‘Gilmore Girls’: Amy Sherman-Palladino Got 2 Questions From Network Execs About Lorelai and Rory
Network executives had “a lot” of questions for Amy Sherman-Palladino during the making of Gilmore Girls. During a 2025 PaleyFest LA event, the creator of the iconic 2000s TV show shared the “weird pushback” she got from network execs about Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) practically every week while bringing the series to the small screen.
Network execs called Amy Sherman-Palladino all the time about ‘Gilmore Girls’
Speaking at a PaleyFest LA event to celebrate her work on March 29, 2025, Sherman-Palladino reflected on the challenges of bringing Gilmore Girls to life. Between casting difficulties and a shoestring budget, she fielded questions from network execs.
“I got a call from the studio before the show aired, once a week,” she said at the 90-minute event dubbed The Amy Sherman-Palladino Multiverse (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Also in attendance to celebrate Sherman-Palladino were Gilmore stars Graham and Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore). So were The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alums Rachel Brosnahan (Miriam “Midge” Maisel), Alex Borstein (Susie Myerson), and Luke Kirby (Lenny Bruce) as well as stars from Sherman-Palladino’s new show, Étoile (more on that later).
“They would call, and they would say, ‘Listen, [we] just want you to know, the network is very upset and disappointed with you and the work you’re doing,’” the Gilmore Girls creator went on.
Sherman-Palladino shared that the calls continued almost all the way through pre-production until she issued an ultimatum. Either fire her or stop calling. Spoiler: They chose to stop calling and sent her flowers when the Gilmore Girls pilot premiered.
“It was a very hard show because it was not a teen soap, which they sort of specialized in,” Sherman-Palladino said of The WB-turned-The CB. “And it was not genre, so it wasn’t Buffy [the Vampire Slayer].”
She got questions about Rory’s sex life and Lorelai’s parenting
Sherman-Palladino continued, saying the network notes she got centered around two questions: Rory’s lack of a sex life and Lorelai’s parenting.
“There was a lot of notes about, ‘Why isn’t Rory having sex?’ And like, because she’s in f***ing high school and not everyone blows someone in the bathroom. Weird pushback on things like that, things about, ‘Why won’t Rory have sex more?’”
Another element of the show that seemed to perplex the network was Lorelai’s parenting. “‘Why isn’t Lorelai being more of a mom?’” was a question she often got too. Her response at the time was simple. “I’m like, because that’s not what the show is,” the TV writer recalled.
Sherman-Palladino has a new show with ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Maisel’ alums premiering soon
Fans of Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Bunheads (RIP) get a taste of each in Sherman-Palladino’s new Amazon Prime Video original series Étoile. The collaboration with her husband, Daniel Palladino, features familiar faces. They include Gilmore Girls alum Yanic Truesdale (Michel Gerard) in addition to Maisel alums Kirby and Gideon Glick (Alfie).
As for the Bunheads element, Étoile is a drama about two struggling ballet companies in Paris, France, and New York. To turn things around, they trade dancers for a year, sending their Paris-based dancers to New York, and vice versa. Étoile premieres on April 24, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video.
