Primetime hasn't always been a friendly place for a quick-witted, literate hour that deftly mixes drama and comedy, but as the WB Network's "Gilmore Girls" reaches its 100th episode tonight, the acclaimed series finds itself enjoying the highest ratings of its five-year run. Simply stated, it's hotter than ever.

That's a far cry from when the show debuted in 2000. Five years ago, folks who produce scripted programming were at their wit's end
competing with the snowballing reality avalanche. Writers had been relegated to the endangered species list, making "Gilmore" an out-
of-sync anomaly that was too smart and witty for its own good.

But here "Gilmore" is, having made it through the unscripted minefield and surviving to tell the tale. The series has posted significant double-digit increases this season relative to 2003-04 in all prime female and adult demographics, and it remains the WB's top-rated series among women 18-34 and 18-49 and adults 18-49.

The times, it seems, have changed to suit "Gilmore," rather than the reverse. Looking around the dial, the hottest shows no longer are named "Survivor" and "The Bachelorette" (though they remain popular properties for CBS and ABC, respectively) but CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "Without a Trace" and ABC's "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." Writers again are valued as creators and molders of TV entertainment, placing a dialogue-driven show like "Gilmore" at the crest of a trend.

"It's great to be on the rise, and of course it's because we're all so brilliant over here," quips Amy Sherman-Palladino, the "Gilmore" creator, executive producer and showrunner whose company is called Dorothy Parker Drank Here Prods. (giving one a clear window into her decidedly unconventional mind-set). "Actually, it's tough to know what this is all about, but none of us here are complaining."

With script-driven dramas experiencing something of a renaissance, it is easy to forget that few observers gave a show this sophisticated and emotionally complex much chance to survive during the long haul, despite a solid creative pedigree as the first series to make it to air supported by the Family Friendly Forum's script development fund.

But the show's longevity does not surprise Susanne Daniels, who greenlighted "Gilmore" when she was the WB's entertainment president (a post now held by David Janollari).

"I remember how Amy came into my office and talked to me generally about comedy development," Daniels says. "I asked her if she would consider writing a drama for us instead, and she said, 'Should I be insulted by this question?' I told her no; she could develop a drama with a lot of comedy in it as well. What she came back with was 'Gilmore Girls.'"

Daniels praises Sherman-Palladino for bringing to the show "a level of detail that's miraculous, basically. Everything from the costuming to the dialogue to the sets showed her distinctive personality -- she had such a vision for the show. We've never before seen a mother-daughter relationship like this show has. I also loved Lorelai's parents. There's so little of the older generation depicted on TV, and the way she set it up was totally relatable."

While Daniels acknowledges that nobody speaks in real life with the eloquence and articulation exhibited by the characters on "Gilmore," "it's an idealized vision that's really a key to the show's success. It aims high -- I admire that."

It also speaks to "Gilmore's" quality that it is impossible to imagine actresses other than Lauren Graham (Lorelai) and Alexis Bledel (Rory) inhabiting the characters of mother and daughter, respectively. But it speaks to the show's charmed existence that a couple of actresses who were then unknowns wound up getting cast at all.

"Lauren was attached to another pilot when she auditioned for us, and thank God that pilot didn't go," Sherman-Palladino says. "Alexis had never had a professional acting job at all -- zero. She was a student at NYU, she had the flu, (and) she was terrified. Then we put
a camera on her, and it was like, 'Oh, my God!'"

The "Gilmore" cast is considered one of the deepest and most
talented in series television, and its members reflect a chemistry that seems to grow tighter by the season.

Even before he took the controls at the WB last year, Janollari counted himself a major "Gilmore" fan.

"'Gilmore Girls' is one of those elusive shows where everything clicked," he says. "The writing is sensational, the cast is beyond compare, and the stories and characters are at the same time relatable and have an element of wish fulfillment. With our target audience, which is predominantly young women, we have a lot of young mothers and teenage daughters who I'm sure desire a relationship as close as Lorelai's and Rory's."

