As Gilmore Girls approaches its 25th anniversary next year, it feels like the show just gets bigger and bigger every year, especially now that the TV series just became available to stream with a Hulu subscription (along with a Netflix subscription). In celebration of a title that has gone down in history as one of the most rewatchable TV shows ever, Warner Bros. invited CinemaBlend to experience a very special day in Stars Hollow this week. As a huge fan of the series who grew up watching it over and over, I need to talk about my experience that included a cast reunion and speaking with Luke Danes himself!
On Wednesday, I had the incredible opportunity to go to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood’s annual “Holidays Made Here” event which is happening in Burbank, California from now until January 5. Opening day of the event had tons of fans like myself lining up for coffee at Luke’s Diner, taking holiday photos around Stars Hollow and watching some of the original cast reunite to reminisce about the iconic show. Here are my main takeaways from the day.
I’m So Happy The Original Set Still Exists, And Can Be Experienced By Fans
For a show that has been off the air for over 15 years (minus the 2016 Netflix revival A Year In The Life), it’s pretty amazing to see Stars Hollow is very much intact on the Warner Bros. lot for visitors from around the world to walk around and enjoy. This isn’t new information, as the set has been made available to the public for quite some time, but getting to walk around and inside and feel like you’re really having an afternoon in the fictional Connecticut town is pretty magical. I especially loved going inside places like Kim’s Antiques, Doose’s Market and the Dragonfly Inn.
Funny enough, that day, even though we were very much in December, and California has been acting like it, it was into the 80s Fahrenheit. I ended up trading my sweater for an adorable “Stars Hollow Books” T-shirt and a smoothie from one of the counters (aptly titled “The Luke,” since it had coffee in it) to cool off. Being on the actual set gave me a real appreciation for how the production was able to completely fool me into transporting me to another side of the the United States when I watch it, even though it was technically being shot just hours away from me when it was being filmed.
The Gilmore Girls Cast Genuinely Seem Like A Family, And That Extends To The Fans
As a fan, I also got a kick out of seeing the fandom interact with not only the sets, but some of the cast members during the Warner Bros. holiday event. If you didn’t know, the actor behind Luke Danes, Scott Patterson, has had a Gilmore Girls podcast since 2021 called I’m All In, where he watched the entire series for the first time. After recently finishing his watchthrough of the whole show, he announced he’d be recording more episodes of his commentary rewatching it (“I’m All In… Again”), but this time he'll have celebrity guests on with him, including his fellow cast members.
For this event, he did a podcast taping, which had him reuniting with Michael Winters (Taylor Doose), Ted Rooney (Morey Dell), Gregg Henry, (Mitchum Huntzberger), Rose Abdoo (Gypsy) and Emily Kuroda (Mrs. Kim) on a stage in the middle of Stars Hollow for fans to watch them talk about the making of the show. It was so sweet to see how comforted and happy both the cast and the fans were. The fans would often help out the actors on specific episode moments with more details, and when they took audience questions, one fan said “they raised” her. During the event, I witnessed fans point out places in the town where certain events in the series happened, and there was also an engagement.
One Gilmore Girls Debate Is Alive And Well With The Fandom, But I Was Surprised About The Cast’s Thoughts On It
A large conversation around Gilmore Girls has always been regarding who Rory should be with. The fans are split into three camps on the topic: Team Dean, Team Jess and Team Logan. They actually were offering free buttons with one of these distinctions for fans to parade around with. Of course, the cast members who were there were asked who they think Rory’s baby daddy is (from the ending of A Year In A Life), and every one of them said Logan – except for Winters, who said he had no clue, and Henry, who provided a funny “I don’t condone this situation.” Kelly Bishop once said she was Team Logan once, too!
I obviously need to rewatch Gilmore Girls now, because I’ve lost the plot on what “Team” I am nowadays aside from Team Rory, but I was quite surprised that not a single person thought it might be Jess’s. When I watched the 2016 version, that was definitely what I got from it. I’m ok if it’s Logan’s, but I was surprised the cast wasn’t divided on it. Perhaps they know something we don’t.
The Impact Of Gilmore Girls Is Very Much With Scott Patterson, And He’s So Sweet About It
During the event, Warner Bros. also offered me the chance to spend a few minutes talking with Scott Patterson on his set, and that was surreal, particularly because Patterson was wearing a flannel T-shirt and a backwards cap on that very day to channel his character. When I asked him what it feels like to be back at Stars Hollow now that it’s an attraction. In his words:
Yesterday we were doing the walkthrough of this place and I visited all the sets and all the feelings came back. What actors do is they just sort of pour their guts into these locations and these places and they revealed themselves in very vulnerable ways and these feelings are retained in these walls and it all comes back when you walk in. It’s a powerful feeling. It's a good feeling. It's a place where you’ve had a small part in helping the world [when fans] attach themselves to a very special show that gives them great comfort. And it's nice to know that you were part of something like that that's relevant, that is very meaningful to people and you saw these fans how they reacted. It's just crazy.
The actor’s relevance as a Gilmore Girls icon has only grown since he shot the series in the early 2000s. When the show was made, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has said they had “zero money.” You’d think it was Warner Bros’ biggest series these days, and as Patterson shared, being recognized as Luke is a regular part of life for him.
It's every day. Every day. I'm at the gym or the grocery store or whatever, yeah, but it's always a nice exchange. All the people are very pleasant. These fans are very respectful and very pleasant and they just want to share a story or two and thank you for your work and it's just, I mean that's a nice way to go through your day, you know.
By the way, Scott Patterson was as genuine as can be. He's sincerely grateful to be a member of the Gilmore Girls cast and completely aware of how “meaningful” the series is to people.
And, The Cast Didn’t At All Shy Away From Offering Hope For Another Revival
That brings me to my final big takeaway from my nostalgia trip through Stars Hollow. During the Q&A, as you can imagine, one fan had to blurt out to them the question of whether another revival would be in the works. Patterson riled up the crowd with this answer:
Listen, the mind is a very powerful instrument. If you think it, it will be, right? So keep thinking it, and you do and we hear you loud and clear, and we're thinking it too. So, expect it.
I certainly hope so! It’s been almost a decade at this point since A Year In A Life, and we have questions about what’s next for all the characters. Here’s hoping it does come. Where you lead, we will follow! Holidays Made Here is happening now at Warner Bros. Studios, the show is streaming on two platforms now! While so many shows have tried to be like Gilmore Girls, wow, did this experience remind me again how special this series is.
