When I was around 8 years old, my mom called me into the family room to show me something on the TV. I was in the midst of playing with my toys in my room and I did not appreciate being interrupted. Didn’t my mother understand that I was busy? Those dolls weren’t going to play with themselves. Anyways, she called me into the family room to share her favorite show with her only daughter: Gilmore Girls.

For some reason my loud, opinionated, and constantly joking mother with a bookish, quiet, and shy daughter (whom she had at 16) greatly related to this show and wanted to share it with me. And♊ I have to admit, I hated the show at first. I just wasn’t the target demo♓graphic and found myself quickly bored.

However, I returned to the show years later and fell in love. I watch the show nearly every day and usually go to sleep with it playing quietly in the background. I now have opinions, favorite ch🦩aracters, and will randomly message my mother with a solid wall of text explaiꦗning why a certain character (cough, Logan) is the absolute worst.

This show has become part of my life and in the spirit of keeping๊ it alive, I spent a few hours this past week researching the show (its actors, sets, plots, and spelunking for any fascinating tidbits I could discover online) ♛and wanted to share my findings.

So wꩵithout further ado, here are 25 of the most interesting facts I found about 🅘this beloved show.

25 Endless Municipal Proceedings ꦆ

The town meetings are, without a doubt, the greatest parts of any episode in which they feature. Ask any Gilmore Girls fan and they will tell you that the town meetings are th♛e cream of the crop, the pinnacle of primetime television, the greatest thing since they starting putting cheese in the pizza crust. Watching Taylor squabble with Luke (or anyone else who dares go against his attempts at creating a quaint totalitarian small town regime) is the highlight of my life.

But even though these scenes are the most entertaining to w💖atch, they were horrid to film. It turns out that these scenes to﷽ok an incredibly long time to film (upwards of 12 hours). Since the scenes involved so many characters (who all had to hit their marks, get their lines out, and avoid laughing), filming these scenes could be exhausting at best and absolutely horrid at worst.

24 🐟 📖 The Speed Of Lorelai

We all know that Gilmore Girls is famous for its insanely fast-talking characters and quick wit, but exactly how fast did these girls talk? It turns out that the characters on this classic show talked at such a speed that they required dialogue c🍒oaches on set in order to help the characters get through their lines as quickly as possible. And, in case you were curious, the characters' words per minute was tracked.

It turns out that Lorelai Gilmore is the fastest talker of them all.

The show also used fewer close-up shots in order to keep the show as quick as possible and would oft💜en reshoot scenes in order to shave seconds off. But what is the biggest consequence of such fast-paced dialogue? Its script size. The scripts for the show ended up being nearly double the length of scripts for average television shows.

23 ❀Absentee Father

During a pre-revival rewaജtch, I noticed that Lane often talks about her “parents” as a cohesive unit throughout the series. The way she talks about the𝄹m makes it seem as though they are still together, even though her father is literally never seen.

Why is he often mentioned over the꧙ course of seven solid years, but never seen? Mrs. Kim does not seem like a divorced woman (especially considering her fundamentalist views) and, if she was a widower, you would think that someone would have said something. I mean, kids who’ve lost a parent don’t usually continue to refer to them as if they were still there for years on end. But, luckily, the revival solved this mystery for us. In a very brief moment in the Spring episode, Lane mentions that her father made it to an event. We're quickly shown an elderly Asian man.

22 🅷 I Would Never!

Any fan of the character of Rory found themselves struggling to accept and adjust to Rory’s new personality that arose around the fourth/fifth seasons. The show builds up this strong, independent, stubborn, respectful, and determined character, and then throws th🍒at all away the moment one man doubts her. First-to-third-season Rory would not abandon her dreams and lifelong ambitions because one pompous jerk has the nerve to tell her she isn’t good enough.

The old Rory would not drop out of school (disrespecting the grandparents who paid out of pocket for it) in order to pout for a few months.

Neither would she think herself better than a wonderful job opportunity, disrespect them for st𝔍ringing them on for a year, and then act unprofessionally with a potential source/client. And first-to-third-season Rory would not engage with multiple married men.

