"GILMORE" LOSES ITS CREATOR …
AND ITS SOUL

April 28, 2006

Well, the CW hasn't even yet set a schedule for its first fall, and I'm already super miffed at the new network, a merger of the WB and UPN. Due to some maddening circumstances, "Gilmore Girls," one of the current series assured a spot on the CW, will move to its new home as a totally different show than the one loved dearly by its fans over the last six seasons.

It hit the trade papers this week that show runners Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Dan Palladino, who created "Gilmore Girls" and wrote an astonishing 90 of the 132 episodes that have so far aired, couldn't come to terms on a new contract with the network. Amy is to the "Gilmore Girls" what David Chase is to "The Sopranos" or what Joss Whedon was to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" - all brilliant storytellers whose influences permeated every aspect of their respective creations. No TV series is a one man or woman show, but many of them live or die by the continued, hands-on guidance of the person who birthed them.

Consider "The West Wing," which creatively collapsed after Aaron Sorkin departed at the end of season four, or "Alias," which floundered massively when J.J. Abrams turned his attention first toward "Lost" and then toward his big-screen debut, "Mission: Impossible III." Continuing "Gilmore Girls" without Amy is lunacy, and the announcement has left fans frustrated and angry.

That is, the ones who weren't frustrated and angry already thanks to some storytelling decisions made in the land of "Gilmore" this year. The season started with Lorelai and Rory not talking and surprisingly stayed that way for quite some time before the two finally kissed and made up. And the sudden appearance of a teenaged daughter that Luke never knew he had drove yet another wedge between he and Lorelai, two people who deserve happiness together but never seem to find it. Now rumors are floating around the Net that things get worse for the couple before year's end and the season concludes with a cliffhanger that could threaten their engagement. That's just speculation, of course, but would anyone be surprised, considering how many roadblocks the pair has hit over the years?

Some of the arguments are valid, but "Gilmore Girls" remains a consistently delightful series. Besides, it's easy for one to assume that Sherman-Palladino had a grand master plan that would have ended with smiles all around for Lorelai and her entertainingly dysfunctional family. Now that plan will never be realized, and though the characters may find happiness at the end of next season (presumably the last) it will somehow seem fake, as if another resolution was destined but somehow didn't occur. Amy even once told TV Guide that she had the show's last scene already written. Barring a change of mind by Amy or the network that would result in a contract signing, we'll never get to see that scene play out.

So the CW will hit TV next year, proudly proclaiming the return of the denizens of Stars Hollow. But with some guy named Dave Rosenthal, who only just joined the series as a writer this year, running the show, I don't think I'll be so eager to visit. Without Amy, it just ain't "Gilmore."