Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino: Gilmore Girls, Bunheads and Mrs. Maisel

By Scott Ryan and David Bushman

Smart, quirky, female-centric, drenched in pop-culture references—Amy Sherman-Palladino's singular TV voice has won her legions of fans and critical appreciation over the past two decades, thanks to shows like "Gilmore Girls," "Bunheads," and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Sherman-Palladino—the first woman ever to win Emmy Awards for both comedy writing and directing in a single year—may write about different decades and milieus, but her sensibility is unique and unmistakable throughout. Her greatest contribution may be her pantheon of unforgettable female characters, including Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy), Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster), Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), and Miriam "Midge" Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan). In The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino, writers from different walks of life—scholars, critics, writers, comedians, dancers—take us on a journey through the worlds of these characters, and how they have influenced their own lives. This is the second book in "The Women of" series, after The Women of David Lynch, published in June 2019. This unique series, covers great female characters in television and film.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fayetteville Mafia Press
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949024050

Scott Ryan

SCOTT RYAN has been teaching Earth Science at Ardsley Middle School in Ardsley, New York, for almost 20 years. His teaching career spans almost 30 years and includes teaching Earth Science, Science 8, Biology, and Physics. He resides in Ossining, New York.

Book preview

Notes

Table of Contents

1. Credits

2. The Series of Amy Sherman-Palladino

3. Introduction: Three Pilots + One Funny Girl = Multitudes of Amys By Scott Ryan

Part 1: Our Little Corner of the World

4. Growing Up Gilmore By Hannah Klein

5. The Jewishness of Midge Maisel By Darren Richman

6. But None of That Means You Shouldn’t Try: Bunheads, Perseverance, and My Love of Teaching By E. J. Kishpaugh

7. The Marvelous Ms. Hirsch By Noelle P. Wilson

Part 2: Rory and the Final Four

8. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Gilmore Girls By Célèste Fohl

9. All Her Brains and Talents: The Failure of Rory Gilmore By Constance Grady

10. Fandom and Final Words By Lynn Messina

11. Rory Gilmore, the Patron Saint of Good Girls By Jessica Pan and Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Part 3: Mothers and Daughters

12. Rose Goes to Paris, Mrs. Weissman Stays Home: How Rose Weissman Defines and Defies the 1950s American Housewife Ideal By Radhika Mitra

13. Bunheads’ Michelle Simms: An Unlikely Inspiration in Paradise By Claire Kretzschmar

14. The Indian Mothers and Daughters of Amy Sherman-Palladino By Proma Khosla

15. Thank God Midge Maisel Doesn’t Mother Much By Alison Star Locke

16. Watching Gilmore Girls, Watching Ourselves: A Storyteller Comes Home By Elisa Lorello

17. Appendix: Interview with Kaitlyn Jenkins By E. J. Kishpaugh

18. More to Read

Buy The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino in Hard Copy form.

Buy The Women of David Lynch in Hard Copy form.

For all our daughters.

The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino

© 2019 FMP

All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without the authors’ permission is strictly forbidden. This book is not affiliated with any movie or television studio. All photos and/or copyrighted material appearing in this book remain the work of its owners.

Book designed by Scott Ryan

Front & back cover design: Mark Karis

Cover photo purchased from Shutterstock

Inside original art: Wayne Barnes

Edited by David Bushman

Special Thanks to E. J. Kishpaugh

Concept by Scott Ryan

Published in the USA by Fayetteville Mafia Press

in association with Scott Ryan Productions

Columbus, Ohio

Contact Information

Email: [e-mail]

Website: fayettevillemafiapress.com

ISBN: 978-1-949024-04-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-949024-05-0

All pictures are for editorial use only. The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino is a scholarly work of review and commentary only and no attempt is made, or should be inferred, to infringe upon the copyrights or trademarks of any corporation. Photos courtesy of Kaitlyn Jenkins, Caroline Hirsch, Noelle P. Wilson, Amazon, Netflix, Warner Bros., and ABC Family.

The Series of Amy Sherman-Palladino

Gilmore Girls (2000)

Bunheads (2012)

Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life (2016)

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017)

A feather in her cap: Amy Sherman-Palladino speaks at a screening with her husband, Daniel. (photo courtesy of Amazon)

Women are supposed to be mothers. It’s supposed to be natural, right? It comes with the tits—the equipment is preinstalled. Midge Maisel in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Because You Left (2017) written by Daniel Palladino.

People told me daughters were harder. I just thought it was because they could get pregnant. Fanny Flowers in Bunheads You Wanna See Something? (2013) written by Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Mom . . . I’m pregnant. Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Fall (2016) written by Amy Sherman-Palladino.

