‘Gilmore Girls’: Lauren Graham Once Wondered Why Luke and Lorelai Didn’t Have More PDAs, but the Answer Made Sense
Gilmore Girls got a lot of mileage out of Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham). Even when they got together, they weren’t the most affectionate couple. Graham wanted to show them expressing more public displays of affection, but creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s reason for holding back made sense.
Graham and Sherman-Palladino were on a Television Critics Association panel for Gilmore Girls in 2005. Here’s what they said about Graham’s expectations and Sherman-Palladino’s reasoning.
Lauren Graham thought Luke and Lorelai would be more kissy
Will they or won’t they is the hallmark of many TV shows. Usually, once they do, the TV couple gets very explicitly romantic. It certainly happened for Ross and Rachel on Friends. So, that’s what Graham expected on Gilmore Girls.
“One part of the Luke and Lorelai relationship that I expected to change was I expected Luke and Lorelai to be more like, ‘Goo-goo ga-ga, Honey, mwah-mwah,’” Graham said. “And I even said in some episodes, I was like, ‘Shouldn’t we — shouldn’t he kiss me good-bye? He’s like treating me the same,’ in a way, like in public anyway.”
Lauren Graham quickly learned ‘Gilmore Girls’ wasn’t like that
Graham got her answer right away, and she understood and agreed.
“It was said to me, which is a good point, that one of the things that’s important about this relationship is that the basic nature of it doesn’t really change,” Graham said. “He’s still kind of gruff and how he is. And they tease each other, and I think it might be sickening to see them together in bed or you see them having more intimacy, but essentially what they have always liked about their contentious kind of friendship stays the same.”
Amy Sherman-Palladino didn’t change ‘Gilmore Girls’ by getting Luke and Lorelai together
Sherman-Palladino was behind that explanation. She continued to explain why getting Luke and Lorelai together wouldn’t change the inherent qualities of the characters on Gilmore Girls.
“Well, I always felt like a key to getting them together is keeping them exactly the same people,” Sherman-Palladino said. “Because a lot of times people worry that the conflict is going to go out of a relationship because suddenly they’re in love. But if anything, love usually adds more conflict because you’re still the same person, but now you’re trying to mesh who you are with somebody else. So I felt like it’s very important that Luke and Lorelai can still be Luke and Lorelai. That’s how we keep the relationship going. If all of a sudden it was this very soft, smushy, you know, music swells, birds flying by, flowers drifting, after a while you’re all like, ‘Agh — what’s on American Idol?”
That explanation satisfied Graham.
“Once I kind of understood it, I really liked that about it because you don’t want it to be too saccharine,” Graham said. “I think that’s one of the things we avoid successfully is moments that make you go [wretch].”
