HBO’s “The Gilded Age” Renewed; scouting scouts in Troy
TROY — HBO gave viewers of “The Gilded Age” a Valentine’s Day gift on Monday by renewing the Julian Fellowes series for a second season on the same day the fourth episode of the first season airs.
The renewal comes as the series has seen its audience grow and after scouts visited the town of Collar and ventured into Saratoga County in search of new locations to film scenes for the second season. Churches and art class venues were among the places they eyed to capture the flavor of the late 19and century in New York.
Troy’s First United Presbyterian Church at 1915 Fifth Ave. and the former Daisy Baker Restaurant space at 33 Second St., now home to the Hippies, Witches & Gypsies store, have been proposed as new production sites.
The new filming season also sees the Hart Cluett Museum prepare to relaunch its popular ‘The Gilded Age’ walking tour which has caught the attention of Capital Region residents as a way to see where the series was filmed. locally and hear about Gilded Age Troy.
“I’m very excited for the series to be renewed. It’s been such a boost for Troy,” Kathy Sheehan, a historian for the city of Troy and Rensselaer County, said Monday. Sheehan worked with designers of mass production to identify where to film in the city.
“People are now interested in this period. I get a lot of questions about the haves and don’ts of Troy,” Sheehan said of the show’s impact at the museum, which was a season one location where filming took place in May and June 2021.
“They were there. They were looking for vintage churches,” Sheehan said of meeting scouts in January.
Fellowes, who created the popular “Downton Abbey” series, is the creator and author of “The Gilded Age.” Both drama series emphasize their historical authenticity in telling their stories. ‘The Gilded Age’ is set in late 19th century New York several decades before the action of ‘Downton Abbey’, which opened with news of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and depicts the lives of British aristocrats until in the late 1920s.
It is expected that there will be a crossover between the two series. Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton and Louisa Jacobson are cast in the new series. Kelley Curran who grew up in Slingerlands also appears in the series.
Troy’s remarkably intact late 19th century architecture and streetscape stand in for New York City. The transformation of Monument Square into a Manhattan shopping district, the Troy Public Library as a club, the Rensselaer County Courthouse, local streets, residences and Washington Park are some of the local landmarks that the can be seen throughout “The Gilded Age”.
The series was also filmed in the Hudson Valley, Newport, Rhode Island and Long Island.
As the official renewal was announced by HBO on Monday, film crews who left after wrapping in Troy in June 2021 were telling people they would see them for the new set of shoots in 2022. Before leaving Troy in June , team members traveled north to Saratoga Racetrack in Saratoga Springs to inspect it as a potential location. They focused on the historic Oklahoma trail.
The final episode of the nine-episode first season of “The Gilded Age” will air on March 21.
“Julian Fellowes and the entire ‘Gilded Age’ family completely captivated us with their tale of late 19th century New York extravaganza. Together with our partners at Universal Television, we couldn’t be prouder to embark on a Season 2 with this extraordinarily talented team,” Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, said in a statement.
Other productions that have been shot in Troy include ‘The Age of Innocence’, ‘The Emperor’s Club’, ‘Scent of a Woman’, ‘The Time Machine’, ‘Ironweed’, ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’, “Motherless Brooklyn” and “Modern Love”.