Stop Bothering Lauren Graham About a 'Gilmore Girls' Movie

Lauren Graham is the star of Parenthood and wrote a semi-autobiographical book that's being turned into a TV show. But any time she pokes her head out on the Internet, she's asked the same question: "WHEN IS THERE GOING TO BE A GILMORE GIRLS MOVIE!?"

The lovely Lauren Graham spent seven seasons playing Lorelai of the Gilmore Girls before moving on to Parenthood, where she's done fine work as the embattled Sarah Braverman. She also wrote a book, a semi-autobiographical take on her life as a struggling actress in New York in the '90s, which is getting turned into a CW show produced by Ellen DeGeneres. But any time she pokes her head out on the Internet, she's asked the same question: "WHEN IS THERE GOING TO BE A GILMORE GIRLS MOVIE!?"

I get it. I'm an intense Gilmore Girls fan who has watched the entire series many, many times. My skin still burns hot with anger at the very idea of its seventh season, made without the input of creator/auteur Amy Sherman-Palladino, which concluded the show in (many would agree) unsatisfying fashion. Almost immediately after the show finished, people started beating the drum for Sherman-Palladino to wrap things up properly with a movie. The answer from anyone involved with the show has always been the same: maybe! If everything lined up! If there's a story to tell! If studios are interested! Who knows!

Graham recently did an AMA on Reddit and was pestered with movie questions. Her thoughts? "I honestly don't know. I appreciate how many have asked. That character was so special—I wonder what happens to her too!" Later, she added, "If a movie version could be as good as we'd all want it to be, I'd love to play that character again."

This, essentially, amounts to saying nothing at all. But the drumbeat has once again begun for a movie, in part inspired by Veronica Mars' recent Kickstarter success. But I have to beg the question of my fellow Gilmore Girls fans: what do you want? Because any film is probably going to require some actual story. It can't just be Lorelai married to Luke, Rory together with [insert your preferred Rory boyfriend here], living in Stars Hollow hanging out with everyone. Dissatisfaction with the series finale almost certainly wouldn't be solved by a movie, because something would have to happen in it, and that would likely make people mad. Remember, Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote the sixth season finale that got Lorelai together with Christopher. She's never been interested in taking the easy story path on fans' behalf.

That brings me to a larger point: we have to stop making TV shows we loved into movies just because it's possible. Yes, Veronica Mars' success in getting to the big screen should be applauded. But that film mostly struck me as airy fan service (and I speak as a Veronica Mars fan). EW suggests that a Gilmore Girls movie center around Rory's wedding, giving us updates on everyone as it happens—Lorelai and Luke have a kid, Paris is a life coach, Lane's still in a band, et cetera. I cannot imagine 90 minutes with less dramatic tension. Why not just mail every Gilmore Girls fan a postcard explaining that the characters they loved all went on to live happy, fulfilling lives?

If I could turn back time, I'd love to see what a seventh season of the show would have looked like with Amy Sherman-Palladino at the helm. But I'd also love to see more years of Freaks and Geeks or My So-Called Life. It's not gonna happen, and any effort to make a movie is not going to solve those problems. Now, if Amy Sherman-Palladino surfaced on the internet tomorrow and said she had cracked the code and had the perfect movie script, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. But I really doubt that's ever going to happen, and no amount of clamoring from fans will change that.