TV & Movies
Gilmore Girls’ Kelly Bishop Revealed Her Least Favorite Season
“It just seemed to get kind of sleepy and tired.”
In her new memoir, Gilmore Girls star Kelly Bishop reflects on the highs and lows of the beloved drama, including the “sleepy” season she’d rather forget.
In the book, titled The Third Gilmore Girl, the actor recalls how the show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, didn’t return to work on the seventh and final season when her negotiations with the network collapsed.
She departed Gilmore Girls with her husband, Dan Palladino, who also co-wrote and executive-produced the show.
“A new writing team was brought in for the seventh season,” Bishop writes, adding that, while they “tried their best,” their efforts failed to match the talents of Sherman-Palladino. “We actors were contractually obligated for that seventh season, and we did the best we could.”
Bishop also describes Season 7 as being “sleepy and tired from one week to the next,” adding that it felt as if “the air was being slowly let out of a big, sparkly balloon.” She continues, “We could sense that the party might be ending, even though no one wanted to say it out loud.”
Despite her criticisms, Bishop also heaps praise on the show’s “utterly unique” writing in her newly-released memoir, adding, “The more I studied it, the more amazed I was at how closely I identified with the relationship dynamics of the Gilmore girls themselves.”
Gilmore Girls’ Final Chapter
Gilmore Girls aired for seven seasons between 2000 and 2007, with the final season moving to The CW network from The WB. The drama centred on mother and daughter, Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), in the fictional town of Stars Hollow.
After stepping away from the show in 2006, Gilmore Girls creator Sherman-Palladino told Entertainment Weekly that she, her husband, and The CW couldn’t agree on the hiring of additional writers and the hiatus between seasons.
Sherman-Palladino also revealed she wanted Gilmore Girls to run longer than seven seasons. “Why shouldn't it go on?” she told EW at the time. “We have a very specific idea of how we wanted the series to ultimately end, and there's a myriad of ways to get there, which could have accommodated another few seasons.”
The series creator made her long-awaited return to Stars Hollow in 2016, overseeing the four-episode Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