How many times has a friend told you that you just have to watch the new show they are watching? In this new age of streaming, we’re all called upon to watch everything that everyone we know is watching. It just so happens that every show you are not watching is The. Best. Show. Ever. Once you agree that you will watch the show they are suggesting—on a channel you’ve never heard of, which costs you another $19.99 a month—they add one more piece of information. Oh, you have to get through the first ten episodes before it gets good. But then it’s really, really good. So not only are you losing time and money, you have to take part in a Stockholm Syndrome experiment for a television show you never wanted to watch in the first place.

Most shows do not come out of the gate completely developed. Every once in a while there is a television show that actually is quality right from the pilot episode. Think: Lost, ER, or Punky Brewster. For a writer to strike gold once is a marvel. To do it twice would be a miracle. To do it thrice . . . well, then you’d have to be producer/writer/director Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Part 1: Three Pilots

Three times Amy Sherman-Palladino has written a pilot that states the series’ intention from the very first moment. She doesn’t need ten episodes to let you know what her plan is; she needs ten seconds. Here’s a look at those first seconds of the three series this book will cover: Gilmore Girls (2000-2007; 2016), Bunheads (2012-2013), and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-present).

The pilot (photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

Gilmore Girls (2000) - Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter

Fade in on a small church steeple, and then pan down to an American flag with a town gazebo blurred in the background. The camera passes a sign that welcomes viewers to a town named Stars Hollow. Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), in a stylized hat, walks across the street to the refrains of There She Goes by Sixpence None the Richer, and she enters a diner called Luke’s. She sees a man behind the counter and smiles. Is this a look of affection? Yes. Is this her love interest? Unknown. Then she pulls an empty coffee cup into frame and embraces the cup. We see Luke (Scott Patterson) is pouring coffee. Finally we understand what her affection is directed toward . . . coffee. She approaches the counter and says, Please, Luke, please, please, please. Lorelai needing something from Luke (and it usually is coffee) in the setting of a small town, that pretty much equals Gilmore Girls.

The pilot (photo courtesy of ABC Family)

Bunheads (2012) - Directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino

A disco ball spins and the camera pans down to a Vegas stage with dancing girls in skimpy outfits wearing red headdresses bigger than life. The Jet Set from the Marc Shaiman musical Catch Me if You Can plays as they dance. Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster) steps forward, and we stay with her until she moves to the back of the kick line as a new group of dancers takes center stage. Michelle says to the dancer next to her, Sure, we dance our asses off for two hours, then five minutes from the end they walk out, stand there, flash their boobs, and bring the house down. A Broadway show tune, dancing, and dialogue from Michelle Simms that cuts to the chase pretty much equals Bunheads.

The pilot (photo courtesy of Amazon)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017) - Directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino

The screen is black and we hear a clink that could only be a champagne glass asking for someone to make a toast. Sharp cut to Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) in a wedding dress standing in front of a silver microphone. She says, Who gives a toast at her own wedding? . . . Who does that? I do. She proceeds to do a stand-up routine at her own wedding. Midge, identified as a wife, is doing stand-up, and we are only ten seconds into the series. That pretty much equals the Emmy-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Those are the first seconds of her three series.¹ We have a woman at a microphone, a woman dancing, and a woman clutching a coffee cup. For a writer to know exactly what they want from the very first shot and have it still be relevant when viewers see the final shot is rarefied ground in television. Sadly, the most remarkable thing about all three beginnings might be that the first line of dialogue is spoken by the female lead. Astounding for television, but par for the course for Sherman-Palladino. Her female characters are strong, well-defined, and not to be toyed with. I’d rather run into any of the hooligans on The Walking Dead before I would stand between Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop) and an antique chair at an auction. I’d much rather tangle with Tony Soprano than keep a secret from Rose Weissman (Marin Hinkle). Every spaceship captain on any Star Trek series was extremely lenient with ensigns being late to the bridge compared to how Fanny Flowers (Kelly Bishop) was with her ballet students.

The women of Amy Sherman-Palladino are not to be trifled with. Not only will they not be ignored, they will reference which movie Glenn Close said that line of dialogue in, and then do a bit about the dangers of having to live with the long-term effects of getting an eighties tight-curl perm after making the hasty decision to copy the Fatal Attraction hairdo. These characters are educated and know how to use it. This fast-paced, pop-culture-littered banter is a major part of each series. Sherman-Palladino knows that not every reference will land with every viewer, but when it does work, it will work perfectly for that specific viewer. It’s why her series have all become cult favorites in the new millennium. You wait and see what happens when Netflix tries to remove Gilmore Girls from its programming content. (I don’t even want to wonder what kind of knitted hats protesters will come up with.)

