New boss, new network, new season, dogs;
’Gilmore Girls’ cover the hot topics

Published 9:00 pm Monday, July 17, 2006

In a surprisingly candid panel discussion, “Gilmore Girls” stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, who play the mother-and-daughter combination of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore on the show, teased fans into thinking there could be a longer future for the show than expected, and suggested that a new executive producer, David Rosenthal, could reingvigorate it.

Graham was quickly asked how she felt about playing the part of Lorelai last season, in which she succumbed almost completely to the whims and hemming and hawing of her fiance, Luke, for much of the season.

“It wasn’t my favorite stuff to play, to kind of be dictated to by Luke, but, again, I think, you know, it was a real — it was a believable conflict, you know, and a believable obstacle between them, and that’s why the end (when Lorelai finally gave Luke an ultimatum), to me, made perfect sense,” Graham said, “because she tried to kind of be in a place that wasn’t natural to her, that wasn’t who she is. And so ultimately she couldn’t take it anymore.”

Graham hinted that she wasn’t really given the opportunities to make big character and storyline suggestions under the husband-and-wife team of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino.

“That’s not really how the show has worked, you know,” Graham said. “I was in a place, you know, before that, the year before when Lorelai and Rory had such a long separation, I wasn’t a huge fan of that either. But it wasn’t — there wasn’t really an explanation given except that it made sense in terms of where they were taking the story and to be patient and, you know, that something big was coming, but, you know, it was a different structure then.”

Aware that she might have been saying too much, without really saying it, Graham soon back -tracked a little to pay homage to her old bosses.

“If you write anything that makes me sound like I said something negative about Amy and Dan, I will be upset,” Graham told the room full of TV writers. “Because it was a certain kind of world that I — that gave me the best job I’ve ever had. But they really, you know, liked to run things in a certain way that was specific to the two of them and that was more, I guess, hands-on. And it just was a specific thing. So things are different in that, yes, I’ve been — you know, it’s just we have scripts early and my sort of — and I’ve gotten to meet the writers in a more kind of like ‘Everybody sit down and talk about what your feeling is about the direction of things.’ That’s different.”

What’s also different is the hinting that Graham and Bledel did about the possibility the show could return after the upcoming season it up. Their contracts are both up after this season and both have discussed calling it quits.

“I have felt that way, but I haven’t been in this particular collaboration (with Rosenthal) before, and I think we’re all really excited to see where the show can go, and I read the first script. I love it. So a lot of things could happen. The fact is that our legal contracts are up. So you do begin to imagine, ‘Well, what if?’ in a different way than we have before.

“But I would never do that kind of disservice to this season to go into it saying, you know — it would feel like I don’t support David, which I do very much. I really support David, and I hope that we have such a great season that it feels like there’s reason to keep going. The thing I’ve always talked about is I don’t want to be in a situation where I feel sorry for me, you know.? Because I’ve seen that happen to actors and to shows where the thing is done. It’s done. Let it be over, you know. But I don’t know that we’re in that situation yet.”

One situation she’s in, and doesn’t really like it, is that of having a dog sidekick around the house known on the show Paul Anka.

“I have made no secret of the fact that I do not enjoy working with the actor Paul Anka, although the person Paul Anka was joyful and a delight and gave me, like, a stack of CDs like this. I just am not a fan of dog comedy,” Graham said. “You know, but it’s nothing against him. I am a fan of dogs. I have a dog. I like dogs. But I’m sorry.

“I’m, like, ‘Oh, he rolled over and spoke’ or something. I’m just like, ‘Uck.’”