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Spin-off city: Gossip Girl, NCIS & The L Word

A prequel for Gossip Girl, confirmation of a spin-off for NCIS and look where someone from The L Word is headed.

Spin-off talk is hot in the US at the moment with three hit shows giving the thumbs up to the idea. Well, one we already knew about….

Gossip Girl’s executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have confirmed a pilot prequel on the 1980s teen years of Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford).

Set to air as a Gossip episode in the US in May 11 it will be tied in via flashbacks tied to the episode’s story line of Lily and her daughter Serena (Blake Lively) “wrestling with a problem.”

Unlike the original series, which is based on a series of novels, the spinoff is based on an original idea by Schwartz and Savage in a new city (LA) and new era.

“We didn’t want to upset the chemistry of our cast – all of whom are crucial to the show,” Savage said. “Nor did we want to dilute New York City as a character.”

By doing a prequel, if it goes to series, different versions of characters would co-exist on two shows.

Meanwhile, rumours of an NCIS spin-off are rumours no more.

Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment said: “It is happening. We are doing it. We have seen an outline and we are in great shape. NCIS was an episode of JAG. The new show will be an episode of NCIS.”

And finally, The L Word spin-off for Leisha Hayley’s character Alice Pieszecki sees her going to jail (why do I get the feeling that was a spoiler?), where the new show would be set. The spin-off focuses primarily on a community of lesbians, but would involve a broad spectrum of characters, including some lesbians. According to Showtime’s Bob Greenblatt: “It’s a big group of characters and there’s a few lesbians in that group but it isn’t the exact makeup of what the L-Word was.”

He agreed a “female Oz” was not a bad parallel, though not as dark or gritty.

So it’s Prisoner then, eh?

Source: Broadcasting and Cable, The Hollywood Reporter, ETOnline

11 Responses

  1. The concept of the Gossip Girl spinoff does not immediately appeal to me.

    What I like about the show is Blair, Chuck and the friendships. It would be an entirely new set of characters and actors. And I am not that interested in the parent characters.

    I suppose it would be interesting to have an 80s teenage high society setting. And they tried to do it in the same gossip girl style.

    But it will be hard to replicate the success. Leighton Meester is perfect as Blair. I don’t know if they can cast the lead characters as well, for what initially is just a one off flashback episode.

  2. Looking forward to the NCIS one but like someone said it’ll be hard to duplicate the perfect cast/chemistry of the original. But I guess some said that about CSI and the spin offs are both excellent albeit not as good as the original.
    The Fixer sounds very intriquing but sadly it’ll likely be neglected like the original

  3. Spin-offs are a risky business – Law & Order and the CSI franchises are case in point. There is a fine line between meeting demand and saturation.

    I would love to have had brand new CSI’s all year – one at a time – same with Law & Order. No repeats (encores), just one series after another. Having a serve of my favourite shows almost all year round would make for great viewing.

  4. I’m looking forward to the NCIS one, although a perfect cast like the one NCIS has will be hard to come by.

    I haven’t seen Gossip Girl yet (still!) but I’ll watch the prequel eventually. Never seen The L Word.

    The Closer will also be getting a spin-off. You know The Closer. The criminally neglected series that briefly aired on channel 9? There are rumours that the spin-off will star Tony Denison and G.W. Bailey, who play Flynn and Provenza respectively. It is tentatively titled The Fixer and is said to film while The Closer isn’t filming.

  5. Sometimes I enjoy the spinoff more than the original series…I preferred Angel to Buffy as Angel (the series) seemed to get better with age whilst Buffy seemed to get weaker. I’ve been considering watching GG from the start after watching a handful of eps but I reckon I’m watching enough shows as it is at the moment lol. The NCIS:Miami spinoff could be a hit if they got the casting right, we’ll see. There was also talk of spinoffs of Criminal Minds and The Office at one point but I think they’ve been aborted in favour of other shows

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