Newsgroup: it.fan.tv.buffy
Titolo: [OT] La cancellazione è il male peggiore? No.

C'è di peggio che essere cancellati, per un telefilm. Può succedere 
infatti che il network... cacci il creatore. E questo è successo con 
Gilmore Girls. Amy Sherman-Palladino e il marito Daniel Palladino non 
hanno avuto il loro contratto rinnovato, mentre il cast sì. Quindi 
l'anno prossimo ci sarà un Gilmore Girls apocrifo.
Attenzione, nell'intervista c'è un (possibile) spoiler ENORME sul finale 
della sesta stagione. Se si rivelasse vero, e tenuto conto che la storia 
poi non evolverà come avrebbe dovuto, la cosa è ancora più terribile.
Una cancellazione sarebbe stata una manna dal cielo, piuttosto, così gli 
autori avrebbero potuto *concludere* la storia a modo loro. Anche se in 
maniera affrettata, come Angel, sarebbe stato mille volte meglio.
Team Palladino: The Interview
I'm going to dispense with the fancy introductions just this once and
cut right to the chase: I just hung up with exiting Gilmore Girls
show-runners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino and here's the
complete Q&A, raw and uncensored. I'm anxious to hear what you think.
Ausiello: So, let's start with the obvious question: Why are you 
leaving?
Amy: Oh my god! Nobody told me! I just bought new curtains!
Ausiello: I was hoping this was all just a big punking.
Amy: Ashton Kutcher is standing behind me.
Dan: The short answer really is that we just could not come to terms
with the studio for a new contract.
Amy: And we tried. We went to them very early â€” what was it, January? 
â€”
to say, "Let's talk about this now."
Ausiello: Well, let's get into the longer version of the story, shall 
we?
Amy: Oh, you're adorable.
Ausiello: The word on the street is that you guys wanted a two-year
pickup. True?
Amy: I don't think pickup is the right word, because this was a personal
deal; this had nothing to do with the show. Our deal ends, or ended,
already. Basically, what the f--- am I doing in editing? I should be
home. So, we, personally as writers individually did not have a deal
going forward. The show is picked up and the actors have a deal but we
didn't have a deal. It wasn't so much about a pickup. We have gone
year-to-year-to-year, and this year we decided that this charade is
ridiculous. We want to be able to be around to protect the show for next
year, the year after, for however long the show is up and running.
Dan: We were doing one-year contracts for the last two years and we felt
like...
Amy: It's very exhausting to do a one-year contract.
Dan: We felt like we wanted to be able to see more than 300 days into
the future; we felt like we had earned that. And that was definitely one
of our points. We wanted to play a significant role on Gilmore Girls for
at least two more years, because as Amy has told you before, we feel
like this show... it can weave and bob and change and mutate and keep
going, because it's about family, it's about relationships, and it could
keep going for two, three, who knows how many years.
Amy: [And] they have to launch a new network. They need product. Maybe
they'll be very lucky and they'll have like 12 hit shows right off the
bat this year, but we sort of felt like... we find ourselves in the
position every year of doing this. Every year, it's like, "Oh, it's the
last year! One more year! Come back for one more year!" And it's like,
you know, kids, don't tell me one more year anymore. I'm so tired of
hearing one more year. It's exhausting. I firmly believe that as long
as... I mean, Lauren Graham, every show she does something different.
She grows more as an actress. These actors aren't done with their
journey yet. And we feel like, sure, maybe it's the last year, but
chances are, if it's a solid lead-in, if it does good numbers, if it
helps them launch something, why wouldn't they want another year? That's
not insane.
Ausiello: From the studio's standpoint, the cast isn't committed for an
eighth year. So, why would they go ahead and give you guys a two-year
deal without a guarantee that any of the actors will be back?
Amy: Because we're special. Well, but you also get development. It's not
like they're paying us to sit around and have cocktails. Because,
believe me, if I was asking them to pay me to sit around and have
cocktails, I'd understand them being a little upset. Look, it's
business. Every time you pick up the trades and you read that some
show-runner is getting a two-year deal, that show could be canceled the
following year, and then that deal continues. Also, deals have
options... there are all sorts of things that go into deals. What we
were asking for was not crazy. It was not insane. It was not the moon.
