IN PICTURES: 'Guiding Light' Set Tour

On Tuesday, December 9th, I had a chance to tour Peapack, New Jersey with some fellow bloggers. The following day, we toured Guiding Light's sets at the CBS Studios in Manhattan. Here are some of my photos from those two days.

In Peapack, Lou Grieci, Director, Production Services, drove us around town showing us various outdoor sets. If something hasn't been used as an exterior, there's a good chance it will be in the future. It seems like Guiding Light has become part of the town and are just considered another business there now. Some of the local businesses are used as multiple locations with the front exterior as one set while the back is used for another.

The central location for cast and crew is the showhouse which is set on a huge property in the middle of Peapack. The show uses an entrance that is least intrusive on the town. Inside the showhouse are a number of different sets (upstairs and downstairs), a hair and make-up room (which looked similar to the one I saw at As the World Turns' Brooklyn studios in July) and a break room where the cast and crew can have lunch.

Possibly the largest set, and my favorite, was Cross Creek, where Reva and Jeffrey live. It looks very authentic and I loved how "Reva + Josh" was carved into the mantle. I also liked the Spaulding dining room set a lot. Upstairs, the rooms that were used as sets were all decorated very differently and sometimes were quite small, but there's no question Guiding Light has maximized the space of this house as effectively as possible.

The CBS tour the next day was quite fascinating as many of the production offices were multi-purpose and could very easily be turned into a set. For example, Ellen Wheeler's office doubles and the town chapel. Jill Lorie Hurst's office is also used as Remy's place. Other production offices double as the Springfield nail salon and part of Cross Creek. One of the offices had a pull down bed in it.

There were also some movable parts sitting the hallway ready to be used for the quick changeover whenever needed. Again, with limited space and budget, GL has found a way to make use of every of studio space available to them.

In addition to the production offices, Guiding Light also shoots in Studio 42 and Studio 45 at CBS. The set designer, Rick Dennis, has done an incredible job of weaving dozens of permanent sets in and out of the studios. I immediately asked someone about the requirements for a Set Design Emmy because instead of the normal three-walled sets you see in most studios, these sets had four walls and a ceiling.

The recently built convenience store set looked incredibly authentic and is an opportunity for the ultimate product placement for P&G's many offerings.

The only set I really didn't like was Cedar's Hospital, but I don't like it on TV either so I wasn't surprised. It wasn't even the green color that bothered me so much as how the set is assembled in what looks like square pieces.

That was my only minor complaint though. The show is doing what it can to survive and that includes a very effective set design along with efficient logistics planning to make it all run as smoothly as possible.

Below are some additional pictures I took at CBS.