Luke’s Diner

A friendly, relaxed diner in Washington Depot where people helped themselves to food and drink behind the counter was supposedly the inspiration for Luke’s Diner, and gave Amy Sherman-Palladino the idea for a show set in a charming, quirky small town. (This diner is no longer in existence, and I cannot identify it). Oddly enough, in the show Luke is not friendly or laid-back, and greatly dislikes people helping themselves to food behind the counter.

For the filming of the pilot in Unionville, Luke’s Diner was temporarily built inside a hardware store. This explains the backstory whereby Luke opened his diner in his dad’s old hardware store, William’s Hardware – William Danes being Luke’s deceased father.

Stars Hollow

In the first shot of the pilot, we see a sign with STARS HOLLOW FOUNDED 1779 on it. Stars Hollow is loosely based on the small town of Washington Depot in Connecticut, which incorporated in 1779. In the 19^th century its industrial section was known as Factory Hollow.

However, Rory says that Stars Hollow is 30 minutes drive from Hartford, while Washington Depot is about an hour away from there, so it can’t have the same location. That distance might put it somewhere around the vicinity of the town of Wallingford or the city of Meriden.

The pilot of Gilmore Girls was filmed in Unionville, Ontario, and from then on at Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.

There She Goes

This song by English indie rock band The La’s is the first track to play during the pilot, and accompanies Lorelai on her walk through the town to the diner. First released in 1988, There She Goes initially failed to chart in the US, but after being remixed for their 1990 self-titled debut album went to #13 in the UK and #49 in the US.

Gilmore Girls

Gilmore is a Scottish and Irish surname which means “servant of the Virgin Mary”. A very apt name for a show which revolves around motherhood, and maternal relationships.

Alternative titles for the show were The Gilmore Girls, and The Gilmore Way, which Lauren Graham thought sounded like a method of natural birth. Eventually Gilmore Girls was decided on. The font for the title card is Solid Antique Roman.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino chose the name Gilmore after their bank, the Gilmore Bank in Los Angeles. It’s a family-owned community bank operating since 1955, and proud of their friendly customer service where everyone knows your name. That kind of cosy hometown environment must have seemed perfect for a show all about family and community.

There’s an odd sort of logic too, that the money they made from Gilmore Girls went straight back to Gilmore Bank!

Where You Lead

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The theme song for Gilmore Girls was originally written in 1970 by Carole King and Toni Stern, and released on King’s 1971 album Tapestry – one of the best selling albums of all time. Uncomfortable with the song’s theme of a woman happily and blindly following a man she loves, Carole King stopped performing it in concert.

When Amy Sherman-Palladino asked King’s permission to use the song for Gilmore Girls, Carole suggested she re-record the song, changing the lyrics slightly to make it suitable for a mother-daughter relationship, and performing it as a duet with her own daughter, Louise Goffin. Since then, Carole King and Louise Goffin have performed the new version of the song in concert together.