(April 2006) "Gilmore Girls" Rocks Out

Whatever sticky situation Lorelai and Rory find themselves in at the end of Gilmore Girls' sixth season next month, they'll be marching toward it to the beat of a different drum, er, drums.

The series' season finale, which tapes Friday and airs May 9, is starting to resemble an indie music fest as much as an opportunity to embroil our heroines in romantic entanglements, family squabbles and life-altering changes before the summer hiatus.

The musical subplot centers around singer Grant Lee Phillips, who serves as town troubadour (he walks around treating people to impromptu musical interludes) for Stars Hollow at least once a season, being chosen to open a show for veteran rocker Neil Young. Upon hearing about Phillips' luck with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a groovy lineup of performers parade into town hoping to get into the act.

Heading up the impressive program is Sonic Youth--Kim Gordon and hubby Thurston Moore--appearing with their daughter Coco. The alt-rock band will perform an acoustic version of their new single, "What a Waste"--a teaser from their upcoming album, Rather Ripped, set for a June 13 release.

Pop-rocker Joe Pernice, '70s-era pop band Sparks, alterna-rocker Sam Phillips (aka Leslie Phillips, not the late record producer who signed Elvis), Yo La Tengo and musical-comedy vet Mary Lynn Rajskub (computer whiz Chloe on 24) will also show up to play along.

Meanwhile, lest you forget you're watching the WB, Alexis Bledel's Rory will be having issues with sometimes-boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry), Lorelai's (Lauren Graham) parents might be moving to Stars Hollow (eek!) and, of course, Lorelai and Luke's (Scott Patterson) engagement will hit yet another snag. Actually, the couple's relationship is "reaching a boiling point," Gilmore Girls creator and exec producer Amy Sherman-Palladino told Entertainment Weekly.

Although the season finale is particularly packed with melodic possibility, music has always played a large role in Gilmore Girl-land. Lorelai's love for '80s girl-groups, such as the Bangles and the Go-Go's, is an established bit of Gilmore lore, while Rory's best friend Lane digs David Bowie and the Ramones.

Guest stars have included the aforementioned Bangles, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, the Shins, Paul Anka and Carole King, who also sings the show's theme song, "Where You Lead," with daughter Louise Goffin.

At one time there were rumors that this season would be Gilmore Girls' swan song, but it definitely appears as if everyone is sticking around for at least one more, which will take place on the new CW network now that the WB and UPN are closing up shop.

"They [executive producers Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino] are looking to end it after next year," a WB source told E! Online TV columnist Kristin Veitch in December. "But if it continues to do well, it could go beyond the next season. Both Lauren and Alexis have expressed interest in returning, if things go well with Amy and Dan."

And why not? There's so much more music to play.

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,18748,00.html

(April 2006) Team Palladino Says "Goodbye, Girls" by Aussiello

Michael Aussiello

My fellow Gilmore Girls fans, the news we've all been dreading has now been made absolutely, 100 percent, painfully official: Series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has opted not to renew her contract and will be leaving at the end of the season — and she's taking husband Dan with her.

"Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of Gilmore Girls for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of this season," said Amy and Dan in a statement. "Our heartfelt thanks go out to our amazing cast, hard-working crew and loyal fans. We know that the story lines from this season will continue into the next, and that the integrity of the show will remain long after we leave Stars Hollow."

(Crickets)

Yeah, I'm speechless, too. I've had more than a week to mentally prepare for this outcome — heck, I even wrote a story and watched helplessly as it was accidentally pushed live for a brief period last Wednesday — but I still can't believe they're actually leaving. The thought of Gilmore Girls heading into what is likely to be its final season (and its first on a brand-new network) without its mama or her right-hand man is unfathomable. But it is happening. And it's a total bummer.

I won't know for sure why they're bolting until I actually ask them (hopefully in the next few days), but as I reported on Friday, the primary sticking point was apparently the length of Gilmore Girls' renewal. AS-P wanted a two-year pickup, a demand that Warner Bros. refused to meet since Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are only on board for one more year. Instead, the studio was ready to pay them just shy of $5 million for a one-year deal, an offer that was apparently good enough to refuse.

According to a statement released by Warner Bros., "While we are disappointed that Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino have decided not to stay with the show next season, we are very confident that Dave Rosenthal, an experienced writer/producer with the show, will make the transition seamless moving into the seventh year of Gilmore Girls. We want to thank Amy for creating and nurturing this wonderful series for the past six years and giving us one of the most memorable mother/daughter relationships in television history."

(Crickets)

For now, I leave you with this quote from Graham, given to me around this time last year when it looked like the Palladinos might not return this season. I think she sums the whole thing up pretty well:

"I think it would be terrible [if Amy and Dan left]. We've had our ups and downs, but it's not a show that has ever had anyone else with the vision that she and Dan, who really are a force together, have. You can feel when someone else is trying to write Gilmore Girls-ish dialogue, you can just feel that it's... I know some people think that we talk too much, or the tone is not for everybody. Sometimes I just want to take a breath or have a reaction shot. I get it. But this is the person who is telling the story. So someone would be stepping in trying to replicate that, and I just think it's a bad idea."

