Line #34 Series/Bunheads


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13	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bunheads_8368.jpg]]
14
15	->''"There's no crying in baseball! Or ballet!"''
16	-->-- '''Michelle'''
17
18	''Bunheads'' is a series that aired on Creator/ABCFamily, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino of ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' fame.
19
20	Michelle Simms is a [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra classically trained dancer]] who works as a Vegas showgirl. After she is rejected from an audition for a touring production of ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' without getting a chance to perform, she drunkenly marries Hubbell Flowers, a traveling shoe salesman who lives in a house with a fantastic view of the Pacific in a town called Paradise. Hubbell fails to tell Michelle that he lives with his mother, Fanny, who runs a ballet school attached to the house.
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22	Often considered a CreatorDrivenSuccessor to ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', ''Bunheads'' was canceled in 2013 after only one season.
23	----
24	!!This series provides examples of:
25	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Michelle initially treats Hubbell this way, groaning with annoyance when he shows up and making up excuses to avoid spending time with him.
26	* ACupAngst: All the girls, except Ginny.
27	--> '''Sasha''': "Unless I find a guy who's really into a well-defined clavicle, I'm dying alone."
28	* AdultsAreUseless: Fanny, Michelle and the Jordans do all right, but this show features some almost comically inept parenting from the Torres and Thompson clans, to nearly the point of being AbusiveParents.
29	* AerosolSprayBackfire: Michelle goes to inspect her can of mace, after mace-ing the cast of The Nutcracker, and naturally maces herself also.
30	* TheAllegedHouse: Michelle moves into the unused guest house on Hubbell's property. The stove leaks gas, there's a bathtub in the middle of the living room, and the refrigerator is hot inside.
31	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: This show loves this trope. Hubbell's for Michelle, Truly's for Hubbell, Millie's for Hubbell, Boo's for Charlie, Carl's for Boo, Dez's for Melanie, and [[spoiler: Ginny's for Frankie]]. Nobody loves those who would love them back.
32	* AngryDance: After Sasha's parents have an argument and fail to even notice that she stays out all night and destroys her mother's car, Sasha performs an angry, moody dance to the song "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" during a DreamSequence.
33	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: It's heavily implied that Melanie and Charlie do love each other, despite insulting every single chance they get, as Melanie finds it strange that he doesn’t insult her back at one point.
34	** In "I'll Be Your Meyer Lansky," Melanie watches Charlie get publicly dumped by his girlfriend. She finds it funny at first, but when she sees he's actually hurt by this, she impulsively tugs on the girl's ponytail and knocks her to the floor the next time she sees her.
35	* {{Bookends}}: The first episode has Michelle showing the main girls how a dance audition works. In the finale, they apply the lesson when they sneak into an open call Michelle is participating in.
36	* {{Ballet}}: The show is set primarily at a ballet school, and the main characters are the teachers and students.
37	* BelligerentSexualTension: Truly and Davis. Dez and Melanie, apparently. More belligerent on Melanie's side since Dez is shown so far as being something of a HiddenDepths[=/=]ObfuscatingStupidity type guy who people assume is a DumbJock since he talks slowly and quietly.
38	* BirthdayEpisode: Michelle's birthday in "Movie Truck".
39	* ChekhovsGun: "A Nutcracker in Paradise" has Michelle show off the contents of her bag, including mace in a pretty bottle. Later in the episode, she confuses the bottle with hairspray and maces all the girls in the face.
40	* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: It's not official or anything, but Josh did give Ginny his grandmother's ring. Everybody refers to them as "married".
41	* ChorusGirls: Michelle and her friend Talia work as Vegas showgirls, dancing in stage shows that culminate with [[JiggleShow topless performers]] walking onstage.
42	* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Paradise, California.
43	* CutShort: The series ends with the amphitheater being built near the dance studio still under construction as Michelle ponders an offer to perform in New York City.
44	* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: Given that the show is based around a ballet studio, performances with varying degrees of plot relevance occur frequently.
