I Am All In with Scott PattersonTara and Suzanne dive into Kelly Bishop’s The Third Gilmore and uncover the most inspiring lesson she’s shared about achieving success!
Did you notice the striking parallels between the show and Kelly’s real life?
Plus, hear the incredible story of how Amy Sherman-Palladino found the perfect Emily.
And don’t miss the powerful takeaway from the book that has us all inspired.
I Am All in again. Oh it's you.
I Am All in Town Meeting with Suzanne French and Tara suit An iHeartRadio podcast. Hi guys, welcome to another episode of I Am All in Town Meeting, And this time we're not recapping an episode.
We're gonna have a little book club. Hi Susant, Hey, how are you. I'm good.
I feel like cuddling up with a book during the holidays is like exactly what I want to do. And so yeah, when we talked about doing this, it just seemed like the perfect time.
YEP, with some sort of hot beverage in your hand.
Yeah, it's so, I uh, just let everyone know we're gonna be talking about Kelly Bishop's memoir, the Third Gilmore Girl.
iHeart Podcasts listen on the iHeartRadio app. So Suzanne read the book. I did the audio book.
So it's kind of interesting because we have like two different perspectives. But I finished my audio book while I was in New York on a work trip, so I it actually was really cold and I had a hot beverage.
So the holiday season full swing.
I finished the physical book last night in the middle of the evening, so it was like right around dinner time, so it wasn't too cold here, but it was dark. Does that count?
That counts? That counts anywhere? Do we begin? First of all, I just I loved the memoir as a whole.
I think it was so well written and for anyone who wants to read it and do the audiobook, Kelly Bishop narrates it, and I feel like it just gave that extra special Gilmore touch that I will.
Yeah, I think I'm probably going to go back and get the audiobook and listen to it. But I did that with Lauren's books, read the physical copy first and then did the audiobook, and it does like add that extra dimension to have the original author reading the book. So I'm looking forward to that. But I thought it was great. I didn't really know that much about Kelly Bishop, like I knew me too obviously. I know Gilmour and I knew Dirty Dancing and chorus line, and that was really all I knew about her. So I really enjoyed getting to know her. I feel like it was just so readable, like it just went so fast, like it was literally were having a conversation with her. It was great.
Yeah, And also the what's it called the very beginning of the book, I'm blanking the prologue. The prologue, it was written by Amy Sherman Palladino. Yeah, and Amy actually narrated that in the audio book. So to get Amy to hear Amy the forward sorry, yes, the foreword to get Amy to start the book was kind of like and the way she spoke, and she's so passionate when she speaks, and she was talking about Kelly.
It made me emotional, just like, you.
Know, there's this piece of them connected because of the show for the rest of their lives. And they talk about that in the book of like they became instant friends and still are. And you know, then the forward, Amy mentions like, I'll have Kelly work in every project I ever work in, ever.
Again, because she's that amazing.
Yeah. Yeah, you could really tell how much they all admired each other, Her and Amy and Lauren, especially towards the end of the book where they were getting together like during the pandemic and things like that, Like you could really see how strong that friendship was because she touched on how in that industry you are in your little microcosm of the show you're working on. But then when that show is over. Everybody just goes their different directions and starts working projects and you lose touch with people. But like that corror group, like they have just stayed tight friends even to this day. And I just love that, Like everybody wants to have a friendship like that.
It's so true, like I have.
I mean, I've worked in different places on different teams, and you sometimes will wish you can go back to that.
Group, but there's a moment in time for that.
And there are people who I'm still very close with who I talk to weekly that were in those workplaces. But to get that whole group back together is so rare. And yeah, and I love that, Kelly. And we're going to kind of jump around in this recap of just talking about the book as a whole, But when they talked about the reunion, it was just like, I love how Kelly just wanted it, like she wanted as much as like the fans wanted.
It, whether it was the.
Convention they did or just the like you know, bringing the show back.
And one thing that set out to me that I I.
Don't know why, I just I just always wonder if like the actors want to talk about season seven and Amy and Dan not being there, and Kelly really touched on like it wasn't the same and we all just went about the day and read the scripts and got it over with.
Not that they didn't enjoy it. They still enjoyed it, but she.
Basically alluded to we know that it wasn't the best season, like we know.
