(May 2005) 'Gilmore Girls' scene hits close to home

By John Breunig - City Editor - Published May 2 2005

When "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino decided the television show's young heroine, Rory, needed to start a newspaper internship while studying at Yale University, she didn't call on the WB's research department to find an appropriate spot."

We took out a map and said, 'She could be here or there. Well, that looks good.'

"Unlike the fictional setting of "Stars Hollow" somewhere between Hartford and New Haven where part of the show takes place, Sherman-Palladino stuck with the real name of her setting of choice. She did, however, cloak the name of the newspaper. On tomorrow night's episode, which airs at 8 p.m., Rory Gilmore will start her internship with the "Stamford Eagle-Gazette."

"When we wanted to find a newspaper for her to intern at, we wanted to find something slightly realistic in relation to Yale," Sherman-Palladino said Thursday night as she was wrapping post-production on the season's final four episodes. "She can take a train and not work at the 'Podunk News.' It's a place with a legitimate newspaper."

In an interview with Stamford's real-life daily newspaper, Sherman-Palladino took a crack at guessing the first question.

"Why are we sucking your town into Hollywood crap?"

Actually, Stamford viewers will not be subjected to faux renditions of the Government Center, Cove Island Park or the Stamford Town Center, as Rory will be confined to the fake newsroom on the Warner Bros. backlot.

The script's stage direction describes the newsroom: " This is the office of the 'Stamford Eagle-Gazette,' a regional newspaper with about three hundred and fifty employees and a circulation just under 40,000. We're in the editorial offices; a center bullpen area houses reporters, feature writers and support personnel. Around the periphery are offices for editors (News, Business, Sports, Features, Lifestyle, etc.)."

It, umm, sounds familiar."

It feels pretty much like a newsroom. There's a conference room that someone probably should have put a plant in at some point," Sherman-Palladino said. "This newsroom is kind of crappy, though it won't be the same guy pumping gas that is doing the political column."

For the record, there is no plant life in The Advocate's conference room.

Though The Advocate and the WB television network are owned by Tribune Co., Sherman-Palladino says the choice of a Stamford newspaper setting is a coincidence.

"Gilmore Girls," which is wrapping its fifth season, focuses on the mother-daughter relationship between Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore. The show has recently experienced something of a resurgence, with a cover story in TV Guide and a spread in Entertainment Weekly. Its ratings have rallied to the No. 2 spot on the network, behind warhorse "7th Heaven." TV Guide called it "TV's fastest-talking, most whimsical hour, where nothing dispels a calamity faster than a good, old-fashioned one-liner."

Rory's move to a newspaper seemed inevitable, as the rapid-fire pace of the show's overlapping dialogue echoes that of such movie classics as the 1940 newsroom comedy, "His Girl Friday," starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell."

That rhythm is the best. That's what I enjoy," Sherman-Palladino said. "People talk quicker in those older movies, like (the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy movie) 'Pat and Mike.' It's repartee that I personally enjoy listening to. And, you know, it's all about me."

It really does seem to be all about her. Not only does Sherman-Palladino toss out obscure references (see "Pat and Mike," above), just like those she puts in the mouths of her characters, but she is living proof that real people can talk as quickly as actors with scripts. Sherman-Palladino buzzes her rat-a-tat-tat musings at the pace of woodpecker that has consumed too many cups of java with Lorelai and Rory at Luke's Diner. Apparently, the staff at the Stamford Eagle-Gazette is addicted to her speech rhythms as well."

We stopped short of calling anybody 'Smitty,' but we have people walking and talking and handing things off," she said.

Sherman-Palladino, a native of California, previously worked on shows such as "Roseanne" and "Veronica's Closet." While she and her husband, Daniel Palladino, were visiting Connecticut in search of Mark Twain's wallpaper (see obscure references, above), she was inspired to create a show about a small town. Daniel Palladino is also a producer and writer for the show.

It's hardly the first television show to boast a Connecticut setting. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo spent their final seasons on "I Love Lucy" in Westport; a "Bewitched" Samantha Stephens stored her broom in the closet of her home at 1164 Morning Glory Circle in Westport; and "Dark Shadows" used exterior shots of the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in Norwalk.

After making a cameo as a train stop on "The Twilight Zone" and as the setting for city resident Gene Wilder's cable series of mystery movies, Stamford finally got a prime time slot of its own four years ago as the address of ABC's "My Wife and Kids," starring Damon Wayans.

Rory Gilmore, portrayed by Alexis Bledel, finds her way to the city after her boyfriend's father, "Mitchum Huntzberger," who owns several publications, adds the Stamford Eagle-Tribune to his holdings. In last week's episode, he offered Rory an internship. In the season's remaining episodes, she will begin her efforts to turn the internship into a summer job.

Though Sherman-Palladino resists offering too many details of the plotline, she reveals that the perennially poised Rory will be somewhat shaken as she is thrust into the real world. Rory's pursuit of a newspaper career is consistent with the character's development since the series pilot, when she declared that her role model is CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

"I am obsessed with Christiane Amanpour. And we've already established it's all about me," Sherman-Palladino said. "There is no one cooler on the face of the Earth. If she was a dumb broad with a pushcart she would still be the coolest person with a pushcart. She is always in the trenches and not worried about her hair."

As newspaper editors can attest, print journalists who surrender to the lure of television do not always make for ideal interns. The question of whether Rory is bound to follow her role model into television journalism is one that momentarily silences Sherman-Palladino.

"Um, no," she eventually offered.She waited a beat to clarify her response."All roads do not end in TV. Even on TV they do not end in TV."

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- Submitted by Trisha