A scene by scene breakdown of the pilot with special guest, Emily Kuroda!
I Am all In.
Fowles you.
I Am all in with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one alone Productions, iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, iHeart Podcast. I Am all In Again begins now, Season one, Episode one, the pilot Air date October fifth, two thousand. This is the Amy Sherman Palladino written, Leslie Lincoln Gladder directed, and I am joined by none other than the very woman who stole this episode.
Emily Carota played missus Kim.
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Listen on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks for joining us and welcome.
Thank you, Scott. Good to be here. Nice to revisit this.
It is right. Yeah, So I watched the pilot again last night. It's maybe the third time I've seen it. You know what I noticed about it, other than it being incredibly perfect every way, it had a little bit of a slower pace, didn't it. It breathed a little bit more than you know, the episodes. As we went on in those seasons, everything got faster and faster and faster. This seemed to breathe a little bit and it again, it's kind of felt like a film to me, really great camera angles, terrific pacing, and it got fast when it needed to get fast. Yeah, one thing I noticed, Well, what did you notice about it?
I agree with you.
I think, you know, I was wondering maybe that that had something to do with it being picked up by Warner Brothers, because, you know, because we did take our time in developing the characters and the audience would know who we are and and I don't know, Yeah, I like that pace.
Actually it got crazy after a while.
It did, right, It seemed everything seemed to speed up, and I think for the benefit of the audience. But this particular episode, this is my favorite episode of the entire library of Gilmour episodes. Obviously, it's just so perfectly crafted and Lauren just cuts through this thing beautifully. It really was, you know, the coming out party for an emergent star. Yeah, because she just handled everything with such finesse and ease, and you know, hard to fall in love with her in that role in that in that episode, just a terrific coming out party for a lot of people, but I think especially for her. And I thought I thought you in particular stole the show. And the one thing that almost made me fall out of the couch. I will say now at this early juncture was when you when you told Rory, boys don't like funny girls.
Oh god, all right, So anyway, so we uh, we begin with this great camera shot of Lauren walking down the street and into the diner with.
That wonderful song, and we start off with a bang, her begging for a cup of coffee, and Joey arrives.
Amy Brooke a lot of conventions, you know, because she was doing a yeah. So I really appreciated it.
Very funny lines, Oh so soon, and she's sixteen by you know, take a hike. And I loved how that relationship began with mother and daughter where it was a little bit you know, Rory was being a little bit rebellious and she was quippy with her mother about having so much makeup. And and of course we have the Luke Lorelei moments where we can't really read Luke very well. He seems to be obviously hiding some feelings or he really feels like this woman is annoying. And I remember seeing it the first time going ooh, you know, and I don't like watching my own work. I don't know how you feel about.
Watching I'm with you.
Yeah, do you really you just despise it? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah. It makes me very uncomfortable. And when I saw this the first time, I I was like, ooh, I overplayed this and he's he's a little too edgy right there. But it kind of worked out.
Oh it was perfect, Scott, Are you kidding?
Yeah? I think it was best. And I remember making that choice, like, don't show a thing. In fact, go the go the other way with it and take that risk because it's gonna pay off, and you know it's gave you that journey, right exactly. But anyway, wonderful opening. An hour at the end and Michelle's on the phone wall flipping through the mail and we're thinking, who's this guy? Right? And yeah, like what a great way to introduce all of these characters and another another character you just do not expect that he's going to be, you know, this moody and this negative and this condescending and snobby and ill tempered and you just love him right away. How does Amy know how to create characters? I know? All right? So now we're Rory and Lane, and this is when I especially noticed the pace when Rory and Lane were walking outside starts hollow and they're walking to school. The pace was slower, it was different, it was more relaxed, right, yeah, And she explains that they have a date, establishing that they're best friends, and that Lane has you know, a nightmare mom in how Rory defines things in her terms. And she's being set up on a date with the doctor and going on a hay ride, which is what's wrong with that? And isn't an interesting how young everybody looks.
It was decades ago.
