10 Little-Known Facts About Gilmore Girls Creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino

With her two hits Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino has made herself a household name thanks to her signature rapid-fire dialogue and dynamic witty characters. She can often be seen in an eccentric hat and her energy and emotions shown in interviews are electric and magnetic. Every television show has a showrunner and a majority of them are amazingly talented and great at their job, but only a few have made such an impression that people actually remember their name.

Amy Sherman-Palladino is one of those names, cementing herself among other great creators like Shonda Rhimes, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy. Her iconic characters are sure to be remembered for some time and she will hopefully bring fans even more amazing character over the years. But while fans of these shows might feel like they know her due to feeling so close to her characters, there are a lot of surprising facts about the Emmy-winning creator.

10 She Wanted To Be A Dancer Before Choosing Writing

Viewers of Bunheads or fans of Miss Patty might have picked up on Sherman-Palladino’s vast knowledge o the dance world and this is because before going on to pen everyone’s favorite characters, she had aspirations of dancing on stage. In fact, she had a real choice to make at the beginning of her career, when an exciting opportunity from both worlds was offered to her at the same time.

She had to choose between a job as a writer on the series Roseanne and being a member of an off-broadway tour of Cats. Each would have launched her career in their respective fields so it was a huge choice but thankfully for her fans, she chose Roseanne.

9 Her first Writing Gig Was Roseanne

Speaking of Roseanne, many don’t even realize that the seasoned writer and producer started out as a writer on the sitcom. Compared to her own content, Roseanne’s world certainly feels different from Stars Hollow and the 1950’s America that Midge lives in, but if viewers looked hard enough they would see some of Sherman-Palladino shining through the characters.

A good example is in the episode “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home” in season 6, where the grief that sisters Roseanne and Jackie feel after their father passes parallels that of Emily and Lorelai in the Gilmore Girls revival. She wrote on the show for 4 seasons and her skills really helped elevate the show. She wrote many of the show’s best episodes and even writing an Emmy Nominated episode, “A Bitter Pill To Swallow” where a teenaged Becky asks Roseanne to go on birth control.

8 She Wasn’t Part Of The Final Season Of Gilmore Girls

Due to a bad negotiation during her contract renewal right before the seventh season of Gilmore Girls, Paladino decided not to come back for what would end up being the show’s final season.

During an interview with Vulture, Paladino revealed how The CW  (back then The WB), wanted to unfairly place a majority of the workload on Paladino and her husband instead of putting up the funding needed to add more writers and producers on the staff. Thankfully Netflix gave her another chance to finally produce the ending she wanted with its revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.

7 She Thought Of the Idea For Gilmore Girls On The Spot

After working on Roseanne for 4 seasons and a brief stint on Veronicas Closet, Paladino was ready for a show of her own and she was lucky enough to score a meeting with Susanne Daniels, who was head of The WB at the time. According to Paladino, who was nervous and excited to be meeting with such an established producer, she pitched Susan and her team about 45 minutes of ideas and could tell they were not really feeling any of them.

Grasping at straws she pitched her take on a mother-daughter show, where they are more like best friends, and the simple concept won over the team and the rest is history. Necessity is the mother of invention and at that moment Paladino needed to win over that team.

6 Her Rapid Diagolge is Inspired By Borscht Belt-style Comedy

Paladino’s signature is her character’s speed talking. It can sometimes be hard to keep up with her characters, as they rapidly throw quips at each other, especially Lorelai and Rory.

But many might not know that this style decision is actually inspired by her father, a Borscht Belt-style comedian. Bosch comedy is known as well for its speedy dialogue and delivery. For fans of Mrs. Maisel, this becomes obvious when you re-examine the comedian’s stand-up routines.

5 She Made Emmy History

Even though she gave fans 7 successful seasons of Gilmore Girls, it wasn’t until recently that she finally relieved recognition for her amazing talents. Her most recent show, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel finally gained a win for the producer who has been nominated numerous times.

Her win for the first season of Mrs. Maisel allowed her to make history as the first woman to win in both categories, opening the door for other female writers to go on to win more often.

4 Her Father Is Andy The Bartender In The Rocky Movies

Both of Amy’s parents are pretty talented people, with her getting her dancing ability from her mother and her writing and comedy from her father, Don Sherman. Her father is still a practicing stand-up comedian and he has written episodes for some of the classic greats like Love Boat, but he is most well known for playing an iconic character in the Rocky movies.

In the infamous boxing franchise, her Dad can be seen as Andy, the bartender. His character is funny and it’s clear to see that some of her talents were inherited from her father.

3 Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks Inspired her Career

In a recent interview with Vulture, Paladino revealed that she owes her desire to be a writer to the moment she discovered a record of a comedy bit between Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. On the record, Carl interviews Mel Brooks, who in typical fashion for the entertainer, was playing a character. This time he chose The 2,000-year-old Man and the act between the charismatic Reiner and the eccentric character Brooks had created was full of Jewish humor and New York City bravado and little Amy Sherman fell in love.

This inspired her to embrace the human, raw side of humor and wrap it in an east side vibe that, even though she was a California girl, she fully pulled off, with many people insisting she was from somewhere like Boston or New York. Something that undoubtedly went on to inspire the East Coast girls of her television shows.

2 She Wrote A Gilmore Girls Book

Gilmore girls were popular enough that it prompted a line of books that were adapted from scripts or storylines from the show. All 4 are inspired by the characters and world of Paladino but she actually had a hand in writing the 4th one in the series, ” The Other Side Of Summer”.

This particular book follows Rory at Chilton where she has to deal with obstacles like bad boys Tristian and Jess distracting her from focusing on her approaching debutant ball.

1 Her Husband Has Worked With Her On All Her Shows

Fans who have paid attention to the credits of all of Amy Sherman-Paladino might have noticed that her name is always followed by her husband’s name Daniel Paladino. Ever since working together on Roseanne, before Amy took his name, the two have been a team on all of the shows that Amy has created.

He is her writing partner and has had significant input on all of the series she has crafted. In fact, they were both up against each other for best writing, each for episodes they wrote for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Amy took the award home but he still considered it a win.

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