Gilmore Girls

Overview

Gilmore Girls is an American comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on the WB to widespread critical acclaim and remained a tent-pole to the WB until it was canceled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on the CW.

The show follows single mother Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, also named Lorelai but who prefers to be called Rory, living in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. The town is filled with colorful characters and is located approximately 30 minutes from Hartford, Connecticut. The show's pilot states the proximity to Hartford. Ambition, education, and work constitute part of the series' central concerns, telling Lorelai's story from pregnant teen runaway and high school dropout to manager of the Independence Inn then co-owner of the Dragon-Fly Inn. Rory's transition from public school to the prestigious Chilton is similarly followed, exploring her ambition to study at an Ivy League college and to become a foreign correspondent. The show's social commentary manifests most clearly in Lorelai's difficult relationship with her wealthy, appearance-obsessed parents, Emily and Richard Gilmore, and in the interactions between the students at Chilton, and later, Yale University.

Gilmore Girls is known for its fast-paced dialogue filled with pop-culture references. The show earned several award nominations, winning one Emmy Award. It was also critically acclaimed placing No. 32 on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list, and was listed as one of Time magazine's "All-TIME 100 TV Shows" in 2007.

Main Cast Members

Lauren Graham

Lorelai Gilmore

Alexis Bledel

Rory Gilmore

Melissa McCarthy

Sookie St. James

Keiko Agena

Lane Kim

Yanic Truesdale

Michel Gerard

Scott Patterson

Luke Danes

Kelly Bishop

Emily Gilmore

Edward Hermann

Richard Gilmore

Jared Padalecki

Dean Forester

Liza Weil

Paris Geller

Milo Ventimiglia

Jess Mariano

Premise

The pilot of Gilmore Girls sets up the premise of the show and a number of its recurrent themes as we learn that Lorelai became pregnant with Rory at age sixteen, but chose not to marry Rory's father, Christopher Hayden. Instead, she leaves her disappointed parents in Hartford, Connecticut for Stars Hollow. Later episodes reveal that Lorelai and infant Rory were taken in by Mia, owner of the Independence Inn, where Lorelai eventually progressed from maid to executive manager. In the pilot, Rory, who is about to turn sixteen, has been accepted to Chilton Preparatory School in order to pursue her dream of studying at Harvard University.

Lorelai finds herself unable to afford Chilton's tuition. Desperation and determination leads Lorelai to her parents where she strikes a bargain. Her parents provided her with a loan to cover the tuition in exchange for an agreement that every Friday night she and Rory will join Emily and Richard for dinner at the senior Gilmores'.The interaction with Lorelai and her parents foreshadows many conflicts within the series. The mother-daughter relationship of Lorelai and Emily and Lorelai and Rory becomes a defining theme of the show.