In this week’s Fandom Flashback, we revisit the town of Stars Hollow, home of the Gilmore girls!

Fandom Flashbacks are a weekly Hypable feature that looks back at old shows (classic, vintage, and freshly dead) and takes our readers onto memory lane as we express our favorite moments, characters, and plots.

“Where you lead, I will follow, anywhere that you tell me to…” These were the opening lines to the Gilmore Girls theme song, and for seven seasons, Carol King sung what essentially epitomized the show: a bond between two people so strong they’ll follow each other anywhere. Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her 16-year-old daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) navigated their quirky fictional town of Stars Hollow while at the same time exploring the world beyond the town’s limits.

Lorelai: “Oh, I can’t stop drinking the coffee. I stop drinking the coffee, I stop doing the standing and walking and the words putting into sentence doing.”

Over seven seasons, we craved cups of coffee from Luke’s and (sometimes) enjoyed Friday night dinners with Emily and Richard Gilmore – Lorelai’s parents with whom they have a financial obligation to uphold their end of the deal. Lorelai rises through the managerial ranks of the Independence Inn, where she started as a housekeeper at 17 years old, living with Rory in a shed on the premises, to co-owning the Dragonfly Inn with best friend and amazing chef, Sookie St. James. Sookie, played by Melissa McCarthy before she was Bridesmaids movie star or Molly on the current CBS comedy, Mike & Molly.

Despite the mother-daughter duo being close-knit, the entire series, save for a few episodes, they did have vastly different lives. Rory begins as a timid sophomore at the prestigious Chilton School, graduates onto Yale, and surrounds herself by intense classmates, frenemies, and boyfriends. Oh, the boyfriends who, while they didn’t define Rory, they certainly defined time periods of the show. There was Dean for season 1 and 2, Jess won her heart during season 3, and then Logan firmly planted himself front and center for the majority of seasons 4-7. Dean was safe, Jess was risky, and Logan was reckless. Chances are, you have your favorite and you have your least favorite, so we’re not here to say one was better than the others, but, c’mon, she should have accepted Logan’s proposal in the third to last episode.

As time wore on in the world of Stars Hollow, the stories expanded beyond Rory and Lorelai. There were crazy stories that involved many of the town’s characters, like Kirk, Miss. Patty, Jackson, Taylor, Michel, Lane and her band and eventual family, Paris and Doyle, and Logan and his buddies. Speaking of Logan, as we said, it’s easy to take the seven seasons and split them according to men in the Gilmore Girls’ Lives. This author is personally, resolutely, in the Team Logan camp, so she apologizes if you are a die-hard Dean or Jess (or even Marty) fan.

Lorelai’s love life is a bit more complicated. Christopher Hayden, Rory’s biological father, was never really around for more than a few days a year – just long enough to stay in the forefront of their minds, but not long enough to keep Lorelai from falling in love with Luke. Chris’ character becomes more prominent in later seasons as he gets closer with Lorelai and the two are briefly married before they realize that it was simply not meant to be.

Thankfully, regardless of what men they were dating at the time, Lorelai and Rory had Lorelai’s parents, Richard and Emily. Sure they were a bit cold and calculating at times, but they never told their daughter and granddaughter ‘no.’ When Lorelai got pregnant at 16, they wanted to take care of her – she was the one who ran away. When Rory needed to take time off Yale and Lorelai disapproved, they opened their home to her indefinitely. They’re not ‘snuggle-by-the-fire-in-sweats’ people, but they are good, kind and decent. Just the kind of characters you like to see on a show such as Gilmore Girls.

Lorelai Gilmore

Strong-willed, smart, outgoing, friendly, proud, coffee-addicted – there aren’t enough characteristics to define the eventual owner of the Dragonfly Inn. She’s fiercely protective of her daughter while still trying to navigate adulthood on her own.

Rory Gilmore

The bookish, quiet girl in your class who you don’t realize is brilliant until you befriend her. However, she does come out of her shell over seven years, rising through the ranks of the Yale Daily News to editor-in-chief, and quickly receiving a job to cover then-Senator Obama’s campaign trail.

Richard Gilmore

The patriarch of the Gilmore family, Richard was the strict father who only seemed disapproving, but was so proud of all his daughter had accomplished. He rocked an awesome mustache, smoked cigars and survived not one but two heart-related hospital visits.