Yeah, but they were all under contract, so there wasn't anything like they just had to keep working.
Yeah, she did say she was like, I bet you if they stayed that show would have gone on more than seven seasons with Amy and Dan.
Yeah. I was just gonna say the same thing. And it's kind of interesting to think about that possibility, like where might the story have gone had they sty.
Like how much more would we have gone?
Yes, I know Scott has said in the past that he had already signed on through season eight, and I think other some other people had too, so you know, they were all on board. But yeah, it's interesting to think what I could have.
My big takeaway I think from the book.
Was you really like there's no certain age where success is measured, Like if you think about it, I mean, Kelly obviously wanted Tony and she was in Dirty Dancing but it really wasn't until Gilmore Girls where she was like kind of a household name and people would recognize her from her voice. Like she's like, oh, someone said they heard my voice, and she was, I mean, how old was she then?
Sixties, sixties? Right in her sixties.
Was I think she was in her fifties, like late fifties when they started.
But it's so cool to think in your fifties, like basically your entire world is starting over in a new way. And even at the end of the book, she really touched on like you want to There was a certain line she said, you learn from so many lessons and it's not like you just continue learning. And then they talked about the end of the book how her friend's son wanted to be in theater and they're like, oh, tell them it's talking to do and she's yeah, yeah, And she's like why because if it's gonna be able to support him and he loves it, then like why not, right? And if and there's time to decide on other careers if it doesn't work out, because she wanted to be an enlightened a light director. So that was my biggest takeaway from the book, is like there's really no age where it's like I think growing up, like I always thought in my thirties i'd be married with kids.
That clearly did not happened.
But you know, like there's no limit to age and to what you're doing at what age?
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And she's she's had a very long career, and she pointed out even I think towards the beginning of the book, about how she's been very fortunate to be able to make a living doing dancing and acting without having to fill in with waitressing or working in an office, Like she's been able to make her whole living just doing that. It just shows you can be in that industry and still make a living without being a house whole name.
Yeah, she mentioned like she didn't want to be a star, she wanted to do it for the art of it, which is also, like I think about it, that's kind of the best of both worlds, Like you can do exactly what you love being entertainment, but no one's going to like follow you around and wondering who you're dating exactly.
I think about people like Taylor Swift and she can't even sneeze without it. One hundred photographers capturing it and plastering everywhere. And I think that would really be a sad way to live your life, Like the money wouldn't be worth it to me, No, And so I agree with you, like that's the best way to do it. You can get to do what you love, but you don't have many of the downsides of being like a public Yeah.
And she never lived in la which I thought was very interesting. She was flying back and forth to be with her husband and who my god, her husband had been so much like every chapter. I was like, oh my god, this this poor.
Man, like he's been through so much. And she was basically back and forth. And I love that he didn't hold back her career because of it. But she'd be I mean, she'd be on a plane home basically every other week. It sounded like every week.
Yeah, And that that takes its toll, like that would be hard to do. So it's we're all lucky as viewers that they were able to work out that schedule that she could you could still do that, because I can't imagine the show without her or with Yeah.
I also I thought it was so funny when talking about working with Edward ed Herman that they wanted Tony on the same night, and I googled it. Did you have you seen the picture of them together?
Yes?
Yes, Like, isn't that wild to think, like those two people wanted Tony.
And then years later are a married couple on one of the biggest shows in the world.
Yeah, like, what are the chances? I know, that's so crazy.
I was. I was googling it just to see her like her at the Tony's and the picture of them popped up, and I was like, oh my god, what a cool picture to have.
And then you both look like the same, like like they look the same as they.
Did, like they didn't age. I know.
Yeah, I was like, wow, I did love the part in uh when she was talking about Gilmore, how you know in theater you're always prepared, like being ready means you're in your spot, but like for TV and film actors, like being ready means walking from your trailer. And her and Ed would just be sitting at the table at the Gilmour's house like waiting for Lauren.
Yeah, so funny. They'd be waiting for everybody else to show up. Yeah, and then and said, we're theater people because you're right, like if the curtain's going up, you got to be in your place to be there. We're gonna start without you, which doesn't really happen in TV. They can't start until the actors. It's the other way around. They can't start the actors are there. So yeah, it was I just loved how her whole career she's done everything, Like she started out as a dancer and you know that transitioned into Broadway and then she pivoted to movie and TV and like there's not a lot of people all that could do all of that. They can do the live theater, but it doesn't transition to television or you know, they're TV stars, but they don't. They can't perform live because they need multiple takes or whatever. She just was so versatile, and it just she just transitioned easily, you know, from from one thing to the next.