It was really about, frankly, protecting the show and about keeping us
around so that as the show goes forward they don't have to panic every
year, "Well, how do we move the show forward and who's going to be at
the helm?" It would allow us to plan for one year, it would allow us to
plan for two years. You know, a big part of making new deals with the
actors would be telling them what that second year would be. Telling
them what their stories will be. Telling them what their lives would be
like. That's all stuff that we could have provided for 'em.
Ausiello: If the show didn't end up coming back for that eighth season,
what would have happened?
Amy: Then we would have cleaned [Warner Bros. TV president] Peter Roth's
house for a year. For a whole year. I would do the laundry, and Dan
would dust the CDs.
Dan: We never even got that far into the process. They just wanted to
sign us for one year. We never got to talk about the logistics. We just
sort of hit a wall with that request.
Amy: My biggest frustration, actually, was the fact that there was no
dialogue. It was like we went to them and said, "This is what we would
like," and they came back and said, "This is what we'll give you â€” 
take
it or leave it." There was no chance for Dan and I and the studio to
talk about what any of that would mean. And that's a little sad, a
little frustrating, but you know what? It's business. They have a
business model they need to stick to here and we understand that.
Ausiello: When I spoke to you guys last year, Amy, you said you
conceived Gilmore as a seven-year show, ending with Rory's graduation.
Did you change your mind?
Amy: It's not that. I conceived this show to be able to go seven years,
because that's the whole point of conceiving a show. To me, if you're
going to pitch a show and it can't go seven years, go back to the
drawing board and figure out a different pitch. So, for me, if you're
going to end the show at Year 7, that's fine, that is great. It would
have been great to end at Year 7. It would have been, frankly, great to
end at Year 6, because we could have found an end this year.
Dan: But we wanted to break Bonanza and Gunsmoke's record.
Amy: Yeah! Also, when you look at 7th Heaven being around for 10 years,
there's no reason this show couldn't have gone on for 10 years. You
know, if I felt like the show was just this train wreck, if I felt like
the actors were sloughing off, if I felt like people were asleep at the
wheel, it would've been different. But when you see stuff happening, and
when scenes and moments happen that you didn't think could happen
before, and when you add a kid like Matt Czuchry to the show and all of
a sudden it brings in different layers and different stories and
different textures, it's like, it doesn't have to end. And I'm not
saying that next year won't be the last year. It could be or it could go
on. But from a business standpoint, us doing year-to-year deals at this
point in our careers did not make any sense. It just didn't make any
sense. And, frankly, it's very stressful for me every year not to know,
"Do I end it this year? Do I not end it this year? What do I do?" Which
has been the way it's been every single freakin' year.
Ausiello: From the fans' POV, you've been with the show for six years,
next year could be the final year, you have the chance here to wrap
things up in a nice bow, tell this whole story, give everyone closure,
the whole thing. When it became clear that the studio wasn't going to
budge on the two-year deal, did you every consider going, "Look, screw
it. We're going to stick around for this last year anyway. We're going
to make it a great year. We're going to send the show out on a high 
note."
Amy: Honey, there were many other issues that weren't about the two
years. There were many production issues that we simply, physically
could not continue the show without certain production concessions from
the studio. And that, frankly, is a reality also.
Ausiello: Can you say what any of those were?
Dan: For the six years, we've been working seven days a week, 'cause we
knew all aspects of the show. We'd break every story, we'd edit, this
last year we directed seven between ourselves, we have written
90-something scripts.
Amy: We also take a pass at all scripts that go out and by the time our
season ends, by the time I'm done editing and by the time I'm done with
sound mixes and everything like that, it's mid-May. We start back June
1. We work through every holiday, Christmas, Thanksgiving... it's been
quite a load.
Dan: So, having done that for six years, we really wanted to expand our
personnel base. We wanted more writers, more bodies in that writers
room, we wanted a director on staff, which I think every other hourlong
show has except for us. Not having that director on staff means Amy and
I have to be down on stage more supervising other directors, which leads
to the seven-days-a-week thing. So we were needing more personnel. And
we never got around to convincing people that that was absolutely
necessary.
