This ‘Gilmore Girls’ Star Was ‘Shocked’ the Cast Didn’t Get Any Emmy Nominations
For many fans, Gilmore Girls remains a re-watchable classic. However, the TV series was never given the honor of a primetime Emmy. For one Gilmore Girls cast member, that snub by the Academy was “shocking.”
‘Gilmore Girls’ is still relevant in 2020
The New York Times recently reported on the “enduring” appeal of Gilmore Girls. (Especially in 2020, AKA quarantine-bingeing times). That’s something “few would have predicted in 2000,” when the show first aired. The publication explained:
It was never a breakout hit during its 7-year run. It never found its way to a mass audience, was never nominated for a major Emmy, never received the gotta-watch-it buzz of other shows that arrived around the same moment.
Amongst 7 seasons of the show, the season 4 episode “Festival of Living Art” is the only one to take home an Emmy. The series won for the statue for “Outstanding Makeup.” However, that remains the sole win — and nomination — from the Television Academy.
‘Gilmore Girls’ cast member Scott Patterson was ‘continually shocked’ by the 7-season-long snub
We’ve reported before on the egregious Gilmore Girls Emmy snub. The lack of nominations surprised the die-hard fans — but also cast members from the show. Scott Patterson, who played Lorelai’s love main interest, Luke Danes, on the series, told The New York Times that there was some level of expectation of a nod from the Emmys. But that was never met.
“We were continually shocked that we were overlooked by the Academy and never really got any nominations for the show, or individual acting,” Patterson explained. “Not that we were doing it to get awards, but you want to be recognized. You want to be given credit.”
However, it wasn’t just Patterson who felt that way. Basically everyone on the Gilmore Girls set felt the same. But particularly when it came to the show’s fast-talking star, Lauren Graham.
“The cast and crew were especially dismayed that Graham never received the Emmy nomination they believed she richly deserved,” The Times reported.
“I can’t even think of anyone else who could do what she did,” Sheila Lawrence, one of the Gilmore Girls writers, told the paper. “And I hate that she wasn’t acknowledged with some hardware for that.”
Even though Graham never got an Emmy nomination for the WB series, she did get nominated for a Golden Globe, according to IMDb. The Screen Actors Guild and the Television Critics Association Awards also nominated Graham for Gilmore Girls; however, she didn’t win at any of those events.
Why did the series never win a Primetime Emmy?
Why was Gilmore Girls snubbed by the Emmy Awards for 7 seasons? The fact that it was on the same network as teeny-bopper soaps like One Tree Hill and Dawson’s Creek didn’t help anything. Not to mention, it had some tough competition against major network shows. As The New York Times posited:
Perhaps partly because it was on the fledgling WB, where it faced off against Nielsen behemoths like Friends and American Idol, and partly because of its reputation as a ‘girlie’ show in an era that celebrated middle-aged masculine antiheroes like Tony Soprano, Gilmore Girls never received much awards attention.
The fact that the word “girls” was even in the title also could have (sadly) led many higher-ups in the industry (who, as we know, were/are mainly men) to write it off.
“Indeed, some Gilmore veterans blamed sexism for the show’s second-class status,” the Times confirmed. “Series about the ordinary triumphs and heartaches of women have until quite recently been treated like they are of inherently limited interest.”
Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has gone on to win several Emmys for her Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel –which feels like some kind of vindication. Graham’s snubs, however, still sting.