Emily Gilmore

She is as close to the WASP society in Connecticut that they ever got. She held ‘functions’ with ladies from the DAR and her hair was never short of perfectly coiffed, save for a few drastic times. Her tumultuous relationship with her daughter is never truly resolved, but they are certainly closer by series’ end.

Sookie St. James

Perhaps the clumsiest chef to grace our television screens in the past decade, Sookie could whip up batches of cookies one second and be working on an intricate, formulaic dinner recipe the next. Her relationship with the produce man, Jackson, turns into love and the two arguably become the most solid relationship on the show, eventually marrying and having three kids.

Luke Danes

He is the provider of coffee! Beyond that, he’s also the Gilmore girls’ resident handyman and Lorelai’s true love. Despite years of back and forth, they’re together and then they break up, then they’re dating other people, timing was never really on their side.

Paris Gellar

When Rory arrived at Chilton in season 1, Paris Gellar was her immediate enemy. Their academic competition eventually turned to friendship when they attended Yale together. Paris is a genius who terrifies people to get what she wants, but has Rory there to rein her back in.

Logan Huntzberger

The rich boy who cavalierly walks through college – until he meets studious Rory. He shows her how to have fun, she brings him down to Earth like no woman could before her. We were heartbroken for him when she declined his proposal at the end of the series.

Fans of the show know it is hard to definitively declare a ‘best character.’ They all had their flaws, and all had their dark moments that make viewers cringe and say, “Oh I wish you wouldn’t do that.” There are tertiary characters like Kirk who provided the strange comic relief the show sometimes needed, but he’s a far cry from being the best. But our best character is Rory Gilmore. We felt a strong kinship with her and her bookish ways, but also how she would jam to her favorite music with Lane and her mom. Sure, she worked harder in school than we cared to, but we were too busy watching shows like Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars to try to get into Yale.

Alexis Bledel hated coffee, so she was always drinking flat coke.

Rarely did Rory act like a petulant teenager, and her attitude affected her relationship with Lorelai only a few times throughout the series. However, as she grew up and eventually moved away from home, she became her own person, more independent-thinking from her mother. In the end, nothing could separate the two. She thanks her mom in her Chilton graduating speech, tearing up as Lorelai sobs in the audience: “My ultimate inspiration comes from my best friend; the dazzling woman from whom I received my name and my life’s blood… thank you, Mom. You are my guidepost for everything.”

For as much time Rory dedicated to her studies, she also found plenty of time to have three serious boyfriends throughout the show’s run. There was Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki) who swept her off her 16-year-old feet. He built her a car and indulged her movie selections and junk food habits, but as she grew up and explored the world, he stayed behind, seemingly stuck in Stars Hollow. They were on and off and she perhaps, in her worst character moment of the show, lost her virginity to him in the season 5 premiere – while he was married to another woman. Their final breakup was public (season 5, “The Party’s Over”) – outside Rory’s grandparents house in front of dozens of suitors they have set her up with, including Logan.

There was her bad-boy phase with Jess Mariano, Luke’s nephew. He brooded around town but was secretly just as bookish as Rory. Jess ran in and out of Rory’s life throughout much of her senior year of high school, and she finally broke up with him the day of her high school graduation. He also wins our award for strongest come-back, though, as he makes an appearance in season 6 as a published author and very cleaned-up, thanks to Rory’s influence in the past. He, in turn, helps her get back on the straight and narrow and helps her see she needs to return to Yale from her sabbatical.

Then, there is Logan Huntzberger. He is rich and good looking, and often skated by in life on these two traits, but with Rory, that isn’t enough. She makes him better – she settles him down from his partying ways at a critical time in his college career and makes him focus on his future. But for as much as she helped him, he helped her relax and enjoy college – almost too much. He introduced her to people, parties and what you can get away with when you have money, and what you can’t. After being told she doesn’t have ‘it’ to make it as a journalist from Logan’s father, newspaper owner Mitchum, she is distraught and urges him to steal a boat with her, which lands them both in jail. Her spiral thus begins: dropping out of Yale, which leads to a blow-out fight with Lorelai, then moving into her grandparent’s guest house for a semester and becoming a party planner in the DAR. She eventually lands on her feet though, and when Logan proposes to her at her graduation, she declines in favor of being on her own for a while.

Beyond the boys and books, Rory was a dedicated journalist. Her position at the Yale Daily News wasn’t always easy, but when Paris is ousted after unleashing a monster editor-in-chief from within, she takes over and realizes her full potential. We would like to think that now, seven years after the series finale (and her college graduation) she is writing somewhere like the New York Times or a digital news outlet. Heck, maybe she’s an editor at BuzzFeed or something.

