OK, I know this is what you’ve been waiting for. While I was in CA visiting Rachel & Co., she was able to arrange for her friend, Matt Czuchry, to take us around the WB lot and see where Gilmore Girls was filmed. I was a little worried about being a total nerd, but mostly I was just excited. Here’s where we entered the giant WB lot.
The first stop was the costume trailer, where they told me they had all of Lorelei’s clothes from the entire show in a basement warehouse. Wardrobe Lady (sorry, can’t remember her name) said she started using them around season three to clothe extras. I took a photo of Luke’s baseball caps (there were 6, even though you can’t see them all). I was assured this was also just the tip of the iceberg for Luke’s hat collection.
Next we went to the Grandparent’s house which is in the same building as Logan’s apartment, but that no longer exists. Hmmmm, interesting… The second we walked in, I demanded to be shown the portrait of Rory, which Matt didn’t know a thing about, poor naive, fool, but we were able to find pretty easily. I’m sad it wasn’t on the wall, but there we are, Rory and I together.
Next stop, the Dragonfly Inn. We never did see the exterior, but it was the most fun set to see in person because it was all one piece due to all the “walking and talking” shots they do there. All of the sets, by the way were smaller than expected (especially Yale which I didn’t take a picture of), and darker; the latter being solely because they’re all indoors unless shot on location, or in Stars Hollow. That’s right, anytime they’re in Grandma’s driveway, that’s an inside studio, shocking, no? Anyhoo, here’s Matt and Rachel in Sookie’s kitchen which was a wonderful place.
I think you can tell by my face how thrilled I was to be standing behind the front desk at the Dragonfly Inn. Incidently, all of those keys have the most charming Dragonfly keychain’s on them. Wish I’d taken a close-up for you. All of the set dressing on this show is really quality stuff. We visited Paris’ apartment (sorry, no pic), and had fun going through their cd’s attributing them to Paris, Doyle, or Rory. In actuality, I think they are completely random.
And then we made our way to Stars Hollow. Matt says it’s the largest outdoor set on the WB lot. How Gilmore Girls warranted that (I’m referring to the fact it was unknown, not that it didn’t merit it – we all know it does) in their first season, I’ll never know, but I’m glad it did.
Of course I needed a Stars Hollow Gazebo picture! Rachel and I felt quite at home sitting in the middle of Stars Hollow. It was also in the gazebo where Matt and I had our most important Gilmore Girls exchange. I accused him of what I’ve long suspected: that the ever present coffee cups in WB/CW shows are actually empty. Matt says he’s heard this theory more than once, and that there is no truth to it! He assured me his cup, at least, was always full of water. I then promised to evermore defend the integrity of GG and their filled coffee cups. I stand corrected.
We walked by a baby store and library I didn’t recognize, but I’m sure if I went back to the first season where more happened in Stars Hollow, I’d see them. I took a quick photo of the ever-present Dooce’s Market.
Now, of course I would have an interior picture of Luke’s except that they were shooting there while we were visiting! Yes, friends, I saw The Lauren Graham. Only a brief glimpse through the ice cream shop window, but then, Matt took us to stand behind the director and we watched the scene being shot. Very cool. I also saw Scott Patterson (Luke) who walked right in front of us, and Sean Gunn (Kirk) through the window.
And last on our tour, it’s Lorelei’s house! I wasn’t sure we’d get to see it because we walked through the whole town, and didn’t see it. Matt made a quick inquiry and discovered that the front of Lorelei’s house is actually the back of Sookie’s house (which I had identified earlier). Don’t know where the interior is, we didn’t see it, but I was pretty happy to just have a picture on the porch. And thus concludes our tour of the Gilmore Girl set. Thank you for holding your questions until the end. Hope you had a good time, even though I can guarantee, you didn’t have as good a time as I did!