(Crickets)

http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700000865

(April 2006) 'Gilmore Girls' will have to continue without the Palladinos

NEW YORK (AP) — The popular WB series Gilmore Girls will have to continue without the husband-and-wife team that has been its creative force since the beginning.
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino said Thursday they will leave as executive producers following the end of this season, its sixth. The show's production company said Gilmore Girls will continue next season with Dave Rosenthal, who has been a writer-producer there, running things.

The WB is closing up shop this fall, but Gilmore Girls is expected to move to the new CW network, which is a combination of the current WB and UPN networks.

"Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of Gilmore Girls for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of the season," the Palladinos said in a statement.

With stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel under contract for one more season, next year is widely considered to be the show's last one. Graham said in an interview with The Associated Press in January that she would like to leave at the end of next season.

Amy Palladino told the AP then that she believed the show could go on for longer than one year. She and her husband had said then that they were thinking of leaving and were already preparing the show to run without them.

"We want to thank Amy for creating and nurturing this wonderful series for the past six years and giving us one of the most memorable mother-daughter relationships in television history," Warner Brothers Television said in a statement. Their departure was first reported on TVGuide.com.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-04-20-gilmore-girls-producers_x.htm

(April 2006) 'Gilmore' Girl Leaving Stars Hollow

LOS ANGELES -- "Gilmore Girls" will in all likelihood continue next season on The CW. But it will go on without the woman who created the show's distinctive rat-a-tat-tat dialogue and guided the show for six years.

Amy Sherman-Palladino, who created the critically acclaimed series and wrote about a third of its episodes, is leaving the show at the end of this season. Her husband and fellow executive producer, Daniel Palladino, is also departing.

"Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of 'Gilmore Girls' for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of this season," the couple says in a statement. "Our heartfelt thanks go out to our amazing cast, hard-working crew and loyal fans. We know that the story lines from this season will continue into the next, and that the integrity of the show will remain long after we leave Stars Hollow."

The sticking point between the couple and Warner Bros. TV, which produces "Gilmore Girls," was apparently over the length of a contract extension. Several news reports say the Palladinos wanted to continue the show beyond next season, but the studio offered only a one-year deal.

The show's core cast, including stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, is only signed through next season, and The CW -- which is being formed from a merger of The WB and UPN -- has only committed to the series for a year at this point.

David S. Rosenthal, who joined "Gilmore Girls" this season as an executive producer, will take over as showrunner next season. His other credits include "Ellen" and "Spin City."

Warner Bros. says it's "disappointed" that it couldn't work a deal with the Palladinos, but "we are very confident that Dave Rosenthal, an experienced writer/producer with the show, will make the transition seamless moving into the seventh year of 'Gilmore Girls.' We want to thank Amy for creating and nurturing this wonderful series for the past six years and giving us one of the most memorable mother/daughter relationships in television history."

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-gilmoregirlscreatorleaves,0,5190525.story?coll=zap-tv-mainheadline

(April 2006) A sad day for 'Gilmore Girls' fans

Maureen Ryan

The news that "Gilmore Girls" executive producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino will be leaving the show at the end of the season is very bad news for "G.G." fans.

It's worse news for those who had hoped for great, or at least good, things from executives at the new CW network. They’ve already demonstrated questionable management instincts by letting this happen.

One has to wonder, Why bring “Gilmore Girls” over to the new network, which most TV observers expect to happen, without its crucial creative team at the helm? Whatever benefit the CW would have gotten from renewing this much-loved show will be destroyed by the fact that the distinctive vision of its creators will be gone.

The thing is, “Gilmore Girls” is not “CSI: Stars Hollow.” It’s not a procedural, nor is it like any other drama on TV. It doesn’t have predictable characters who speak predictable lines; it’s not a straightforward show with familiar moving parts and story lines.

More than just about any other show on TV, “Gilmore Girls” is the product of the unique creative voice of Sherman-Palladino. Sure, every fan can tell stories about the “Gilmore Girls” episode (or episodes) that made us want to tear our hair out, but when it’s on a roll, “Gilmore Girls” is great, and that greatness usually sprung from the pen of Sherman-Palladino and her husband.

So you can’t just pluck some guy from the writing staff, as the CW executives clearly plan to do, and end up with the same show. It’s just not going to work. I’d love to be wrong about this, but with “Gilmore Girls,” I know I’m not.

Believe it or not, I actually can see the CW’s side of this whole debacle. According to TVGuide.com’s Michael Ausiello, who’s been all over this story like white on rice, the Palladinos wanted a two-year deal in order to continue with “G.G.” CW executives balked, understandably, since stars Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham only have one year left on their contracts.

But smart TV executives would have made the next season happen, somehow, with the Palladino team at the helm. But then, if these executives were such geniuses, they would have known that the show without Amy Sherman-Palladino at the helm would not be the same show, and not worth continuing.