Arguably, one of the most memorable is, “You Jump I Jump, Jack.” Granted, as we’ve alluded to, the series is almost split up into eras, Lorelai Gilmore, manager of the Independence Inn, is way different than Lorelai Gilmore, co-owner of the Dragonfly Inn, and the same division is apparent in Rory’s education. But rarely did an episode feature a seven-story jump and a camp ground fit for a secret society. Sure, Rory is dating Dean during this time, but Logan symbolically shows her how much more fun life can be when you take some risks and push worry and doubt out of your mind. In her quest to get the story, he coerces her to actually participate in the action, instead of sit on the sidelines.

“‘In omnia paratus!’ (‘Ready for all things’)”

The Life and Death Brigade’s motto, “In omnia paratus,” means, “Ready for all things,” and while we never see much more of the society beyond brief mentions of Logan’s debauchery, this walk on the wild side was entertaining to watch. People in gorgeous gowns and gorilla masks, and the occasional drunk Australian – what could be better?

Elsewhere in the episode, Luke and Lorelai are dating, but Emily and Richard wish to give him their official stamp of approval. However, this is during their brief separation, so Emily treats Luke and Lorelai to a particularly brutal Friday night dinner, and Richard drags him out to the golf course. Of course, mild chaos ensues as Luke, plaid-donning, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing Luke, does not hit golf balls in his spare time, and becomes mildly inebriated. This allows Richard to try and get Luke to franchise his successful restaurants and Lorelai just wants him to stop being subjected to her parent’s third degree.

On Page 2: The funniest moment, the most emotional moment, and vote for the sweetest Luke/Lorelai moment!

Gilmore Girls was an hour-long dramedy. The show never strayed too far into either extreme – there were a few dramatic moments, but none of the main characters ever died or encountered the same high levels of drama of companion shows such as 7th Heaven or One Tree Hill. We like to say that the drama is ‘low-stakes.’ You know the characters will quibble and there will be some tension, but in the end (whether that’s the end of the episode or end of the multi-episode plot arc) they will reach a resolution. The show relied on the fast-paced talking of the mother-daughter duo that often worked like a tennis match – just keep flipping your head and try to keep up, and this is where most of the comedic elements came from. Unless there was a pratfall where Lorelai knocks over an entire table’s worth of contents while she flirts with Luke, the show admittedly lacks some serious belly-laughs.

Our funniest moment, though, is more like a ‘funniest episode.’ Season 5, episode 18, “To Live and Let Diorama,” features a myriad of uncharacteristically funny moments. Paris is in Stars Hollow – a rare occasion – to avoid her then-booty-call Doyle, and Luke is on his best behavior as he helps Taylor restore old man Twickum’s house into a museum. Luke is really trying to get on Taylor’s good side so he can be awarded the house for his and Lorelai’s eventual life together, but because the people of the town get on Luke’s last nerve on a daily basis, him trying to keep it together lends itself nicely to absurd situations.

Sookie’s third pregnancy was written into the seventh season to cover actress Melissa McCarthy’s real-life pregnancy.

While Luke is obeying Taylor’s orders, even if that means lying about history, Rory, with Lane and Paris in tow, began hitting Miss. Patty’s Founder’s Day punch a little too hard. All entrenched in relationship woes, they get progressively drunker throughout the day, each wondering what exactly went wrong with their significant others. Paris, in a particularly comedic moment of weakness, can be seen phoneless, penniless and shoeless, walking around town harassing its patrons asking for a quarter to use the pay phone.

One of the most emotional moments – for a show that was relatively low-stakes (you knew the Dragonfly wasn’t going to be held up) – happened during season 7, when Richard suffers a heart attack in the middle of an economics class that Rory was in attendance for. The event spans two episodes and shows the strengths – and weaknesses – of the main character’s relationships. Lorelai immediately rushes to her mother’s side and tries to tend for Emily despite her stubbornly refusing help. Rory, in turn, is trying to care for her mother to no avail. Much of the episode, “I’d Rather Be in Philadelphia,” has the three women sitting around in hospital chairs, eating from the vending machine or looking dissolved as they fret over Richard’s condition. Logan arrives to support Rory while Lorelai continuously tires to reach husband Christopher. It’s Luke, however, who brings them hot food and coffee and is there to run the errands Emily needs handled at the house, even after Lorelai protests he is under no obligation to do any of it.

