Gilmore Girls turns 20: The mother-daughter dramedy endures because it got the basics right

The Guardian

Amy Sherman-Palladino's beloved series premiered on The WB on Oct. 5, 2000, a byproduct of the the Family Friendly Viewing Forum, an initiative by 11 big advertisers -- including Procter & Gamble and General Motors -- to support wholesome TV programming. Gilmore Girls ran for 153 episodes on The WB and, in its final season, The CW, returning in 2016 for a four-episode A Year in the Life miniseries on Netflix. Gilmore Girls, says Lauren O'Neill, "is a thoroughly wholesome TV hit. Its unhurried pace, low stakes and sleepy, picturesque setting have led fans and critics alike to cite it as a high point for comfort TV. And as of next week, it will have been keeping viewers warm for 20 years. Gilmore Girls remains beloved largely because it got the basics right. It is most notable for its motormouth, pop culture-referencing dialogue – straight from the quip-o-matic pen of creator Amy Sherman-Palladino – and its core pairing: double act Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel respectively, in career-defining roles. Lorelai and Rory’s love story is the beating heart of the show. In giving more oxygen to their relationship – their joys, their fights, their breathless commentary on junk food and John Hughes movies – than it does to overly dramatic plotlines, it found a unique place in the TV landscape during its initial run. Smarter and less soapy than other programs aimed at a young, largely female demographic, such as Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill, it leaned into the fact that it was 'just' a show about a single mother, her clever kid and the eccentric, lovable people of Stars Hollow, a fictional Connecticut town. Episode to episode, Gilmore Girls’ trick is in prioritizing minutiae – dinners at Lorelai’s hoity-toity family home, town meetings and idiosyncratic conversations where Rosemary’s Baby and Juicy Couture get equal weighting – so that when its emotional moments do come, they really resonate, the bonds they are based on having been so carefully developed. The show’s willingness to stroll instead of sprint, however, meant that it mostly flew under the radar when it was released. The first season aired on Thursdays at 8 p.m. in the US, in the same slot as Friends and Survivor, two of the period’s heavy hitters, and in 2001, the New York Times called the show 'one of the best series on the air, and possibly the most underappreciated.'"

ALSO:

• What it's like watching Gilmore Girls as an adult in 2020: "Season 7 is not as bad as you remember – but Season 6 is worse," says Kelly Lawler, who adds that Lane Kim was the most self-actualized character while Rory Gilmore was one of the least intelligent and most privileged. "Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino .... left before the show’s infamously bad seventh season (she later returned for the Netflix revival), and many fans blame a poor final season on losing her from the creative team," says Lawler. "But so much of what fans hate about Season 7 was planted in Season 6 (Luke's daughter April, for one) and the drudge that is the Rory-living-in-the-poolhouse storyline is like a mosquito bite that won’t stop itching for nearly 22 episodes."
• 20 ways to celebrate Gilmore Girls' 20th anniversary
• From Kelly Bishop to Yanic Truesdale to Emily Kuroda: What it was like to be an actor on Gilmore Girls
• Ranking the 30 best Gilmore Girls episodes
• Looking back at Gilmore Girls' greatness: From pop-culture references to the stars like Jon Hamm who appeared before they were famous
• Gilmore Girls' DVDs came with pop-culture reference guides explaining "Gilmore-isms"
• On Good Morning America, Gilmore Girls stars reflect on the 20th anniversary
• Gilmore Girls stars: Then vs. now
• Here are the 40 best Gilmore Girls quotes