21 ꩵ Seasonal Ch-Ch-Changes

Though it could be assumed that the seasonal format of the Year in the Life revival was done in order to showcase the changes that the clan have und🐲ergone since we last saw them without feeling rushed or clunky, it turns out there was an actual reason. The format was intended to be a tribute to Carole King.

She appeared as the music shop owner and also co-wrote the show's original theme. The seasonal format ref🐈erences King's song “You’ve Got a Friend,” which contains a verse that references the speakers' devotion to an unknow🐲n party existing in each and every season of the year. Fun fact: the song “Where You Lead” was originally a song about a romantic relationship. King decided that the message of following the man you love went against ideas of girl power. She fell out of love with her own song.

20 ꦬ Little White Truths

Sometimes bigger and better things come up and actors find themselves leaving a role in order to pursue that new opportunity. Some shoℱws simply recast the character and some shows just never mention that character ever again as if they never existed. However, that is not the Gilmore way.

When characters leave the show, a reason is always given and that reason is usually the actual reason why that actor left.

When Adam Brody left in order to feature in The O.C., his sudden absence was explained by him moving to California (where his new show was filmed). When Brad made his sudden return to Chilton, his absence was due to his stint on Broadway, where he played a role in the musical Into the Woods (which is wh💃at the actor was actually doing at the time of his absence).

19 My Backyard Is Your Front Yard𓂃 💯

The greatest thing about movie magic is the fact that it can trick viewers into seeing something entirely different than what is really happening on set. Sets are small and building them can be incr🎶edibly expensive, so corners are often cut. As long as it looks good and realistic on screen, it doesn’t matter what it actually looks like.

For example, ❀the exteriors of Lorelai’s house and the exterior of Sookie’s house are connected. It turns out the Sookie’s house is actually the back o𒀰f the Gilmore home. This point is briefly mentioned when Lorelai says she “knows a shortcut” to Sookie’s house and cuts around the side of their own house (though a bit of movie magic is used to extend their walk). This brings a whole new meaning to having a good friend right around the corner.

18 Busting With... Somethi🀅ng

The Gilmores are known for their bottomless bellies and their love of coffee. However, both of these defining character traits 💙are the direct product of movie magic. First off, a coffee aficionado Alexis Bledel is not. It turns out that her coffee cup was usually filled to the brim with Coke.

The Gilmores eat an unprecedented and ungodly amount of food.

Nearly every episode features the girls chowing down on piles and piles and piles of junk food at lܫeast once. And that large amount of food is enough to make any normal person sick. Imagine having to eat that much food upwards of 60 times while they do take after take? The girls relied heavily on spit buckets in order to not burst themselves. It is important to note that unlike most other shows, the girls actually did eat a large amount of the food during the shows numerous takes.

17 Moth﷽er ꦿDearest

Everyone knows that once a woman hits 35, she is essentially fired from Hollywood. It is the moment where an ꦑactress finds herself no longer receiving calls to play the heroine nor the lead and, instead, finds herself landing roles of the aging widow, the evil mother, and the jealous ex-wife. This is why actresses are told to hold on to youthful roles for as long as they can.

Once you paint the matronly picture of yourself in Hollywood, it tends to stick. Which is precisely why Lauren Graham’s agent initially advised her against taking her most well-known role. Once Graham labeled herself as a “mom” in Hollywood, that label would be impossible to shake. Male actors seem to gain respect and prestige as they age and can play both a father, an aging writer, or the hero of whatever film the🌌y are cast in without being typecast.

16 💎 Namesake Debate ꦏ

Though we all know that Lorelai Leigh Gilmore (a.k.a Rory Gilmore) was named after her own mother during a moment of feminist idealization and that her mother was named after Lorelai the first (a.k.a Richards mother), there is another possible source of inspiration for Rory𝓀’s name.

It turns out that Lorelei Lee was the name of the title character in the old Marilyn Monroe film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Now, this could be a coincidence, however, I feel as though that the classic film loving Lorelai Gilmore might have found inspiration for Rory’s second name in this classic romantic comedy. I know that Lorelai named her daughter after herself because “if men can do so, then why can’t women?” but I cannot believe that the combinat꧑ion of her first and middle name was not inspired by this classic Monroe-lead film.