(2000) 'Gilmore Girls' lives up to its billing
"GILMORE GIRLS" (7 Thursday, Channel 18)
The WB describes "Gilmore Girls" as "a humorous, heartfelt, multigenerational drama about friendship, family and the ties that bind."
Well, get this: It actually is.
Hotel manager Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) is the 32-year-old single mother of a precocious 16-year-old-daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), who prefers H.L. Mencken to Eminem. Lorelai has been estranged from her patrician parents (Kelly Bishop and America's Official WASP Father, Edward Herrmann), which has suited her just fine - until she realizes that, in order to borrow money from the elder Gilmores for Rory's private-school tuition, she'll have to cozy up to them.
But Mater and Pater, who at first come on like cartoon villains, turn out to have more than two dimensions. By the third episode, the intergenerational dynamic has gotten almost as maddening - and as fascinating - as real life.
More farcical are Lorelai's days at the inn with the sniffy French concierge (Yanic Truesdale), the accident-prone cook (Melissa McCarthy) and other appealingly off-center folks. Most of the time, sophisticated writing and skilled acting keep the eccentricity from getting too cute.
Graham, who has sparkled through the gloom of "Conrad Bloom," "Townies" and other flops, and newcomer Bledel are wonderful as the bickering, kvetching, teasing, loving mother and daughter. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino won a Peabody Award for her writing on "Roseanne," and "Gilmore Girls" has some of the zest of that family classic.
The most surprising thing about the show is that it was fostered by a consortium of more than 40 advertisers - including Coca-Cola, General Motors and Procter & Gamble - which has put up $1 million to fund the development of family-friendly scripts. This initiative, of which "Gilmore Girls" is the first product, sounds both too good to be true and too awkward to work - but, on the evidence of this series, it looks like the real deal.
http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/wein/oct00/weincol05100400.asp
The WB describes "Gilmore Girls" as "a humorous, heartfelt, multigenerational drama about friendship, family and the ties that bind."
Well, get this: It actually is.
Hotel manager Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) is the 32-year-old single mother of a precocious 16-year-old-daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), who prefers H.L. Mencken to Eminem. Lorelai has been estranged from her patrician parents (Kelly Bishop and America's Official WASP Father, Edward Herrmann), which has suited her just fine - until she realizes that, in order to borrow money from the elder Gilmores for Rory's private-school tuition, she'll have to cozy up to them.
But Mater and Pater, who at first come on like cartoon villains, turn out to have more than two dimensions. By the third episode, the intergenerational dynamic has gotten almost as maddening - and as fascinating - as real life.
More farcical are Lorelai's days at the inn with the sniffy French concierge (Yanic Truesdale), the accident-prone cook (Melissa McCarthy) and other appealingly off-center folks. Most of the time, sophisticated writing and skilled acting keep the eccentricity from getting too cute.
Graham, who has sparkled through the gloom of "Conrad Bloom," "Townies" and other flops, and newcomer Bledel are wonderful as the bickering, kvetching, teasing, loving mother and daughter. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino won a Peabody Award for her writing on "Roseanne," and "Gilmore Girls" has some of the zest of that family classic.
The most surprising thing about the show is that it was fostered by a consortium of more than 40 advertisers - including Coca-Cola, General Motors and Procter & Gamble - which has put up $1 million to fund the development of family-friendly scripts. This initiative, of which "Gilmore Girls" is the first product, sounds both too good to be true and too awkward to work - but, on the evidence of this series, it looks like the real deal.
http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/wein/oct00/weincol05100400.asp
posted by MissCoffee @ 11:09 p.m.
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