Amy: And part of the reason we went to the studio so early in the game,
is because we wanted to be able to go out and find writers then. And
find a director-producer then. So that everything would be in place the
following year. Because at this point in time, shows are being picked
up, people are putting their schedules together, the marketplace is
thin. Great people are being snapped up. And we went to the studio and
said, "Look, give us a chance to get everything in place now. Let's have
everyone sign up for next year. Let's start working on next year this
year." I think it's a couple of things. Businesswise, we spoiled them,
because why spend money on other writers when you don't have to?
[Laughs] There's a little bit of that. And I also think that everybody
thinks that everybody's playing poker, and who's going to blink first?
And we were like, very honestly, like, in an Andy Hardy movie going,
"No, seriously, we really want to put on a show in the barn if you just
listen to us, mister!" And it just never got to that point. And it
wasn't until things really came to a head that suddenly people realized,
"The insane people are actually serious about this."
Ausiello: Separating from the business part, how does it feel to be
passing the show off to some else before what could potentially be its
final year.
Amy: It's horrifying. It's like a freaking nightmare. And I know I speak
for Dan, too... well, maybe I don't but I am speaking for Dan now, if we
can't ensure the quality... Every year we've tried to push the bar
higher. For better or worse, whether people like it or don't like it, we
tried to make our stories more complex. We try and push the quality
higher. When we go on location we want to make more of that. We want to
do more interesting things. You know, this year we did our troubadour
thing, which has been a long time coming. We personally push everything
higher, and a lot of times in Year 6 or 7, a show-runner or show-runners
take steps back. Their lives are easier. And our lives only get harder.
And partially it's because we want to make things better and better and
better until there's no more better to make. But also, if we can't do
that as the kind of creative people we are, it's something.... I can't
be a part of something that I can't ensure that I'm giving 100 percent
anymore. If I'm saying, "I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I feel like I'm going
to flip out and be a Margot Kidder in the hedges with my teeth gone at
Episode 6 if I don't get some help," somebody should listen. Because,
seriously, me without my teeth is even scarier than me with my teeth. We
really wanted to be able to say, "Here's how we ensure the show â€” for
the life of the show." If it's next year or the year after, we can
ensure it. We have been begging for these things every single year, and
every single year it gets harder and harder and harder, and it got to
the point where it's like, "No. We've done a lot for you. We've done a
lot for you. We've done a lot for this network and we've done a lot for
this studio. We need you to do something for us. We need some relief. We
need more writers, we need a director-producer, we need to know that
this isn't the year that you get the last year of your show and I end up
drooling into a cup."
Dan: I was willing to give 110 percent, which is 10 percent more than 
Amy.
Ausiello: Let's talk about the $5 million figure that's being thrown
around. It sounds like they backed the Brink's truck up and you told
them to move it.
Amy: First of all, it was all in shekels. Ha! Ha! Shekels! It's a funny
word.
Dan: We would never comment on the specifics of money.
Amy: We were raised better than that.
Dan: I haven't even told my parents how much our house cost nine years
ago. We never talk about money. It's gauche, it's not classy. But having
said that, I can tell you that we've never been unhappy with what we've
been paid on this show.
Amy: Ever.
Dan: Ever. We were compensated very generously by the studio. What broke
this deal was not at all in any way shape or form about our 
compensation.
Amy: It was a nonissue.
Ausiello: Let's talk about the creative. I don't know how much you guys
read of what's out there, but there's been a rocky reception to some of
the stuff that's happened this season, specifically regarding Luke and
Lorelai and the return of Christopher. What is your reaction to what you
may or may not be hearing?
Amy: Look, we went through this in Season 4. We've been through this
before. People love you, they hate you, they love you, they hate you.
