GILMORE GIRLS 15 Year Reunion // ATX TV Festival // Season 4

(crowd cheering) (audience applauding) - Hello, hello everybody. Woo! What a beautiful, warm welcome. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you, [Entertainment Weekly] for sponsoring this epic event. I mean, we've got "Gilmore Girls," everybody! (crowd cheering) Yes. On the count of three I wanna hear, shout it, no need to be quiet, shout it, who are you most excited to see here? (crowd shouting indistinctly) Sounds like everyone to me (laughs). On a more serious note, I wanna say tonight is such an honor for me to be standing on this stage, sharing the stage with these gorgeous women. Yes, there's some very handsome men back there, too. (laughs) I think you guys know them. But I actually moved to LA from Florida with two days, I had to get across country in two days for the "Gilmore Girls" audition. So, I know you guys probably don't like Lindsay so much. (audience chuckles) Yeah, I know, okay. Even without Twitter, I knew you didn't like her. (audience laughs) But it was an epic moment in my life. Amy and Dan and actually Kenny Ortega, who was the director of the episode, he's amazing. Yes. Yes. (audience cheering) They all gave me a chance and every day I was on set, they probably don't know this because they were so cordial and warm and kind to me but I was staring at each and every one of them for different reasons knowing that I had the most wonderful platform to learn off of these brilliant actors. So, for that I will always be grateful. And speaking of these amazing women, Caitlin and Emily, the founders of ATX, (audience cheering) here they are. These women are powerful, strong, brilliant kind TV lovers. And without them, we couldn't be here. So, I'm turning the mic over to them. Thank you guys for all that you've created. You see the love of TV and without you, we wouldn't have this hub. So, thank you. And thank you EW if I didn't say that already. I love you guys. Bye. (Caitlin laughs) (Emily laughs) - Um... (Caitlin chuckles) (Emily exhales) My name is Emily and this is Caitlin and we are the executive directors of ATX Television Festival. (audience cheering) Thank you (chuckles). I knew I was gonna cry tonight for a long time, so I'm gonna try and get through this really quickly. We started this festival four years ago from a pure love of television and story telling and these amazing shows that were being on air and weren't given the acclaim that film was being given and there was these great stories that were being told that we wanted to celebrate and it wasn't just new things, it was old things on all these new platforms. And we always knew that a big part of that was gonna be reunions. And this is the biggest one we've ever done. This is the biggest festival we've ever had and we are so grateful all of you are here. We couldn't do this without our staff and our volunteers and our sponsors and each and every one of you and we just thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - I am not gonna speak nearly as eloquently as Emily just did, I'm kind of amazed. "Gilmore Girls" has been on our list four years ago. It's a show that we both grew up with. It's a show that my mom sent me VHS tapes to college to watch because I didn't have cable. It is amazing what it has become, how big it is. And we just wanna thank Entertainment Weekly for helping us make it closing night, because without them it would have been general programming, it would have been competition, it would have been really hard to do. And we are just really thankful for all of you that are here and particularly the "Gilmore Girls." So (chuckles)- (audience cheering) With that we would like to introduce your moderator, Jessica Shaw from "Entertainment Weekly Radio." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) The creator of this show, Amy Sherman-Palladino. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And one of three actual "Gilmore Girls," Lauren Graham. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And another one, Alexis Bledel. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And another one, Kelly Bishop. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - How amazing is this? (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Well, welcome everyone. This is incredible. (Lauren laughs) "Please, Luke, please, please, please." Those were the first five words of "Gilmore Girls" when it premiered on October 5th in 2000, and in the first two minutes and 41 seconds, Lorelai and Rory managed to reference Macy Gray, Jack Kerouac, RuPaul and "West Side Story." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) (Amy speaking indistinctly) I remember watching that first episode and by the time Carole King sang, "Where You Lead, I Will Follow" I was hooked and I imagine you all were as well. How could you not be? A mother/daughter who ping-ponged some of the sharpest, most exhilarating dialogue ever on TV. A mother's mother whose singular stare seemed to hold about 20 pages of dialogue. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Audience Member] Kelly! - Love you! - Woo! - And a town full of sometimes cranky but always compelling characters. And now I, - Woo! - someone who scored 92% on How Well Do You Know Stars Hollow Online Quiz- - Woo! - 100! - Okay, easy, 100%. I'm beyond excited to talk these extraordinary women. So, welcome. