Everyone has to start somewhere, and one of the best things about going back and re-watching old shows is discovering that an actor who's now one of your favorites had a small part on a popular series before anyone really knew who they were. Obviously, this kind of thing happens all the time if you check out old episodes of long-running procedurals like Law & Order: SVU or NCIS, but it can also crop up in a family dramedy like Gilmore Girls. And, it turns out that The Neighborhood's Max Greenfield still gets fan love about his very brief stint on the show.
Max Greenfield, who's currently in his second season on the CBS comedy The Neighborhood, is probably best known for his time as preppy douche Schmidt on New Girl and his run as Deputy Leo on Veronica Mars, but before he nabbed those career-making roles, he had a tiny part as a friend of Dean's (Jared Padalecki) on Gilmore Girls. Way back in Season 4, Dean was preparing to marry Lindsay, had a bit of a bachelor party with some buds and, well, here's where tipsy Greenfield comes in:
According to Max Greenfield, when he spoke with Entertainment Weekly, even though this scene aired back in 2003, he gets tweets from fans about his drunken time on Gilmore Girls on a regular basis. I know it might seem odd that such a thing would happen almost two decades after the episode originally aired, but I can attest to the fact that folks love themselves some Gilmore Girls and will head back to Stars Hollow whenever they need a little bit of comedy, small town comfort, and quick-paced banter in their lives.
Really, even if the fans who tweet Max Greenfield aren't doing a full re-watch of Gilmore Girls, it's no surprise that they're noticing him in this episode, which was titled "Chicken or Beef?" by the way. This was a particularly difficult time for Dean, his ex-girlfriend Rory (Alexis Bledel) and his soon-to-be wife Lindsay (Arielle Kebbel). Rory and Dean had been each other's first loves, but her growing attraction to bad boy newcomer Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) led to Dean breaking off the romance.
Of course, Dean wasn't over Rory, but felt the need to move on, so he started dating Lindsay, and quickly proposed to her, even though it was clear that he was still in love with Rory. As we saw in the clip, even though he was clearly intoxicated, Max Greenfield's Lucas was able to notice a big problem when drunk Dean started randomly saying Rory's name during his bachelor celebration. I mean, they were talking about getting strippers who were maybe also prostitutes! If you're going to utter any girl's name, dude, it better be in a prayer-like apology to your fiancée.
If anything, fans noticing and tweeting at Max Greenfield about his super brief time on Gilmore Girls shows just how dedicated fandoms can be. I can't lie, watching that clip made me want to go back and relive the whole seven season run...or, at least the seasons that don't involve Rory dating Logan, since I still get tripped up by the fact that she ever gave that wanker the time of day. Oh, well, few shows are perfect all the way through.
You can dive back into Gilmore Girls (or New Girl, for that matter) via Netflix, if you'd like, but Max Greenfield can be seen on a more regular (and current) basis on The Neighborhood, which airs Mondays on CBS at 8 p.m. EST. For more on what you can watch in 2020, check out our winter / spring premiere guide and Netflix schedule!