45	* DoggedNiceGuy: Michelle initially treats Hubbell like an AbhorrentAdmirer and StalkerWithACrush but comes to see him as a nice, generous man who wants to provide for her.
46	* DontExplainTheJoke: Truly, Boo and others keep explaining to Michelle why no one in town hires the local plumber with one eye to do plumbing work.
47	-->Truly: "We use him to keep an eye on things. That's our little joke, because he only has one eye to look at our things with."
48	* DreamSequence: Michelle has a recurring dream about her non-audition for ''Chicago''.
49	** It is the probable explanation for Sasha's AngryDance at the end of "Movie Truck".
50	** Michelle has another one in "A Nutcracker in Paradise." [[spoiler: It has Hubbell in it.]]
51	* FormFittingWardrobe: {{Justified}} as much of the story takes place at the dance studio, so the students (and sometimes Michelle) spend a lot of time in leotards.
52	* FourGirlEnsemble: The four main ballet girls.
53	* FourthDateMarriage: Michelle and Hubbell qualify. Bonus for being drunk and in Vegas.
54	* FreeRangeChildren: Though the girls' parents show up and are characters, the main four girls tend to have a ridiculously high amount of freedom. At one point, they end up going on a spontaneous road trip to Los Angeles. Taken to extremes with Sasha. Her parents divorced, moved away, and ''left Sasha behind in Paradise.''
55	* HiddenDepths: Godot, the surfer/bartender, has a master's degree in oceanography and is genuinely insulted when Michelle assumes he hadn't even graduated high school.
56	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Though it's not a particularly extreme example, Boo initially doesn't want to partner with Carl because he's shorter and slimmer than her.
57	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: From "You Wanna See Something?" on (as well as two or three episodes previous), the episode titles come from lines in the script.
58	* InsecureLoveInterest: Ginny after losing her virginity to Frankie and not hearing from him.
59	* KickTheDog: Boo has a serious crush on Melanie's brother Charlie. While out at a carnival, he writes a number down on her hand and asks him to text it to her. It's the number of a different girl he was flirting with because his phone was dead. Later, he asks her to talk him up to Boo's friend Ginny.
60	* LampshadeHanging: Franny and Michelle meet with an accountant, who points out that they run their school irresponsibly and are losing money due to their dramatics:
61	-->'''Eric''': "The two of you are children. You say you're trying to run a business, but you don't charge half of your students."
62	-->'''Michelle, pointing at Franny''': "Her fault."
63	-->'''Eric''': "You somehow managed to lose money on your annual fundraiser."
64	-->'''Franny''': "Her fault."
65	-->'''Eric''': "You think you can close down the studio anytime you have a bad day."
66	-->'''Franny and Michelle''': "Both of us. That's both of us."
67	* LateComingOut: a somewhat off-screen example, where Sasha's little-seen father announces he's gay and wants to divorce and leave the family home. Sasha has to decide her future from this point.
68	* LetsWaitAWhile: [[spoiler:Boo and Carl decide to wait a year and a half to have [[OurFirstTime sex for the first time]], shortly before their prom.]]
69	* LovelyAssistant: Michelle briefly works as a backup dancer and assistant for a stage magician and, at one point, is demoted from holding a bird as part of a trick to just standing there.
70	* LyricalDissonance: The ending of "Movie Truck" which has Sasha doing a dark and sensual dance routine (referred to by WordOfGod as "Sasha's Anger Dance") to the bouncy tune and silly lyrics of Music/TheyMightBeGiants cover of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)".
71	* MealTicket: Talia dates [[DirtyOldMan a much older man]] who showers her with gifts and expensive dinners. Franny mistakes the man as Talia's father, and Michelle explains that he's not her father but ''is'' "her [[SugarDaddy daddy]]".
72	* MonochromeCasting: This show faced a lot of criticism for having a nearly all-white cast, especially from Creator/ShondaRhimes.
73	* MoodDissonance: At the end of the performance of "The Nutcracker Suite" [[spoiler: The Ringer blithely dances a perfect routine as disaster unfolds around her.]]
