indifferent, but agrees to return to Lily's home.
Throughout the episode, dialogue and objects prompt Lily to recall the events of her own first arrest. During flashbacks, a seventeen year old Lily Rhodes, having deliberately gotten expelled from her Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, travels to Malibu, California to meet with her father, Rick Rhodes (Andrew McCarthy
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew Thomas McCarthy is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the 1980s films St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero, and more recently for his role in the television shows Lipstick Jungle, White Collar and Royal Pains.-Career:McCarthy...
), the wealthy owner of Rhodes Records. Sadly for Lily, Rick already phoned her mother CeCe, who drove to Mailbu from Montecito
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
to deal with Lily. When Rick rejects the idea of Lily living with him in Malibu
Malibu
Malibu may refer to:Places:* Malibu, Baja California, a beach in Rosarito Beach Municipality, Baja California* Malibu, British Columbia, a camp near the entrance of Princess Louisa Inlet...
, Lily decides to find her sister Carol rather than move in with CeCe, whom Lily detests. Carol, an aspiring actress, had rejected the Rhode’s upscale life and moved a year earlier to the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
. While searching for Carol, Lily meets Owen Campos (Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Fernandez
Shiloh Thomas Fernandez is an American actor best known for his roles in Jericho, Deadgirl and United States of Tara, as well as portraying Peter in the film Red Riding Hood.-Early life:...
), who takes her to a club where they find Shep, Owen’s musician friend, and Carol. Carol and Shep are in the midst of a dispute with Keith van der Woodsen (Matt Barr
Matt Barr
Matthew Jerome "Matt" Barr is an American television and film actor. He is best known for his roles as Mike Fleming in Commander in Chief, Ian Banks in One Tree Hill, Christopher Sullivan in the mystery horror series Harper's Island, and Dan Patch in The CW series Hellcats.-Early life:Matthew...
), the rich, antagonistic director of Shep’s music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
in which Carol stars, and are headed to his party to confront him for raising his price and holding the video hostage. When Lily asks why Carol does not simply use their father’s company, Carol insists she does not want anyone to know of their privileged background. When the antagonism escalates to a fight at the party, security arrests Owen and Lily although Carol and Shep manage to escape. From jail, Lily calls CeCe. CeCe calls her daughters irresponsible. Carol, who has come to pay Lily’s bail, overhears Lily defend Carol's lifestyle. Carol takes the phone from Lily, informs CeCe that Lily will be moving in with her, and takes Lily back to the city.
Production
"Valley Girls" doubles as both a Gossip Girl episode and the pilot episode of Valley Girls, a possible Gossip Girl prequelPrequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
. The spin-off television series would chronicle the life of Lily Rhodes while attending high school and living with Carol in 1980s Los Angeles.
Discussion about a Gossip Girl spin-off began in 2008. Despite believing the project was "unlikely," Gossip Girl executives explored potential concepts including an adaptation of the Gossip Girl book series
Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series revolves around the lives and romances of the privileged teenagers at the Constance Billard School for Girls, an elite...
' spin-off, The It Girl
The It Girl
The It Girl is the first book in The It Girl series. It was written in 2005 by a ghostwriter with suggestions from Cecily von Ziegesar. Aimed toward young adults, it is a spin-off from the bestselling Gossip Girl series....
. However, they felt that The It Girl
Jenny Humphrey
Jennifer Tallulah "Jenny" Humphrey is one of the characters in both the Gossip Girl and The It Girl series of novels by Cecily von Ziegesar...
's stay at boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, was too small and insular to sustain a television series. They were also concerned about disrupting Gossip Girl
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine reported that while the "Gossip Girl spinoff [was] still in the very early stages of development", CW had begun to consider making a backdoor pilot. Such a pilot would allow the company to evaluate viewer interest in a spin-off while saving money.
