The WB dramedy “Gilmore Girls,” the one TV show I am truly, freakishly obsessed with, had its season finale last night, and while the episode itself was a bit of a disappointment at the end of a somewhat lackluster season, I was aware as I watched it that this was also the end of life in the fictional town of Stars Hollow as Gilmore fans have known it. No, “Gilmore Girls” hasn’t been cancelled–it is scheduled to go over to the new UPN/WB hybrid network The CW–but the creative forces behind the show, series creators and executive producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, recently announced that due to contract disputes with network executives, they will not return to helm the seventh and, most likely, final season of the show. It seems the Palladinos wanted more money, as well as the possibility of a longer contract and other perks, in order to stick around another year.

Like other genius producer/directors such as Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing”), the Palladinos wrote most of the “Gilmore” episodes themselves, so they are responsible for giving the show its trademark eccentric charm. I have no doubt that when the Palladinos leave, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, perhaps the most famous mother-daughter TV duo in recent memory, will be left without their witty banter and endless pop culture references, which only the uber-hip could understand. I also can’t imagine how anyone else will come up with such lavish plot devices as the Festival of Living Portraits or the Edgar Allan Poe club. But most of all, I fear the nuanced complexity of family relationships will be forever absent from those infamous Friday night Gillmore dinners.

So it was with sadness that I watched Lorelai make the wrong decision, again, by giving her fiance, diner-owner Luke, an ultimatum about marriage that ended with her running off and sleeping with former flame Christopher, again. Sad not only because I was left worrying about the fate of Luke and Lorelai’s future one more time, but because greed and hubris seem to have gotten in the way of good storytelling in Hollywood–as usual–leaving loyal viewers to suffer the consequences. Yes, I’ll keep watching the show, but only because any “Gilmore” is better than no “Gilmore”–in my world, anyway.