Amy Sherman-Palladino

Sherman-Palladino is best known as the creator and executive producer of Gilmore Girls (2000–07), a television comedy drama series that aired initially on The WB network and concluded on its successor network, The CW. A four-episode revival aired on Netflix in 2016. In selling the show, Sherman-Palladino says that during her pitch meeting for landing a script order, Gilmore Girls was presented as a last-ditch effort thought up on the spot due to a lacking response from the network executives towards her other ideas. She presented this last hope as a "show about a mother and daughter, but they're more like best friends" and the executives were all sold immediately. During a trip to Connecticut, she and husband Daniel Palladino were inspired to center the show there, allowing a rich setting for a small-town community and the divide from the WASPy social setting of Hartford, Connecticut.

In producing the show, Sherman-Palladino and her husband wore many hats as the creative forces of the show, writing a large number of the episodes and also acting as directors, producers and show runners for six years of its seven-year run.[10][11][12]

On April 20, 2006, it was announced that Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel could not come to an agreement with The CW to continue their contracts. As a result, the Palladinos' involvement with Gilmore Girls came to an end. The official statement was as follows: "Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of Gilmore Girls for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of this season. Our heartfelt thanks go out to our amazing cast, hard-working crew and loyal fans."[13] Writer and producer David S. Rosenthal replaced them.

The couple did an interview with TV Guide writer Michael Ausiello, where they went further into their reasons for leaving the show.[14]

In a 2012 interview with Vulture, in which Sherman-Palladino was asked to reflect on the issue, she responded

It was a botched negotiation. It really was about the fact that I was working too much. I was going to be the crazy person who was locked in my house and never came out. I heard a lot of 'Amy doesn't need a writing staff because she and [her husband] Dan Palladino write everything!' I thought, That's a great mentality on your part, but if you want to keep the show going for two more years, let me hire more writers. By the way, all this shit we asked for? They had to do anyway when we left. They hired this big writing staff and a producer-director onstage. That's what bugged me the most. They wound up having to do what we asked for anyway, and I wasn't there.[9]

On August 1, 2006, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the Fox Network had ordered a pilot of a new comedy project from Sherman-Palladino. The untitled comedy, which received a pilot commitment from the network, was about two sisters who come together after years apart, when one of the sisters agrees to carry the other's baby.[15] Sherman-Palladino wrote, executive produced and directed the pilot.

In December 2006, at the Hollywood Radio & Television Society's Hitmakers luncheon, Palladino revealed the name of her new sitcom: The Return of Jezebel James.[16] The series debuted on March 14, 2008, on Fox starring Parker Posey. The show was subsequently cancelled on March 24, 2008, after only three episodes were aired.[17]

ABC Family picked up Sherman-Palladino's pilot, Bunheads, to series.[18] It premiered on June 11, 2012.[19] The series stars Sutton Foster as a Las Vegas showgirl who, after impulsively getting married, moves to the sleepy coastal town 'Paradise' and winds up working at her new mother-in-law's dance studio: The Paradise Dance Academy. Kelly Bishop, who portrayed Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls, plays the recurring role of Fanny Flowers, her mother-in-law.[20] On July 22, 2013, five months after the end of Season 1, it was announced that Bunheads would not be renewed for a second season.[21]

In October 2015, it was reported on TVLine that Netflix struck a deal with Warner Bros. to revive the series in a limited run, consisting of four 90-minute episodes.[22][23] Sherman-Palladino was in charge of the new episodes, titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.[24] The four episodes are named after the seasons, and all four became available on November 25, 2016.

In June 2016, Amazon ordered an hour-long pilot from Sherman-Palladino entitled The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, about a 1950s housewife who decides to become one of the first female stand-up comics.[25] On August 5, 2016, it was reported that Rachel Brosnahan had been cast in the lead role as Miriam "Midge" Maisel.[26] Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle were later cast as the parents of Brosnahan's character, Abe and Rose Weissman,[27][28] with Michael Zegen joining as her husband, Joel Maisel.[29] On March 2, 2017, Entertainment Weekly reported that Alex Borstein would be playing Susie Myerson.[30] The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was made available to watch on Amazon on March 17, 2017, as a part of Amazon Studios' spring pilot season, with viewers having the option to vote for it to be ordered to series.[31] On April 10, 2017, it was announced that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel had received an "unprecedented" 2-season order from Amazon.[32] The series was critically acclaimed; it won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy at the 75th Golden Globe Awards,[33] and a Peabody Award in "Entertainment" at the 77th Annual Peabody Awards.[34] Sherman-Palladino won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.[35] The success led an overall deal at Amazon Studios.[36]