These 19 Gilmore Girls production secrets and facts are just as good as the show

A show with as many episodes as Gilmore Girls is bound to have some vital production secrets and behind the scenes systems. Without them, the whole thing would have just simply crumbled. How was it always autumn or winter? How often did they film? How long did they film? Did everyone on set get along? Not to worry, we’ve got the answers.

Gilmore Girls was filled with multiple sets, hundreds of extras, and loads of wardrobe changes, but it still just seems and feels so effortless. As a favourite comfort show for so many, let’s take a look at the best behind the scenes facts and production secrets from the show – because trust me, there are a lot.

1. The town hall meetings took around 20 hours to film

via Netflix

Everyone loves the chaos of the town hall meetings, but we really haven’t seen just how chaotic they are. With the amount of people in the hall, these scenes would take 20 hours to a full day to shoot. Apparently the cast would play games to pass the time, with Sally Struthers’, who plays Babette, notable favourite being “what’s in my purse?”.

2. They wore layers of winter clothing while filming in LA, California

via Netflix

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I think we’ve all wondered how it’s always autumn or winter in Stars Hollow, but it gets worse when you remember that they filmed in California. Melissa McCarthy told Entertainment Weekly that this was one of the worst things about filming. She said that when shooting a poster for season one, someone actually passed out from being too hot! Maybe they could swap the mugs of coffee and hot chocolate for a nice iced latte?

3. They had special dialogue coaches on set because the cast spoke so fast

via Netflix

Funnily enough, there was a lot of attention paid to the speed of dialogue behind the scenes. It was one of the characteristics of the entire show – how many pages of dialogue they could fit into one 60 second window. George Bell was hired as a dialogue coach on set to make sure that the actors were pronouncing their words properly whilst talking so fast. He actually appeared on the show as Professor Bell during Rory’s Yale days.

You might think that Lorelai had been drinking too much coffee, but Lauren was genuinely just very good at her job. Some said that she almost had a photographic memory because of how quickly she learnt and spoke her heaps of lines. Lauren Graham and Luke Patterson actually quit smoking so that they could say their lines faster!

They even avoided close-up shots of characters to avoid focusing on someone too long – everything had to be quick! This is why there’s a lot of moving walking shots throughout the series, particularly with Rory.

4. The role of Paris was created around Liza Weil, who had auditioned for Rory

via Netflix

As irritating as she is, you can’t help but love Paris. Of course, Liza Weil is absolutely perfect for her character because she was quite literally made for her! Liza’s original audition for Rory had impressed the casting team but they knew that she wasn’t the right fit. Instead of rejecting her, they created and wrote in a character made just for Liza. And so Paris, the icon, was born.

5. Alexis Bledel was still a student at NYU when auditioning for Rory

via Netflix

Alexis was 18 and studying film at New York University while she was auditioning for Gilmore Girls. On Late Night with Seth Meyers, she described how they kept calling her back to audition (around six times) and she got quite impatient because she was unfamiliar with the process. Gilmore Girls was Alexis’ first-ever role, and she dropped out of NYU to go and film.

As she was new to professional acting, Lauren Graham helped Alexis a lot with her filming marks and scripts. They only actually met on the first day of set, meaning Alexis relied on Lauren for any help that she could give. One of the main reasons why the two seem so close in season one is because of these behind the scenes tricks. The reason why Lorelai and Rory are always hugging while walking down the street is so Alexis would get to her correct mark. Pretty clever!

6. Luke had a wardrobe full of flannels but only one hat

via Netflix

Luke’s staple fashion pieces are of course a flannel shirt and a baseball cap. However, set costumer Valerie Campbell spilled that there was an entire wardrobe full of flannels for Scott’s character, but only one blue hat. Apparently it would get lost quite a lot, so it wasn’t the same throughout the seasons, but they only ever had one in his wardrobe.

7. Every single episode was filmed in LA, but the pilot was filmed in Toronto

Apparently, the actors were absolutely freezing whilst filming the pilot in Toronto, Canada. They soon moved over to the Warner Brothers lot in LA, California. Interestingly, the set later doubled up as a filming location for Rosewood in Pretty Little Liars! I can’t really see A running around and terrorising Stars Hollow…

8. Kenny Ortega directed 12 episodes

Disney legend Kenny Ortega has actually directed 12 Gilmore Girls episodes – bit random, I know. Kenny is probably best known for directing and producing the High School Musical trilogy, Hocus Pocus, and Newsies. I’m kind of sad there wasn’t a one-off musical Gilmore Girls episode. Just joking, obviously. I think Luke might have quit the show.

9. Keiko Agena was 27 years old when cast as Lane

via Netflix

This is crazy, but Keiko was actually 27 in season one! Alongside 18-year-old Alexis, the pair played 16-year-olds Lane and Rory and pulled it off pretty well. It was said that Keiko had “the perfect balance of intelligence and comedy” that other girls struggled with.

The Gilmore Girls casting team had described the process of casting Lane to be an extremely difficult one, saying that their commitment to casting a Korean actress sadly limited their pool of choice during standard Hollywood auditions. Casting director Jill Anthony told Vanity Fair that she was asking girls in the grocery store to audition, just because the choice was so limited. Lane was the last character in the whole show to be cast for the pilot.

