Why The ‘Gilmore Girls’ Network Was Pressuring the Writers: Rory’s ‘Gotta Have Sex’
Many Gilmore Girls fans will never forget the season 4 finale. Luke and Lorelai have a lovely moment together — but in a more controversial scene, Rory and a married Dean sleep together. Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has explained that The WB, the network on which Gilmore aired, was pressuring them to write a sex scene for Rory for a long time.
The ‘Gilmore Girls’ Season 4 finale — when Rory finally had sex
At the 2015 ATX Festival reunion, the cast and creative team behind the beloved show shared stories from their time working on Gilmore Girls.
For example, Sherman-Palladino referenced the “big” conversation that the writers had about when Rory was finally “going to have sex.”
“We weren’t trying to make a statement,” she told the Austin TV festival crowd. “We were really trying to play the truth of who she was.”
Rory was unique from many other characters her age on television at the time. It’s not that she never thought about, or talked about sex, but her main focus was doing well in school. (And maybe, reading as many books as possible.)
When it comes to having sex for the first time, Sherman-Palladino explained: “It’s a decision she’s not going to make lightly — or I didn’t want her to get drunk at a party.”
The ‘Gilmore Girls’ creator knew it would happen with Dean
Gilmore Girls didn’t treat sex like other series on the same network — such as One Tree Hill or Dawson’s Creek.
The show’s quirky, unique world (and Rory’s bookish innocence) is what many fans love most about it. But, at the time the show aired, The WB was metaphorically tapping its wristwatch when it came to Rory’s sex life beginning.
“It got to the point where the studio and the network were like, ‘seriously she’s gotta have sex,’” Sherman-Palladino revealed at the 15-year anniversary event.
Sherman-Palladino, along with her husband and fellow Gilmore Girls writer/director Daniel Palladino, finally gave in and wrote the episode: the season 4 finale.
When the time did come, Sherman-Palladino was adamant about how it would go down.
“When we did our scene, I wanted it to be Dean, and I wanted them not to be together at that time,” the Gilmore creator shared.
“That was painful for me,” Palladino added at ATX.
Cast member Jared Padalecki on that iconic season 4 episode
In 2016, Sherman-Palladino, Alexis Bledel, and Jared Padalecki spoke to Entertainment Weekly about that season 4 finale scene.
One glaring detail from the memory of filming it? The bed in question was unnaturally tiny.
“… I remember standing in that room saying, ‘There’s no f*cking way Jared and her fit in that bed,’” the Gilmore Girls creator told EW.
“My feet definitely were off it,” Padalecki confirmed.
“In the outtakes, I fell off that bed a couple of times,” Bledel added.
Still, the tiny bed is part of what made the moment work, Padalecki believes.
“It works for the scene because it was supposed to be awkward,” he explained.