It was decades ago. We're pushing we're like into the middle of the third decade of being past this thing, so I should be surprised. One of the funniest bits of the whole thing is Alex Borstein, who was originally cast as Suki. She's pushing a harp, a giant harp into the fourier, and she's telling people rudely, guests to get the heck out of the way, big harp coming through, you know. And so Laurlai, this is how we Madrella. So Laura I rushes into the kitchen after hearing pots and pants crashing. Now, Suki, as originally written, was hell bent for leather if you will. She was going to injure herself in every single episode. I wonder why. I mean, as I recall, she got more coordinated and less a danger to herself as the series went on. Right, But this was one of the gags right away.
I loved it.
And I didn't know whether, you know, Amy, you put that in for alex Or because they're friends, right, And if they adjusted it for Melissa.
I don't know, But yeah, I kind of missed it. I thought it was hilarious.
Yeah, I thought it was hilarious too. It really gave it. I mean, it was one of the most clever devices I saw on the pilot. Is this poor woman who's so gifted, a chef who's who's just gonna and she bumps her assistant in the head. Fine, it was like watching an episode of The Three Stooges. Almost all right, Now we get to where the rubber really meets the road. Kim's antiques. All right, So Lane and Rory go into your antique store home slash home. You shout from the back that everything is half off as the girls try to find you in the store. So Rory thanks missus. Kim hates her. Lane tells her she doesn't like Laura I because she doesn't trust unmarried women. Tell us about those scenes that you played with Lauren and what it was like.
You know, it was really weird because we never really had to rehearse it.
It just came naturally.
Lauren was just so easy to work with and so quick, so it just it just happened and we navigated. I mean, the set was crazy because they actually had stats and stacks of chair that was kind of kind of dangerous and paths that we and the cameras on a city camp. But we found the little holes to talk through and it just Lauren.
Didn't you think Lauren was just a dream to work with.
It was like intuitive, yeah, and there was a mutual respect well you know me hating her.
All right, So now you ask the girls how school was Roy jokes about a student glowing from pregnant because your line was, no girls got pregnant today. You know, you've formulated your opinions of American high schools and behavior obviously, and that's when you delivered the great line. Can you deliver that line for us, please? It's better if you do it.
Okay, boys don't like funny girls. They don't they don't.
Give me your overall impression of the pilot. Do you remember when you first saw it?
Oh? Yeah, I was so proud to be a part of it.
Yeah, it was.
It was magical. I think she how she could set up this the groundwork for the series, you know, with each character.
And like with you, you know, it started off rough, but then she planted that seed towards the end of the episode where you look good. She planted the seed that you know, it's gonna something's going to grow from that. And the mother daughter relationships were so powerful. Yeah, so it was clearly how much they love each other, which is why how much, which is why they hated each other so much sometimes, you know, And it was so rich.
So I was so pleased.
And I think after seven years, I think there was only one recast that we had to do. But Amy's intuition about Buddha casts it was brilliant, I think, because everybody's instinct seemed to just click with the characters and we all work together so well. It was magical, I thought, And I think that's why it's lasted so long.
