Gilmore Girls
(The CW) 8-9PM Starts Sept. 26Being a Gilmore Girl these days is a bit like being Mel Gibson's publicist. So many tricky questions, so many reporters trying to pump you for answers. For example: With stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel (who play buddy-tight mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory, respectively) entering the final year of their contracts, will this new season, the show's seventh, be their last? How will the absence of creator Amy Sherman-Palladino — gone after failing to secure a desirable new deal from Gilmore Girls producer Warner Bros. Television — affect the quality of the acclaimed dramedy? And now that it's paired with Veronica Mars for the perfect ''cool girls' night'' of programming, can the niche hit help launch a new network, The CW, which is rising from the ashes of the defunct UPN and The WB? Peppered with these and other burning queries during a break from filming, it's no wonder Graham feels a little cornered. ''You're trying to trap me and I won't be trapped!'' says the actress with a laugh. ''I can see the headline now: 'Graham Von Trapped!'''
Worry not: Answers are forthcoming. In fact, one of them is taking shape here on this Burbank soundstage, where Lorelai, grumpy yet glamorous in a white gown, attends a dance for the hoity-toity prepubescents of Stars Hollow thrown by her high-society mother, Emily (Kelly Bishop). The new Gilmore, led by exec producer David Rosenthal (Spin City), certainly walks and talks like the old Gilmore; the snapping, crackling, pop-referencing quips, spread across one long, busybusybusy take, are funny and flying. But some are also flying out of the script, with Graham scrapping lines in between takes with the director and writers in order to make the scene work. Apparently, under Sherman-Palladino, pruning the prose was a no-no. None of the actors begrudge their old boss for her auteurism, but at the same time, Bishop speaks of a ''more relaxed'' workplace, and Graham says there's been ''more collaboration than we've had'' in years past. She clearly prefers it that way: ''I'm moving into a time where I am interested in producing and directing, and if I did another show, I would want to be a more active participant in the process. So it's fun to feel like I'm [already] heading in that direction.''
Graham and Co. could ad-lib everything as far as The CW is concerned — as long as they produce another vintage season that can lure Gilmore's avid female following to the new super-weblet. ''Gilmore Girls is very relevant to our viewers,'' says UPN president–turned–CW prez Dawn Ostroff. ''Our strategy for picking shows was to go with the tried-and-true, shows that people were passionate about.'' (Memo to those in the Gilmore Nation irked by last year's sluggish story lines: Ostroff promises a more ''eventful'' and ''surprising'' season.)
Of course, if Gilmore and Veronica emerge as a potent combo for The CW, the intrigue concerning Gilmore's future becomes even more interesting. Graham, who shot the Bruce Almighty sequel Evan Almighty with Steve Carell this summer, remains undecided, and says that she and Bledel are including each other in their deliberations. ''It's Gilmore Girls,'' says Graham. ''It's a team. It's important that we think about what we want to do.'' (Bledel pulled out of EW's photo shoot and story at the last minute, so we can't communicate her perspective on things.) Bishop is bracing for the inevitable. ''I am accepting this as the last year,'' she says. ''It probably won't make me very happy. It's going to be hard to find a job as good as this.''
In many ways, the upcoming season of Gilmore will mirror the deliberations of its stars. The first two episodes explore Lorelai's surprising decision in the May finale to jump in the sack with ex-flame Christopher (David Sutcliffe), Rory's father, immediately after fighting with her fiancé, the lovably lunkheaded Luke (Scott Patterson). While Lorelai sorts out her convoluted love life, Rory will have to decide how long she wants to put up with a long-distance relationship with Logan (Matt Czuchry), who's now learning the family newspaper biz in London (though Czuchry will still appear on the show). ''There's a lot of upheaval,'' says Rosenthal. ''If there was a word I had to pick to headline the season, it would be this: consequences.''
As for Gilmore's future, there is one person, according to show lore, who knows how the Lorelai-Rory saga ends. Problem is, she doesn't work there anymore. Graham suspects that fans will still get to see that fabled finale; she says an ''amicable'' rapport exists between Sherman-Palladino and the new creative team. But however it ends, Graham is prepared...to fall into complete obscurity afterward. ''I'll be doing skin-care ads on late-night TV,'' says Graham. ''As an actor, you're always prepared for the terrible turn.... I'm sure I'll go through an insane panic when it all ends.'' She, and 4.5 million other people.
By Jeff Jensen
