Summer’s almost over, meaning it will soon be time for autumn and the fall things that come with it, such as pumpkin-spiced drinks and Gilmore Girls. The beloved early ‘00s drama has become a staple for the fall due to its warm colors and the fact that Stars Hollow is basically the place to celebrate all things autumnal. Now, ahead of the show’s likely annual resurgence, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino shared a pretty interesting story involving cake and one of the best sitcoms of all time, The Drew Carey Show, that made me realize how low the budget was on her iconic series.
Gilmore Girls was not filmed in Connecticut, where the show is set, but instead, on the sound stages and backlots of Warner Bros. Studio in Hollywood. Add on the fact that it was on The WB before switching networks to The CW, and you'll start to understand why it didn't have the big-budget other series have. While it didn’t seem to matter much from a viewer's standpoint since the show is very high quality, behind the scenes was a different story.
Sherman-Palladino gave some insight into this notion while speaking with LA Times as she revealed that, at times, folks over at The Drew Carey Show would send some stuff over to her crew if they had extras, such as sheet cake:
On Gilmore Girls, we had zero money. The Drew Carey Show would send over their extra water and half a sheet cake if someone had a birthday over there. I mean, it takes place in Connecticut, and we’re in Burbank where there’s no snow!
While it’s not surprising to hear that Gilmore Girls didn’t have a huge budget, there isn't really anything in the show that made me realize just how broke it actually was. The Drew Carey Show was well into its run by the time GG started up, and it’s sweet to know that the crew would lend a hand and give them what they could every once in a while.
It sounds like it was not easy at all to run Gilmore Girls, especially considering its tight budget. The show was so beloved when it was airing and still remains a favorite to this day, so the fact that it basically had no money at all and still managed to go seven seasons (plus a revival years later) is impressive. And for Amy Sherman-Palladino, the fight was truly worth it, as she said:
Learning to craft a world and a story and seven seasons of a journey out of nothing and with nothing — that lean, mean training prepares you for anything.
Honestly, sometimes having a big budget is not always the best thing, and having a lower one forces creativity. Even though it sounded like it was a lot of work for Gilmore Girls to work with a very low budget, it’s hard to imagine what the show would have been if it had been made under different circumstances.
Overall, while a low budget is never ideal, it worked for Gilmore Girls. They made do with what they had, and it helped that the majority of the show was based in one small town. In the end, the series turned out to be a massive success, Gilmore Girls launched the careers of many actors, and as its legacy lives on, I'm sure it makes those days that involved borrowed sheet cake and water worth it.
At least with the Gilmore Girls Netflix revival, A Year in the Life, the budget seemed a lot higher, and if Lorelai and co. ever return again, I'm sure they'll be able to afford their own cake.
To go back and watch your favorite Gilmore Girls episodes, feel like they are in Stars Hollow, and analyze just how big or small the budget really was, you can stream Amy Sherman-Palladino's show with a Netflix subscription.