We Yeah, isn't it such a treat that after almost two and a half decades now the show seems to be and continues every year to grow and get larger and get a new generation of fans as they discovered on Netflix and download and binge. It's just an extraordinary experience. Did you know? And I'll throw out a little factoid that from September two to September eighth, the Nielsen ratings came out as they do every week for streaming shows, which are downloadable shows. So basically they're talking about all the streaming platforms because it's well, anybody does anymore? And the number eight show in the world Gilmore Girls, and we've been off the air since two thousand and seven, five hundred and seventy six million viewer minutes in that week alone, placing us number eight. And that was the real highlight of the headline from the trades is that I think Nicole Kidman and Leave Schreiber's the perfect couples number one with I don't know one point five or six billion viewer minutes. And it's a wonderful ROMP eight episode limited series. And it's true. Have you seen it? It's Oh, it's wonderful. It's just so beautifully written and beautifully acted. But to be on that list continue to be in the top ten. It's just it's wild to even think about it. So anyway, Yeah, each year that goes by, the luckier I feel that I was a part of this, and it's just, you know, it's just hitting you every single day. Yeah, yeah, we got pretty lucky. So lucky. I mean, just think of all the shows that you know, I think of all the work I did before I got Gilmore Girls and where I could have ended up, and the things that I was going for and was so disappointed that I didn't get, you know, because I was in the running for, oh my god, so many things and how a career goes and you know, I was it was between me and Michael Madsen for Mister Blonde and Reservoir Dogs, and imagine what that could have done for a career, right, And it just you know, I really believe that you get the thing that you're ready for, you know, you really do. And I don't think I was ready for that role. I think Madsen was the better choice, right, I mean, I was probably would have been a good choice, but Madsen is a much better choice. He had the resume, he had the experience, and he had the look that, you know, it was all kind of perfect. So it's got to be perfect, right. Casting is so ultra specific, and that's what I think you're talking about with Gilmour Girls, is just how specific everything is and how each character tailors and conforms to Amy's vision of what that character should be and how she sees it in her head. So that's how it works for her. And when you walked into the room and did your thing, Bam, no questions asked. That's missus, Kim. She's the same thing with me. She did the same thing with everybody. Everybody like he knew, she knew and she and that was a time when uh, you know, film stars were jumping over into TV and that was becoming a thing in two thousands. You know, it was like so when I got this script, I don't know how you felt, but I read this script and I thought, this is just too good to be. You know, I'm not going to get this, uh, And that's part of the reason I got it, because I just threw it away. I mean, I worked on the audition. I went and I gave a good audition, but I was giving a good auditions every day, three times a day, and I just stopped caring. I was like, it doesn't matter, or just throw it away. You know, you're not going to get the offer, but you're you know, this is your time to develop a fan base amongst the casting community, which is what it takes, you know, because they all talk and said, you know, he came in for me a couple of times and he's really doing a good job. Maybe you should hire him, and let's bring him in for this, and you know, he's just so so there, ready to go. And you know, I think that's a very common experience for people who you know, finally break through with the right thing. And yeah, I think this was the role for me. And I think I got it because I was ready for it, because I had that you know that what do they call it, the dumb courage of the truly burnt out. Yeah, it's good. I just didn't care anymore because I knew what the answer was going to be. At the end of the day. You know that I loved you, but it's just going another way. I mean, how many, Emily, how many times have you gotten that phone call? Yeah?
Right, but it's good to go in like like, well, what the heck you know, and not caring that much and just.
Yeah, but I think that helps.
In a way because you're relaxed. I was relaxed. It was like another one. I'm just kind of whatever.
You know, right, Is that is that how you approached it too? Oh yeah, I just didn't care anymore. I mean I was respectful. I was happy to be there. I liked everybody in the room. You know, Gavin was there, Amy was there, Leslie Lincoln Glotta was there. Casting person was there. It wasn't it wasn't the people that were casting season two through the end. It was another casting team. They were there, and I remember I read for them and then they brought me to producers and I was saying, oh great, Yeah, so that's when I met Amy the first time. And uh yeah. I just remember it being you know, pretty relaxed and I like them. You know, you can feel people, right, so I just like, oh, these these are these are kind of my people. I kind of feel these people. You know. Other times you walk in rooms and you're like, wow, there's a wall up and it's like, I this is not right, this doesn't feel right. But I think I think the brave thing, the courageous thing for Amy to do for everyone in the cast was she had options that had main value attached to them for every single role. And I bet you every big agency in town, you know, the three biggies C A, I, C. M. And William Morris and UTA, four biggies who weren't being biggie at the time, but now they are. We're throwing all their top clients at the script. You had to figure that, right, I mean, and you feel that when you walk into most rooms that European they don't want you. Let's just get through this because I have to get back to the office and try to close this deal for the star name for this role. So they don't even want to be there half the time when you walk in because like who you know, who are you? And how are you going to make my life better? You're not all right? Get through the reading, fine, bye, get out here. And I know Amy and Dan were under the same kind of pressure, but they fought for us. They fought for every single person because I bet you the network was like, no, we're gonna go with star name, We're gonna go with this name, and Amy was like, no, these are the right care these are the right actors for these roles and she stood firm so fighting for us like that, and I knew that was the case. I mean, you talk about loyalty, oh my. And people wonder why people love Amy and Dan so much. This is the reason. Yeah, they fight for what they believe in. Uh, they fight for their artistic choices. They are uncompromising and you better believe they're uncompromising. And I know, but you have to respect that, you really have And Smike Gilmour. Girls is so great because two people or true artists, were under fire, uncompromising, stood their ground, got the people that they wanted, got the budgets they needed, and made magic comes down to two people, and they made all those decisions in the beginning, all the artartistic decisions. So they fought for it. I mean they and continued to fight for it.
