Best Gilmore Girls Behind The Scenes Facts
1. Luke’s signature outfit consists of various flannel shirts and a blue baseball hat worn backwards. According to key set costumer Valerie Campbell, there was a whole closet filled with flannels for Luke, but he only had one blue hat.
2. Lauren Graham almost didn’t play Lorelai Gilmore because she was already under contract for another TV show called M.Y.O.B. In her book, Talking As Fast As I Can, Lauren explained that when she received the Gilmore Girls pilot script, she was in New York City waiting to hear if M.Y.O.B. would be renewed for a second season.
3. Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann developed a close bond while filming Gilmore Girls, often going out for drinks and lunch together. Ed’s wife, Star Herrmann, even referred to Kelly as his “second wife.” When Ed’s family made the decision to remove him from life support before his death in 2014, Kelly was the only cast member invited to say goodbye.
4. In the Season 3 episode “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?,” which features the Stars Hollow Dance Marathon, many of the background actors were actually professional swing dancers. This episode took a long time to film and prepare for because of the large number of characters involved.
5. Sally Struthers and Ted Rooney, who played Babette and Morey, both grew up in Portland and attended the same high school. Although they were in different graduating years, Ted’s father was one of Sally’s teachers.
6. Due to the large number of characters involved, filming the Stars Hollow town hall meetings would take an entire day, sometimes lasting up to 20 hours. To pass the time, the cast would play games such as “What’s in my purse?” where Sally would have people guess random items from her purse.
7. The goal was for every Gilmore Girls scene to last only “20-to-25 seconds [per] page of dialogue,” which was “more than twice as fast as the standard screenwriters’ page-a-minute formula.”
8. During the early stages of the show, after each take of a three-page scene between Lauren and Kelly, a script supervisor would reportedly call out the elapsed time to creator Amy Sherman-Palladino to ensure they were speaking fast enough.
9. Alexis’ first acting job was Gilmore Girls, so she was new to filming a TV show and had never had to hit a mark before. In early episodes, Lauren can be seen putting her arm around Alexis and guiding her to the correct spot to deliver her lines.
10. The night before filming the episode where Dean and Lindsay get married, Jared Padalecki went out all night with friends because he wasn’t originally scheduled to work the next day. He woke up to numerous missed calls and messages, resulting in him being two hours late and not having his scenes memorized yet.
11. Melissa McCarthy revealed that one of the worst parts of filming Gilmore Girls was having to wear layers of winter clothing while shooting on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. She recalled someone passing out due to the excessive warmth while taking photos for one of the show’s posters in Season 1.
12. The episode where Jess delivers his memorable “Why did you drop out of Yale?” speech was written by Amy and Dan Palladino and directed by Kenny Ortega. Kenny directed a total of 12 episodes throughout the series and had previously worked with Kelly on Dirty Dancing.
13. The role of Lane Kim was the most challenging to cast. The casting directors were committed to finding a Korean actress for the role, which limited their options during standard Hollywood auditions. Keiko Agena was ultimately cast as Lane shortly before filming the pilot.
14. Liza Weil originally auditioned for the role of Rory Gilmore. Although she didn’t get the part, the casting directors and Amy loved her so much that they created the role of Paris Gellar specifically for her.
15. Kirk Gleason was inspired by Amy’s father, who was an actor, writer, and comedian. Casting directors Mara Casey and Jami Rudofsky shared on the Gilmore Guys podcast that Amy’s dad had played various roles on Archie Bunker’s Place, which influenced the creation of Kirk and his multiple jobs in Stars Hollow.
16. In the Season 2 episode “Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy,” Luke and Jess have an argument that ends with Luke shoving Jess into a lake. Scott and Milo Ventimiglia filmed their dialogue around 30 times, with Milo falling into the lake only twice. The first take was ultimately used in the final cut.
17. The dresses worn by the Life and Death Brigade members during “You Jump, I Jump, Jack” were reused two more times in the series. They appeared during Rory’s Cotillion in Season 2 and in Season 6 when Hep Alien performed at a Bat Mitzvah.
18. Both Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine auditioned for roles on Gilmore Girls. Ryan auditioned for a small football character, but his performance fell flat. Chris’ very first professional audition was for the show.
19. George Bell was hired as the dialogue coach on Gilmore Girls due to the fast-paced nature of the series. His job was to correct actors who missed words and help them deliver the dialogue at the rapid pace characteristic of the show. George also appeared as Professor Bell, one of Rory’s teachers at Yale.
20. Amy revealed that they often avoided close-up shots while filming Gilmore Girls because it would slow down the pace by focusing on just one actor. The show frequently used the “walk-and-talk” method, allowing the cameras to follow the actors as they delivered dialogue while moving.
21. During the wrap of filming inside Lorelai and Rory’s house after Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Lauren texted Alexis and asked what she wanted her to take from the set. In the end, Alexis took Rory’s Yale banner from her mirror, and Lauren took the pink flamingo near the back door and an apple magnet with Rory’s face on the fridge.