All of this is touching, but the most emotional moments come at the end of the episode. Emily is allowed to see Richard for the first time since his admittance, and she shows genuine relief and affection for her husband after being so wound up and tense waiting around.

Lorelai, however, has still not been in touch with Christopher. After leaving countless messages, she finally unleashes the anger that’s been building. Was it the best way to do it via voicemail? Probably not.

“You’re my husband, you know, and it seems like you should be here or call me back. I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s what married people do is be there for each other. I know you’re upset, and I know we had a fight, but this is just bigger than that, you know? It’s my dad, and he’s had a heart attack, and everybody’s been here. I’ve talked to Sookie and even Michel, and Patty, and Babette, and they’ve all been here for me, but my husband’s not here. That’s not okay, Chris, you know? That’s not okay.”

“I think this party is a testament to you, Lorelai. It takes a remarkable person to inspire all this. – Richard Gilmore (7×22, “Bon Voyage”)”

The end of Gilmore Girls became an emotional and polarizing series finale. Rory, always perfect, worked hard to get what she wanted, and is barreling towards graduating with no job in sight. If you’ve ever been job hunting, you understand the frustration and fear of the unknown. You could have a gleaming resume, and still, the phone will not ring. Boyfriend Logan’s father Mitchum approaches her and undermines her intelligence by handing her a job at one of his numerous newspapers and she, insulted, turns him down.

So, the Gilmore girls do what they do best: problem solve by having fun. After graduating, it’s decided Lorelai and Rory will take a trip around the country riding various roller coasters. Wooden ones, fast ones, roller coasters that will make them scream in fear. And then, once that’s done, Rory will really get to job hunting. But then-Senator Obama’s campaign trail comes knocking, and Rory’s future is suddenly coach buses, rallies, and articles written on the road. Lorelai puts on a brave face for her daughter, rushing to get all the items she suddenly needs to live on the road (lime green fanny pack, anyone?).

Emily Gilmore had a new maid for every episode one was featured or mentioned during the seven seasons of the show’s run.

Stars Hollow, the town that celebrates Founder’s Day and Miss. Patty’s show business anniversary, rallies together to throw a Bon Voyage party to one of their favorite residents. Luke, the mastermind behind all of it, coordinates decorations and food and lights for 200 people to celebrate in the town’s square. Of course, in the eleventh hour, there’s news of a massive rainstorm, and while everyone gives up hope, Luke takes as many camping tents, tarps and magical fairy dust as he can muster, and sews them together to create one massive tent.

Lorelai and Rory are completely surprised the next day at the party, not expecting so much love for her. But as Richard points out, “I think this party is a testament to you, Lorelai. It takes a remarkable person to inspire all this.” And though Emily is tense and on edge about the particulars, we can tell what she’s really scared of is that without her granddaughter relying on her financially, she’ll lose touch with her daughter once again. Lorelai has matured, though, and after a tumultuous few decades, knows she’ll keep her parents in her life. When Emily tries to get her to become financially obligated to her again, Lorelai just says they can discuss it at those infamous Friday night dinners.

Luke and Lorelai reconcile in the middle of the street, and given that kiss, they’re together again.

Lorelai: “Luke…”
Luke: “I just wanted to see you happy.”

The next morning, Rory and Lorelai rise early enough before the sun rises, and before they can really leave, they have one more stop: Luke’s. There, in a recreation of the final scene in the series’ premiere, they enjoy their coffee in the empty diner as the camera pans out, fading to black, as the iconic plucking guitar and ‘la las’ end the show.

All seven seasons are available on DVD, but unfortunately Netflix has yet to pick up the rights. Television channels like ABC Family and Logo air reruns nearly daily. The series is available on Amazon Prime and iTunes for $1.99 per episode at both locations.

Can’t get enough ‘Gilmore’? If you find yourself in the Burbank, CA area, you can purchase tickets to the WB VIP Studio tour and catch glimpses into what used to be the Gilmore Girls set. Due to filming schedules, we cannot guarantee it, but the town square and gazebo still stand and you can envision where the iconic Luke’s sign used to hang. This tour takes you through the various sets that have been dressed for a variety of television shows and films, and concludes at a museum that features an exact replica of Central Perk from Friends (WB owns the rights to both shows) and an entire floor dedicated to Harry Potter artifacts from the film.

Ah, Luke and Lorelai. Those two had so many ups and downs throughout the years, both as friends and significant others. But we want to know what your favorite Luke/Lorelai scene was!