Everybody Wants Somethin': Part IV - Gilmore Girls
Where you lead, I will follow… unless it's towards a second season.
If Lizzie McGuire demonstrates the difficulty of rebooting a show for
its original audience, Gilmore
Girls adds another layer of
complexity. Unlike with rebooted children’s programs, the Gilmore Girls audience were never children. With Lizzie, there is a built-in reason to reboot the show:
Lizzie has grown-up. We want to follow the leap from adolescents to adulthood
for a character that is just so identifiable as we now navigate those
thirty-something waters. When rebooting a program of adult characters for an
adult audience, you better have a damn good reason to bring the show back.
Gilmore
Girls ran from 2000-2007 for seven
seasons. The seventh season, however, was lacking creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.
After failed negotiations with the network, Amy and her partner Dan Palladino
left the series. Palladino knew the last four words of the series since she initially
thought of the concept for the show. She guarded these words, not expressing
them publicly during the final season, as she did not want to distract from the
show still in progress. Until Gilmore
Girls: A Year in the Life, those
words remained secret.
Projects can change creators
and be of equal or higher quality. It is widely agreed that, with Gilmore Girls, that was sadly not the case. This show has always been by
Palladino. Because of the seventh season, we now
know definitively that she is the best person at the helm of this story. The
seventh season was off-brand, and the cast has even spoken a dislike for it.
Lauren Graham said in an interview that she forgot her character got married
which happened in that infamous 7th season. Gilmore Girls specifically needed a conclusion. They did not need
a handoff like Raven’s
Home or a continuation like Lizzie McGuire.
I have already spoken to
who this story should be by.
Regarding of,
and shared experience, Gilmore
Girls has another unique quality.
Audiences and production have gone so far as to say they wish they could ignore
the 7th season and finish the story without some of those plot
points in continuity. Sometimes, our shared experiences are not perfect, and a
reboot can be used to save the sacredness of those experiences by giving them
the conclusion they deserve.
Gilmore
Girls: A Year in the Life is for the exact same population of viewers that watched Gilmore Girls. We have a smaller time lapse occurring over a less
developmental time of the main characters’ lives. We are merely picking up the
pieces and putting them together the way the original creator intended. Because
the focus of A
Year in the Life was on
conclusion, I argue the stakes were higher than any other form of reboot. With
a continuation, you have time to reach an ending. With a handoff, you do not
have the pressure of keeping your original audience happy. They are providing a
strict conclusion to an original audience that has had nine years to re-watch,
process, and consider how Gilmore
Girls might have ended.
Unconfirmed rumors have
circulated over a second season of A
Year in the Life, with Lauren
Graham admitting she has a “Gilmore
Girls clause” written into her
contracts so she can always cozy up to the bar at Luke’s should the opportunity
present. As much as I love our shared admiration for the character of Lorelai,
I hope there isn’t a second season. I would love to live in Stars Hollow forever,
but I got my conclusion. While reactions on A
Year in the Life’s conclusion were
mixed, I was perfectly fulfilled. I understood why those four words came to
Palladino before the series ever got started. Personally, seeing the
always-idolized Rory struggle with adulthood and the always-burdened Lorelai
get a fairytale she alone deserves was exactly what we needed. The last four
words were a realistic, relatable, and satisfying moment we could grab onto as
those who found their adult footing with these characters. A Year in the Life taught me that no one, no matter how perfect they
are believed to be, is immune from life, adulthood, and failure. It also taught
me to never give up on that fairytale ending. Like Lorelei, in order to get
that fairytale, the biggest hurdle is being honest with myself on what that fairytale
looks like.
On a final, side note, I
always like a good fan theory. After A
Year in the Life, one surfaced
that argued that only A
Year in the Life was reality
within the Gilmore Girls universe, and the first seven seasons were Rory’s
book. This remains just that - a fan theory- but it does describe Rory’s
rose-colored views and ambitions held as a celebrated youth compared to her facing
the realities of adulthood. My views, along with this fan theory, signify the
importance of A
Year in the Life giving us an
ending - the ideal balance between a fulfilling conclusion and an open-ended
moment perfect for fantasizing about these characters for the rest of our lives,
bringing us back to Stars Hollow again and again. Any additional content would dilute
the material we have and take away from the balance that has been achieved
between both fulfilling conclusion and never-ending interpretation.
Use of Shared Experience and Audience Focus in
Reboot Television Use
of A
tool to connect a previous product to a new one. To wrap up the loose ends
and move on to your new audience.
That’s So Raven(’s) Home
Lizzie McGuire Use
of To
continue, and ultimately finish, a story for the same audience. For Whom:
Original or New Audience
Shared Experience:
For OG Audience (Children) à
For NEW Audience (Children)
For OG Audience (Children) à
For OG Audience (Adults)
Shared Experience:
For OG Audience (Children) à
For OG and New Audience (Children and Adult)
For OG Audience (Adults) à
For OG Audience (Adults)
Gilmore Girls / A Year in the Life