Gilmore Girls

I know there are a few fans of this show here, which is why I was surprised that there weren't any threads on it - just one in the Archives from when it ended.

I wasn't into this show a lot when it was on, but started catching reruns of the earlier seasons when family had it on every day. I decided to go through it from start to finish earlier this summer, and I'm about halfway through the second season.

It's really a great show. I've seen most of these earlier episodes already, but some of them are really classics. It takes a lot for me to have any real interest in shows that follow the one-hour drama format, but this one's so well written it can really grab an audience and hold their attention.

I've caught some of the later episodes in reruns as well. Those don't seem to work quite as well for me, but I could just be lacking context that (I hope) I'll pick up going through the show from the start.

I haven't seen Bunheads, Amy Sherman-Palladino's new show, but I've heard good things about that.

Definitely falls under the "guilty pleasure" label for me - any other fans want to come out?

 

I half-watched because my wife was a fan. Sad that Amy Sherman-Palladino got squeezed out of the last season as I don't know that it was wrapped up the way she had planned.

 

It is on in Canada twice a day - MuchMoreMusic (originally supposed to be like VH1) and CTS (Crossroad Television System - religious). On CTS they blanked out when Lorelai said ***. Actually the forum just did too - the horse's behind, or donkey, or jack-(no not russell terrier).

I watch it/enjoy some of it. Cannot stand Logan. Find it funny that it features two "All In The Family" cast members - Sally Struthers who played Gloria and Liz Torres who played Theresa Betancourt - a tenant of Archie and Edith's when Gloria and Mike moved out.

I recently downloaded the pilot, but haven't watched it yet. The parents were WASPish to the nth degree, and had no redeeming values IMO in the early episode I saw. Of course they did (somewhat) evolve.

It is funny, most of this post is stuff I was going to post yesterday on the "The New Normal" thread - about how shows and characters evolve.

 

Huge fan. All pleasure, no guilt whatsoever. GG rocks.

 

Calling it a "guilty pleasure" is an insult to the series...I've always thought of a "guilty pleasure" as something you know isn't very good artistically, but still appeals to you. "Dallas", "Desperate Housewives" or "Jerry Springer" are guilty pleasures, not the wonderful "Gilmore Girls"...

 

Geez so far 75% of the posters on this thread are Canadian. I know Global (one of our major networks) carried it back when it was in production.

 

Logan is sort of weird. He always reminded me of Tristan from the first season - basically the exact type of guy wouldn't go for. Then again, Rory wasn't quite the same person as the first season.

Yeah, pilots for shows like this that end up becoming long-running, well-established shows, are always really fascinating in retrospect. To see how the characters "started," and how one-dimensional they may appear at first is always a little striking.

 

I watched it just for Lauren Graham. Totally have the hots for her. Then the show started to grow on me and the rapid fire dialogue was always entertaining (as well as some of the eye candy on the show). Yum!!!

 

The cultural references were great. Did the Spanish subtitles for a couple of episodes and it was great fun.

 

Several reasons I can't get into this show...

One, the way each actor seems to be playing a variation of the same character. Every one is a motor mouth on speed trying to unnaturally shoehorn in random pop culture references that seem out of place. "Gee, this is no time for a Joy Division reference, but I'll awkwardly force a couple in so that tweens will think the writing is so highbrow..."

Two, the dialog is painfully forced. The on-screen characters deliver lines as if they already have their "witty" response waiting to go before they even hear what the other person has to say. In real life, one would hear what someone says and the formulate a response, but GG dialog seems unrealistically 3 steps ahead of itself.

 

I thought it was a great show and I really miss it. Nothing really like it has come on since. I initially watched it when I heard Madchen Amick was going to make a guest appearance. For awhile I told myself I was just going back in case she returned, but I quickly had to admit I'd simply fallen for the show. So I went back and watched it from the beginning. Lots of great characters. Aside from Rory and Lorelei, I really liked Kirk and Lane and Paris.

Kirk's "Eraserhead" like short film that he makes to have shown at some Stars Hollow community event was one of my favorite things during the whole run of the show.

 

I think she was squeezed out of the last season but she did have some involvement with the finale. Shame though, I think that the show suffered for her absence. It's always a bummer when a creator gets the shaft like that.

