{alltv} Graham still known as Gilmore Girl

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Lauren Graham of Parenthood can't believe that people - especially young people - still are watching her previous show Gilmore Girls in reruns.

"I didn't even really get it till after," said Graham, who starred as Lorelai Gilmore from 2000 to 2007. "Little girls are now watching it in reruns, and I was like, 'Oh, I'm on one of THOSE shows, like Laverne & Shirley or something.'

"I didn't get it. And thank God, because who wants to walk around with a person who's like, 'You know, I'm on a show that people will remember.' "

But people do remember Gilmore Girls, and Graham hopes Parenthood - which is back for a second season this fall on NBC and Citytv - will be around long enough to be remembered fondly, too.

After playing a classic mom in Gilmore Girls and now again playing a mom in Parenthood, Graham was asked if she had any reservations about back-to-back mom roles.

"It's another person to me," Graham said. "But the reality is, I used to always say with Gilmore Girls, I never could be that cool, you know? There's no way. I could never be that fun. You can't actually eat that many Cheetos. The whole thing of that world was the fantasy of what that (mother-daughter) friendship could be like.

"What I liked about Parenthood was that Sarah (Braverman, Graham's character) really struggles. To me, it was an opportunity to explore someone who isn't where they want to be."

Graham was cast in Parenthood after Maura Tierney backed out due to health reasons. After appearing in almost all the scenes on Gilmore Girls, Graham had to adjust her performer's clock for the vast ensemble cast on Parenthood.

"It's so fun to do these scenes, and of course I wish I were in every one," said Graham, 43. "But I really struggled to find anything I wanted to do. I mean anything.

"I also tabled the thing I hope is next, which is, I wanted to be a producer of my own idea. I was in development for a show with NBC first, and then the writers' strike happened. Then at ABC we did a pilot. It didn't turn out the way any of us thought - it's a creative thing, it's not going to work every time. But I became frustrated with that process.

"So rather than do that for another cycle, this was a show I had a feeling about, which was the way I took Gilmore Girls. That show had aspects of it where people were like, 'You shouldn't play a mom, you're too young,' or, 'you shouldn't be on the WB' - it was the WB back then (later CW). But rightly or wrongly, I just kind of made a gut decision."

Perhaps Parenthood can grow into a big hit in a way that Gilmore Girls never did in its day, despite widespread critical acclaim. But Gilmore Girls lives on in syndication, and Graham is fascinated by that.

"That show, I'm surprised because it's so 'pop culture,' the references are so of that day," Graham said.

"To me what's really surprising is that Gilmore Girls does well in any other country. I've heard myself dubbed in other languages and I'm like, 'How can anyone (watch this)?' It's so American to me, the sound of the show.

"But it's just really cool. It was such a wish-fulfillment show."