GL: A Question About Sets

[UKBoi]

On the GL website, in the Lifestyles section, in the interior design blog, there are a few comments that intrigued me...

I wasn't aware that the show had any sets actually built out in Peapak. Does anyone know if the house they're using for Cross Creek is a house that somebody actually lives in, or if it's the one they lease?

There's also a part in the same entry about the nail salon set, and how it's somewhere the female characters of the show can run into each other, but I don't recall having seen it for a while. In fact, I don't recall seeing a lot of the production office sets for a few months now...such as the Cross Creek 'office', the Lewis Construction office, the nail salon, Spaulding Enterprises or the hotel room...does anyone know if they're still in use? Or if Wheeler & Co realised how bad they looked and stopped using them, wtih the exception of the chapel? (which seems like the oddest choice for them since they've already shot in real churches as well, so clearly it's the most uneccesary set)

Also, does anyone think the show will ever get any new sets now? Some of their permanent sets arent shootable (which reminds me of a post on another website a while ago about how things werent going too well in Peapak, while in NY a lot of there sets arent shootable and the show is way over budget), the only ones they really seem to use now is Josh and Cassie's house, the Spaulding Mansion, Company, Harley's house, the hotel suite, Towers and the courtroom/police station, which begs the question, was the new model really necessary when we're still only seeing the same few sets as we did before it?

[Ryan]

I think they jumped the gun by building so many sets, not realizing that just because you can have them, doesn't mean that you should. The nail salon should have never been a permanent set. I think they're going back to the drawing board with some of the sets and realizing what works and what doesn't.

OT: Your banner is great UKBoi

[UKBoi]

That's what I think, it didn't seem like Wheeler tested in any of the sets before letting stuff go onto the airwaves. I actually like the idea of them having a nail salon set, but if they were so insistant to not build one from scratch, they could have did it in a much bigger office (like Wheeler's) and then used a real church in Peapak for their church (they've used a real one a few times now, so the idea of having another one seems pretty pointless). Plus, sometimes they juts have characters hanging out in the church for no real good reason...I could buy the one in Wheeler's office as a chapel at the hospital or something, speaking of which, I don't get why they built a proper set for the hospital when surely that would have been the easiest one to mimick in the halls of their studio, creating a reception area and using a corridor and two offices (one as a hospital room, one as a doctor's office.

I was so positive about this new production model to start off with, but the more I begin to think about how they could have done it, the more I see that Wheeler didn't think this through properly first in order to make this February 29th leap year launch.

(PS, thanks...I'm finally getting the hang of making this type of thing on Photoshop)

[Mitch]

I like the idea of the production model, and I think some of the sets are great, the Spaudling Study , the Towers and Company. I even like "some," of the facades (i.e. the actual bar they use looks similar to the exterior establishing shot of the house they have used for the Boardinghouse and Company.) But they wasted their money on those dinky sets, like the wretched nail salon and the closet that is the Beacon room. This model calls out for "old time," soap, in that there are just a few sets but they are all community gathering places where people are likely to meet. Now I dont know the budget or production process but I think all they need is the Spaulding Study/Towers/Company/Cedars/Bauer Kitchen/Cross Creek, the Farm House, and if possible, a non permanent set that can ala transformers, double as multiple sets, for example, a room at Company, and say, a large Beacon suite. Both of those rooms could double as other rooms in the same building, as they would be similar,say, the Beacon went condo, so they could switch walls around (for Lillian's condo the fireplace would be to the righ, but Olivia's would be to the left, with different furnishings of course.)

I would have dumped Main Street, and maybe used the space to expand Cedars, and the police station (a set for Gush and the Coopers) would disapear to become, maybe a Beacon Lobby, or a better yet, the Village Hall, adjacent to the court house where people meet up when paying their bills and getting their taxes rebated (you, know stuff we all do.)

Remember back in the day when Marland was writiing ATWT...most of the action took place in Bob and Kim's house, the hospital and the Mona Lisa (EVERYONE ate at the Mona Lisa.) And for some reason it made sense. They could do that with GL, but they would have to restablish a core family, (the Bauers, maybe Rick opens a private office in the Bauer home so it would make sense for people to stop by) and think about timing better, on why everyone would end up at the Towers to eat. They could use the out door shots judiciously to give a little variety and the actual use of Peakpack would work...i.e. the Springfield I grew up is a moderatley sized urban area but THIS SF is a small village, which works for the fewer sets, i.e. there would be only ONE "fancy," restaraunt in town, and everyone ends up at the Village Hall to do things.

Sorry about the long post, I just think the production process is the most intersting thing that GL has done in years (more interseting then the dreck on my screen.) I think Wheeler blew it by biting off more then she could chew and by not making the writing fit into the confines of the new process.