“Gilmore Girls” star Scott Patterson will not be returning for “Sullivan’s Crossing” Season 4.
After Season 3, fans wondered whether there would be cast exits after Sully left on a getaway to Ireland with his girlfriend and Edna (Andrea Menard) and Frank (Tom Jackson) also contemplated moving on from the campground.
“Season 3 of Sullivan’s Crossing ended with Sully leaving for Ireland, beginning a new chapter in his life. Season 4 picks up the next day, with Sully still overseas,” Roma Roth, executive producer and showrunner for “Sullivan’s Crossing” told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview. “While he isn’t physically present in this season, the character remains an important part of the world with the potential to be included in future seasons should that align with the ongoing creative.”
Patterson Praises ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ Prior to His Exit
“It’s always exciting to go to a new place with a new project [and] with new expectations. Everybody’s lovely. The work is deep and the collaboration is real. You’ve got a built-in audience with [Gilmore Girls] and now we’ve got Robyn Carr’s book audience,” Patterson exclusively told Us Weekly back in October 2023. “So it’s kind of exciting to come into something that’s kind of established — has already an established fan base — and I can bring mine in. They can join forces and watch the show together and compare notes.”
“I have a lot more freedom to create the role. I have a lot more input with what [Sully] says and what he does. I just love that about the show. I love that about the producers and the network and all the support they give. And [executive producer] Roma Roth is a very, very special showrunner,” he said. “She really, really trusts her actors and she really listens. She just wants the best for the episode. She wants the best for the scene [and] she wants the best for the show. To me, that is the sign of a true leader. So we follow her lead, but she’s open to suggestions, which makes this so much stronger.”
At the time, Patterson shared how “respected” the cast got to feel on set.
“Everybody has a platform to voice their concerns or their opinions and state their ideas and they’re taken seriously,” he added. “It makes everybody feel like they’ve got skin in the game and that they’re helping to create this as we go along in a little way. Roma’s still the boss and she’s doing all of the heavy lifting. But she wants to hear our thoughts and that’s rare. That’s very, very special. I think that’s why this show feels so natural, so alive and [why] it’s been so successful so far. I hope that continues.”
One of the Biggest Differences Between the Books and TV Series
The show follows neurosurgeon Maggie (Morgan Kohan) who must return to her hometown in rural Nova Scotia. Throughout the seasons, viewers have been introduced to her estranged father, Harry “Sully” Sullivan (Patterson), newcomer Cal (Chad Michael Murray from “One Tree Hill”), and more members of the community.
The TV series, which first premiered on CTV in 2023, is adapted from Robyn Carr’s best-selling book series of the same name. While the show is loosely based on the five-book series, the showrunners took creative liberty and changed different aspects of the books. One of the most significant changes between the books and the television adaptation is the location of Sullivan’s Crossing itself, according to PEOPLE.
In the TV series, the show takes place in the fictional town of Timberlake in Nova Scotia, Canada. Within the small town lies the Sullivan family’s campground, Sullivan’s Crossing. While Timberlake and Sullivan’s Crossing are not real, the show was filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the East Coast of Canada, according to Tudum.
Meanwhile, in the book, Carr set Sullivan’s Crossing in the Rocky Mountains, at the crossroads of the Colorado and Continental Divide, “where where campers and hikers, bikers, rock climbers, fishermen and nature lovers refuel, refresh and recharge,” per the novel’s description.
Roth explained that they changed the setting in the show because they didn’t want it to look too similar to “Virgin River,” another TV show inspired by Carr’s novels.
“To ensure the show would feel distinctive from her [Carr’s] other adaptation, I decided to set it in Nova Scotia for Nova Scotia,” Roth told Variety in 2022. “This meant diverging from the books slightly; however, having been born and raised in Canada it’s always been a personal goal of mine to create and write a Canadian content show that would reach a global audience.”
“Sullivan’s Crossing” is currently streaming on Netflix. Season 4 premieres April 20 on The CW.
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