The show was one of my favorites at the time, I still have most of the DVD's and we watch them occasionally. I still think it's a great show, but I can always remember my criticisms better than my praises, so here goes:

1. You don't notice this when watching it as a weekly broadcast, but GAWD it gets annoying watching 2-3 eps in a row on DVD. I never realized how much of this show is given over to people arguing in that tense New England way. I think I remember that kind of thing from growing up in Vermont. It makes my eardrums hurt.

2. The pop-culture references sometimes get completely out of control. Usually it's cute, sometimes it's just unbelievable.

3. Some of the supporting characters need to spend some quality time in a sanitarium. Kirk, Paris, and Taylor are almost full-blown sociopaths.

4. I was always waiting for Lorelei's parents to become real live human beings. Every time they got close to that point, there'd be a huge setback!

But what the heck, it's quality entertainment, it was lightning in a bottle at least for the first few seasons. I heard some time ago that they were thinking of reviving it for a theatrical movie, but I think that's gone by the wayside.

 

Quirky and kinda good at times. I kinda crushed on Lauren Graham for a couple seasons.
The whole poor little rich girl thing got old after a season or two. Dumped out totally when Logan became a regular, and asked myself why I ever watched it. Now the first few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was a great show.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=92300&highlight=gilmore+girls

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=60939&highlight=gilmore+girls

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=35869&highlight=gilmore+girls

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=35398&highlight=gilmore+girls

 

Enjoyed it very much

 

Amy Sherman-Palladino had NO involvement with the finale, nor with any part of the final season. And I don't think she got the shaft. She had disagreements over the budget, and subsequently tanked the show (IMO, and many others) with ridiculous plotlines during her sixth and final season (Rory and Lorelai not speaking for a third of the season, Rory quitting Yale to plan parties for grandmothers, Luke discovering he's the father of a 12-year-old, but not telling Lorelai--like she wouldn't be fine with it).

I thought the first three Chilton-era seasons were great television, and while S4 and S5 were still very good, the show lost something off its fastball when Rory went off to college. The final season was OK, but the AS-P's damage was done.

 

I've never seen Gilmore Girls, but I did watch Lauren Graham on a celebrity poker show once and she is a very good player.

 

I could have sworn I read an interview with her where she describes the finale and her involvement with it, but I could be wrong. I did not know that her off-the-wall plotting caused her ejection from the show, I assumed that she left the show because she saw it get out of her control. But that was only my assumption.

 

All of those are locked threads in the archive, most of which are specific discussions about certain things (a particular guest appearance, audio issues with a DVD set, a general thread about various season premieres). Not much discussion on the show itself (other than the aforementioned locked "farewell" thread).

 

So is the thought that she wrote in some "out there" storylines as sort of an F-U on her way out the door?

I think you're right - the last few seasons are missing something the earlier seasons have. Like I said before, there's a bit of a gap in my knowledge of the show for some of the middle-to-late seasons, but that's the impression I've gotten from seeing some random later episodes.

 

Exactly. I thought it was okay at first, but then after awhile it just started to become too clever by half and downright annoying to the point of outright smarminess. Just made me want to reach through the TV screen and grab everyone involved by the scruff of their necks and wring every last bit of smug out of them.

 

That's the perception, anyway. What is fact is that she had nothing to do with the final season. In an interview for Bunheads this summer, she said that she's never seen any of that last year. Something to the effect that it would depress her either way--if the show got better, or if it got worse.

FWIW, I thought the first three or four episodes of Bunheads were so boring that I didn't bother with the rest.

 

I haven't seen all of the seasons, but I did enjoy the show. Yes, it could be rather twee sometimes, but it was generally witty, well done, and had a good ensemble cast.

 

My wife & I have watched the first season of Bunheads, something I would never watch if not for her but I think the show is worth watching if only for the performance of the lead character, played by Sutton Foster. Plus, it has the rapid-fire dialogue just like GG's characters did so it's similar that way. In fact, I refer to the show as "Bunhead Girls".

 

GGs

"I haven't seen all of the seasons, but I did enjoy the show. Yes, it could be rather twee sometimes, but it was generally witty, well done, and had a good ensemble cast."

+++++++++++++++++++++

I agree with that. At its best the GGs were a good comedy/drama show that had some better dialog than most shows of its type. I thought it was well acted and the characters were well chosen. The family drama between Lorellei and her parents was well acted as well as the on-again off-again relationship between Luke and Lorellei.

Scott