Please Watch "Gossip Girl" With Me Tonight

It opens with “Young Folks” lololololol

The New York Times previewed producer Josh Shwartz’s new series the other day, and dude seems to be following me around: I started school at UCLA, he kicks off The O.C., and now that I’m in New York – a college graduate, almost – Gossip Girl (premiering tonight on The CW) is being touted as that show’s East Coast alternative, set in the Upper East Side (I’m across the park, over by Zabar’s – West Side 4 lyfe, holla) and featuring promiscuous, beautiful, pot-smoking young people being rich and having adventures. Sold!

And then I went ahead and watched the trailer/preview on CWTV.com and the clip of the first 10 minutes (above), wherein Chuck Bass (Chace Crawford, in the O.C.’s “Oliver” role) gets punched by shy, dark outsider Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley, subbing in for Ryan Atwood AND Seth Cohen, of course), meanwhile the troubled, blonde Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively, the Marissa analogue, obv. – btw, she was the gorgeous underage soccer player in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants [don’t ask]) has a few too many drunks, regrets fooling around with dudes and gets excluded by the other popular girls. And everyone is drunk, wealthy and pretty! Looks like The O.C. to me – except narrated by Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, who plays a off-screen blogger. Shades of “a face for radio…” except, you know, not. (By the way, those are the actual actors’ names. Chace Crawford? Blake Lively? Are you kidding me?)

If the show’s any good (and who am I kidding, I’ll be watching it anyway), I’ll probably be writing about it a fair amount, as I plan to for Lost and The Office upon their triumphant returns. So, bros and bro-ettes, set your TiVos and we’ll compare notes real soon.

(Gossip Girl premieres tonight on The CW at 9 p.m.)

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