Oy with the poodles already! It’s officially been 20 years since Gilmore Girls aired its divisive season 6 finale, concluding creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s run on the show, and we’re breaking down some must-know facts about the series to celebrate the anniversary.
For example, did you know that Sherman-Palladino had the last four words of the show — that would eventually appear in the Netflix revival, A Year in the Life — planned from the very beginning?
Or that Sean Gunn, who played fan-favorite Kirk on the show, actually appeared as a different character first?
Keep scrolling for 25 Things You Don’t Know about Gilmore Girls, as seen in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now:
1. The Gilmore Girls season 6 finale, “Partings,” aired on May 9, 2006.
2. The episode sees Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Luke’s (Scott Patterson) relationship collapse after a series of emotional miscommunications, ending in a breakup that upends their future. Meanwhile, Rory (Alexis Bledel) makes a series of impulsive decisions about her relationship with Logan (Matt Czuchry) as she steps into adulthood outside of Yale.
3. It marked the final episode written and directed by creator Sherman-Palladino and executive producer Palladino.
4. The husband-and-wife duo exited the show before season 7 because of contract disputes with The CW, though the finale was written before the creative team knew they would not be returning.
5. “It was a botched negotiation. It really was about the fact that I was working too much,” Sherman-Palladino said of the decision to leave.
6. As a result, they had no creative involvement in the show’s seventh and final season.
7. After their departure, season 7 writers had to reinterpret several intended arcs from scratch. When the Palladinos returned for the 2016 Netflix revival, A Year in the Life, they revisited several unresolved emotional threads from this finale.
8. The season 6 finale episode was directed by Sherman-Palladino herself.
9. In the episode, the troubadour who is singing while Luke and Lorelai argue is Sam Phillips, who wrote and performed all of the show’s original music.
10. Gilmore Girls originally premiered on October 5, 2000, on The WB.
11. Set in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the show starred Graham as Lorelai Gilmore and Bledel as her daughter, Rory.
12. The show’s famously fast dialogue was dense: “The normal hour show is, like, 50-60 pages of a script. And we used to get 88-92 pages,” Patterson told Us.
13. Sherman-Palladino reportedly banned improvisation to maintain the show’s precise rhythm and tone.
14. Bledel had no prior acting credits before being cast as Rory.
15. The iconic opening credits theme, “Where You Lead,” was rerecorded as a duet by Carole King and her daughter for the series.
16. Sherman-Palladino wrote the Gilmore Girls pilot after a stay at a quaint Connecticut inn that inspired Stars Hollow.
17. Melissa McCarthy’s breakout as Sookie came during the show’s early seasons, and her role was expanded after she became a fan favorite.
18. Sookie was actually initially played by Alex Borstein, but she had to drop out of the role because of her obligations to MADtv.
19. Gunn was initially introduced as a DSL installer named Mick, though he returned as a series regular named Kirk after Sherman-Palladino forgot he already had a name in the show.
20. After the Palladinos’ departure, Graham stepped up as a producer for the seventh season of the show.
21. After leaving Gilmore Girls, Sherman-Palladino created The Return of Jezebel James, followed by the Sutton Foster-led ABC Family comedy drama, Bunheads.
22. It wasn’t until her work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel that Sherman-Palladino got her first Emmy nod, ultimately taking home six Emmy awards for the Prime Video series.
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23. The four-episode miniseries revival Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, released on Netflix on November 25, 2016, is structured around four seasons in the lives of Rory and Lorelai.
24. Sherman-Palladino has said she always knew what the last four words of the show would be. She ended the Netflix revival with the iconic — and divisive — exchange: “Mom?” “Yeah?” “I’m pregnant.”
25. In December, Graham and Sherman-Palladino announced that they are cowriting a book based on the series.