10. Luke pushed Jess into that lake twice

via Netflix

We all know and love the iconic season two scene when Luke and Jess argue and angrily stomp off, only for Luke to hilariously push his nephew into the nearby lake. What you might not know is that Scott and Milo actually filmed the argument around 30 times, something they both recalled on Scott’s podcast. However, Milo only got shoved into the lake twice, but they ended up using the first take anyway.

11. Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine both auditioned for the show

Who knew? Ryan Gosling had auditioned for a small part in Gilmore Girls, and it was revealed by casting director Jami Rudofsky that his audition actually “fell flat”. Harsh. She had seen him in previous auditions for other things and really liked him, but apparently he just wasn’t right for Gilmore Girls.

Chris got an audition through his father, actor Robert Pine, making it his very first tryout for a professional. He has said he wasn’t sure what role he was going for, but assumed it might have been a boyfriend.

12. Kirk actually had a favourite job

via Netflix

Throughout the entire show, Kirk had 62 jobs in total. 62. To be honest, he’s kind of living the life we all want. I respect it. However, actor Sean Gunn did reveal his favourite out of all of them… and it was the sports announcer at a hockey game. This was in season three, and was pretty funny to hear him drone on over the scene. Sean said he’d always secretly wanted to announce a sports game, and he got to live it out through Kirk. I’m sure he ticked a lot of stuff off his bucket list just from playing Kirk.

13. Scott Patterson was the only person to audition for Luke

Rumour has it that Scott was the only actor to ever audition for Luke, winning over the casting directors immediately. Surprisingly, he told Glamour that he thought he had no chance because the script was too good, so he kind of neglected his audition. That’s the Luke we know.

In fact, Luke’s character was originally called Daisy! Showrunners said that there were too many female characters and that they needed a male lead. Luke was instead created, but even then he was only contracted to a few episodes. It was after seeing Luke and Lorelai’s chemistry that he was made a main character and series regular.

14. It wasn’t actually coffee, but water and Coke

via Netflix

Alexis Bledel does not like coffee. I repeat, Alexis does not like coffee. To be fair, it was a little bit strange for a 16-year-old to be drinking that much anyway, but it was all a part of the charm. Alexis used to have fizzy drinks in her mugs and cups, mainly Coke, and just pretend that it was hot coffee. Lauren also admitted that she already drank a lot of coffee off-set, so often switched it out for plain water when filming. Boring!

Plus, Alexis fed the hardcore fans with this little production secret – her and Lauren actually ate all the food. Rory and Lorelai are renowned for constantly eating junk food, and apparently they actually ate it all in real life. Alexis said on the Today show that it annoyed her when actors didn’t actually consume the food on screen, but admitted that after a few takes they had to use a spit bucket. Ew.

15. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had to fight to have Melissa McCarthy as Sukie

via Netflix

When the originally cast Sukie had to leave because of scheduling conflicts, show creator Amy absolutely loved Melissa McCarthy for the role. According to her, others working on the show weren’t completely sold with the comedic actress. At the 2015 cast reunion panel at ATX TV Festival, Amy said “they weren’t sure. It wasn’t that people didn’t like her, but she was a different energy. She was a different kind of chick. It was a tricky sell. And it took awhile…everyone came around, but it took a few shows.”

16. Sally Struthers and Ted Rooney were both from Portland and had gone to the same high school

via Netflix

This is a bit of a wild one. On Luke Patterson’s podcast, Ted Rooney, who plays Morey, said that he and his onscreen wife are actually both from Portland and went to the same high school. While not being there at the same time because of their age difference, Ted’s dad had taught Sally at the school! They only met on the set of Gilmore Girls years later, but Sally instantly recognised Ted because of his dad. Maybe that’s why they’re so compatible on the show…

17. There was going to be a spin-off show about Jess’ life in California

via Netflix

You know that point at the end of season three when Jess goes to California to see his dad? Yeah, apparently that was a backdoor pilot for a brand new series about his life in Venice Beach. It had a name and everything – Winward Circle. The show didn’t go forward due to budget concerns, but it makes me wonder if they ended Jess and Rory’s relationship for this idea.

Fun fact (kind of), Amy Sherman-Palladino said that Jess was only written into the show to delay Luke and Lorelai’s relationship even more. Rough.

18. When Lauren Graham said she wasn’t coming back to the show, they wanted to carry on with just Alexis

via Netflix

Towards the end of season seven, Lauren decided that she was finished with the show and wouldn’t be coming back. She told TV Guide that the producers were trying to think of every possible way to carry on, even asking her to be a producer rather than appearing on screen. They pitched to follow Rory further into adulthood without Lorelai, but the two finally decided that they didn’t want to carry on without each other. Very cute.

19. The final season had a different writer

The ultimate production fact (not really a secret) is that the seventh season had completely different writers and producers. Creator, executive producer, and showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino left when new contract terms couldn’t be agreed on, leaving the show in entirely news hands. She told TV Guide at the time that stepping back and giving control to someone else was “like a freaking nightmare”. Amy claims that she still hasn’t seen the last season of her show, but has heard about the ending from people around her.

Gilmore Girls is available on Netflix now. For more like this look at the Gilmore Girls production secrets and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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Featured image via Netflix