ABC Family Releases 'Bunheads' Pilot Early

ABC Family

"Bunheads"

Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is back with a new show, Bunheads, and ABC Family is previewing the first episode of the upcoming ballet drama.

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This falls in line with numerous cable, including pay channels, and broadcast networks opting to release pilots of upcoming series to allow viewers the chance to sample before the shows' official TV launches.

Starring Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, Bunheads centers on a Las Vegas showgirl who impulsively marries a man, moves to his sleepy coastal town and takes an uneasy role at her new mother-in-law’s (Kelly Bishop) dance school.

"I spent 20 years of my life with my hair in a bun. I was supposed to be a dancer,” Sherman-Palladino said last September when the project was given a pilot order. “My mother was a dancer. Her greatest heartbreak was when I got on Roseanne. So, while writing this will never equal playing Rumpelteazer in a bus and truck tour of Cats, it does let me to tip my hat to a really special time in my life."

THR broke the news in April that Kenny Ortega, who directed several episodes of Gilmore Girls during its run, will step behind the camera for an upcoming episode marking a reunion of sorts between Ortega and Sherman-Palladino.

To watch the pilot, viewers can go here and enter the case-sensitive code, THRBunheads. The pilot is available through Sunday.

Bunheads will debut 9 p.m. June 11 on ABC Family.