If Hallmark holiday movies are the reverse-Truman Show—the protagonist escapes the independence of the big, wide world to return to the protective, if stifling, comfort of living in a snowglobe—then Gilmore Girls is a look at what everyone else in that quaint, fictitious town has going on in their lives.
Ostensibly about single mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s beloved WB/The CW show shone so bright in part because it got into the backstories and daily goings-ons of so many of the quirky fast-talkers who lived in the NextGen Mayberry known as Stars Hollow, Connecticut.
Even though the show only ran from 2000 to 2007, and was eventually followed by a four-part Netflix miniseries that some do not consider to be canon, it still works for rewatches, podcasts, and self-referential Panera Bread commercials.
In these times, audiences don’t just want to watch holiday movies about small towns; we want to escape into a world where every damned day there’s a meticulously decorated gazebo, a best friend who cooks, you get to have a will they/won’t they with a surly diner owner (or his aloof nephew), and everyone drinks coffee, eats constantly, and speaks in pop culture references.
Warner Bros., the Burbank, California-based studio where much of Gilmore Girls was filmed and that is now itself going through its own identity crisis, knows this and also knows how to capitalize on it (the company literally launched a Gilmore Girls-themed Monopoly game this year). Since 2018, the studio’s tours program has opened the Stars Hollow sets for themed events like a pop-up holiday lunch inspired by the favorite foods of Graham’s Lorelai.
This year, in conjunction with Gilmore Girls’ 25th anniversary, Warner Bros. Studio Tour is going hard with a full-on immersive Stars Hollow experience with Holidays Made Here.
Running through Jan. 4 (sans, ironically, Christmas Day), fans can walk the streets of Lorelai and Rory’s world and take part in interactive exhibits like cookie decorating and scavenger hunts as actors with Disney cast member-level commitments to the bit roam about dressed as the town’s troubadour (Grant-Lee Phillips) or pop the hood of old clunkers at Hewes Bros. repair shop like mechanic Gypsy (Rose Abdoo).
Dialogue from the show occasionally plays inside the establishments and, to really sell the experience, your strolls through town are punctuated by speakers blasting the familiar “la, la, las” of Sam Phillips’s “Popcorn.” And actual Gilmore Girls actors, like Scott Patterson, who played the aforementioned surly diner owner Luke, will hold court at various times daily.
Patterson alone would be enough to draw the crowds. At the event’s press day on Tuesday, he walked the set’s town square as well as any politician, posing for photos and waving to influencers with selfie sticks and high-tech microphones. Even those of us in the press line waiting to interview him compared the experience to standing in line to see Santa Claus.
Patterson says he’s used to fans bringing him cups of coffee (breakfast blend or house blended with a dab of honey, if you’re gonna do it). And, although he wore his own blue baseball cap — backward, of course — the blue flannel he’d been outfitted in had been one of Luke’s actual costumes.
“Listen, I started late in life to become an actor,” says the former baseball player. “I didn’t get this job until I was 41 years old. This thing hit like a meteor, right?.”
It’s also a hard part to let go, if for no other reason than the patter of Sherman-Palladino’s scripts is notoriously breakneck.
“The hard thing was adjusting to normal speed,” says Patterson, who has his own Gilmore Girls podcast. “In my next job, the director kept going ‘Why are you talking so fast?’”
The appeal of Stars Hollow is that things never change. There’s a payphone outside Luke’s, and the windows at local grocer Doose’s Market advertise a pound of sweet onions for 39 cents and eggs for 47 cents. You could pick up a copy of the Stars Hollow Gazette from the box outside the gazebo for 20 cents (although the day’s issue seemed to have sold out by the time I got there). The video rental shop, bookstore, and post office are still thriving.
Danny Kahn, the vice president and general manager for Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, says, “There’s really something that’s so familiar about the characters and the setting in that show. You really do feel like you know the place and the people there, and you can highly relate to them.”
David Finch, the director, commercial, of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, had never seen the show before working at WB. Now that he’s gone through every inch of it so many times, he says he’s noticed that “most of the episodes do happen in fall and Christmas” and that “it almost has like an amber tint to the scenes.”
“I think it just has that fall feel,” he says, explaining that a September binge-watch of Gilmore Girls is akin to pumpkin-spiced latte season at Starbucks. “It’s just a warm, cozy feeling.”
Inflation, however, did come for the entrance fees to this time capsule. Tickets are $76 for adults and $65 for kids. For an additional $65, a tourist can eat like a true Stars Hollowian with coffee at Luke’s Diner, sundaes named after Rory’s boyfriends at Taylor’s Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe, or whatever cuisine is now being served at Al’s Pancake World (it’s currently Chinese food). Higher-tiered menu offerings include afternoon tea at Lorelai’s Dragonfly Inn— nary a subplot hasn’t been monetized somehow. Like a proud mother/shrewd business woman, Mrs. Kim’s (Emily Kuroda) antique shop also sells band shirts and water bottles to promote daughter Lane’s (Keiko Agena) rock band, Hep Alien.
Finch says he researched that as well and has spent the year attending a lot of high teas and finding a price “consistent with what’s out there.” He knows the town is full of people with middle- and working-class jobs. But he says, don’t forget that Lorelai comes from an old-money Hartford family. His event also has a prix fixe Friday night dinner option that—perhaps because she’s since moved to Nantucket?—isn’t served at Lorelai’s mother Emily’s (Kelly Bishop) house in “Hartford” (actually a few doors down from Luke’s Diner), but at the Dragonfly.
You might be thinking, to paraphrase Lorelai, “oy with the nostalgia already.” (And, of course, there are also shirts for sale with her actual quote). But the fans and influencers, many of whom wore cosplay, who came for the press day were very, very invested.
Amanda Batts, a content creator whose Instagram @bibbidibobbidibatts is typically more theme park-oriented, showed up to the event dressed like she was a student at Rory’s stuffy high school, Chilton. She confirms that she does tend to watch Gilmore more in the fall, but admits that it won’t take much provoking to get her to sit down with some episodes at any time.
“There’s just so much joy in Stars Hollow,” says a woman whose own channel name is a nod to the Happiest Place on Earth. “I turn around all the time when I need a relaxing vibe. It’s just so heartfelt and beautiful. And I just love the relationship between Lorelai and Rory, but then also all the wonderful, quirky people in Stars Hollow.”
Kerry Frances, an actress, singer, and screenwriter, who would like to be shortlisted to write that rumored Gilmore Girls Christmas movie, spoke not just of the love and support the fans have for the characters but also for each other. She calls herself a Gilmore Girls content creator; past TikToks she’s made on set have gone viral, and she also launched an Etsy store to sell more niche items.
“I wanted more behind-the-scenes; I wanted coloring books, and I wanted things I could just print at home,” she says of her items. “I wanted to feel immersed in the show again from loving it so long and just feeling connected to other fans.”
While we await word on that movie, both Kahn and Finch are brainstorming ways to bring more fans to their attraction. They’re currently considering my idea for Paul Anka Day, named for Lorelai’s dog and catered to pet influencers.
