Interview by Kristin Larmore, Web Editor
Great news, Gossip Girl fans! Jump on a special tour bus in the Big Apple and hop off at one exciting stop after another to see your favorite sites from the show up-close and personal! There are up to 42 filming locations the tour visits; and they’re only adding more to the list.
And if you’re lucky…you might even get to see them filming the show! (But that’s on a good day, girls.)
We talked to Georgette Blau, owner of On Location Tours, and she gave us the inside scoop on why you and your girlfriends should book one of these celebrity tours in New York City this hoilday season! Of course, you can always book next year- as long as you (and the teen population) are watching the show, On Location will want to continue providing this insightful celebrity tour for years to come.
Check out the interview for some information you’re going to want to know….trust us, it’s cool!
Guests on On Location’s exclusive NYC Gossip Girl tours
(Photos by screentours.com)
Relate: How long will these tours actually be offered?
Georgette: They are ongoing. Our company has been around for 10 years, and we just had our 10-year anniversary. For example, our soprano tour has been running for eight years. A tour could end, but our main tours are TV and movie tours and we always update. Something like a Gossip Girl tour could run six or 10 years, depending on the show and the popularity of it.
Relate: How in-depth are the tours?
Georgette: We try to keep it really fun because half of the crowd at least are teens or mothers who have never seen the show. You really have to keep it interesting and go to interesting places and give good behind-the-scenes information. What they’ll do is even though it’s three and a half hours, they’ll have five stops throughout the tour, so they’re really spending a lot of time off the bus. And also we’re counting in a few minutes of New York traffic.
Relate: I’m assuming these are public areas where you tour. When they’re filming, is it completely blocked off to the public?
Georgette: These are locations that have been used [at one time] for the show. They’re not [usually] filming. A lot of times, we do seem them filming, which is really exciting for the groups, but that we can’t depend on because sometimes they’re [M.I.A]. They say they’re going to start filming at 2:00 in the afternoon, but then they show up at 4:00. They have many different places where they film, but we go to most of the main points. They go back to a lot of the locations like the school and places like that. They will add on things; we just added NYU. A lot of things get cut from the show after they actually film it, so once they find out it’s definitely in, we make the decision. If it’s interesting enough, we’ll reroute our tours and add them in.
Relate: Can you elaborate more on the list of Gossip Girl locations/stops?
Georgette: We do have a set list of places. We have 42 locations we visit during the tour. Right now, it’s 42. But we generally add. We don’t take away. The only way we take away is if we add a better one, but it is changing every couple months as new episodes come on.
Relate: How quickly do tickets sell out, and how early should fans get them?
Georgette: We recommend at least a few days in advance. Depending on the season, December is our craziest time. We have a limited number of guides because we are very picky on our tour guide process. December and July are very busy months where you might have to book a week in advance. Other than that, two to three days. We add on where we can.
Relate: How does your tour guide hiring process work? Do the guides have any background in the filming industry?
Georgette: Yes. All of our tour guides are actors and actresses we have had through our company. They are locals that have been stand-ins on some of these shows or have had one line. They are smaller actors and actresses; not the main people. But they can really share their inside information because they’ve had the chance to be on the set. If they haven’t been on these sets, they have been on other sets. In addition to [these hiring guidelines], we are very strict. We try to match the audience. For example, on a Gossip Girl tour, generally we’re looking for girls in their twenties who can do the tour well enough to control the bus and a crowd of people, but wanting to be friends and being fun and funny, as if you’re out with your girlfriends. On a Gossip Girl tour, one of our tour guides was a stand-in for Vanessa. One was an extra on the show. A couple of our guides are excellent, but they’ve been on other sites like Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Relate: Do you ever see any props during the tours?
Georgette: Just when you see them filming. But it’s funny as a little aside: A lot of people come to our tours in headbands and costumes and things like that.
Relate: How small/large are the groups that go out?
Georgette: Tour guides are so wonderful that they could make it personal with 50 people, but generally speaking there’s about 30 some people per tour. The bus can take 53.
Relate: What other tours are you offering right now that might be of huge interest to the teen population?
Georgette: Another one that’s popular to our teens and families is our TV and Movie Tour. That includes the Friends building, locations from Spiderman, Will and Grace, Devil Wears Prada. The tour guides on that tour will sing to the crowd. They do trivia througout behind the scenes, so it’s really fun.
Check out the On Location site here to get more information!
