Gilmore Girls - Pilot (TV Premiere DVD)

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Summary: What terrible acting.
Review: This AOL TV show was and still is stupid, Why an actor like Edward Herrmann would appear on it, I don't Know. I don't know what was worse the corny dialoge or the writing. I guess both. Ms.Grahum can not act, although Alexis Biedel might have a future in acting, if she can get away from drek like this.

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Summary: Our introduction to Lorelai and Rory Gilmore of Stars Hollow
Review: Actually, I like to collect television pilot episodes, or at least I did before the explosion of channels on cable offering dramatic programming. When there were only three or four networks it was easy to keep up with the new offerings, but now we live in a world where ESPN is offering dramatic programming (at least they still cover sports news, unlike some music channels that have stopped showing music videos), so now I tend just to keep choice examples instead of trying to get them all. Consequently, having the pilot of "Gilmore Girls" on DVD without having to have the entire first season appeals to me (besides, my oldest daughter has the whole season on DVD, and I know where she lives).

As Jules Winfield explained in "Pulp Fiction," pilots are the episodes of a would-be television series that are made to get a network to allow the television series to be made. There are a statement of the intentions of the creators without necessarily be set in stone (go watch the pilot for "M*A*S*H" where there is a different chaplain, a black doctor on staff, and Radar is no innocent), so it is interesting to see what gets tinkered with in the wake of the show being picked up. Having just finished watching the first four seasons of "Gilmore Girls" going back and watching the pilot heightens the changes much more than it does accentuate the core elements.

In the small Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) is trying to get through a normal day. This means getting her morning fix of coffee from Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) as his cafe and dealing with the latest crisis in the kitchen involving cook Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy) at the Inn that Lorelai runs. Then everything changes because Loreliai's daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) has been accepted to Chilton, a prestigious private school. Rory's goal is to get into Harvard and an education at Chilton would be a big step in that direction. Unfortunately the tuition payment Chilton requires up front is even bigger and Lorelai is forced to go and do the last thing on earth she wants to do, namely beg for money from her parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann).

We come to understand the situation. When she was 16-years-old Lorelai got pregnant. She left the home of her well to do parents to have her baby and raise it by herself, getting a job as a maid. Visiting her parents is something Lorelai only does on major holidays (none of which fall in September). Her parents are willing to pay for Rory's tuition, but her mother has conditions: every Friday she expects Lorelai and Rory to attend dinner at the Gilmore mansion. Lorelai is forced to agree and the fun begins.

"Gilmore Girls" is based on the profound irony that while Lorelai and Rory are as close as a mother and daughter can be, it would be rather difficult for their to be much more distance between Lorelai and Emily. In this first episode our sympathies are actually leaning towards Emily, simply because Lorelai is being so defensive. But what is also striking in the pilot is the distance that exists between Rory and her grandparents, who are taken aback at how tall she is and apparently had no clue that she was quite smart (although getting into Chilton would be a clue).

The other thing that really stands out is that the characters are in raw form. The two who are most on point from the start are Michel (Yanic Truesdale) and Lane (Keiko Agena), while there is little indication that Luke is going to end up being the show's male lead. Sookie is a bit too giddy and accident prone instead of merely being creatively eccentric, Richard looks younger but manages to fall asleep at the dinner table, and Dean (Jared Padalecki) starts off being a lot smarter than he ends up being played during the rest of the series. For that matter, Rory is a lot more confident at the start than she is the rest of that first season, but showing up at Chilton probably has a lot to do with that. Lorelai is pretty close to where she ends up, but she has about half the dialogue in the first episode and is obviously the voice of series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who wrote the pilot.

Watching the "Gilmore Girl" pilot again from the perspective of the fifth season what is impressive is not just the basic hook of the extreme poles of Lorelia's life as mother and daughter, which is still the heart of the show, but the way the series has taken its time. After all, from what happens in the pilot it will take until the final episode of season four for Lorelai and Luke to finally get to what "TV Guide" has named the 18th hottest kiss of all time (it is more cute than hot, which would be more David and Maddie on "Moonlighting"), not to mention what happens with Rory and Dean in that episode.

Most of the problems with the "Gilmore Girls" pilot can be traced to the fact it is a pilot, which forces Sherman-Palladino to introduce a lot of characters while setting up the show's situation and initial conflicts. This is why we end up being told about the close relationship between Lorelai and Rory more than we are shown it, especially when Rory has second thoughts about Chilton after first meeting Dean. But then the sparks between Lorelai and Emily are obviously more intriguing at this point. But as long as Lorelai and Rory talks fast and drop lots of pop culture references that is enough to get me hooked on the "Gilmore Girls" and makes the pilot episode worth having around for periodic reminders on how it all began.

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Summary: This was very useful
Review: I probably saw one episode (maybe not even all of it) of this show some time in the past - and totally forgot everything about it.

However, recently browsing through Amazon DVD's finally led me to the pilot of the show. I have been tempted to impulsively get the first season because I had read so many good things about the show (as I had for "Roswell").

However, from the pilot, I am led to believe that these good things came at a later time. The acting was very mediocre, and some (really all) of Rory's conversation with what's-his-name was juvenile and has been said equally as badly in many shows before this one. Come to think of it, the mother's dialog was often stupid, too. The family dynamics between mother and daughter, and both of them and the gramps, seemed awkward and did not ring true.

Bottom line for this DVD sampler - it saved me $35.00. Can't complain about that.

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Summary: What is different about this Pilot?
Review: I was wondering if this Pilot episode is any different from the Pilot episode provided on the first season DVD set? It just seems odd that they would sell the Pilot as a stand alone episode. I had heard through different Gilmore Girl websites that the Pilot episode presented to WB execs before the show was picked up did differ slightly from the episode that viewers saw. Apparently, both Sookie and Dean were played by different characters and I believe there was some different dialogue. Anyways, if this Pilot is different from the DVD set, I would happily buy it! Can you ever get too much Gilmore Girls? And I think we all know the answer to that question ... NO!

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Summary: Save your money!!!
Review: If you purchased the S1 DVD set, don't purchase this DVD. This episode is already on the S1 Set(which I own - that's how I know). I had this DVD on my wish list and a dear friend purchased it for me. The reason I had it on is because I was hoping it would be the pilot version WITHOUT Melissa "Suki" McCarthy. She was not who was originally chosen to play "Suki". I really wanted to see the dynamic between "Lorelai" and "Suki" before Melissa stepped in. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Melissa's "Suki".

It's not a bad thing to purchase if you've NEVER seen "Gilmore Girls" and you don't want to shell out for an entire season. The Pilot eps is what hooked me on the show. It's witty, sarcastic (but in a good way) and down right fun and enjoyable to watch. Sure beats the heck out of all the "reality" shows on now.

Just my $.02 worth.

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Summary: SAME PILOT AS ON FULL SEASON COLLECTION
Review: Just so you know, this is the IDENTICAL PILOT THAT IS IN THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON SET. I give the show itself 5 stars, and for everyone who just wants a taste, buy the DVD. BUT if you own the first season, there is NO NEED to buy this one.