What Would 'Gilmore Girls' Be Without Lorelai?

I know, I know you're so stoked for the upcoming Netflix Gilmore Girls reboot. The last nine years have been pretty empty without Lorelei and Rory to share a cup (or six) of coffee with, no doubt. But you may be shocked to realize that in the early aughts of thinking up how to keep Gilmore Girls on the air during its final seasons, some network execs were willing to sacrifice one of the Gilmores by turning the show into a Rory-centric spin-off... as if such a thing could even work.

This isn't information readily able to be found, but it's available if you dig deep into the archives to Lauren Graham's last 2007 interview with TVGuide before the Gilmore Girls series finale. In it, you'll see her claims about The CW trying to work on a lot of ways to keep the Gilmores going — understandable, considering it was one of their biggest shows. According to Graham's interview, original plans had the show continuing for another 13 episodes after Season 7, but apparently, she and Bledel weren't sure whether they wanted to return at that point — they were discussing whether they would come back. While they both were uncertain about whether they wanted to continue forward, it began to seem like Graham was more uncertain — so some network execs wondered it would be fine if they just continued the with Rory.

Just Rory.

"I did formally say at one point, 'I'm not coming back.' Then they thought, 'Well, can we do it with just Alexis?'" Graham told TV Guide in 2007. "I don't want to speak for her, but we both went back and forth. Ultimately, neither of us wanted to do it without the other one."

Apparently, per Graham's statements in TVGuide, had Bledel felt inclined to helm her own show, it could've happened. But after tackling all possible angles, the studio deemed it all too complicated. And that's perfectly fine, because could we really imagine Rory carrying an entire show all her lonesome? According to Graham:

If she was in a place where she wanted, like, her own show or her own spin-off.... They were trying to think of everything. There was a time when we thought maybe I would produce and not be on the show in the same capacity. I've been at this for a long time; I feel ready to move on. But they were trying to find a way to make it work. There were a lot of scenarios. I had very open conversations with Dawn Ostroff. We tried, but they ultimately said, "You know what? This is just too complicated."

On one hand, a Rory-themed spin-off could be interesting because Lord knows the character could use some independence. The blue-eyed angel is so thoroughly tied to Lorelai that she's a self-proclaimed Mama's Girl (and doesn't care who knows it). She definitely still had plenty of room to grow when we last left off with her.

But at the same time, what made Gilmore Girls great was the dynamic between the two Gilmores. Whenever they were separated by some fight (and because of Rory's homewrecking, yacht-stealing stupidity, let's be honest) it hurt all us viewers on a soul level. It feels wrong having a show without both of them, and they probably realized this.

While I'm sure at the time we fans would have loved the idea of more Gilmore Girls, even if it was a spin-off or continuation following just Rory, the reality in the present is so much better: A Gilmore Girls revival is happening on Netflix, the entire cast is back, and they're happy to be back. Even better, it's all in an instantly streamable capacity, so we can marathon it to our heart's desire when it's out! Because even though many of us would tune into a Rory Gilmore solo show (of course we would), it isn't Gilmore Girls without both girls. Oh, and Emily, too.

Images: Warner Bros. Television; Giphy (2)