Lauren Graham, Sutton Foster, and Rachel Brosnahan are the leading ladies. (photos courtesy of Warner Bros., ABC Family, and Amazon)

Sherman-Palladino also is a big fan of drastically changing her main characters’ lives as soon as we meet them. She balances introducing her newly created world with giving her main characters a hurdle that will take several seasons to clear. When Lorelai walks into Luke’s diner begging for that cup of coffee, she has not been financially indebted to her parents for years. By the end of the episode, they are not only funding her daughter’s education, they are her Friday dinner mates for the foreseeable future. When Michelle is dancing as a Vegas showgirl, she has no idea that within a matter of days she will be the widow of a man whom she didn’t really know, and move to a town to live with his dance-instructor mother. (Yes, all that plot is covered in just forty-five minutes.) Midge starts her journey as a bride who is perfectly happy to make brisket in order to secure her husband a chance at a spot at an open-mic night. By the end of that first hour, Midge has lost her husband, performed her first stand-up routine, flashed an audience, and landed herself in jail. No wonder everyone talks so fast in a Sherman-Palladino script; they have a lot of ground to cover.

Each series also has a direct connection to motherhood, as seen by the three quotes chosen to begin this essay. In the world of Sherman-Palladino, you can run, talk, or dance as fast as you want, but you can never outdistance the chains of family. The struggles of having a mother and being a mother are something that Lorelai and Midge have to deal with directly and Michelle tangentially. A good writer will always circle around the same story. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, We tell our two or three stories - each time in a new disguise - maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen.² Sherman-Palladino is no different. Each show lives within the idea of balancing the main character’s life while caring for a child in direct opposition as to how they were raised by their parents.

Lorelai, who felt her mother was never a friend to her, makes her child, Rory (Alexis Bledel), her best friend. Michelle isn’t even speaking to her mother when she becomes a maternal figure to a group of teenage ballet dancers. Midge has seen how her mother lived only for her husband and children. Midge pivots in the other direction and puts her dream of becoming a stand-up front and center—over motherhood, family, and even love. Each character is driving toward and away from the family that created them.

It is fun to look for the similarities among the three series born from the world of Sherman-Palladino. So many of the same actors are used over and over again. Tarantino has Samuel L. Jackson. David Lynch has Laura Dern. Amy Sherman-Palladino has Alex Borstein, Kelly Bishop, and Liza Weil. This creates a nexus between each series, and makes it all feel like one big acting troupe. We can imagine that the actors are just putting on a show in the barn, as if they were Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. In fact, there is another Broadway person who connects all three series, it’s one of my favorite things in the world, or should I say one of my favorite people. And you know, rumor has it that people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.

Part 2: One Funny Girl

A girl ought to have a sense of humor, that’s one thing you need for sure. When you’re a funny girl. Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1967) lyrics by Bob Merrill.

There are references and themes that run through every artist’s work. An Amy Sherman-Palladino script will have a ton of pop culture references. Every viewer will lock in on their favorite. One that she goes back to often is legendary singer/actor/director Barbra Streisand. Each series references Barbra Streisand. It isn’t surprising that Streisand is a figure whom Sherman-Palladino would be drawn to. Both women are comics, writers, and directors.

Sherman-Palladino often references Funny Girl, the vehicle that made Streisand The Greatest Star. In Funny Girl, Streisand played real-life Broadway comic-actress Fanny Brice. She uses comedy to tackle the struggles in her life. She approaches every painful situation with a zinger, a wink, or a song. Sounds like a blueprint for all three main characters. They all use their sense of humor to negotiate a tough world. They also are funny not just for the home audience. They are actually funny in the episodes to the other characters. Lorelai is always making Sookie laugh. Midge breaks through to Benjamin in a long car ride with her humor. Michelle can’t stop using her sense of humor to try to

Reviews for Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino

[pomo58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino, edited by Scott Ryan, is a fascinating look at the women in three series (Gilmore Girls, Bunheads, and Mrs. Maisel) told from different perspectives. I am not familiar with Bunheads except to know of it, I came late to Gilmore Girls but really like Mrs Maisel. So being a diehard fan is not a requirement for enjoying this book.I have read several books of late that focus on the reception of an artist or work(s) rather than strictly the formation and/or creation. These run the gamut from fairly academic works to ones aimed more at the popular readership. This book has a nice mix while still being aimed at the fans and not the scholars or critics. The essays discuss what it was like watching Gilmore Girls while an adolescent, through some theories about what Mrs Maisel or the Gilmore Girls really meant and accomplished in popular culture. Maybe "in popular culture" isn't correct, it might be more accurate to say what they accomplished in helping people grow into the adults they became. While I do come at this more from an academic perspective, I am also reading it as a fan. I think for those who were really big fans of any or all of these shows this will be both nostalgic and make you think about what the shows meant. Probably even argue with the viewpoints in a couple of the essays. And those are the best kind, the ones that strike a chord and you want to either dispute or add to the argument in the essay.These are not academic essays so they are readily accessible to any fan of the shows. That said, they do more and go deeper than just talking about what they meant to each writer. Each essay has substance. I found myself every bit as interested in reading about Bunheads as I was the shows I knew. The ideas, while specifically about the shows, are also about viewership and fandom, and how even the most basic television show can have lasting impact.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.