Gilmore Girls might have first aired more than two decades ago, but we still regularly find ourselves revisiting Stars Hollow and the lives of our favourite mother-daughter duo.
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The heartwarming comedy-drama came to an end after seven seasons before being revived by Netflix for a four-part miniseries almost a decade later. But why exactly did the show starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel get cancelled in the first place? And why were fans so disappointed with the four-part comeback? Keep reading to find out…
WATCH: Have you seen Netflix's Gilmore Girls revival series?
Viewers saw Lorelai and Rory go through new experiences, new relationships and a countless number of Friday night dinners throughout the show's original seven-year run between 2000 and 2007. However, the two leading ladies' contracts came to an end after seven seasons, meaning that they needed to be negotiated beyond that.
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As a result, while conversations took place behind the scenes, showrunner David S. Rosenthal planned a finale that "could serve as an ending or a beginning of a new chapter and a new season". Filming went ahead before anything was fully decided, meaning that the cast and crew of the show had no idea whether they were filming for the very final time.
The comedy-drama originally aired between 2000 and 2007
Sadly though, they were and they didn't have a final wrap party or an opportunity to say farewells to each other - or the show's beloved set on the Warner Brothers. Lauren explained that the possibility of returning fell through because "we were trying to find a way we [she and Bledel] could have a slightly easier schedule, and there was really no way to do that and still have it be Gilmore Girls."
Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel tried to negotiate their contracts but ended up walking away
The show ended with Lorelai and Luke's relationship back on after her spontaneous and short-lived marriage to Christopher came to an end. Rory, meanwhile, graduated from Yale and began her dream job at the cost of her relationship with boyfriend Logan, whose proposal she rejected.
However, it's worth mentioning that the finale was not exactly what creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had in mind. The show's mastermind and her co-showrunner husband, Daniel Sherman-Palladino, departed the show at the end of season six after their own contract negotiations with The CW broke down.
The show returned in 2016 with a new Netflix miniseries
The creative duo got their redemption when they penned their "ending" as part of the Netflix revival series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life which they were able to oversee. Amy admittedly has never watched the original ending, so concocted a storyline for her characters that fit in with what she originally planned for them - and ignored many of the events that went down in season seven that she did not like.
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However, the "full circle" moment that the creators had long teased to fans - Rory revealing to her mom that she had fallen pregnant - didn't land exactly right due to the time that had passed. Instead of being a fresh college graduate, Rory is a 30-something, and as a result, the moment doesn't bears any resemblance to Lorelai's own discovery that she was pregnant at 16.
While viewers have their own mixed feelings about how the original series ended, many believe it stays truer to Rory's persona and are very glad that the Sherman-Palladino's pregnancy storyline didn't feature in the original run - and we have to say we agree.
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