I know I’m a little late with this – I had a major term paper due this week – but the Gilmore Girls revival trailer is finally here! While I’m thoroughly excited, I have mixed feelings about it.
I have a feeling the series is about how Richard Gilmore (Lorelai’s father, Rory’s grandfather) dies (the actor, Ed Hermann passed away before the revival was made) and all three Gilmore women find themselves lost as tends to happen after losing a love one, and then them each finding new meaning in their lives. While I’m excited about traveling back to Stars Hollow, the whole subject of death and losing yourself could be rather depressing. Either way, I’m watching it on November 25th, I’m just hoping it’s not terrible.
In addition to this exciting release this week, it was announced today that NBC is considering reviving Will & Grace, and that Disney is reviving That’s So Raven. Part of me hears this news and thinks “can we not think of new material?” Why don’t we give new talent a try and see if we can tell new stories.
At the same time, though, I think this revival culture that’s going on is rather exciting. Being able to see where our favorite characters are now and what they’re doing is intriguing.
But if you think about the networks’ reasoning for creating the revivals, it’s rather smart. These are shows that people loved watching and had/have a huge following. Before any of these revivals were announced, there were podcasts dedicated to Gilmore Girls and the life of Stars Hollow, people would still laugh over Karen Walker’s burns, and Raven Baxter’s catch phrase “ya nasty” was still being repeated. Investing money in recreating these shows means that people would most likely watch them and the return on investment would be high. Unlike creating a brand new show, there wouldn’t be a barrier where people would have to learn about what the show is about and whether they’d enjoy it. People are already fans, so they’ll watch it. Easy money.
Except, the problem is, networks simply can’t create random garbage scenes and expect fans to buy-in to it. While there is a fanbase, the quality of the revival has to be high. For instance, if in the Gilmore Girls revival Luke and Lorelai are not married or together, fans would be rather angered by it. It took Luke and Lorelai five season to get together, but then they broke up twice and it wasn’t until the final episode of the last season they got back together for what we can only assume as for the last and final time. If they’re still playing this on again off again relationship ten years later, it would be infuriating. There would be no growth in the plot, so why should we watch? While reviving shows makes it easier for networks to get initial viewing, to sustain the viewership – i.e. getting fans to watch the entire season – requires them to still produce the high level quality of a show fans have come to know and love.
Overall though, big week for tv. Now how I’m going to watch it all while going to school and working I do not know….
