Gilmore Girls is a television show beloved by many around the world. Set in the fictional small (and quirky) American town of Stars Hollow, it told the tale of mother and daughter Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) Gilmore. The pair have one of the strongest mother/daughter bonds ever witnessed (be that in TV land or the real world) and for seven years, and one reunion show, the dramas of their lives kept audiences captivated. Now the full set of episodes (including the Netflix revival) are available to own forever, and to celebrate its release, we’ve rounded up ten things that you probably didn’t know about the show.
1. Sorry to shatter the illusion folks, but it turns out that Alexis Bledel doesn’t like coffee! We all know that both Rory and Lorelai are obsessed with the stuff, but Bledel just can’t stomach it. So whenever you see Rory drinking ‘coffee’, it’s actually Coca-Cola.
2. One of the greatest things about the Gilmore Girls, outside of the dynamic between Rory and Lorelai, has to be the romance between Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelai. Luke of course runs the local diner, and keeps the girls in coffee, and the spark between Luke and Lorelai is apparent from the very first episode. The will they / won’t they story-line kept fans on the edge of their seats for years and yet originally Luke was only meant to be in the pilot. Once the creators saw the chemistry between Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson however, they decided to keep Luke around.
3. Jared Padalecki played Rory’s first boyfriend Dean. The actor left the show and was cast as Sam Winchester in Supernatural wherein he has a brother, played by Jensen Ackles, called Dean. During the second season episode Hollywood Babylon, the brothers are called to Hollywood to investigate a paranormal occurrence. During their time the pair take a studio tour on the Warner Brothers lot (where Gilmore Girls is filmed) as they approach the set of the show, the tour guide says that they ‘might see one of the stars of the show’ which of course technically one of them is.
4. Speaking of Rory’s boyfriends, Milo Ventimiglia whom played Jess on the show, became Alexis Bledel’s real life partner, the pair were dating for over three years. Bledel is now happily married to Mad Men‘s Vincent Cartheiser.
5. Gilmore Girls is known for its fast dialogue, our leading ladies talking at the speed of a locomotive. This means a lot of dialogue is needed to fill a single episode, around 75-80 pages to be more precise. Typically a standard hour-long television show has only 45-50 pages of script.
6. Guardians of the Galaxy actor Sean Gunn played beloved Stars Hollow resident Kirk for the entire run of the show. However, his first appearance in the show was as an entirely different character. In the second episode he stars as a character called Mick, a man installing a DSL line at Lorelai’s house.
7. Lane (Keiko Agena) is the drummer in Stars Hollow based band, Hep Alien. Also is the band is Gil, who is played by Sebastian Bach of the band Skid Row.
8. Over the years Gilmore Girls featured several actors who would go on to other things. The most famous of these would be Melissa McCarthy and Krysten, and ‘Jessica Jones’ Ritter. Other familiar faces to pass through Stars Hollow include Jared Padalecki, Chad Michael Murray, Arielle Kebbel, Milo Ventimiglia, Sherilynn Fenn, Sean Gunn, John Hamm, Seth MacFarlane, and Adam Brody.
9. The reunion show – A Year in the Life, was equally as starry, and featured appearances from Ray Wise, Alex Kingston, Peter Krause, Jason Ritter, and Paul Anka. Paul Anka is of course the celebrity that Lorelai names her dog after.
10. A Year in the Life picks up ten years after the end of the events of season seven, making Rory the same age as Lorelai was in season one of the original series.
Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series and A Year in the Life is available to own on DVD from Monday 27th November.
