Do You Remember: Bunheads

Back when Freeform was still ABC Family, a number of years after Gilmore Girls came to an end and before Broadway star Sutton Foster landed the lead role in Younger, there was a little show called Bunheads, created by none other than Gilmore Girls mastermind Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Bunheads was a comedy-drama that only ran from June 2012 to February 2013, running for all of 18 episodes. The show focused on Michelle Simms (Foster), former ballerina [aka “ a bunhead,” the slang term for women who put their long hair into a bun while dancing) who wound up as a Las Vegas showgirl. Seeing her life and career at a dead end, she impulsively accepted up the offer of marriage from her persistent admirer, Hubbell Flowers (the one and only Alan Ruck) and moved to his sleepy coastal town, the fictional town of Paradise in Southern California, thirty miles south of Ojai, California. Once there, Hubbell was tragically killed in a car accident, leaving Michelle to struggle in adjusting to life in a small town, teaching alongside her mother-in-law, Fanny Flowers (the indomitable Kelly Bishop from, naturally, Gilmore Girls) at her ballet school: the Paradise Dance Academy.

In addition to Foster and Bishop, the main cast was comprised of newcomers:

Julia Goldani Telles played Sasha Torres. Julia has since gone on to appear in the acclaimed drama The Affair and will be seen alongside Kelsey Grammer in The Space Between;

Emma Dumont played Melanie “Mel” Segal. Emma has been one of the stars of the FOX drama The Gifted, and also appeared in NBC’s Aquarius and will be seen alongside Rumor Willis in the box office film thriller What Lies Ahead;

Bailey De Young (nee Buntain) played Virginia “Ginny” Thompson. Bailey has gone on to appear in Faking It and the award-winning streaming series The Marvelous Ms. Maisel;

Kaitlyn Jenkins played Bettina “Boo” Jordan. Kaitlyn has appeared in a number of shorts since her time on Bunheads and has four projects in production; and,

Stacey Oristano played Truly Stone. Stacey has appeared in episodes of Shameless and Grey’s Anatomy.

Among the recurring guest stars who appeared in Bunheads for its short time on the air included:

Liza Weil (from Gilmore Girls and more recently How To Get Away with Murder)
Nathan Parsons (from True Blood and now Roswell, New Mexico)
Jeanine Mason (from Grey’s Anatomy and (ironic or not) now Roswell, New Mexico)

Other Gilmore Girls alums who made cameo appearances were:

Alex Borstein (who won an Emmy for her work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)
Sean Gunn (from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise).

Despite critical acclaim Bunheads was never a ratings winner – not even for ABC Family at the time; and was officially canceled by ABC Family in July of 2013.

Here is a trailer for Bunheads:

Do you remember Bunheads?