The Women Of Amy Sherman-Palladino

 

Smart, witty, quirky, loquacious, female-centric, drenched in pop-culture references — Amy Sherman-Palladino’s singular TV voice has won her legions of fans and critical appreciation over the past two decades, thanks to shows like Gilmore Girls, Bunheads, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Sherman-Palladino – the first woman ever to win Emmy Awards for both comedy writing and directing in a single year – may write about different decades and milieus, but her sensibility is unique and unmistakable throughout. Her greatest contribution may be her pantheon of unforgettable female characters, including Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy), Michelle Simms (Sutton Foster), Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), and Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan). In The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino, writers from different walks of live – scholars, critics, writers, comedians, dancers —  take us on a journey through the worlds of Stars Hollow, Paradise, and fifties New York City as they explain their own connections with these characters, and how they have influenced their own lives.

The Women of Amy Sherman-Palladino is the second book in the Wome of . . . series from Fayetteville Mafia Press, after The Women of David Lynch, published in June 2019. This unique series, brought to you by Scott Ryan (The Blue Rose Magazine, Last Days of Letterman) and David Bushman (Twin Peaks: FAQ, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: FAQ) covers great female characters in television and film.

1. Introduction: Three Pilots + One Funny Girl = Multitudes of Amys By Scott Ryan

Part 1: Our Little Corner of the World

2. Growing Up Gilmore By Hannah Klein

3. The Jewishness of Midge Maisel By Darren Richman

4. “But None of That Means You Shouldn’t Try”: Bunheads, Perseverance, and My Love of Teaching By E. J. Kishpaugh

5. The Marvelous Ms. Hirsch By Noelle P. Wilson

Part 2: Rory and the Final Four

6. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Gilmore Girls By Célèste Fohl

7. All Her Brains and Talents: The Failure of Rory Gilmore By Constance Grady

8. Fandom and Final Words By Lynn Messina

9. Rory Gilmore, the Patron Saint of Good Girls By Jessica Pan and Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Part 3: Mothers and Daughters

10. Rose Goes to Paris, Mrs. Weissman Stays Home: How Rose Weissman Defines and Defies the 1950s American Housewife Ideal By Radhika Mitra

11. Bunheads’ Michelle Simms: An Unlikely Inspiration in Paradise By Claire Kretzschmar

12. The Indian Mothers and Daughters of Amy Sherman-Palladino By Proma Khosla

13. Thank God Midge Maisel Doesn’t Mother Much  By Alison Star Locke 

14. Watching Gilmore Girls, Watching Ourselves: A Storyteller Comes Home By Elisa Lorello

Appendix: Interview with Kaitlyn Jenkins