The Return of Jezebel James

Amy Sherman-Palladino is coming out with a new show, "The Return of Jezebel James". The new show stars Parker Posey, Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under), and Scott Cohen. Scott Cohen played Max Medina on Gilmore Girls.

Parker Posey’s character learns she can’t have kids, but her sister Coco (Lauren Ambrose) agrees to carry it for her. The two very different sisters live together for the pregnancy.

They haven’t seen each other in a while, and Coco refuses to go along with such a huge favor. But something happens when Sarah mentions that she’s turned Coco’s imaginary childhood friend Jezebel James into a children’s book. Even though she doesn’t say so out loud, Coco is clearly touched, and, realizing that her current living situation – sharing a couch with her friend’s sick dog – isn’t working out, Coco decides that this just might be worth a try.

TV Guide’s Ausiello calls it "shockingly generic", which is not a good sign, as he’s a big fan of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s work. However, after seeing more than a few clips, he might just be turning around and saying it’s good:

Ausiello: I watched the pilot over the holiday weekend, and I’m relieved to report that it’s much better than the limp trailer we were treated to during upfronts week. Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose are every bit the dream team I had hoped they would be, and AS-P’s dialogue is predictably snappy. My only complaint is the awkwardly integrated laugh track. It’s no laughing matter.

But laugh tracks? How tacky is that. Reviews from the pilot indicate that Lauren Ambrose shines in the pilot, while Parker Posey comes off as flat and annoying. Not such a good thing when Parker Posey is the lead.

Amy Sherman Palladino says in an interview about Jezebel James:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So why this project — a traditional, live-audience comedy?
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO: I didn’t want to go back to work unless it was something I was desperately passionate about. We wanted to find somebody who would let us do a sitcom, as an experiment, exactly the way we wanted to do it. Very classy and beautiful, with some fabulous actors — something kind of like Cheers. God love Fox, they let us do it. And these are the greatest actresses in the world. I mean, Parker Posey? Parker and Lauren are just knockouts.

You’re working with two strong female leads again. How is it different this time around?
The great thing about a sitcom is you can rehearse it every day…. Parker’s very methodical. And Lauren Ambrose will come [to rehearsal] with a list of brilliant questions. It’s all the things you want to be able to do.

Neither of their characters is named Jezebel or James. What’s with the title?
The Return of Jezebel James is the title of the book [Posey's children's book editor character Sarah intends to publish]. It’s based on [Ambrose's character] Coco’s imaginary friend when she was little. When she’d get in trouble, she’d say, ”It wasn’t me, it was Jezebel James.” To me, it’s that connection that, even though the sisters didn’t realize it was there, it was still there.

More importantly, will we get that trademark Gilmore banter?
There’s a scene in it that I’m very proud of that’s 17 pages of Parker and Lauren talking in a diner. It was wonderful. It was like a play. And they feed on that. They’ve both done theater. I got to direct it. I got to really work with these people. We got to do exactly what we wanted to do. We had this beautiful set, these fabulous actors. If it doesn’t happen, it’s not meant to be. Meanwhile, they’re telling us to move our s— out here. How do we get our dog out here? Solve that for us, Entertainment Weekly. People keep saying, ”Don’t you know someone with a private jet?” Uh, no.

Here are three promotional clips of The Return of Jezebel James:

Tags: amy sherman, amy sherman-palladino, parker posey, lauren ambrose, the return of jezebel james