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Cathal Gunning
Published 49 minutes ago
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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For viewers who have already re-watched all of Gilmore Girls more than once, there is one underrated one-season wonder, Bunheads, that recaptures the glory of the show’s strongest seasons. The cast of Gilmore Girls is not the only thing that made the series feel special, but they certainly helped.
Lorelei and Rory’s motor-mouthed dialogue could have sounded ridiculous coming from the mouths of less seasoned performers, but Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel managed to make the mother/daughter duo feel as believable as they were lovable. Meanwhile, all of Rory’s love interests managed to leave an impression, judging by the bitterly divided fan base.
As a result, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that no show was ever able to successfully replace Gilmore Girls. Even the Gilmore Girls revival, which brought back its original showrunner, Amy Sherman-Palladino, was criticized for straying too far from the show’s blend of cynical wit and warm, small-town charm.
Bunheads Came From The Creator of Gilmore Girls
Sutton Foster
Plenty of shows have attempted to strike this same balance in the years since Gilmore Girls ended, and, once every couple of years, the Internet will light up with news of a new, perfect Gilmore Girls replacement show. However, there is only one show that can objectively claim this title, since it was Sherman- Palladino’s first major post-Gilmore Girls project.
Not only that, but the series also starred Kelly Bishop, who played Emily throughout Gilmore Girls. The show was also set in a small town, and centered on a headstrong female protagonist who was caught at a professional and personal crossroads in her life. Despite this, ABC’s short-lived Bunheads never earned the same audience as Gilmore Girls.
Only a few short years after Bledel’s first post-Gilmore Girls project, Post Grad, struggled to gain traction with viewers on the big screen, ABC was busy promoting its new dramedy from the creator of Gilmore Girls. Bunheads followed Sutton Foster’s Michelle Simms, a former ballerina who became a Vegas showgirl.
Dispirited with her uninspiring career path, Michelle takes her longtime admirer, Hubbell Flowers, up on his umpteenth offer of marriage, and he whisks her off to his small hometown of Paradise, California. However, when Hubbell is killed shortly after the pair arrives, Michelle ends up awkwardly insinuating herself into the small community by working at the local Dance Academy.
There is just one lingering problem. Her mother-in-law, Bishop's Fanny Flowers, is the one who runs the academy. Thus, the stage is set for a generatio-clash comedy as Bishop’s Fanny and Foster’s Michelle struggle to run the Dance Academy together while Michelle gets used to small-town living after her short-lived husband’s sudden death.
Bunheads Only Lasted One Season On ABC
Admittedly, the aforementioned death does make Bunheads something of a tonal surprise. However, even the saddest Gilmore Girls storylines managed to balance poignancy with wit, and Bunheads wasn’t short of critical champions when the series arrived in 2012. On the contrary, Bunheads was one of the season’s most acclaimed new shows.
With stellar reviews from Variety, Vanity Fair, The LA Times, and The AV Club, Bunheads seemed destined to go from strength to strength. However, the dramedy struggled with audiences from its pilot onward, earning only 1.64 million viewers for its first episode. This weak start only got worse as Bunheads season 1 progressed.
While it is always unfair to compare a series released in earlier decades with later shows, it is still striking to put the debut ratings of Bunheads up against the lifetime success of Gilmore Girls. Not only did Gilmore Girls command a respectable audience of 5 million for its pilot, but the CW show’s audience retention rate was staggering.
Despite Gilmore Girls betraying its audience more than once in its later years, season 7’s later episodes still clocked an average audience of around 4.4 million. Gilmore Girls barely lost any viewers in over half a decade on the air, an achievement that is put into stark relief by the underperformance of Bunheads.
Bunheads Deserved To Replace Gilmore Girls
Beginning in 2012 and ending in 2013, Bunheads only lasted one season due to its poor ratings. There was an online campaign to save the series, and the fact that a whole host of Gilmore Girls regulars appeared in the series, including Bishop, Liza Weil, Gregg Henry, Rose Abdoo, Alex Borstein, Sean Gunn, and Chris Eigeman, didn’t hurt.
Of course, as much as viewers might have been glad to see the supporting stars of the series back on the small screen, Bunheads didn’t garner as much support as a Gilmore Girls revival would from the show’s loyal fan base a few years later. As such, its swift cancellation wasn't all that shocking.
That said, it was still a shame for fans of Sherman-Palladino’s work. While her next series was a critical and commercial success, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a period drama that had less in common with Gilmore Girls. In contrast, Bunheads might have become the new Gilmore Girls if only the cult classic had a chance to prove itself.
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We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Do you think Bunheads deserved more of a chance to find its audience, or was canceling it after one season the right call by ABC?
Cathal
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49 minutes ago
Some might argue that Bunheads deserved more time to grow its audience, especially given the pedigree of its creator and cast. Shows often take time to find their footing and build a dedicated following. On the other hand, the ratings were consistently low throughout the first season, suggesting it was struggling to connect with viewers. Networks need to make tough decisions based on viewership numbers.
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