Back when Gilmore Girls was still shooting new episodes, the Amy Sherman- Palladino show was known for featuring tricky and pop culture-oriented dialogue that you might think the actors would trip all over while taping. However, recently Gilmore Girls lead Lauren Graham revealed the real reason the cast had to re-do takes over and over again, and it’s more amusing than tough dialogue. Here’s what she had to say:
We did a lot of takes, but it could [be because] a background artist didn’t cross at the right time or the steadicam guy tripped. We used to take bets on how many takes something was going to require, and never before or since have I done as many takes of anything. But it’s just part of the job.
There were a lot of background people doing things on the series, especially whenever there were festivals and other town events going on, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock that the culprit of the reshoots were often the background people. (Seriously, what if one of the dancers had the wrong footwork or tripped in the above photo? Retake.) In the interview with EW, Lauren Graham talked about what it was like to make Gilmore Girls, which included the fun the cast had on set. She also talks a little bit about the dialogue that was thrown at her and co-star Alexis Bledel, not to mention her parents and the other quirky residents of Stars Hollow, noting that she actually had a lot of fun with the pretty tough monologues and back-and-forth.
The thing about good writing is it has a music to it. This kind of writing just seldom exists in television where if you don’t say one of the words, it’s just off, it’s going to sound wrong. It wasn’t difficult, mostly, to memorize. It’s like learning a song and then you know what the lyrics are because that’s the place in the music where they happen.
A lot of fans miss the “music” in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s writing, so much so that reports were bandied about earlier this year that Gilmore Girls might return for a reunion or special. Unfortunately, the cast only reunited for an ATX Festival panel and not for an actual TV project, which would have been ideal. While nothing is in the works at the moment, Sherman-Palladino and the rest of the former team (sans a few familiar faces) are all interested in coming back for a movie or other Gilmore Girls-related project, so at some point, we’ll maybe see that come to fruition.
In the meantime, we definitely are fine with the cast reminiscing about their time on set. Gilmore Girls may have been off the air for several years now, but fans still have a fondness for the series and can binge whenever we want, thanks to the wonders of Netflix. Stories like the above help to keep the fandom alive, as well. And maybe one day Gilmore Girls lovers will get the onscreen reunion they’ve wanted all along.