The "Gilmore" plot line surrounds how the free-spirited, fiercely independent and impetuous Lorelai gave birth to a daughter while in her midteens and opted to raise her as a single mother under the watchful and oft-disapproving glare of extremely proper, patrician and old-money parents. The irony for Lorelai is that her child is growing up bookish and relatively conservative.

Most of the show's story lines reflect minor, character-driven plot twists rather than major events. Things tend to move slowly in Stars Hollow except for the rapid-fire dialogue (which fairly crackles), but it's clear the formula is clicking on all cylinders this season.

This year finds the eccentric Lorelai seeing her long-simmering relationship with Luke (Scott Patterson) blossom into romance, while her heretofore bookish daughter is still reeling from having lost her virginity to a married man at the end of Season 4. Oh, and Lorelai's parents Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann) are renewing their vows after "separating" but continuing to live on the same grounds. All of that turmoil has added up to big audiences.

"Our Tuesday night is one of the great success stories of the television season," Janollari says. "I think a large part of that is due to the fact Amy Sherman-Palladino is telling some of the strongest stories ever, with complex, fun, romantic entanglements abounding and a cast at the top of its game."

Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth sees "Gilmore's"
success as a residual reward for having persevered back when it was "the little engine that could," airing at 8 p.m. Thursday in the "death slot" opposite NBC's "Friends."

"It managed to eke out a strong, loyal core audience in spite of the remarkable competition," Roth says. "This is yet another example of how a great show that is properly nurtured and given time to find its audience will do so. The show moved to Tuesday nights and continued to grow and thrive, even airing against (ABC's) '8 Simple Rules' in the wake of John Ritter's tragic death."

Now that its competition is less overwhelming, "Gilmore" finally is able to show what it really can do, Roth figures. Not that a show hitting a creative peak during its fifth season is common; actually, quite the opposite generally is the case.

"You could see 'Gilmore' starting to get increasingly better qualitatively last season," Roth says. "The last six episodes of Season 4 kick-started this creative momentum that continued on into Season 5. It (has) been a true rebirth both creatively and in the ratings."

Even amid such praise and numbers increases, there are fears that there has been too much change on the show of late. Specifically, some observers believe that Lorelai finally consummating a relationship with diner owner Luke means the show is in clear shark-jumping mode.

The scrappy, sassy Sherman-Palladino (who runs the show with fellow writer-producer and husband Daniel Palladino) does not think the plot modifications have been overdone.

"Some people have been thrown just because our changes are typically so gradual," she says. "Yes, Rory lost her virginity to a married man, but you know, that happens in life. And she took it really slow; to give you a basis of comparison, my husband and I have been married nearly eight years, and we haven't had sex yet. We're taking it really slow."

Adds Palladino: "But we're building up to it. When the time is right, we'll know."

They're kidding, of course, but the fact is that "Gilmore" is a hit because its producers trust that their guts and their agenda will carry them through.

Daniels originally gave then-dramatic neophyte Sherman-Palladino a shot at her own show because she sensed the realism in what the writer-producer was saying about the love and combative nature at the core of complex family relationships. "It's entertainment that makes you think," Daniels says.

Adds Palladino: "It's a very fragile social contract that we're all abiding by in our lives; there are all sorts of little psychological digs and moments that can blow up in the family dynamic. To us, it's the potential for warfare that makes it fascinating."

Both Palladinos also are proud that their show reflects both positive moral values and a liberal bent. "Gilmore" demonstrates through its lead character Lorelai that Republicans haven't yet cornered the market on wholesome family principles; at the same time, everyone here speaks really, really quickly and with an uncannily impressive grasp of popular culture. It's like real life, only without the verbal gaps.

Roth sees it as "the antithesis of the dysfunctional family comedy and really an example of what can happen when truly gifted writers and producers are given room to creatively thrive. The kind of quality you see on 'Gilmore Girls' week in and week out almost never happens in series television. It's a best-case scenario in every way."