That's the nature of drama. We don't read a lot of that stuff because,
frankly, we don't have the energy to do that. I will say what I've said
before in this position, which is we've only done story lines that felt
to us like the true place to take the characters. I think that if you
don't grow and move you die. I've always felt that. Luke and Lorelai are
two very complex human beings. They are two people in their late
thirties who, for some reason, have never comingled with anyone, never
lived with anyone, never been married. And that kind of person brings
baggage to a relationship. If you ignore that baggage and say, "Now
they're in love and happy and they're skipping around the town square
and everything's delightful," then I think you're doing a disservice to
the characters and the story line and, in the end, I think we'd be
getting slammed for, "Oh, Luke and Lorelai are so boring! All they do is
skip in a circle now." I think that no matter what you're going to do,
it's going to go up, it's going to go down. I feel that Lauren Graham
and Alexis Bledel have done some of the best work of their careers this
year. And I think they deserve story lines that take them to new places.
We have a responsibility to our actors who are here 24 hours a day, who
can't eat a pretzel because you have to be perfect and thin and gorgeous
in front of the camera, and who have never let us down. Who have never
stopped committing to the stories. And if they're going to do that then
we've got to make sure that the stories are digging deeper, are getting
more complex, are pushing forward, otherwise everybody will just sort of
take a nap. While I never like people to be upset, especially our fans,
because our fans have been so unbelievably loyal to us and have kept us
where we are now... I mean we're up against the biggest year of American
Idol ever and someone's still tuning in. So we're very fortunate to have
these people in our lives and hopefully they will, as they've done
before when they've gotten upset, hang around long enough to find out
that things that go up, go down, go sideways and eventually come back
around again. But I think I feel very comfortable in saying we did the
right thing for the characters that we've created and we stayed true to
who they were and we took them to new places. And that's also how you
extend the life of a show. If you just kept them static and everything
was happy and everybody was like, "Mama, look, a pretty tree!" How long
can you look at a f--king pretty tree before you want to kill yourself.
Ausiello: Based on the mail I've been reading, a lot of fans don't buy
the April obstacle. As you know, they were pissed off before she ever
appeared on the screen. And at the time, you asked them to have a little
faith. So, cut to April 24: April has driven a wedge between Luke and
Lorelai. If the spoilers are to be believed (SPOILER ALERT), Lorelai
will end up in Christopher's bed in the finale, and now you guys are
leaving. It looks like you asked them to have faith, then you split Luke
and Lorelai up, threw her in bed with Christopher and quit. What do you
have to say to that?
[Crickets]
Dan: I've got nothing to say to that.
Amy: Yeah, that's something. You know what, that's a good story line. We
should use that.
Dan: You know, in the very beginning of the series, in the first year
with Alexis Bledel with that beautiful baby face as Rory, if we had said
in three years we're going to have this girl lose her virginity to a
married man, our heads would've been chopped off, put on pikes and
paraded around Burbank.
Amy: Which Warner. Bros. is still negotiating for, by the way. [Laughs]
Dan: I'm basically repeating what Amy said: We try to follow the
characters and we also try and make it as interesting as possible. And
I've always felt with spoilers, a lot of people hear about a plot point
seven episodes down the line without taking into account what happens in
the episodes in between now and then. I've always sort of been
astonished by that. That's why I say if in the first year you would had
heard that [about Rory], a lot of people would have turned off their
televisions like, "This is going to turn into a soap opera." And that
was a very controversial story line for us.
Amy: People were not happy with that.
Dan: And even in our writers room we had a lot of heated discussion
about whether that's going to hurt the character and all that stuff, but
Amy and I felt like that's where she would go, that's where her heart
would go, that's her own flaw, because it wasn't the right thing to do.
And we followed through on that flaw. In Year 5, we showed the
ramifications of what happens when you sleep with your ex-boyfriend who
is married. What are the ramifications for that man's wife? What are the
ramifications for him? So, again, I completely agree with Amy that we've
always just tried to follow the characters, tried to keep it interesting
and always try to keep it true to the characters, and the people who
come after us are going to be doing the same thing.
Amy: And also I just really want to stress, we did not quit. Everything
we put in place this year, we put in place so that we could continue it
next year. And that's just the bottom line. This entire story line was
in place so that Dan and I could continue it next year. So, if anyone
thinks that I threw something at the fans â€” and why I would want to
throw something at the fans to make them upset when all they've done is
support the show â€” it's a little nutty. We threw the story line out
there because we knew where we were going next year. Dan and I knew.
