Every Single Incredible Detail You Missed from the Gilmore Girls Reboot
Jennie Whitaker lives and breathes all things Gilmore Girls. She is the creator and driving force behind the Gilmore Girls Fan Fest, a gathering 1,200-strong that sold out in half a day. To say she's the ultimate superfan is not an understatement (she and her husband, Marcus, also run Kindred Handicrafts, a T-shirt line devoted to Gilmore Girls quotes). It's no surprise that she loved, loved, loved the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on Netflix (even the musical!) and thinks that anyone who doesn't agree needs to get on board.
"It was perfect. It was clever, classic, quirky and wonderful-exactly what Gilmore Girls would have been eight years later," says Jennie, who thinks critics should stop nit-picking, sit back, and binge-rewatch it a thousand times like you have seasons one through six. "I'm like Luke with that New Yorker article Rory wrote. I'm so proud Amy and Dan [the show's creator and producer] have accomplished this," says Jennie, who spent months drawing parallels between Stars Hollow and Washington Depot, the town the series is based on, so of course she saw stuff that flew over everyone else's heads.
Warning: Spoilers abound below.
1. There is no cell service in town. Washington Depot also has the worst cell service. "Before we had repeaters put in for the Fan Fest, there was only one spot that got cell service. I would have to run to the grocery store, just like Rory, to take a call," says Jennie.
2. The phone booth thing is REAL. When Rory first returns to Stars Hollow and Lorelai is giving her a town tour, she mentions that one of the current raging debates in town is whether or not to get rid of the phone booth. It turns out that Washington Depot still has a pay phone (which makes sense because there is no cell service in town). "It's funny, because when I saw that pay phone, my husband, Marcus, said, 'I'm sure they've debated to death whether or not to get rid of it,'" says Jennie.
3. There are so many factories. So, get this: Washington Depot was originally called Factory Hollow. And what do they sing about in the musical? A factory: "Well the factory, we'll build these things that wash dishes." Factory Hollow, Stars Hollow. Mind-blowing.
4. The Mayflower Grace built a spa in 2006. The last year that Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino worked on Gilmore Girls was the year that the Mayflower Grace, the inn-spiraton for the Dragonfly, expanded to build a spa. Coincidence? Well, yes, but a pretty cool one.
5. Jennie was also the keeper of the wifi password. Luke had wifi but would never give out the password. During the Fan Fest, there were four networks at Town Hall but Jennie only knew the password to one and she wasn't allowed to give it out. "I feel like everyone there probably gives out the wrong password," she says.
6. They cussed. A bunch. But the big one, "the G-D word," says Jennie, is said twice, when Lorelai is fighting with Emily and when Luke fights with Lorelai after she goes on her Wild expedition, which felt out of character for the show. "It was the only thing I didn't like. I hated it," she says. "It made me want to puke and it hurt me because it's so unnecessary."
7. Amy and Dan worked themselves into the revival too. "Did you notice that people wore hats in all of the pivotal scenes?" mused Jennie. And eagle-eyed Jennie also saw that when Lorelai is watching TV, it's Amy and Dan whose voices we hear. (This is even bigger than the revelation that Cesar went to Chilton!)
8. Every pregnancy in Stars Hollow has been unplanned. And Paris runs a fertility and surrogacy clinic. HA!
9. Jess smells like hugs. Okay, this wasn't in the revival, but it's what costume designer Valerie Campbell told Jennie. And isn't that something we all want to believe?
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