On January 14, 2009, CW green-lit a back-door pilot for an untitled spin-off series starring a young Lily van der Woodsen. The concept was based on an original idea by Gossip Girl producers Schwartz and Savage. The pilot episode, eventually named "Valley Girls", was written by Stephanie Savage
Stephanie Savage
Stephanie Savage is a Canadian screenwriter and television producer. Savage is best known for developing The CW's teen drama series, Gossip Girl from the novel series, and being an executive producer of the Fox series The O.C....
and Josh Schwartz
Josh Schwartz
-Film school at USC:In 1995, Schwartz realized his boyhood dream of attending film school to study screen and television writing at the University of Southern California...
and directed by Mark Piznarski
Mark Piznarski
Mark Piznarski is an American director and producer of film and television.He has directed episodes from a number of television series, including, amongst others, Veronica Mars, The Lying Game, Gossip Girl, 90210, NYPD Blue, Friday Night Lights, Everwood, My So-Called Life, Relativity and To Love...
, all of whom had previously worked the same roles for the Gossip Girl pilot
Pilot (Gossip Girl)
"Pilot" is the first episode of the CW television series, Gossip Girl. The episode was written by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and directed by Mark Piznarski. The episode debuted as a free download available on ITunes on September 14, 2007, five days before the series' initial broadcast...
. "Valley Girls" was shot on location in New York City, New York and in Los Angeles, California beginning in February 2009. Flashbacks were set apart from present day scenes through a grainy, sepia tone. A scene in which Lily conceives and carries out an "elaborate plan to kiss a boy, and then lie about it" in order to violate her school's honor code and be expelled, was cut from the final episode. "Valley Girls" aired on May 11, 2009.
Casting
On February 5, 2009, Krysten Ritter became the first guest star to be officially cast for the Valley Girls pilot. Brittany Snow was the producers' top choice for young Lily Rhodes and was offered the role in early February 2009 without auditioning. Initially, the series' producers wanted to cast an undiscovered star in the role while Snow was interested in continuing her film career. However, after viewing a reel featuring Snow's work ranging from HairsprayHairspray (2007 film)
Hairspray is a 2007 musical film produced by Kolaja Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John...
to Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
, Savage and Schwartz found her "perfect" and "pulled out all the stops" to convince her to come back to TV. Ryan Hansen had previously starred as "Douche" on Schwartz's web series Rockville CA. Schwartz deemed Hansen's performance there "so unlikable in such a likable way, that we cast him on the Gossip Girl spin-off." On March 6, 2009, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
reported that Cynthia Watros and Andrew McCarthy were in final talks to join the show as Lily's parents, thereby filling Valley Girls
Fashion and music
When asked what was being done to make modern day audiences comfortable with 1980s American culture, Schwartz replied,The producers worked to incorporate 1980s fashion into the show in a way that "felt fun, definitely, but also grounded in a reality where [they] could tell dramatic stories." The styles featured were therefore constructed so that viewers would not be distracted from an emotional scene by characters wearing 80s makeup, hairstyles, or shoulder pads
Shoulder pads (fashion)
Shoulder pads are a type of fabric-covered padding used in men's and women's clothing to give the wearer the illusion of having broader and less sloping shoulders....
. In addition, show makers wanted to make the series feel "like something that you'd want to be a part of, rather than make fun of", and that young women would be inspired by the clothing styles featured in the spin-off as well as on Gossip Girl. During flashbacks in "Valley Girls", Lily dresses in two styles of clothing. She appears in a preppy
Preppy
Preppy, preppie, or prep refers to a modern, widespread United States clique, often considered a subculture...
, upper-crust riding outfit while associating with her rich parents, but changes into a dress more typical of the "underground punk-rock scene
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
" after running away to the San Fernando Valley. Snow describes her hairstyle as "a little teased, feathered like Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
with curly bangs like Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
." In present day scenes, Blair and Serena both attend Prom in designer dresses; Blair dons a black and gold gown from the Marchesa
Marchesa (brand)
Marchesa is a brand specializing in high end womenswear, established in 2004 by Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig.The brand has been worn by a number of Holywood actresses on the red carpet including: Penelope Cruz, Blake Lively, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz, Selena Gomez, Halle Berry,...
