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Is <em>The Carrie Diaries</em> Portraying 1980s NYC All Wrong?
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 23, 2013
Modified Jan 23, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 23, 2013
Modified Jan 23, 2013
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Last week the Sex and the City prequel—The Carrie Diaries—aired its series premiere. The show starts out set in 1984, with a young Carrie Bradshaw splitting her time between high school and home in Connecticut and a day job in Manhattan (which she earns school credit for). The show is, of course, sprinkled with inaccuracies, with a team that seems dead-set on recreating a Lisa Frank-style 1980s. But despite playing The Talking Heads' "And She Was" in Carrie's world a year before it was even written by David Byrne in the real world, they seem to think they're portraying New York, and the decade, accurately.
At least, that's what their recent takeover of The Hotel Chelsea would suggest. One resident at the hotel, which is currently and controversially being transformed by new management, told us the show has been shooting there this week, adding: "I was surprised that the Hotel management would want to curtail their construction activities for even one day. The stairwell walls were painted purple on three floors. Additionally they hung up some really idiotic art. Everybody who lived here duing the 80s will tell you the walls weren't staircase walls weren't purple... the two big inaccuracies would be that the stairwell walls were white and there weren't any paintings hanging on the walls in the stairwell."
You can see the real 1980s stairwell at the six minute mark here:
And here's a shot that our tipster sent over of the purple walls and art:
Yes it's fiction, but won't someone think of the children who are being spoonfed a colorful, fictional 1980s New York City? Where are the bad old days? Where's the ghost of Nancy Spungen?
Tagged
1980s
cheslea hotel
hotel chelsea
nyc as seen on tv
the carrie diaries
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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