‘Gilmore Girls’ is 25 — and fans are still flocking to small town Connecticut
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE YOU LEAD")
CAROLE KING: (Singing) Oh, la, la, la, la, la.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Twenty-five years ago, "Gilmore Girls" premiered. The show followed a young mom and her teen daughter and the quirky residents of their small Connecticut town, Stars Hollow. Fans still flock to the area that inspired the show, and Connecticut Public's Cassandra Basler went with some of them.
CASSANDRA BASLER, BYLINE: The town of New Milford in the leafy hills of northwest Connecticut looks like the set of Stars Hollow - white steeples, a town green, a gazebo. It even hosts A Weekend in the Life fan festival.
ABBY THORGERSEN: Our moms heard about the event, and it's also just 'cause we both love "Gilmore Girls" and we watch it together.
BASLER: I met 11-year-old best friends Abby Thorgersen and Rylie Nicollet (ph), dressed up in prep school uniforms to match the main character, Rory Gilmore.
ABBY: I would say I've seen it, like, 15 times, like, from start to finish.
RYLIE NICOLLET: I finished it, like, once. But I keep, like, watching, like, some - like, multiple episodes.
BASLER: "Gilmore Girls" ran for seven seasons and a 2016 revival on Netflix. And over the past few years, the show has seen a surge in streaming in the fall. Viewers embrace the cozy, small-town feel and the community that basically raised young mom Lorelai and her teenage daughter, Rory.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GILMORE GIRLS")
LAUREN GRAHAM: (As Lorelai) You don't have to take us all the way to Luke's.
ALEXIS BLEDEL: (As Rory) Yes. Kirk, listen to her.
SEAN GUNN: (As Kirk) Well, I offered you the first ride in Kirk's new Stars Hollow pedicab, and that is exactly what you're going to get.
GRAHAM: (As Lorelai) OK.
BASLER: But there's some debate about which Connecticut town can call itself the real Stars Hollow. I met fan Shawna Tobens shopping for show merch in New Milford.
SHAWNA TOBENS: This is it. Right here. OK. New Milford is the real...
ANGELINA TOBENS: Yes.
S TOBENS: ...Stars Hollow. Yep.
A TOBENS: All right.
S TOBENS: It is.
BASLER: Tobens and her daughter, Angelina, came to the festival all the way from Ohio. They made a week of it, including a visit to Yale, the university that Rory Gilmore attends.
S TOBENS: We haven't been to Washington. Is it Washington Depot?
BASLER: That's where show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino stayed when she got the inspiration to write Gilmore Girls. At a busy diner, she saw a customer go behind the counter to pour themselves a coffee, and she took notes. That's something Lorelai does on the show all the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GILMORE GIRLS")
GRAHAM: (As Lorelai) You're running out of coffee.
SCOTT PATTERSON: (As Luke) Yeah. I'll make some more.
GRAHAM: (As Lorelai) No. I got it.
BASLER: Michelle Gorra says her town definitely embraces that lore. She's the economic development coordinator for the town of Washington.
MICHELLE GORRA: So it doesn't exactly look like the "Gilmore Girls," but the people, the characters, the way we operate. We still have town meetings. We still vote for our town budget with a show of hands.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GILMORE GIRLS")
MICHAEL WINTERS: (As Taylor) All those in favor of Stars Hollow taking a swift kick to the tush and shouldering the entire cost.
(CROSSTALK)
WINTERS: (As Taylor) OK. Well, motion carried.
(SOUNDBITE OF GAVEL BANGING)
GORRA: That, I think, is the part that she really captured well.
BASLER: And across the way at the Washington Food Market, which looks a lot like Doose's Market on the show, owner Lisa Stein wants to set the record straight. She says Washington is Stars Hollow.
LISA STEIN: And I do live in New Milford, so, you know, I get, you know, that. But this is definitely Stars Hollow. It's not the same. You know, I mean, it's a lot smaller of a town, more tight-knit.
BASLER: And, Stein says, this tight-knit community embraces the giddy "Gilmore Girls" fans, too.
For NPR News, I'm Cassandra Basler in Hartford.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE YOU LEAD")
KING: (Singing) Where you lead, I will follow, anywhere that you tell me to. If you need...
RASCOE: To hear more about how "Gilmore Girls" shaped generations of fans and how Connecticut shaped the show, check out Generation Gilmore Girls from Connecticut Public. Visit ctpublic.org/gilmore to subscribe.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE YOU LEAD")
KING: (Singing) That you tell me to. If you need...
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