Spring 2008 collection, while Serena wears a pink halter
Halterneck
Halterneck is a style of strap which holds up women's clothing which features a single strap or material which runs from the front of the garment around the back of the wearer's neck, and which enables most of the wearer's back to be uncovered...
dress from the Christian Dior
Christian Dior SA
Christian Dior S.A. is a French company which owns the high-fashion clothing producer and retailer Christian Dior Couture, as well as holding 42% of LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods firm. Both Dior and LVMH are controlled and chaired by businessman Bernard...
Spring 2009 collection. Belinda Goldsmith of Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
cited the episode's Prom scene as an example of the media's glamorization of U.S. formal dances, which she says has caused the cost of formal dances around the world to rise.
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene and mainstream 80s hits in order to represent the two worlds surrounding character Lily Rhodes. "Jumping between these two worlds is important to the show. Lily is living with her sister in the Valley and kind of hanging out in the punk rock scene, but she and her sister come from a wealthy family and their parents are more aligned with a Pacific Palisades/Beverly Hills/Malibu, Less Than Zero world. So her struggle... is to try and figure out what kind of world she wants to be in", says Savage. Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas
Alexandra Patsavas
Alexandra Patsavas is an American music supervisor who has worked on over sixty films and television series, most notably The O.C., Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl.-Early life:Patsavas was born in Chicago, Illinois...
oversaw music selection for the episode. With the exception of Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne is an American power pop band that formed in New York City in 1996. The band consists of members Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter and Brian Young.-Early years:...
's "Prom Theme
Utopia Parkway
Utopia Parkway is a 1999 album by Fountains of Wayne, released through Atlantic Records. It was the follow-up to the band's 1996 self-titled debut; like its predecessor, it showcases upbeat, power pop music....
" (1999), every song featured within "Valley Girls" was released prior to or in 1983, the year in which Lily's flashbacks take place. Savage explains that the show makers hoped to introduce modern audiences to bands and music they had not known before. No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
makes an uncredited guest appearance during the episode as a fictional band called "Snowed Out", a play on words of "No Doubt". During the cameo, part of the band's return to music after a four year hiatus, No Doubt premiered their cover of Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era...
' "Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver (song)
"Stand and Deliver" was Adam and the Ants' most successful single. It entered the UK Top 40 at Number One and stayed there for five weeks. It was featured on their Prince Charming album...
", the band's first new song in five years. The band performs in the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
club where Lily meets Carol for the first time in a year.
Pick-up
Rumors that the spin-off would not be picked up as a series began well before the pilot premiered due to the limited number of spots available on CW's fall line-up. Seven CW series were renewed for another season, leaving three spots open for pick-ups. "Valley Girls" competed against pilots for several other promising shows. On May 7, Nikki FinkeNikki Finke
Nikki Finke is an American journalist and blogger. She is Founder and Editor in chief and President of Deadline.com, a website with original content consisting of her and other veteran showbiz journalists' reporting and commentary on the business of the entertainment industry formerly known as...
wrote on her blog, Deadline Hollywood, that despite enthusiasm of CW executives, "the show went from hot, to lukewarm, to 'fading but wouldn't count out', to now dead, according to my insiders." CW eventually chose to pick-up Melrose Place
Melrose Place (2009 TV series)
Melrose Place is an American television series broadcast on The CW Television Network from September 8, 2009 to April 13, 2010. The fifth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise, it is an updated version of the 1990s Fox prime time drama of the same name, featuring a group of young adults...
, The Beautiful Life
The Beautiful Life
The Beautiful Life: TBL is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City...
, and The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire horror series of novels written by L. J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991, but pressure from readers led Smith to write a fourth...
.
