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William S. Paley Television Festival, 03.12.01 ...
From February 28th to March 13th, 2001 the Museum of Television and Radio held its 18th Annual William S. Paley Festival. This year's featured shows included Gideon's Crossing, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Malcolm in the Middle, Judging Amy, Angel, Boston Public, The History of White People in America, An Evening with Michael Moore, Dark Shadows, The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, Dark Angel, Gilmore Girls, and Survivor.
On the night of March 12th, the Gilmore Girls cast along with the show's creators attended the Directors Guild of America Theatre Complex in Los Angeles, California for the Paley Festival. The evening started off at 7:00pm with a clip from the television show Roseanne. The clip, written by Amy Sherman-Palladino (creator of Gilmore Girls), featured a scene where Roseanne and her daughter Becky talk about birth control. After the clip was through, the event proceeded with the screening of the Gilmore Girls episode "Rory's Birthday Parties."
Promptly at 8:07pm, the following cast members of Gilmore Girls went on stage to let the question and answer session begin: Keiko Agena, Kelly Bishop, Alexis Bledel, Lauren Graham, Edward Herrmann, Melissa McCarthy, Scott Patterson, Liz Torres, and Yanic Truesdale. Amy Sherman-Palladino and show producer Gavin Polone also partook in the session.
The Q&A session started with a moderator asking Amy and Gavin how Gilmore Girls came about being what it is today. Amy said the show's conception was just one of many pitches for television show ideas that she and Gavin were giving to the Warner Bros. Network. The network liked the idea of a mother and daughter pairing that were best friends and said, "Tell us more."
Another question directed at Amy was the idea that she was just a fictitious name representing the writing of Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing). Amy laughed and stated that the rumor was false. In fact, Amy has been in the entertainment business over ten years with jobs writing on Roseanne and Veronica's Closet.
Even though Amy and Gavin answered most questions, the cast of Gilmore Girls did give their input about the auditioning process for the show. Lauren Graham was still on an NBC series, M.Y.O.B., but managed to land the role of Lorelai Gilmore after M.Y.O.B. wasn't renewed. Alexis Bledel auditioned for the role of Rory Gilmore through the persistence of her manager, even though she had a terrible cold at the time. Scott Patterson's audition for the character of Luke Danes was just one of three auditions he had that day, one of the others was for a series starring Carmen Electra as a Fembot. Both Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore) and Edward Herrmann (Richard Gilmore) thoroughly enjoyed the script of Gilmore Girls from the first time they read it. The part of Sookie, now played by Melissa McCarthy, was first offered to Alex Borstein of MAD TV fame, but that fell through when MAD TV wouldn't let her out of her contract. Eight months after moving to Los Angeles from Canada, Yanic Truesdale was offered the role of Michel Gerard. Finally, Keiko Agena (Lane Kim) and Liz Torres (Miss Patty) said they were very happy to be offered parts on the show after they auditioned.
Other facts that became known during the Q&A session include that Jared Padalecki (Dean) will continue his role, even after the Rory and Dean breakup, plus Scott Cohen (Max Medina) will also be in some future episodes, although it is uncertain if he will be around next season because he is currently filming a pilot for a new show.
When a question was asked about Gilmore Girls airing in Thursday night's tough time slot vs. Friends and Survivor, Gavin said that he feels the show should remain where it is because Friends will be over in a year anyway and Survivor only airs for 16 weeks. On the other hand, Amy replied, "Friends is going down when someone kidnaps Jennifer Aniston."
After the Q&A session concluded, audience members had the opportunity to speak with the cast and crew. All of the cast members were very receptive to the people who approached them, signing autographs, conversing about the show, and even taking pictures with fans.
~Heidi
Webmaster, GilmoreGirls.org
William S. Paley Festival Photos ...
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