And I remember when she said that she wanted to go from a theater to television.
It took two years. Like it wasn't like an overnight thing.
It gets still, I know what you're saying, like seamlessly, and also you have to have so much talent to do that. But like it kind of was nice to hear like, yeah, I went to god knows how many auditions and things where I was laughing at the part where she was talking about getting the Gilmore script, and I guess everything before that was like a rendition on the Sopranos, like that was like the big thing, and she's like, I don't want to do this type of show.
Every show had an Italian family.
And the way she described.
The way that she was pitched Gilmore, I was like, it made me think, like, wow, Amy and Dan, unless unless this is how like not Emily Kelly summed it up. But if that's how Amy and Dan really like set the tone for the show of describing each character, they kept that true and true through the whole series of the little descriptions that she gave explaining each character. And yeah, yeah, I also love that she basically thought she didn't get it, which is like I feel like, usually is a story they're like, oh well whatever, But it's because the network made Amy.
Audition many more people. But she kept going back to Kelly.
Right, Yeah, Kelly thought she was gonna have to go back an audition for the network and they never called her, so she just assumed, Okay, I didn't get it, but that that was because in the background, Amy already knew that it was going to be Kelly, and she kept pushing back. Amy was pushing back on the network against all these other people that they wanted her to look at. So it was it was great, like she knew right away and that instinct clearly was spot on, because.
I mean, I can't imagine any other actress playing Emily, Like even if I tried, I'm like, I don't know who.
Could play her with the wit.
And I love that she like and when you do the audio book Susanne, she like kind of recites some scenes and some line and she does it in her Emily like, oh good, he said. I was like, I literally was so excited. Was like watching an episode of Gilmore Girls, but just hearing it like how I'm used to hearing it in the background. Cool.
Yeah.
But I also like that she talked about bun heads like briefly, because it was a time in her life where she was like, I don't think I mean, I don't think it was her fault. I mean, she says that she could have given more, but I think it was just some shows are great and the timing of it just doesn't work out, yeah.
You know, and she didn't have about a network support either, which makes a difference.
And having one season only is so hard because I feel like a lot of shows, like I'll go back to shows that I'm binging, or I'll refer a show to a friend, I'll be like, just get through season one, it gets better, you know, Like season one is really like setting the tone for the whole series, which I think for Gilmore, season one could have stood alone and been totally fine. But a lot of shows are really hard to establish, you know. Yeah, a lot in like the first two episodes, like Gilmore, we kind of got plopped into the middle and you just kind of like learned how things were. Like there was a part where Kelly mentioned the way Amy wrote what was the first phone call when Laura needs money for the school or no sorry when she shows up the door and Richard's like, oh is it Christmas or whatever? I said, Like so you just automatically know that, Okay, their daughter hasn't doesn't come over very often, Like you don't need that much background. But it's so rare for writers to be able to do that. It's so hard that in most shows you need more of an establishing season.
Right, and the actors have to be able to pull that off too, uh, to really get the point across that. Okay, we only see her on holidays. Yeah, you know this kind of that distant way that they that ed and Kelly acted that help set that scene. So if you have actors that aren't as good at doing that, then you do need more writing to to get that point across.
Yeah.
One thing, I thought, there's a parallel with the show. And I don't know if you noticed this or not, but I swear that Amy Amy must have heard this story from Kelly and then put it in the show. But there was the one guy that she was dating. I forget which one it was. I think it was Kevin the Gambler. No it was. It wasn't the one she was married to. Somebody she was. But he asked he asked her if he should renew his lease, and that was his way of saying that he wanted to move in with her. Yes, yes, which is exactly what happened between Jackson and Sukie in the in season Like whatever that was.
Oh, oh my god, I did not even went right over.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is Jackson and Sukie like she must have told it. She must have.
I'm sure they because that was God, what season was that. That was a couple of seasons in right, it.
Was I think it was season two. I'm trying to remember when they it was the bit of Basket episode. I want to say that was season two.
