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I think I read they were an hour from NYC, and you are correct, it is filmed in Peapack, NJ. I think a lot of them live in NJ so maybe it's more convenient? Maybe they have a location bus or trailer where hair and makeup are done, which would make it easier but I'm not sure.

Here's the Ellen Wheeler interview from CBS.COM which explains how they picked the place and so forth.. (I think it's been posted here already but I highlighted the part about Peapack in red.

ROSE
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Friday, February 29 is a momentous day for those at GUIDING LIGHT. After months working to create the new digital model for GL, viewers will get to watch all the action unfold for the first time. CBS.com caught up with GL Executive Producer Ellen Wheeler to discuss the changes and how GL will still be the same show we've loved for over 70 years.

CBS.com: Tell me about some of the changes viewers will see come Friday, February 29.
ELLEN WHEELER: I think for anyone who has watched GL for a long time, they will notice that while things are different, things are still the same. We still have Harley's house and Company; we still have the Spaulding Study and the Bauer Kitchen. All the sets viewers have grown up with for generations or in just the past couple of years--Cassie's Farm House, they will still be here. Sets normally don't have a ceiling or walls. So if you are standing back in the studio looking at it, it looks like something that would sit up on a stage during a play. So we took all those pieces that we had and completely finished them, so now the sets have a fourth wall, a ceiling, the lights in the set are not stage lights, but real lights that turn on and off with a switch, if people have a refrigerator it's really plugged in and there is actually food in it. The floor is now a real floor, every set has its real floor, they have tile or carpeting or wood. We took each space and made it complete, somebody's home is really a home; a restaurant is really a restaurant. I think that will be the main change you see. Springfield has really become an extremely real place.

CBS.com: How have the actors adjusted to this new style?
ELLEN WHEELER: I think a couple of things, while we have enclosed all the sets, we've also given each set an outside. So while you'll see Cross Creek, you'll also see the outside of Cross Creek and you'll see the police station has an inside and an outside now. Now when Mallet walks out of the door you can follow him to his cop car. I think that giving that fullness to Springfield, making it a real place changes the dynamic of what Springfield is and who these people are who live in Springfield. So while there is a change for the actors, I think having the whole feeling of the lives of these characters complete has added a new dimension. While Harley's had her house for a really long time, we don't now put up her house one day and take it down the next. Before, since it was always moving, the drawers were empty and everything was fake. Now that Harley's house is permanent, it has that feeling. So if you open the drawer under the stove it's full of pans and those are Harley's pans and they were purchased to be Harley's pans and they will never be anything else but Harley's pans. Upstairs in her bedroom there is a drawer full of underwear and one drawer is full of sweaters. That's a big change but I feel it gives these actors a more complete feeling of who these characters are and how they interact with each other. It is a different acting style, the cameras are in the room with them. The cameras are all hand held, a few inches away from them. We now shoot like a film instead of like a Daytime television show. We had a learning curve for that, but we started back in November working with the actors and taking them through what the different steps would be of their day so that everyone would feel really comfortable when we started shooting the show completely with handheld cameras and four walls in January.

CBS.com: How did you come up with the idea to take the show in this direction?
ELLEN WHEELER: We've been looking for a while, trying to find what our audience wanted. And, Procter and Gamble Productions did a really good research project on talking to soap opera fans asking them what they love and what they want to see differently. Soap opera fans are so intelligent. They are also very vocal and willing to share with us all the things they love and the things they don't love. I was lucky because they loved all the things that I loved. They love the fact that we tell serial stories that go on from one day to the next, and they love the characters and their relationships and the history of these stories and they love how the stories interconnect. They didn't love that because we were limited to a budget sometimes things didn't make sense. You didn't see people go to work or in their house, it took place in the hospital or the restaurant because those were the sets that were up this week. The other day I shot Cassie filling up her car with gasoline. We've never shot someone filling up their car with gas. Now we are able to tell stories that are much more real life. People wanted to see the realness and that's what we are giving them. At the same time this survey was going on Barbara Bloom [Senior Vice President, Daytime Programs, CBS Entertainment], brilliant Barbara Bloom, came to me and said, "I really want you to think about the show differently. If you were starting a new show and could do anything, what would you do?" She said that to me at the same time Procter and Gamble was showing me this research and we were just finishing our special 70th anniversary episode in Biloxi, New Orleans and the experience was so wonderful. We had over 100 hours of our actors interacting with each other in this really real space, and as I watched it, I thought this is a feeling I wish that I could capture everyday. I felt watching the tapes that I was really with them, and I wanted to hold on to this. All of this was going through my head and those three things came together and I thought why can't I shoot the show the way it was done in Biloxi When Cyrus tells Marina he loves her. I want the audience to be there with them, or when someone is rushed into Cedars, I want the audience right there having the same experience. We spent the year from the time we came back from Biloxi to now ironing out all the details to make this work. In September we made the announcement to our cast and crew.

CBS.com: You shoot regularly on location in Peapak, New Jersey, how did you discover this town?
ELLEN WHEELER: I needed a park in an episode and was looking at places with a location scout. I knew at the time that I wanted a town to be Springfield but didn't tell the location scout about this. He took me out to New Jersey and I saw these lovely parks that had tennis courts and jogging track. They were very modern city parks with basketball courts. I kept saying that's not what I am looking for. I want a park in the middle of town, like the park in Pollyanna where a bandstand could be, a pond and the town comes together there. I wanted people to have picnics there. So we kept looking and we literally drove past this park in Peapak New Jersey. It's literally this one block park with a pond in the middle and it has a foundation and a gazebo. It's really in the middle of town. You just have such a sense that this is middle town America, where everyone knows everyone. When you drive past you say, this is a town I want to live in and we feel so at home there, the residents are amazing. I wanted Springfield to feel like home and that is what Peapak feels like. As we got to know Peapak and they got to know us, it's just something that has worked out. We have since leased a house in Peapak that will become our home base. We have made a home in Peakpak.

CBS.com: Are there any challenges to Peapak?
ELLEN WHEELER: Weather. We now deal with elements that we've never had to. If it's raining we still have to shoot. We've now shot in two ice storms this year; we've shot when it's 12 degrees. Last year there was one day when it was 98 degrees. The weather changes everything but it's that impact that I love. From now on if something is supposed to be shot outside, it will be shot outside. If a character is supposed to be walking to their car, we won't be pulling the car into a darkened studio. It will be taking place outside. I just had a scene the other day where Lizzie is going to the Spaulding Mansion and she doesn't want to go inside so we have a shot of her walking to the door and standing there trying to get the courage to go in. We shot it in the morning and the sun is coming up behind her and her breath is blowing in the cold morning air. You can't capture that feeling in the studio. Lizzie's moment really came to life at that exact moment.

CBS.com: Will you continue with the special Wednesday episodes?
ELLEN WHEELER: We won't continue with them every Wednesday, but that doesn't mean we won't have the Inside the Light episodes occasionally.

CBS.com: You mentioned how much the Biloxi episode affected you. Are there more plans to get out and help communities like you did last year?
ELLEN WHEELER: Yes we certainly hope to get out there and plan to continue Find Your Light in 2008 but we won't continue it until the middle of the year.

CBS.com: How did your slogan, Life Happens Here come about?
ELLEN WHEELER: What we wanted people to know about this change is that how completely different but yet completely familiar it is. We wanted new and old viewers to feel welcomed. For people who have been fans for years know that the same stories have gone on and will continue to be told. But we wanted stories that could happen to you, and we want viewers to be a part of it. Maybe the stories are little more dramatic. We fall in love, we have families, we live and we die. We wanted people to tune in and feel at home in Springfield.