Let’s be honest, if Amy Sherman-Palladino auctioned off her perfect ending to Gilmore Girls, a la Carly Simon and the identity of the man who was so very vain, I would definitely bid on it. But from the sounds of the intimate fan gathering that Palladino spoke at during the ATX Television Festival Saturday morning, no one is going to know what those four words are. Regardless of whether the internet ever learns how the show runner would have ended her show, the small event that proceeded tonight’s cast-reuniting epic panel was a huge success.
“The WB was at a point then when they were feeling rock ‘n’ roll and were anti-network … they were feeling like ‘We want original voices.’ They had Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Dawson’s Creek (from Kevin Williamson) — they were looking for that,” Palladino said when describing the network that bought her show in the first place. She also stated that it wasn’t something that would happen today. She talked about making a push for interesting casting choices, seeing the rampant potential in stars like Milo Ventimiglia and Melissa McCarthy before others, and wonderful aspects of working with a network that allowed creators to be creative and create the best shows they could.
Of course, she also reflected on that last season that was out of her control and had positive things to say about it in the end: “The last season was the last season, shit happens. We left it in the hands of our writers. It wasn’t like they got Saddam Hussein to come in…It’s always a bummer when you don’t get to end it. I had hoped maybe that there would have been a call, ‘Hey, it’s the last episode, do you want to come back?’ And there wasn’t. But that’s OK, that’s not the way it works in Hollywood, where there’s rules. I’m incredibly amazed at what we got to do. The legacy is there, clearly, and I’m still on speaking terms with the entire cast. When does that happen? It was this wonderful, golden period. Organically, things happened the way they were going to happen.”
Many members of the cast are in Austin, Texas for this exciting cast reunion panel including Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Jared Padalecki, Keiko Agena, Todd Lowe, John Cabrera and more. (It still feels weird to see all the Gilmores together without Ed Herrmann standing over them all though.) So far both, Graham and Cabrera have both shared some reunion pictures from the event.
Handsome boys. @jarpad @ScottGPatterson pic.twitter.com/dqIAcNd3Jp
— Lauren Graham (@thelaurengraham) June 6, 2015
Hep Alien even reunited!
Reliving the glory days with @KeikoAgena & @Todd__Lowe#HepAlien#GilmoreGirls🎸👽https://t.co/tW6S47hIvqpic.twitter.com/dYomyNN45o
— John Cabrera (@johncabrera) April 29, 2015
I’m sure there will be many more opportunities for fans of Stars Hollow, the Gilmore family, and the entire Gilmore Girls family to gush over all the things that are shared during Saturday night’s reunion. Right now, this fan is queuing up episode one on Netflix so as to get a really good fix of my favorite high school show since I’m not in Austin to await the reunion myself. Please tweet all your pictures ATX attendees! We need to see them!
Feature Image via Entertainment Weekly/Jack Plunkett
