Lauren Graham: Gilmore Girls’ title may have kept it from being a hit
Lauren Graham says Gilmore Girls never really blew up in its original run—and points to the title itself as a reason some viewers stayed away.
On the October 6 episode of the podcast Hey Dude… The ’90s Called! with Christine Taylor and David Lascher, Lauren Graham revisited the early, scrappier days of Gilmore Girls. She said the show spent key seasons slotted against NBC’s “Must See TV” on Thursdays — the juggernaut night that included Friends — while airing on The WB, a network with far less reach than the Big Four at the time.
“It was not a hit show then,”
Graham added that the show’s current reputation as a cozy classic grew later, long after its week-to-week numbers were dwarfed by bigger-network competition. And she floated a reason some viewers may have skipped it back then: the title. With “Girls” up front, she said, people could assume it was narrowly aimed at teens or only women, when the series itself was juggling family dynamics, ambition, romance, and rapid-fire pop-culture references.
Stars Hollow on film
Max is assembling the first authorized Gilmore Girls documentary, an as-yet-untitled project looking back more than 25 years after the show’s debut. Bonni Cohen is directing, with Warner Horizon Unscripted Television and R.J. Cutler’s This Machine producing.
Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer Daniel Palladino will anchor the insider story of how the series outgrew its early expectations. Graham is confirmed to participate, with additional cast and crew to be announced.
The filmmakers are promising fan treasures that never made it to air, including:
- Unseen outtakes
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Original script pages
The documentary does not have a premiere date yet.