8 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Gilmore Girls’
The characters are endearingly kooky, the setting is so quaint it’s bordering on the fantastical and the sharp, witty dialogue moves so fast it’s perhaps best taken in with subtitles on — there are so many reasons that Gilmore Girls is still one of the most beloved and most-watched TV shows of all time. But the main reason it has such staying power is the strong, authentic bond of Rory and Lorelai Gilmore (played by Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham) that is at the heart of the series. If you’ve ever been a mother or a daughter or a person who just doesn’t quite fit in, you will see yourself somewhere in Stars Hollow no matter what the year is or what age you are.
Here are some fun insights that you may not know about the timeless, eloquent series written and created by Emmy Award winner Amy Sherman-Palladino:
1So many cameos!
Among its many amazing guest stars — including singer Carole King, who is also responsible for the theme song, and notoriously cagey author Norman Mailer — a 2002 episode titled “Eight O’Clock at the Oasis” featured a cameo by future Mad Men star Jon Hamm, who plays a wealthy but dull man Lorelai meets at an auction and then goes on a horrible date with. Interestingly, Bledel would eventually go on to play a recurring character on Mad Men and then marry her onscreen love interest, Vincent Kartheiser!
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2Before his GoG space alien movie fame, Sean Gunn was a cast regular.
Sean Gunn, who portrayed lovable town weirdo Kirk, is the brother of James Gunn, the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which feature Sean as Kraglin, an alien humanoid; he also provides the performance captures for Rocket Raccoon, who is voiced by Bradley Cooper.
Warner Bros./Everett Collection
3The show references hundreds of books.
Over 400 books were mentioned over the seven seasons of the show and its revival miniseries, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. The most notable literary references include Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems, which Rory recommended to her bad-boy crush Jess (future This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia), only to find out he had already read it and marked her copy up with notes; also notable, Cheryl Strayed’s amazing hit memoir Wild, which prompted Lorelai to travel across the country in a short-lived attempt to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and featured a scene with Lauren Graham and her then-partner Peter Krause as a park ranger. (And who can forget Rory’s engrossed reading of Madame Bovary, which inspired Dean to first notice her in the pilot episode?)
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4Two of the costars were married!
Jackson Douglas, who played Sookie’s foodie husband Jackson Belleville, was married in real life to a repeating guest star who would later become a series regular on Sherman-Palladino’s Emmy-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Alex Borstein. Borstein had a recurring role as Miss Celine, a kooky stylist who occasionally works for Lorelai’s mother, as well as the cantankerous harpist at both the Dragonfly and Independence Inn.
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5The real-life Gilmore Girls did not drink much coffee.
The Gilmore girls shared a love for many things: classic films, junk food and coffee being at the top of the list. However, neither Bledel nor Graham were big coffee drinkers in real life. Bledel had soda in her mugs, whereas Graham often had water.
6Was there a real Stars Hollow?
While there is (sadly) no real place called Stars Hollow, Sherman-Palladino was inspired to write the series (or its location anyway) after a brief stay at the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Connecticut. Now, there’s a fan convention in the area every year called The Firelight Event.
Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection
7Alexis Bledel had an offscreen romance with Milo Ventimiglia for three and a half years.
And who can blame her?
8The seventh season and its finale were written by someone else (which is pretty unsurprising, if you’re a fan).
Rory’s 2016 series-ending confession that she’s pregnant was meant to happen in 2007 at the end of Season 7. Due to a writers strike and other factors, Sherman-Palladino did not stick around to finish writing the original ending to the series and has never even seen Season 7 (which is probably for the best, as it is by far the worst one). Luckily, she had her chance to use the ending she always envisioned with Netflix’s limited revival, and it was the ending the show deserved.
Saeed Adyani/Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection
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