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In the season 3 episode, ‘Here Comes the Son, Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia) left Stars Hollow to travel to Venice, California to see his dad Jimmy (Rob Estes). His dad is then living with his girlfriend Sasha (Sherilyn Fenn before she took on the role of Anna Nardini) and her daughter.
This episode of Gilmore Girls was to serve as a “backdoor pilot” for a spin-off show to star Milo Ventimiglia. The show, entitled Windward Circle, was going to be focused on the relationship between Jess and Jimmy. Due to the high costs of filming in Venice Beach, the series never made it to air. ‘Here Comes the Son’ was the pilot episode fro this new series, but instead was merged into Gilmore Girls as a Jess-focused episode.
So, my question here is, what would Windward Circle have been like?
Would that have been the end of Jess’ relationship with Rory (Alexis Bledel), or would she have come to Venice to see Jess? Would the show have had enough spunky characters, or was it too limited to know? So far, we had just Jess, Jimmy, Sasha and the odd little girl. Great actors, but it’s no Stars Hollow. Just think of the life Jess would have lived there – would he have been happy? What would he have done? Would he have finished school?
Here’s a few extra scenes from Windward Circle that never aired:
Watch Here Comes the Son:
Check out Gilmore Girls on TheWB.com here.
Image credit: TheWB
626 days ago
I was actually thinking about this lately myself. I kinda prefer that it didn’t happen, as much as I love Jess seeing his character with some other girl eventually, would bother me . I don’t think the show would have lasted to long unless they did alot of crossover episodes. Though it would have been interesting to see, Jess is a fun character to watch. I rather like the way his character turned out instead though.
There’s actually a small clip of the show if anybody’s interested :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGTDZe03Cq0
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625 days ago
Thanks Paige!! I’ve added the video above.
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625 days ago
This felt like a bad idea from the start to me. GG succeeded because it was funny – no matter how dramatic it was, you laughed every episode. This show was just weird.
It worked out much better the way they did it. Jess’s character was resolved properly. Sherilyn Fenn was recycled as Anna Nardini and the weird girl was recycled as April. Yeah, people hated that plot arc, but they needed some way to break up Luke and Lorelai. (You didn’t think Lorelai would have a successful relationship, did you?)
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625 days ago
Wow. Don’t get me wrong, GG is my fav show ever, but I’m sure the spin off would have sucked, and I think that clip is proof.
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625 days ago
Hi-
Hate to pile on, but this clip makes any episode of 90210, Privilidged, or even Jezabel James look like spun gold by comparison. What was ASP thinking??
Where were the proposed plotlines for the new show and when would ASP have the time to find them? They had a hard enough time getting GG season 4 plotline through the first half of the year without several “filler” episodes about “next to nothing” putting us to sleep.
As to the character of Jess in his possible incarnations, in GG, Jess and Rory was excellent combo and always well written. Jess and either Lorelai or Luke in GG was also good enough for the most part. For the new show, Jess and Sasha had some possibiities from their limited interactions, but Jess and Jimmy were flat beyond belief, and Jess as a “fish out of water” in a LA high school was borderline laughable. We lucked out by this show never getting made!!
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624 days ago
In the clip-am I crazy or was the guy in green the guy who played Brennen “froggie” who works at Luke’s for the one episode?
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607 days ago
I loved the character of Jess. He was by far one of the best characters written and one of the best moves ever made on Gilmore Girls. He was such a change from all the other characters on the show, as much as i loved them he added a lot of variety. But I’m not convinced the show would have been a success. Not because of the clip above; I never think that you can tell a lot from 2 minutes – but those other kids would have probably annoyed me. Mostly I don’t really think many would have taken to seeing him with someone else besides Rory. To my mind they were a perfect match and I don’t care what anyone says. The only thing that saddens me by it not happening is that we didn’t get a more in-depth look at his character. I would have like to see him trying to play a role in a ‘family,’ and try to get to know his dad. There are so many things about Jess that we never found out because he was such a mysterious character. Like why he was actually sent to Stars Hollow in the first place. Instead we were just brushed off a really vague ‘kids stuff.’ To me, it always felt as if the character of Jess was never fully used to his potential. And I think that ASP realized that which is why i don’t think the idea of a Jess spin-off was such a bad idea, it just wasn’t thought through enough. He should have had a much bigger role in the Gilmore Girls first. In season 4, you can really feel the lack of Jess. The few episodes he was in were by far the best of the season. I think that the frankly, pathetic affair between Dean and Rory was a desperate plea to re-grab viewers attention. You could almost feel ASP’s regret about not signing him on for more seasons.
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408 days ago
I am a great fan of Gilmore Girls. I watch the rerun of the swhow enjoying it like the first time. I would loved that another show, because I know you can’t see all Gilmore Girls with one only scene. You can’t see how weird would be the girl, how much people, so interesting like Lane or Luke, could Jess find.
Don’t you think that kids are maybe a parody of BH90210 or any other Californian juvenilia.
One suggestion: ask ASP about.
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248 days ago
I’m not sure whether it would have completely worked the same as GG but I would have watched it for Milo/Jess. The thing is other commenters said things like Jess’s story was resolved, but it really wasn’t. Quite frankly Jess went a long way from this episode to his next appearance. I would have loved to have seen Jimmy and Jess’s relationship just because it felt like what would’ve happened between Lorelai and Rory if they too had been in the situation. Jimmy and Jess are a lot alike, I felt like the were trying to redeem Jimmy but then decided they’d try to reform Liz in GG. Quite frankly I think it would have been cool because it would be like a GG except father/son and getting used to each other. If only they had chosen a less expensive place to film!
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