THOROUGHLY MODERN MEESTER Leighton (Photo: Getty Images)

First, the New York Times intellectualized The Hills—or at least attempted to. Now the paper’s devoted nearly 1,500 words to the “essence” of Gossip Girl, comparing it to The Hills and The Real Housewives of New York City. In examining GG, writer Alessandra Stanley referenced a bounty of works of literature, film, and television across three centuries and countless levels of quality. We knew GG was totally postmodern and at times, like, meta, but this article takes referencing to a new stratosphere. To help you make sense of it all, Radar‘s created a timeline detailing Stanley’s many cultural talking points. Before you watch tonight’s Gossip Girl season finale, let us first go back to 1844.