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Amy, let's start with you. The overlord, the brain trust. - I like overlord. - Okay (chuckles). We're off to a good start. - I'm enjoying that. - Tell me where you were, both literally and sort of psychically in your life when you came up with the idea for this show. - All right, I had just decided I am never gonna work in television again because I had just come off of a nightmare job and I was like, "I can't. I just don't, I (imitates sobbing)..." And my husband said, "Shush." And then he said, "Just write something. Just write something you wanna write. Don't worry about if it's gonna be anything fancy. Just write something." And I had a meeting at the WB and- - RIP. - The WB, yes. The frog. Anyone remember the frog? No, you're all too- (audience cheering) (audience applauding) You're eight. You don't remember the frog. (audience laughs) Anyhow, and I went and I pitched a bunch of stuff to them and the last pitch I had 'cause they were bored and they were like, "Oh, that's great. Is she ever gonna stop talking?" And like the last thing I said was, "And I got this idea about a mother/daughter and they're more like friends, the mother/daughter." And they said, "Okay, we'll buy that." (audience laughs) And I walked out and I turned to my manager and I said, "I don't know what that is. It's a mother, it's a daughter. Do they rollerskate?" He's like, "Well, figure it out 'cause they just bought it." And then we went on vacation to Connecticut, it's a long story, Mark Twain's house, we were decorating. He's got a red room. It's not important. And we're staying at this beautiful inn and it was leafing season and for all of you who are eight the- - Leafing season? - It was leafing season. - Fall? You mean fall? (audience laughs) - Wow. (laughter continues) - Writer! (audience laughs) - It was fall and- (audience laughs) And there were pumpkins and hayrides and people asking where you can go buy your pumpkin and I thought, "This is not real. I'm from the Valley, everything's brown, nobody talks to each other, you get in a car and you drive fast, you don't look at your neighbor, and I didn't understand the concept of people like, talking to each other and caring and wanting a response. It was strange and that's when I decided, "Well, I'll put 'em here, it seems nice. There's trees." (audience laughs) And over the weekend I said, "Oh, we're staying at inn. Maybe she works at an inn." Look, I was desperate. And then I was thinking- - It's better than roller skating. I mean- - Literally. Roller skating would've been good, too. And then I thought, "Okay, well now she's gotta have parents and they shouldn't live too near. So, what's kinda? Oh, Hartford's kinda close. Okay." And literally we're like, "What's the main, what's a big business in Hartford? Insurance? Great. Richard will be insurance." And by the time Monday came, it had all fallen into place and then we flew back and that was it. - I understand, I think I read somewhere that you wrote the first few scenes on the inn stationary. - Yeah, I still have it. Well, I wrote the kitchen scene with, you had to lick a spoon. That's all I, I'm sorry about that. (audience laughs) I don't know why. But for some reason, that I had an idea for and I wrote the dialogue and we actually shot it. - And where do you keep that original script? - In a box somewhere where you put boxes. I don't know. - [Lauren] In the red room. - I have to get it out and see if it brings me joy. (audience laughs) - And for Lauren, - Japanese- - Alexis and Kelly, I would love to hear (Lauren speaking faintly) when you came across this script and tell me about your auditions for these roles. Lauren? - Are you asking me? - All three. - Oh. (Kelly speaking faintly) - Well... (Lauren laughs) (Amy laughs) - This is how Alexis got the job. I had heard about this script but I was on another show called "M.Y.O.B." for NBC, a half hour show. Yeah, exactly. (audience cheering) (audience laughs) And so I wasn't available and also I was in New York. It was one of the, it's like when they tell you you should act unavailable and that will make a guy like you, but you can never do it because you don't want to. But this was a case where I was actually unavailable and so it kept coming around and I feel like that helped so much and finally they had seen other people and they said, "Okay, we know that you're on this other show but will you come in and audition?" And so I did everything in one day. I met Amy, we had a little work session. I believe (laughs) you said to me, because up 'til then I had gotten every job I ever got by kind of doing the lines. Like, kind of like adding my own little twist. - Yeah. - And I came in (laughs) and maybe tried to do that and Amy was like, "You're not gonna do that, right? You're gonna do it like I wrote it?" And I was like, "All right." (audience laughs) But it was very fast. But I just wanna talk about the first time I read it 'cause I hadn't read it when I kept saying I couldn't come in 'cause I couldn't and finally I read it and something really clicked and I remember Christopher Reeve in an actor studio saying, "The way you know a part is really for you is if you can't stand the idea of anyone else doing it." And that's how I felt about this. I was like (inhales sharply), "Oo, this is mine. I can't stand the idea of anybody else doing this!" (Lauren laughs) (audience cheering) But I had that kind of a strong reaction and so, I came in, Amy told me to do the lines as written. I tested for the studio and network and you were already cast. I didn't meet Alexis until we started work and then, I'm almost done talking, then, (Alexis laughs) although we have like three hours so I'm gonna really take my time. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) But then, and I think it was birthday also. But there was one other very talented actress whose worked a lot since then but she was from New York and it was just the two of us testing together and she was from New York and didn't have a car and asked if I could drive her back to her hotel 'cause we kinda knew each other and I did and on the way back my old brick Motorola cellphone (laughs) that we had back in those days kept ringing, ringing, ringing and I felt really nervous and I didn't wanna answer the phone and so I took her to her hotel and I feel like this story's takin' a weird turn. And then- (audience laughs) And but it was that fast. It was just like, and again using the dating analogy, like sometimes it just works out and it was, and then I got the job and like went to Canada and met Alexis and here we are. - But it would have been so great if you had answered the phone and gotten the job in front of her and been like, "I got it? Oh my God, when do I leave? I got it!" And she's just sitting there. "I have no car. I'm in a strange city. I don't have a job." - "But can I have a ride somewhere?" - Yeah. - That would have been so awesome. (audience laughs) - Alexis, how 'bout you? - I was at NYU and I had just become interested in acting. I was in their film school and let's see (chuckles), I was modeling to help pay for school and I had a cold when I got this audition because I had been to my last every modeling job which was in the middle of winter and involved large, like Home Depot buckets full of water being thrown at my body so it would splash off. - Oh my God! - And then they would take pictures of like, the water frozen in air and there were buckets of water thrown at like, my head and anyway- - What was the product? What was it for? - It was just like, a fashion editorial. - Just fashion. - Yeah. (audience laughs) I think some of the pictures are online. They're pretty funny 'cause I look like a poor, miserable little, like, I'm just like, "Is this really happening?" Maybe I'll tweet one or something. I think they're so funny. (audience laughs) But so that was my last ever job. I was like, "This modeling thing just really isn't working out." (Amy laughs) (audience laughs) Plus I had put on my freshman 15 so it really wasn't working out. (audience laughs) And so I had become interested in acting because through the film school I was allowed to go to the Stella Adler Conservatory to film the acting students do their work so they could watch it back and learn from their scenes and so, I just started finding myself having all these opinions about what the actors were doing. I was like, "Oh, it'd be cool if they did it like this or like that," and at the same time I was going on a handful of auditions that my modeling agency sent me on. So, this was like my fifth or sixth audition. - Ever. - Ever (laughs). (audience laughs) So (laughs)- (audience laughs) (audience applauding) - I'd been at it for like 25 years already. - Yeah (laughs). (audience laughs) So, yeah. No weirdness, nothing like... It's cool. I really, just really didn't know what I was doing at all. But I got the script and I had the wonderful experience that actors have when they read something and instantly know who that person and what voice they have and what they're thinking and similar to what Lauren said. You have that instant connection. I knew who she was. So, I went in with a cold and I did it and then they had me come back like four or five times and I didn't really know what was going on but then I got the job. (audience laughs) (Amy laughs) (audience cheering) - Yeah! - Kelly? - Okay, I just did it the regular, New York actor way. (audience laughs) Yeah. (audience cheering) What does that mean? Anyway, I just, I don't like to audition. I don't think I audition very well. I think- - You're wrong. (audience laughs) (audience cheering) - Maybe I'm wrong but- (audience laughs) Nah, I swear every actor, so I'm, New York, and in LA they're in their cars, in New York they're on the bus and you do the best audition in the world like 20 minutes after the audition is over on your way home and you go, "Oh I, oh, I coulda done..." You know? So, because I loved this like they did, I mean, I'm just lookin' at this and I go, "I own this woman. I know who she is. I love these words." And so, I had ample time which sometimes you don't. Sometimes you get a script like on a Tuesday and they wanna know if, "Could you come in?" And they go, "Can I put you on tape on Thursday?" And you go, "It's two days. I mean, when does this thing start? Oh, in three months. It's gonna start in three months," and you go, "Well, couldn't you have given it to me a little sooner so I could like, look at it and think about it?" This one I actually had time and so I worked those scenes, I think there were two scenes and I worked 'em and worked 'em to the point where I actually knew them completely. You don't do that, you just