Sigh. It makes me wonder if next season on the CW, we’re going to see a lot of shows in the vein of “South Beach” and “Pepper Dennis.” I was hoping we’d get the best of both the WB and UPN with the new CW network, but maybe we’ll just get more of the same -- a few good shows and a lot of dumb decisions.

The truth is, I’d rather see the show end than see it linger on without the Palladinos. And though the Palladinos, in a recent Tribune interview, professed to be resigned to the fact that the show might continue on without them, I don't quite believe that.

Despite its rough patches, which I’ve complained about like any other longtime fan, “Gilmore Girls” is, week to week, a swell show with an unmistakable, unique voice.

It’s not fair to keep it going on a respirator. We all deserve better than that.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/04/a_sad_day_for_g.html

(April 2006) House of Freaks song on 'Gilmore Girls'

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Thursday, April 27, 2006

Here's a reason to stay up extra late to watch "Gilmore Girls" at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday -- House of Freaks' "40 Years" sung by the show's resident troubadour, Grant Lee Phillips.

The choice of the song, written by the late Bryan Harvey, was made by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, the show's departing executive producers who are also music supervisors for the show.

Dan Palladino, reached by phone yesterday, said he was a fan of the band -- composed of Harvey and Johnny Hott -- in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

"I always loved that song. It was played a lot in L.A."

More recently, he heard that their albums were being rereleased.

"I said to my wife, 'We've got to get this song on the show some way.'"

And then, the horrible events of Jan. 1 when Harvey, his wife and their two children were slain in their Richmond home.

"It so horrified me," said Palladino. "It's such a horrifying story. There's nothing worse than that.

"When that happened, we had dwindling times when we could get our troubadour to sing a song. But it was absolutely imperative we get '40 Years' into the show as our own tribute to Harvey. And, it's a great song."

Nationally, the "Gilmore Girls" episode aired this past Tuesday on the WB. But because Richmond doesn't have a WB affiliate, the show will air on WWBT, the local NBC affiliate, at 2:30 a.m. next Tuesday. -- Douglas Durden

http://www.timesdispatch.com

(April 2006) Musician off to Left Coast to appear in 'Gilmore Girls'

After a fast five minutes with the makeup artist on the set of ''Gilmore Girls," Joe Pernice met with the popular TV show's hairstylist. The latter took one look at the mussed do of the creative leader of local indie rockers Pernice Brothers, mumbled ''No need," and walked away.

''The show's producers wanted me to play a busker," said Pernice, 38, who had traveled a considerable distance from the band's record label in Dorchester to spend one day at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. ''They asked that I show up to the set looking a bit disheveled. I told them that it would be no problem any day of the week."

Though Pernice Brothers' songs, posters, and T-shirts have appeared in ''Gilmore Girls" episodes, this is Joe's first appearance on the show, which has featured cameos by musicians as diverse as the Shins and Carole King. Pernice, a Holbrook native, will play a singer-songwriter who arrives in town hoping to be discovered. The tale is not pure fiction. Pernice has found through ''Gilmore Girls" a new audience for songs that rarely receive mainstream exposure.

''The show's creators have the freedom to share the music they love with a pretty large audience," said Pernice. ''They find a way to make the music fit the mood and the mood fit the music. It works."

Pernice's cameo won't be the only one to please indie-rock fans. Look for walk-ons by Yo La Tengo, Sam Phillips, and Sonic Youth.

''I'll sing half a verse of 'Amazing Glow,' then the chorus," said Pernice. ''It's less than 45 seconds, which is more than enough time to ask anyone to look at my mug."

The ''Gilmore Girls" season finale airs Tuesday, May 9, at 8 p.m.

RON FLETCHER
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/27/musician_off_to_left_coast_to_appear_in_gilmore_girls/

(May 2006) Spotlight: Gilmore Girls

Tara McEwan
Dose

Tuesday Global 10 p.m. ET/PT, 8 p.m. MT

Players: Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop

The Pitch: Season 6 comes to a close amid a graduation party for Logan, an ambush at Friday night dinner and an onslaught of appearances by notable musicians including Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and Sparks in Stars Hollow.

The Prognosis: For six years, Gilmore Girls has built a strong following by exploring the beautifully complex mother-daughter relationships between Lorelai (Graham) and Emily (Bishop), and Lorelai and Rory (Bledel). The first half of the season, which saw Rory snub her mother and move in with the grandparents, proved to be a brilliant, months-long tug of war between Lorelai and Emily over Rory’s future.

But then Lorelai and Rory made up, rendering Emily invisible and the love lives of our two heroines took centre stage. The show’s dramatic tension promptly took a nosedive. The introduction of Luke’s long-lost daughter, a wedding postponement and Logan’s continued childish behaviour put Lorelai and Rory into a position neither character had assumed before: the submissive female. Um, Max? Dean? Jess? These ladies have never picked a relationship over happiness.

With the departure of Amy Sherman-Palladino (head writer and show’s creator), it’s anyone’s guess where the characters end up in Season 7. And if the latter-half of Season 6 is any indication, the season finale is the last chance to see the Lorelai and Rory we’ve loved for six years.