I'm sure.
Yeah, especially I'm sure by that season, like maybe she probably went to lunches and chatted and learned about each other. But I just I.
Loved that parallel because I was like, ah, this is ringing a bell.
And if it's just a coincidence, let's pretend that Amy was that smart and did it. But that's really funny. I didn't notice.
I was. I was really interested in her first marriage because I'm like, it's so funny the way she was talking about it the whole time. She's like, yeah, I know it was a mistake, but I did it anyway, you know.
Yeah, And you know that it was really that was just how society was then. Like she was in her mid twenties and didn't have a husband yet, so therefore there was a problem and she needed to find someone quick, and that's just you know, that's just how it was in the late sixties and early seventies.
What's so crazy is when she was telling these stories about, you know, being on Broadway and this and that, like it just blew my mind and I had to keep reminding myself like this was the sixties, Like this was not you know, Like I go to a Broadway show now and I see these amazing actors and I think about it, and I'm like, man, Kelly Bishop did this like way back when.
And I remember. So I was a kid in the seventies and I remember when Chorusline came to LA. I remember the TV commercials for it because I always watched cartoons in the morning while I was eating my breakfast, and there were just TV commercials constantly for it, and I thought it was interesting. So I already I always knew about chorus Line. I did not realize, you know. The book kind of starts out talking about these sessions that they had where they all the dancers would get together and just kind of pour out their whole experiences onto these and it was all recorded, and that those tapes are what became chorus Line. And so Sheila's story in chorus Line is really Kelly Bishop's story. Yeah, so even in like other productions of chorus Line with other actresses, they were still telling Kelly's story story. It was like the character of Sheila, which that was like whoa, it was like all trippy.
I saw Chorusline for the first time, I think it was it was right before the I think it was like twenty eighteen. They came and did it at the Hollywood Bowl with a bunch of like there was a bunch of like celebrity actors and yeah and stars, and so I knew chorus line, like I knew like the gist of it, but I didn't know anything about it. And I honestly did not know that Kelly Bishop was originally. I didn't know she was in the original chorus line. So I learned about that through the book. I was like, oh she was like I mean, like you said, it's about.
Her, Yeah, it's literally hers.
So that was cool to learn because you know, a lot of times you hear actors like, oh, they played so and so in this Broadway s you just assume that they played it.
It's not like you think of like, oh, no, Adina Menzel.
Was Alphaba like she yeah, the original Like when you think back, you're like, whoa, so, yeah, it's she's done so much.
Yeah, oh cool, Yeah it's It's a great book. I would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you don't know that much about her. It just was a great read. It just was very interesting, easy read. It's very easy to read. It went fast, and all of a sudden, I was like, wait, I'm at the end already out Yeah, I know. Other thing I liked, I want to just throw this out before we wrap up was she says that she watched the entire show. She watched every episode, whether she was in it or not. She calls herself one of the biggest fans of the show, which I love because sometimes it's hard to watch herself. But even on the podcast, like I don't always listen to our episodes because yeah, I don't like hearing myself and so a lot of actors don't like to watch themselves. And I love that she which the entire show and yeah, like right along with everybody else, so I well.
And also she was saying, like I think when she was talking about getting signed to season two, I think season one out of the twenty two they did, like, was it like fifteen.
Or something like that fifteen.
Yeah, so it's it's interesting that you know, she's not in like let's say seven or eight of them, but she still followed the story like and you know, if you think about it, that's actually really smart for an actor because you're not then questioning the storylines of what's happening in an episode you're not in. But you know, I think about it with shows like, you know, some of the other shows that we work on our podcast team are from the nineties, and you couldn't really like there was nowhere to like record or watch back at least by like two thousand. I know, I had like a VAHS I could record, you know what I mean, But like back then, like you couldn't.
So it was a time.
Where she could watch and maybe record it somehow and get it. And but yeah, I love that you watched it, and I love that, Like she's just they're like she'd be like, oh my god, you know me from Gilmore Girls. Like by the way, I could not imagine when she said she goes to the grocery store.
In a hat and like sweats.
I was like, I could not imagine Kelly Bishop and like a baseball cap.
Oh, I know, I know.
Yeah, it's like the end of the series where she's.
Like, I was like, that's the visual I want.
