One of the season's most charming new series is Gilmore Girls, premiering tonight at 8 p.m. on HC.
Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel star as two best friends who share secrets, clothes and DNA. Lorelai Gilmore (Graham) gave birth to Rory (Bledel) at the age of 16 and is doing everything she can to get her offspring past 16 unscathed.
Bledel was a film student at NYU when she landed her first television role on Gilmore.
"I had never been on a set before. They say, 'Hit your mark' and I was like, 'What I am supposed to do?' " Bledel says.
"Lauren would be like, 'Come over here. This is your mark. Stand here ...' She would guide me through the whole thing because I didn't have a clue. It was kind of a maternal thing, showing me the ropes."
Alert viewers may see a similar relationship to the one Graham portrayed with Katherine Towne in the summer sitcom MYOB. Graham (NewsRadio) isn't sure how she became the hippest mom on TV.
"Not that I'm not nice, but I don't know what a maternal instinct feels like," Graham says.
"I'm proud of Alexis, she's doing a great job -- so that's easy to put in the show."
A rich collection of ancillary characters, sharp dialogue and contemporary mores make Gilmore Girls a freshman pleasure.
You'd never know it was the first byproduct of the Family Friendly Forum, an advertiser-backed initiative promoting programs which don't incite consumer boycotts.
Some script-development funding encouraged Warner Bros. Television to have a closer look at Gilmore Girls, but the organization had little to do with the series' creation.
"We've never actually met 'them.'
I hope they're lovely people," says creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was nominated for her writing on Roseanne.
"I love that it exists -- it's made my life better -- but we really haven't had a lot of contact with that."