And I think that's that's why it lasted so long.
That's why the quality was unheard of in television, unheard down to the flowers. Remember the flower, Amy said, no fake flowers. Little things like that make a big different difference in the field of the product. You know, Yeah, we had to be word perfect, but it made a different.
I don't know if Amy will like this comparison. But you know, I read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, who created Apple with Steve Wozniak, and the same kind of personality, m super creative. Every detail of everything had to be perfect, perfect, perfect, the way he wanted it and envisioned it. It's like, this is the shape. You know, you walk into the engineers and he'd say that that you know the top people in the world, by the way, who all have opinions, and he said, this is the shape of this thing. Fix it, put it, make it work, conform your engineering to this shape. And that's what Amy did, said this is this is, this is what I want. That's what we're doing. And she never gave an inch to anyone. That's why audience out there you get to enjoy these shows because you're dealing with two very very special talents in Amy and Dan Palladino, giving of themselves a two hundred percent every single day and fighting all those fights to make sure that their quote unquote and I hate to put it this way product is not tarnished by any outside influences because they owned it, they created it, it was theirs and they were going to die on that Hill defending it, and they did, and that's why, you know, we get some good episodes out of season seven. There are some terrific episodes. And I thought David Rosenthal did a very commendable job. But how are you going to compete with that? You know, it's an impossible task, an unenviable task. But thought he did a great job, So I want to I love writers so much. Writers to me are I don't know. I think the true Creator is the most courageous of the courageous because it's it's creating by themselves in a dark room months on end, years on end. Well, at least they had each other write Dan and Amy, but just love writers. Got into the business because of a writer, Patty Chefski. I loved his writing so much after seeing Altered States and the hospital and network. I just that's what made me want to be an actor. Is a great writer wanted me to be an actor because I wanted to say those lines. I wanted to say those lines that William Hurt said as a young actor in Altered States. I couldn't believe the dialogue that I was hearing and that I was believing it, and that it was sweeping me away and I was like, oh man, I want to do that. Oh oh, that's just great. So yeah, hats off to great writing. That's why this show, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what it is and why it delights you and heals you, and it goes around the world and makes help the world spin on its axis a little bit, you know, and makes a world a better place. So anyway, it's been great having you. Final thoughts, Emily Corota.
It was hard work making each and entry one of those that's right.
And I remember Saturday morning at five am and Amy going again, it's not right again, and Laura I say, I'm so tired. I'm not a robot, and Amy says, no, again, it's not right. And that's what made Gilmoorger such a beautiful, perfect show.
That's right. Thank yeah, and I thank her for that. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it takes. Sometimes you don't when you don't have anything left to give, and they still get it out of you.
They got Yeah, she got it out of all of us, exactly what she needed for her vision.
Yeah, And I think I think Lauren and Alexis experienced that more than everybody on the cast. You know that exhaustion that I just can't do it anymore. I can't go on. I need to just go home, home and go to bed right now. But now we need a couple more takes, you know. I mean, it's that level of dedication. And yeah, Amy demanded it, and she got it. She got it, and she got it from everyone. I know, she got it from everyone. Nobody said no, nobody said no. Anyway, it was a pleasure watching this episode and Emily, always great to see you, and the work is stunning, just absolutely stunning, great, great, great character actress, Emily Carota. And that's going to wrap it up here, everybody. We will see you next time. Best fans on the planet. Thanks for download and keep the cards and letters coming, and remember I am all in again, Stay safe everyone.
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