74	* MoodWhiplash:
75	** [[spoiler: Truly interrupting Fanny and Michelle drinking and dancing together to announce that Hubbell had been killed at the end of the pilot.]]
76	** In "A Nutcracker in Paradise," everything is going swimmingly and then [[spoiler: Michelle accidentally maces the entire cast of "The Nutcracker Suite"]].
77	** In "Blank up, it's time", the postcoital conversation takes a sharp turn when Michelle mentions Hubbell and starts welling up with bottled-up grief.
78	* MotorMouth: As the only season progresses, Amy Sherman-Palladino's [[SignatureStyle signature style]] starts to become more and more noticeable. In "The Astronaut and the Ballerina", Ginny reaches an impressive 270 words per minute during her [[ThinkingOutLoud rant about her mother]].
79	* NeverSayDie: Played straight by all the girls but Boo [[spoiler: when they spread the word of Hubbell's accident]].
80	* OneHeadTaller: Hilariously, Mel compared to Ginny.
81	* OnlyShopInTown: Even though it's not ''actually'' the only shop in town, it might as well be, when Michelle goes to buy a dress for her impromptu wedding celebration, and the dress store is owned by her new husband's ex, Truly.
82	* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: Inverted when Michelle goes to the local coffee shop to buy a simple cappuccino but the pretentious barista refuses to make it, assuring her he knows what coffee order is for the best.
83	* PaperThinDisguise: During the Joffrey auditions, Boo is cut, so Fanny has her put on various wigs and sends her back in. She knows that the people doing the auditions don't really look at faces and won't see the deception.
84	* ParentalAbandonment: Sasha's parents split up and separately move out of Paradise - when she insists on staying, they ''give her a credit card and leave her there to get her own apartment''.
85	* ParentalSubstitute: Increasingly, Michelle for Sasha.
86	* ReferenceOverdosed: As is typical for Amy Sherman-Palladino.
87	* ShadyRealEstateAgent: Claire - Ginny's mother
88	---> Claire: "Oh, it's a big responsibility. The upkeep... it's enough to make your head spin. Anyhow, if you should decide that this is all just too much for you, you could give me a call."
89	* ShirtlessScene: Surfer guy Godot is often shirtless. The girls are completely EatingTheEyeCandy.
90	* ShotGunWedding: [[spoiler:Talia reveals that she ultimately agreed to marry her much old boyfriend because she's pregnant.]]
91	* ShoutOut:
92	** To ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' when discussing Ginger Rogers:
93	--->''"They talked faster back then; it's funnier when it's faster."''
94	** To Series/GameOfThrones:
95	--->''"No one takes Khaleesi's dragons!"''
96	* SlapSlapKiss: Truly and Davis
97	* StageMagician: Michelle briefly works as a backup dancer for a stage magician named Jo Jo, who uses the tagline "You Want To See Something?" and performs in a casino in Henderson, Nevada.
98	* StraightToThePointe: Justified with the main four teenage characters, as they are advanced ballet students.
99	* SucksAtDancing:
100	** Franny notes that Carl lacks nearly everything needed to be a good dancer, but he makes up for it with enthusiasm.
101	** Michelle outright tells Sam she's terrible during an adult tap-dancing class, to which Sam cheerfully replies "I know!"
102	* TakeThat: To ''Series/DanceMoms'':
103	---> '''Franny''': "If they don't like it, they are free to take their children to that enormous crazy woman with the pyramid system, whose students end up with knock knees and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."
104	* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Carl considers Sasha the Technician and Boo the Performer, arguing that while Sasha's dancing is technically perfect, she has "ballet brain" and can't adapt, while Boo can.
105	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the Dog? And to the possum? Did anyone actually claim that baby?
106	* It seemed like Grant, the rich guy on top of the hill, was introduced as a [[WillTheyOrWontThey Will They or Won't They?]] potential love interest. Kind, handsome and lived conveniently nearby. But after his introduction, we never saw him again.

Context Series / Bunheads