However, on May 21, 2009, the day CW's fall schedule was formally announced, CW President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff
Dawn Ostroff
Dawn Tarnofsky-Ostroff was the former President of Entertainment of The CW Television Network. She was in charge of all creative efforts of the network and oversees such areas as current programming, series development, scheduling, research, marketing and publicity.-Career:Ostroff began her career...
told reporters at a CW upfront
Upfront
In the North American television industry, an upfront is a meeting hosted at the start of important advertising sales periods by television network executives, attended by the press and major advertisers...
that Valley Girls was still in contention for use as a midseason replacement
Midseason replacement
In American and Canadian television, a midseason replacement is a television series that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between January and May...
. Said Ostroff,
"It was the toughest year we've ever had, figuring out what to pick up, because [our pilots] were all really, really good. We do have room for another midseason show. We have some reality, and we'll probably have another scripted drama. We're just going to take a beat and see where we are. In all honesty, I think the Gossip Girl spinoff is the show that we would love to be able to find a place for as the season goes on."
Ostroff finally pronounced Valley Girls dead on August 4, 2009 at a television press tour. When asked if the series would
ever be green-lit, Ostroff said, "Not right now." She explained that she believed using "Valley Girls" episode as a backdoor pilot "instead of doing a full pilot" put the potential series at a disadvantage because "it was hard for everybody to understand what the world would be like on its own." However, she stated that if Schwartz and Savage were interested in creating a different Gossip Girl spin-off, CW would "of course [...] be open to it."
Reception
"Valley Girls" received generally positive comments from reviewers. TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
videos, fanny pack
Fanny pack
A fanny pack , belt pack , belly bag , Buffalo pouch , hip sack , waist bag , hip pack , bum bag , cangurera , banano or moon bag is a small fabric pouch secured with a zipper and worn by use of a strap around the hips or...
s, Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that...
, and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
workout videos. "At this rate," said Sankowski, "they won't have anything left to showcase." Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly "loved" the episode and complimented the casting choices, but agrees with Sankowski in that "if this ends up being an actual series, they need to dial down the '80s references a tad." Kona Gallagher of Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend is a website founded and run by Josh Tyler dedicated to news and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films, movie projects, Television Shows, and a newly founded Music section which covers album reviews, band interviews and daily news from the industry. It combines gossip from...
said the premise was interesting and that "[Valley Girls] has the potential to be a strong spinoff, and [she] hope[s] that CW decides to pick it up this fall." Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
writes that he "especially liked the moxie of Brittany Snow as young Lily and Krysten Ritter [...] as her sister, Carol. And of course the retro soundtrack was a total trip." A few review sites took issue with the episode's script, such as BuddyTV
BuddyTV
BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website based in Seattle, Washington, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profiles, actor biographies and...
, which claimed it was cliché, and Television Without Pity, which found it repetitive. While writing for TheFrisky.com, Sara Benincasa praised the clothing styles and called the overall episode "awesome fun! [...] weirdly sentimental, and sweet". She also believed that the confrontation between the Valley dwellers and the rich attendees of Keith's party was "clearly a giant, dance-friendly metaphor for Reaganomics
Reaganomics
Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...
and the woes of a trickle-down
Trickle-down economics
"Trickle-down economics" and "the trickle-down theory" are terms used in United States politics to refer to the idea that tax breaks or other economic benefits provided by government to businesses and the wealthy will benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole...
world." Michelle Graham for Film School Rejects liked both the 80s and present day scenes separately, but when put togetether, "the overall effect was disjointed and showed it for what it was: an attempt to shove two shows together in order to save money on a proper pilot."
"Valley Girls" was viewed live by an relatively small audience of 2.31 million in the United States according to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
. However, Schwartz notes that "Gossip Girl became the first show that indicated that the way people watch television is changing. You can go on iTunes
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
, every episode is No. 1, ahead of all these bigger shows. The streams are high, the DVR time-shifting
Time shifting
Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....
number was something like 40%. There’s a much bigger audience for the show than the (Nielsen) numbers might indicate."