But like, if you think about it, like if I were in the grocery store and I hear Kelly Bishop talking down the aisle, I would do a double take because, like, you know that voice from miles away.
Right, it would be unmistakable. Yeah, And it's.
Funny that's when we had. Honestly, a couple of the actors that we've been talking to they say the same thing, like they'll they'll speak and they'll someone will be like, oh my god, you're so and so from Gilmore Girls, And it's just like, I think that's why we love the show so much. It's like that that background noise sometimes it's like your comfort. Yeah, and so those voices are so familiar to you growing up or just rewatching it, it's like a it's a comfort. So yeah, if I heard that voice on it down the cereal aisle, I'd freak.
Out for sure.
Yeah. But no, it was a great book.
And now I like how at the end of the memoir she said the end but or whatever, She's like, maybe not like there may be another one. Yeah, maybe a continuations because I feel like there's still like we learned so much about her and about her childhood, her family, her parents, her marriages, but like I'm sure there's more that we don't know.
Oh yeah, I mean she's had such a rich life. There's got to be more stories in there that we could get out. Yeah.
Yeah, I did love the one part I just said, one last touch, the part when she went on a trip to where did she go to in Europe?
Oh, Salzburg, Salzburg.
Yeah, when she went on a trip, I like like that little touch of you know, like in your in your seventies, like you're going on this trip and living your best life. And it's actually my grandma's in her seventies, widowed, and uh, she's been traveling the world like literally just like with she found a couple of friends who like love to travel as well, and they go in like tour groups, and she I mean, she's not like a nomad going around, but like she like went to Europe for like three weeks. She went like Italy and Germany and like came back with like gifts for me, and then she went to like Puerto Rico for the first time. Because she's never been for like a weekend and then yea, So it was just really it reminded me of like my like my grandma didn't get to do those things as a kid, So why not do it?
Well you can, you know, yeah, live your best life.
Yeah, I mean you're once you retire, Like that's the whole point. Ye, go out there and do the things you've been putting off for a long time.
But I mean, Kelly said she still wants to be working, so I'm sure we'll we'll see way.
More of her, I hope.
So absolutely, all right, Well now I feel like we need to do more book clubs. Actually it gets me to read because I like I always every year, speaking of I know it's the end of the year in New Year's resolutions, my resolution is always to read books, and I always do you have a Good Read's account Susanne, I don't even know.
I think I'm an account, but.
I don't use it, so good Reads I like track what books I read and what I want to read. So it's kind of like instead of using my notes app, I organize it. But every year you can send a set a goal of like I want to read ten books this year. Yeah, I have never hit my goal. My goal is always ten.
For some reason, I got real excited and made it fifteen this.
Year and I read six books. But you know what, I still read six books, so it's okay. And Kelly's book was my sixth. I might try to squeeze in one more if I can't, yeah, because I will be home for New Year's evel on the couch. But but yeah, maybe we should do more because I could read.
So maybe everyone listening, if you have a suggestion, let us know.
I read Lauren's first book a long time ago, but I know she has a second one that just came in.
She I think she has four total.
She has oh my gosh, the much one that I read.
She had, well, she has a novel. She's got fiction that the fiction one that she wrote. I read that, and then she has the Talking as Fast as I Can.
And then that's the one I read Talking as fast as I Can.
That's the one where she kind of goes through her experience with the revival. And then she just did her book.
To or for Have I told you this already?
Yes, thank you? And then she also had the the small one that she turned into a book. It was a It was a graduation speech that she gave at her high school. She was asked back to her high school to do the commencement address, and then she turned that speech into a book.
But it's just it called in conclusion, don't worry about it.
Yes, that's the one. Yeah. So I've read them all. They're great, they're all.
My gosh, I'm going to add these to my good Reads.
Yeah, it's all.
I love it.
It's all very diverse, but it's all good. Yeah.
Well, if you guys like this episode, let us know what books. Maybe there's something that we don't even know about connected to get more that we should be reading.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, Well, happy New Year, Susanne, Happy holidays, Thank you you too, thank you, and we'll be back with more of our recap of well, Scott's going to recap.
And then we kind of give you our little town meeting every week, so they'll be back in the.
New year meeting adjourned.
Hey, everybody, don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am All In podcast, and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