Now, it's open now to many different places for the next crew that comes
in. I know it's not up to us to tell them where to go. They have to make
that decision on their own. But everything we put into place we put into
place fully expecting to continue it. This has been a very awful,
heartbreaking thing. When a deal falls apart because somebody wants a
gazillion dollars and I demand that my parking space be painted pink and
that every time I show up somebody sings "Once in Love with Amy" then
fine. Walk away. But what we asked for from the studio had nothing to do
with money. Dan and I never even got around to discussing price, because
we just wanted our other issues to be talked about first. We earned
that, we deserved that, we should've gotten that and we should've been
coming back next year. And that's my feeling. I'm very, very sorry we're
not. This show has been my heart and my soul for six years. I dragged
Dan away from a lovely room of boys doing fart jokes over at Family Guy
to come play with the girls and, between the two of us, we have kept
this show as fresh and alive and as hopping as it has been. And we have
done nothing but devote every single aspect of our lives for the last
six years to this show. We haven't had time to do anything else. We
haven't breathed anything else. It never occurred to us. And now that
it's over, we're very, very sad. But I need it very clear out there that
we did not walk away. And what we asked for was absolutely, ridiculously
within our rights to get. And I feel like without it, the show really
would've not done well next year because we just couldn't have
maintained this high-wire act that we've been on for this long.
Ausiello: What happens to your seven-year plan now? What happens to the
last two lines of the show that only you know?.
Amy: Well, I think that you got to look for another two lines now.
[Crickets]
Ausiello: So, there's no hope that your story...
Amy: It's not my story anymore, honey. No one's consulting me. No one's
talking to me. No one's asking me about anything next year. I don't know
what's in the budget. I don't know who's being hired. The minute the
studio decided they're moving on, they moved on. I'm out of the loop.
Ausiello: Well, I can tell you that Dave Rosenthal is taking over.
Amy: We know Dave Rosenthal. We hired him.
Ausiello: Is the show in good hands?
Amy: Dave's a great guy. He's a great guy. He has credits up the arse.
Ausiello: One of those credits is Good Morning, Miami. [Dan chuckles]
Amy: Well, he also did Spin City.
Dan: Don't look too closely at Amy's and my credits going back. You'll
find something in all of our rÃ©sumÃ©s. We hired David as an executive
producer, perhaps even in anticipation of either leaving or getting more
people so that we could delegate a little more, and it's really, really
worked. They'll have to hire a bunch of new people.
Amy: They need to hire some major writers because they don't have a
staff right now.
Ausiello: How should fans feel about Dave?
Amy: First of all, the fans are not focused on Dave Rosenthal. Dave came
to the show with us, he saw our style of story breaking. The fans should
take a step back, take a breath and give it a shot on its own merits.
It's really going to come down to how much support David gets, because
it's a very, very, very big job that he's inherited. He's inherited
everything that Dan and I do, and they've got to make sure to support
him and give him what he needs so that he can continue to focus on the
quality of the show.
Ausiello: Might you guys consult?
Amy: No.
Ausiello: Is there a possibility if next year is the last year you guys
could go back and do the finale.
Amy: There's been no talk of that.
Ausiello: But is it a possibility?
Dan: We're living a day at a time here, Mike.
Amy: Dude, I plan on being on crack in an hour. I'm going to be with
Whitney Houston in that bathroom of hers.
Ausiello: So you wouldn't rule out returning for the finale?
Amy: A lot of it's gonna depend on where the show goes next year. I have
very strong, emotional feelings about things â€” some are rational some
are not. [Laughs] It's going to be a whole different trip next year,
with different story lines that don't come out of my head, so I think
that's something that's really hard to talk about at this point.
Especially since I plan on being drunk the entire year.
Ausiello: How did the cast take the news?
Amy: They're all going to kill themselves. No, what are they going to
do? They're all sweet and they're all very supportive, and I'm sure
they're all surprised and a little freaked. We've been keeping them
apprised of everything. Months ago when we went to [Warner Bros.] and
nothing was happening, Lauren and I talked. I said, "Nothing's
happening. We've gone to them and we're hearing nothing." I don't think
this is a complete and utter shock, because they are my actors and my
first responsibility is to them. I certainly wouldn't want them shocked.
And then the minute it fell apart I went and talked to them directly and
told them. That was before we wrapped.
