Lauren Graham Reflects On The First 'GG' Finale

If the jaw-dropping ending of A Year In The Life didn't satiate your Gilmore Girls craving, you might be able to gather some closure with Lauren Graham's new book of personal essays. Talking As Fast As I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between delves into the secrets behind the final Gilmore Girls episode... that is, of the original series. And, in the pages on Season 7, it was revealed that the Gilmore Girls cast and crew didn't even know they were filming the last episode. (Which, by the way, took forever to complete.)

Season 7 remains a bit of a blur to Graham, but she remembers that her and co-star Alexis Bledel were feeling creatively exhausted and "a bit uninspired" by the time they began the Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino-less venture. As the unconfirmed rumor claims, contract negotiations from when WB and the UPN merged to form CW led to the showrunners exiting the series. While Graham respected the new show runners, the season was understandably different than when the Palladinos were at the helm. Though there was talk of re-branding the series, Bledel and Graham were more or less comfortable about wrapping up with Rory's Yale graduation, if it came to that.

But uncertainty loomed over the finale's filming, and the cast were left wondering if they'd get picked up for another season as they made the could-be, would-be last episode. "The last day stretched into the night and ended up being more than 21 hours long," Graham reveals. "I said a bleary and brief goodbye to everyone as the sun was coming up, but it wasn't the quality send-off any of us would've given if we'd known this was the end."

So how did the news actually hit? Apparently, Graham found out via a phone call from her agent while she was having dinner with a friend. "'The show's over,' My agent said. And suddenly, before the appetizers even arrived, that was that," she recounts. Of course, it could be worse; Graham and Bledel were the only cast members formally informed of the show's cancellation. The other members of the Gilmore Girls family received the bad news in less tidy ways.

In the end, Graham found a small blessing with leaving the Gilmore Girls finale without that final hem. "Had the story lines been sewn up more neatly, it would've been harder to justify returning to them," she wrote. We can agree with that. And if you still haven't had your Gilmore Girls fill, feel free to pick up a copy of Graham's page-turner now that Talking As Fast As I Can is out on the shelves this Tuesday.

Talking As Fast As I Can : From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (And Everything In Between) by Lauren Graham, $16.66, Amazon

Images: Warner Bros. Television; Giphy (2)