A big goodbye on 'Gilmore Girls'
Creator of 'Girls' overseeing her last episode, full of music
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Posted: 10:22 a.m. EDT (14:22 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is going out on a high note, with her last episode for the WB
series filled with her musical favorites.
"It might be the coolest thing we've ever done," Sherman-Palladino said of Tuesday's season finale featuring the
"eclectic" musicians she admires and lured to the show.
"We've put together our own Gilmorepalooza," added her husband, Daniel Palladino, a fellow executive producer on the series.
The couple said last month they were leaving the comedy-drama after failing to reach agreement on a new studio contract. Dave Rosenthal, a writer and
producer on the show, will be in charge when it makes its expected move to the new CW network, the result of a WB-UPN merger. (The WB is a unit of
Time Warner, as is CNN.)
Among the artists featured on the sixth-season finale are
Sonic Youth, Sam Phillips, Yo La Tengo, Sparks and Joe Pernice.
They've flocked to Stars Hollow, the fictional town where "Gilmore Girls" is set, after hearing that the town troubadour (Grant-Lee
Phillips) was discovered by Neil Young's manager.
"We're playing our own reality that there's an East Coast troubadour community, people who play music on street corners," said
Daniel Palladino.
The couple put together a "wish list" of artists to appear as the street musicians and got an enthusiastic response, he said.
"Gilmore Girls" is about the close relationship between a young single mother, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), and her daughter, Rory
(Alexis Bledel). With the stars under contract for one more season, next year is widely considered to be the show's last.
Sherman-Palladino and her husband said their contract dispute centered on working conditions, including adding more writers to ease their burden. The
couple said they have written the majority of scripts for the show and worked on all of them.
In a statement from CW and the studio, Warner Bros. Television, the companies said they were disappointed with the couple's departure but looked
forward to a "seamless transition."
The network and studio reportedly wanted to give the couple a one-year deal. Sherman-Palladino, whose own snappy patter was reflected in the Lorelai
character, said she believed the show could run longer than another year.
There's more than music to the finale. Also at issue in the episode co-written by Sherman-Palladino and her husband are Lorelai's postponed
wedding to Luke (Scott Patterson) and Rory's up-and-down relationship with boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry).
The episode sets up "strong places to go next year," Sherman-Palladino said.
She was grateful for the creative freedom she enjoyed on the series and for the excellence of its cast. Leaving was hard, she said.
"I had fully intended to shepherd it forward to the bitter end. I've often said I know what the last four of the final episodes are, and
I've known it for a long time," she said.
[Edited on 9-5-2006 by Neuwave]
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