Ausiello: Are they concerned about next year?
Amy: We didn't have that talk. Our talk was more, "I love you, we'll
e-mail, we'll have drinks, now we can go shopping, I'll miss you," and
End Scene. And then Lauren had to get back on a plane and go to Virginia
because she's shooting a movie. Look, they know David. David's been
here. I think that any change is jarring to people. We've been together
as a group since the pilot. We went to Niagra Falls together. We're a
tight-knit group. It was not a group that was ready to be broken apart,
so I'm sure that's going to freak some people out. But they're pros. And
they're great. And they could read the phone book and people are going
to love it, because they're that good. So, I don't think that they
should be throwing up or shaking. I'll do that for all of them.
Ausiello: Will you watch the show next year?
(Crickets)
Dan: I... I... Yes. We will.
Ausiello: What would've happened next year in your plan?
Amy: I can't do that. Someone else is going to get stories going and I
can't...
Dan: And honestly, Mike, while we always have a notion of where we're
going, we're never 100 percent sure. We get into it in June as we're
starting each year, and we dive into all the complexities and think of
all the possible scenarios.
Amy: And we can't tell you because new people are coming in and it's not
cool for us to say, "Well, we would've done this!" Give these new guys a
shot. It's a hard show. I'm sure they'll be just as dedicated and care
just as much about it as we did. It could be the best year ever.
Ausiello: Can you at least tell me if, per your plan, Luke and Lorelai
would've gotten married?
Amy: I can't. I don't want to do anything like that. I just don't.
Because I don't know where they're going. They could have this great
story line planned out that has Luke and Lorelai joining the Russian
mafia and being on opposite sides of covert actions, which, by the way,
sounds pretty good. I may call Dave right now.
Dan: I don't like that story.
Amy: [Laughs] For me to go, "That's what I would've done, here's my
plan... " Look, that's something that I've got to deal with, man. I've
got to wake up and go, "S--t. That last scene that I was going to do?
Not going to happen." That's something that I have to deal with.
Ausiello: If next year is the final year, will you tell me what those
last two words were?
Amy: Yes, I will. I promise you. You've got my word.
Dan: They're sitting in a safe-deposit box in Switzerland.
Amy: Last four words, actually.
Ausiello: Really?
Amy: Yeah.
Ausiello: What are you going to do now?
Amy: Drugs. Lots of drugs. No, I'm working on a little something for MTV
with RJ Cutler that I'm kind of excited about that I've been trying to
find time for the last 185 years, and now I have time. And other than
that I think we're going to travel, and then Dan and I are going to
figure out what's next. We're going to do some movies, some TV and we're
going to keep ourselves out of the mall. We're going to keep really
busy. We've got to look at this not just from sadness, we've got to look
at it like, "S--t. All those little notebooks with story ideas we've
been jotting down for over six years? Now we get to do something with
them." Once I sober up, that's how I plan on looking at everything.
Ausiello: Should I assume you won't be working with Warner Bros. ever 
again?
Amy: Oh, honey, you can't say that. Who thought we would be at the WB
past Year 4? I have no f---in' idea what my life is about now. Warner
Bros. made a business decision. I don't think they made a creative
decision. We made a creative decision, and that's where we couldn't
meet. We were thinking from two different sides of our brains. 

l'anno prossimo ci sarà un Gilmore Girls apocrifo.
Non ci posso credere.
-- 
Jolan Tru, Filippo "Hytok" Simone
L'oracolo sampdoriano di Sunnydale
http://janeway.splinder.com/
http://lacasadeglielfi.altervista.org/
Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita 
http://www.x-privat.org/join.php

 poi non evolverà come avrebbe dovuto, la cosa è ancora più terribile.
scusate ma di quale telefilm si tratta? 

 scusate ma di quale telefilm si tratta?
Gilmore Girls.
-- 
Laz - [ 
http://www.dimensionedelta.net
 ]
[ 
http://www.josswhedon.it
 | 
http://www.miltoncaniff.net
 ]
"No power in the 'verse can stop me!" 

 Gilmore Girls.
in  Italia noto con l'orrido titolo "una mamma per amica"...