“Bunheads” creator Amy Sherman-Pallidino welcomes former “Gilmore Girls” cast members to Paradise

Jim Hill

12 years ago

This is kind of hard for a grown man to admit. But I really
miss Stars Hollow.

You know the place I'm talking about, right? The fictitious
Connecticut town which "Gilmore Girls" was set in?

Oh, sure. We all mostly tuned in for the seven years that
this comedy-drama ran on The WB & The CW to find out what would happen next
to Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel). As
well as seeing if we could actually keep up with this show's rapid-fire dialogue
which was filled to the brim with pop culture references.

But honestly half the fun of watching "Gilmore
Girls" was getting the chance to spend an hour in the quirky world that
series creator Amy Sherman-Pallidino had set her show in. A place where Star
Hollows' easily derailed town meetings wouldn't actually be held inside of Town
Hall. But — rather — over at Miss Patty (Liz Torres)'s dance studio.

I miss those intense-but-funny wars of words that Luke Danes
(Scott Patterson) — the owner/operator of the town's
diner-which-used-to-be-a-hardware-store — would have with Taylor Doose
(Michael Winters), the Town Selectman who ran Stars Hollow's market (which was
right across the alley from Luke's). Not to mention the seemingly endless
series of seasonal events that were staged in & around the town's gazebo
(EX: The Founders Firelight Festival, The Annual Bid-A-Basket Fundraiser, The
Festival of Living Art, to mention just a few). Where Stars Hollows' jack-of-all-trades
/ master-of-none Kirk (Sean Gunn) would invariably get something very, very
wrong. Like — for example — forgetting where exactly he had hidden all of the
eggs for the town's annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Which was why — when "Gilmore Girls" officially
came to a close in May of 2007 (Appropriately enough, with a party when the
entire town gathered together around that gazebo. So that they could wish Rory
well as she headed off to her first post-college job. Which was being a member
of the press corps covering then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama's bid for
the White House) — there were a number of us out there who weren't quite ready
to say good-bye forever to Stars Hollow. Which is why we kind of held out hope
that all this loose talk about Warner Bros. possibly producing a "Gilmore
Girls" movie (as recently as September 2010, Lauren Graham was talking
with a reporter from Vanity Fair about how " … people with power [at that studio], people who could
actually make it happen, are talking about [possibly moving forward with a
feature-length follow-up to this much-beloved TV series])" might turn out
to be true. So that we'd once again get to enjoy the banter of a Friday night
dinner with Emily (Kelly Bishop) & Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann) and/or
drop in on Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) and Michel (Yankic Truesdale) at the Dragonfly Inn.

But now that Ms. Graham is busy co-starring in NBC's
"Parenthood" (Not to mention Alexis Bledel's rather adult turn on this
season of AMC's "Mad Men"), it's looking far less likely that Warner
Bros. is ever going to greenlight a "Gilmore Girls" movie. Which
means no return trip to Stars Hollows.

So faced with that fate, what's a person who really enjoys
Sherman-Pallidino's smart scripts & twisted take on small town life supposed to
do? Start tuning into Amy's new hour-long television series for ABC Family,
"Bunheads."

(L to R) Emma Dumont, Kaitlyn Jenkins, Kelly Bishop, Sutton Foster, Bailey Buntain and
Julia Goldani Telles from "Bunheads." Photo by Andrew Eccles.
Copyright ABC Family. All rights reserved

In a lot of ways, "Bunheads" is the
funhouse mirror version of "Gilmore Girls." In that, instead of being a comedy-drama set in a small town on the East Coast, this new ABC Family
series chronicles the goings-on in Paradise, a quirky little burg which hugs
the Southern California coast.

And instead of being a show about this single mom and her
closer-than-close relationship with her precocious teenager daughter,
"Bunheads" is … Well, it's basically Lorelai and the four Rories.

To explain: Television newcomer Sutton Foster (best known for her Tony
Award-winning turns in the Broadway musicals "Thoroughly Modern
Millie" & "Anything Goes") play Michelle Simms, a former
ballerina AKA "bunhead' who somehow wound up in Las Vegas as a showgirl.
Seeing her life and dance career effectively at a dead end, Michelle
impulsively marries Hubbell Flowers
(played by Alan Ruck of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" fame).

(L to R) Alan Ruck, Sutton Foster and Kelly Bishop in the pilot episode of "Bunheads."
Photo by Randy Holmes. Copyright ABC Family. All rights reserved

After their quickie Las Vegas wedding, Hubbell now drives
Michelle back to Paradise. Where this now-former showgirl is shocked to learn
that she and her new husband will be living under the same roof as Hubbell's
mother, Fanny Flowers (Kelly Bishop). Who — as it turns out — teaches ballet at the
Paradise Dance Academy.

