Summary
- Gossip Girl almost had a spinoff called Valley Girls, which would have focused on Serena's mom, Lily, as a teenager in the '80s.
- The spinoff was not picked up due to bad timing, poor pilot ratings, and the fact that it had a backdoor pilot instead of a full pilot.
- The network's enthusiasm for creating a spinoff was evident, as CW exec Dawn Ostroff expressed her trust in the producers and their ability to make any concept successful.
Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes.
The show was one of The CW's biggest hits and, although it spawned a reboot in 2021, there was almost another addition to Gossip Girl back in 2009. This prequel spinoff was going to be called Valley Girls, and audiences got to see what it would have looked like before the show was canceled. There was a backdoor pilot for Valley Girls that aired as the 24th episode of Gossip Girl season 2, "Valley Girls." The episode followed both the introductory story of what would become Valley Girls and the story of the Gossip Girl characters' senior prom.
Another Character Was Supposed To Be Gossip Girl
Finding out Dan Humphrey is Gossip Girl is a significant part of the series, but it turns out that another character was almost given this role.
The CW ed On Lily's Spinoff Due To Bad Timing (& Poor Pilot Ratings)
With the show having so much success, it's no surprise that The CW would want to find a way to expand Gossip Girl. Unfortunately, their plans were not able to come to fruition as their idea for a prequel spinoff about Lily was not picked up. After the backdoor pilot episode aired, the former president of entertainment at the network, Dawn Ostroff, was asked on a television press tour if Valley Girls would be green-lit.
Ostroff said that it wouldn't be, and part of the reason why was that the show was at a disadvantage because it had a backdoor pilot instead of a full pilot. This could have prevented viewers from being able to fully imagine the show on its own. In addition to the way the pilot was presented to viewers, the "Valley Girls" episode did not generate very high ratings. It is widely considered to be one of the most skippable episodes of the series, although that may be because it does not quite fit in with the rest of the show.
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From being ashamed of her children to sending an innocent man to prison, Lily Van Der Woodsen did some terrible things on Gossip Girl.
What Valley Girls Would Have Been About
Valley Girls would have followed Serena's mom, Lily, as a teenager in Los Angeles in the '80s. It seemed like the show would parallel Serena's rebellious teenage years, as in the backdoor pilot episode, Lily was sent to jail just like her daughter had at that point in the series. Audiences would have gotten to learn more about Lily's days as a groupie, which was referenced often within Gossip Girl, as well as coping with her parents' divorce. Lily was set to be played by Brittany Snow, and her sister, Carol, was to be played by Krysten Ritter.
Although this is the Gossip Girl spinoff idea that the network ended up trying to pursue, it was revealed by Entertainment Weekly that it could have been Taylor Momsen's Jenny Humphrey getting the spinoff. The executive producers didn't want to lose a main cast member, though, so they went with Lily's backstory being the focus. The network's enthusiasm for creating any sort of spinoff was evident, as Dawn Ostroff revealed "I would do anything with [the producers], even if they wanted to do a series about paint drying. I believe in them that much."
Source: Entertainment Weekly