The shocks keep on coming for poor Michelle as (MAJOR SPOILER
AHEAD) less than 24 hours after she arrives in Paradise, Hubbell is killed in a
car accident. And given that her new husband had already called his attorney
and put his entire estate in Michelle's name … Well, she and Fanny are
now kind of stuck with one another.

So as this former Vegas showgirl struggles to get a handle
on small town life (not to mention trying to find some common ground with her
artsy-fartsy mother-in-law), Michelle now find herself becoming something of a
mentor for four students in Fanny's ballet class: Sasha Torres (Julia Goldani
Telles), Ginny Thompson (Bailey Buntain), Melanie Segal (Emma Dumont) and
Bettina "Boo" Jordan (Kaitlyn Jenkins).

(L to R) Julia Goldanin Telles, Bailey Buntain, Emma Dumont and
Kaitlyn Jenkins. Photo by Andre Eccles. Copyright
ABC Family. All rights reserved

As you might expect, "Gilmore Girls" fans were
quick to embrace "Bunheads." And not just because of this new ABC
Family show featured the same sort of tight writing & smart, character-driven
dialogue that they used to find (and love about) in Sherman-Pallidino's previous dramedy. But
— rather — because all sort of former Stars Hollows residents have begun
popping up with new names in Paradise.

And — no — I'm not just talking about Kelly Bishop. Who —
prior to playing Fanny Flowers in "Bunheads" — so memorably portrayed society matron Emily
Gilmore in "Gilmore Girls." I'm talking about how:

Rose Abdoo — who played Gypsy, Star Hollows' resident auto mechanic
— now plays Sam, the owner of Paradise's Sparkles boutique.

Jon Polito — who played the Father in Kirk's film on "Gilmore Girls" — now plays Sal, owner of Sal's Dancey Pants on "Bunheads"
Gregg Henry — who played publishing giant Mitchum Huntzberger on that WB/CW
comedy-drama — now plays Rico, the burned-out surfer dude who runs Paradise's
bar / burger joint.
Chris Eigeman — who played Jason "Digger" Stiles, Lorelai's boyfriend
during Season Four of "Gilmore Girls" — played Conor, the director
of a play that Michelle & Fanny saw during its out-of-town try-out in LA.

Todd Lowe — who played Lane Kim's bandmate / husband, Zach — recently
appeared on "Bunheads" as Paradise's one-eyed plumber, Davis.
Biff Yeager — who played Tom (i.e. the Stars Hollows handyman who supervised the renovation of the Dragonfly Inn) — now plays Bob, the co-owner of Paradise's hardware store.
Alex Borstein — who played Drella, the rude harpist at the
Independence Inn as well as Miss Celine, Emily Gilmore's name-dropping
seamstress — appeared as the hooker who lived next door to Michelle in Las
Vegas in the "Bunheads" pilot.

And given that —
just this past week — Sean Gunn
showed up on "Bunheads" as Bash, an award-winning barista whose obsession
with creating the perfect blend of coffee for each individual customer rubs
Michelle the wrong way (especially when this ex-showgirl is just looking to
grab a quick cup of Joe so that she can then
back to Fanny's to teach a dance class) … Well, the arrival of this Kirk-like
character in Paradise sent Stars Hollows fans right over the moon.

So will Amy Sherman-Pallidino be hiring any other former
"Gilmore Girls" cast members to play new characters on
"Bunheads" ? Given that — just this past Friday — Amy learned that
ABC Family is ordering an additional eight episodes of this dramedy (which is
currently the No. 2 cable series in the 9 – 10 p.m. time slot on Monday nights
among women 18-34) … I'd have to say that this is a very distinct possibility.

So I ask all of your "Gilmore Girls" fans out
there: Which former Stars Hollow residents would you now like to see show up as
new characters on "Bunheads" when this ABC Family show returns with all-new
episodes in January of 2013 (FYI: Tonight's episode — "A Nutcracker in
Paradise" — which was originally supposed to be the Season One finale is
now being described as this show's Summer finale)? Judging by what I've reading
online, most "Gilmore Girls" fans would love to see either Scott
Patterson (Luke Danes) or Michael Winters (Taylor Doose) pop in Paradise as new
people. But what are your thoughts on this matter?

And speaking of tonight's episode … If you want to get some
sense of what all the fuss is about, "Bunheads" airs tonight on ABC Family
from 9 – 10 p.m. ET / PT.