carry the pages 'cause you don't want them to think that you're not gonna be even better if you get the job. And fortunately, (audience laughs) Amy and Gavin, I guess, were actually in New York. Usually you just do tape and it's so nice... There's a real advantage if the people are in the room with you. They're gonna put you on tape anyway so that they have it, but when you just send a tape to California, that's all they've got. So, I felt like it was a really good audition. I've always felt like a jinx myself if I said, "That's a really good script." So, if I really like something I go, "Thank you," and I walk out like... (audience laughs) But I couldn't resist it and I did say, "It's a very good script," and then I left. And then I didn't hear anything and I kept going, "Did they call?" And I think that at some point they called and they said, "Oh, yes, we liked her very much." And then I didn't hear and I didn't hear and I kept calling my agents and saying, "Well, what's happening?" They're saying, "Well, they're testing this weekend and so next weekend they should know. They're testing the two leads." And the next week I don't hear anything. I said, "What happened?" They said, "Well, they weren't really happy so they're testing some more people." I'm going, "All right." And time kept going on and on and finally I just said, "I guess it's over. I guess it's not gonna happen." And I guess they called out there and it was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, she has the job." Wait. (audience laughs) So, I had the job. (audience applauding) Yeah. - And Amy, do you remember these moments of seeing and after writing these, I mean, so specific it's impossible as a fan to even imagine other people playing these roles, did you have moments where you felt like, "Yep, that's my Lorelai or that's my Emily?" - Well, the weird thing about this show as opposed to like a lot of the process where they want you to bring in sort of a cavalcade of people, and then you do the whole thing of like, "Okay, I'm gonna bring in the person that I want and then I'm gonna bring in somebody like, with a horn in their head that they're not gonna like, and then I'm gonna bring in somebody who has a prison record." And so, that they're automatically gonna look at the person that you want and go, "Oh, okay, that person," you know? Which can totally backfire and then you end up with the horn in the head person. (audience laughs) But this one, it was so specific. I'm sort of queen of writing un-castable women because I don't know why. Like, they're hard parts and when Alexis walked in, it was sort of like, first of all, she was sick and she was, looked at me like, "Okay, I'm sick. Really, I'm just sick, okay?" And I'm like, "She hates me. I love her! I love, (audience laughs) I want the one who hates me." And she was so like, different and a breath of fresh air and like, it's like that's what Rory had to be. Rory had to be somebody you'd never seen before. And so she was, and we all knew. Like, she'd never done it before, who knows? I mean, it's a big role. Can she handle it? And it was sort of like, well, we're either gonna crash and burn or we're gonna be very smart people and luckily we were brilliant. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And then, Lauren, they kept handing me Lauren's picture and I wouldn't look at it because she was on this other show and I'm like, "I don't wanna fall in love with someone that I can't have." I've done that in my life a lot and I'm not gonna do it here where there's money on the line. (audience laughs) And then literally we did, we went through some really good actors and they all came in and it was like, yeah, it would get on film, but it wouldn't be that thing. And finally, the casting director was like, "You just gotta see Lauren." And I think it was a whole conversation about vacation, was she back from vacation? And like, the clock was ticking. Like, we were leaving on Friday. Like, she was booked and everybody was booked and we just didn't have a Lorelai. And then she, I don't know, came in on Wednesday or something like that and she finally walked in and it was sort of like, she sat down, we talked, we read, we worked. She walked out and we're like, "And we're done." Like, there was no even like, conversation afterwards. It's like, "And there's Lorelai." And it was just lucky that the two of them had the blue eyes and the dark hair. I mean, just that was, I don't know, that was pixie dust. I don't know how the hell that happened, but you can do a contact and a dye job and who knows? But that worked out beautifully. Kelly was, she walked in, it was the same thing. Kelly waked in and there were other very good New York actors who had come in and they read, and the other people that I was with were like, "Oo, we should bring her back, we should bring her back," and I said, "You can bring 'em back. They're not gonna get the part. I mean, you can have 'em train in all ya like. We can give 'em a soda or somethin', but if they need it for their self esteem. We're good for that but none of these broads are gettin' cast," and people started gettin' a little pissed at me. I'm like, "Look, I'm gonna know Emily when she walked in." Kelly walks in, she sits down, she reads, she left, and I'm like, "And Emily." And we were done with Emily. We always wanted Ed Herrmann from the very beginning. That was sort of like the dream. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) (Amy sighs) Fuck you for dying. (audience laughs) We hate that you're dead and we love you so much. - Well, tell me what it- - Anyhow, he showed up. The President came in 'cause he played the president a lot. He was the same president but he played him like five times in like six different movies. I don't know why. Like, kind of after you play him once don't you say, "I've already played that guy? I know you want me. Okay, I'll do it in "Annie" once and sing but then I play him twice, once he sang, once he didn't. Whatever. And so he walked in and I'm like, "Okay, you're not playing the president." And he was just like, he was it. Like, he walked in and he says, "You want me to read?" And I'm like, "You don't have to read. I just, you can just stand there and let me look at you. (audience laughs) Mr. President." (audience laughs) And then he left and we had our family. It was, usually studios and networks give you a lot more shit for this. We were very, actually really lucky because Warner Brothers was, they got it. They got it the minute they got the script and I didn't even develop it there. Peter Roth was like, "I read the script. I loved it, let's go." They understood and they understood when I said, "I can't bring you 14 people. I got this. I got her. That's the family." They were like, "Go. Just don't spend too much money." That's all they said. (audience laughs) - Tell me about the first day on set. I mean, Lauren, I think that's so interesting that you and Alexis met once you were already there. What was your first scene like when you, you had to go there. You had to - Do you remember - be mother/daughter. - what our first scene was? - The walk and talk to the school. - Oh. Was it really? - And then we re-shot it in California. - Oh, yeah. - In the mic. - So, the funny, sorry. Well, so the, we had to confer. Is that true? - Because of Dean, remember? - Oh, yeah. - What was it? - There was another Dean. There was a Canadian Dean. (audience gasps) (audience laughs) (audience applauding) - I'm sorry- - There were two Canadian deans. - Oh wow, wow (laughs). - Oh yeah, yeah. - And then we realized ya gotta go American. - Oh! You're gonna get letters. (audience laughs) If it was a walk and talk, boy, what a, what do you call it? Not a premonition but a sign of the future? Someone? Hi, I was an English major. (Alexis laughs) (audience laughs) Because really what we did on this show which I think then to me, I started seeing it everywhere and I know Aaron Sorkin was doing some walk and talks on "West Wing" but just two chicks walking and talking about like paint colors and like, books we read and stuff but did this walk and talk to the school and take it from there. (Amy laughs) (Alexis laughs) - Well, because it was my first scene, I think we did the scene a lot, many, many takes, - Oh yeah, explain that to me. - Because I didn't know how to like clear the camera. - Walk and talk? - So we have to walk next to each other but we both have to be on camera. So I just like walk right behind Lauren 'cause I didn't know. And so she would kinda have to grab me and kinda make sure I was on camera. - So you can watch me do a lot of man handling of Alexis - Yeah she- - in the early episodes. - It's true. Yep (laughs). - And we talked about this earlier but I think part of the like, "Wow, they have instant chemistry," is like I was literally like mauling her all the time. I was always like- - We were just like, what do we do? (Alexis laughs) (Lauren laughs) - I was like, "No, no, over here, over here. Look, we made it." (Alexis laughs) - Yeah, and then acting 101 is like where you stand you have to stand on your mark without looking down at it and I didn't, I was never on my mark like the first week of shooting. So she always kind of like scooting me over like during the scene like trying to help me. So, that's (laughs) what I remember about the, and then I learned that when you're mic'd you're mic'd all the time. So like, whatever you're talking about- - Like Robert Durst. - Yeah (laughs). (audience laughs) (Amy laughs) So, everyone can hear you (laughs). - Kelly- - I think I was like talking about like my cat or something and the producer came up and was like, "So your cat, huh?" (Alexis laughs) (audience laughs) I was like, "Nevermind." (audience laughs) - Kelly, how much did you look in the mirror and just practice Emily Gilmore's looks in preparation for those dinners? - I don't look in the mirror. I really don't. I remember even Dan Palladino at some point said to me well into the run, no, he told the director that was directing the show to, "Have Kelly do that look that she does." And I'm going, "I don't know what that look is." I do lots of looks. I actually kinda prefer doing that. I mean, I love dialogue. Don't ever take dialogue away from me, Amy, but- - [Amy] I don't have that power anymore. (audience laughs) - You will. (audience cheering) We're gonna make it happen. Collectively we're gonna make this happen, right? Yes! (audience cheering) See? Anyway, no, I didn't practice looks. I kind of, that amuses me. I mean, I'm always amused when somebody just goes... (Alexis laughs) (audience laughs) - I was gonna say if you had to do it now, could you do it? - I don't even know what it is. There's probably about 30 of those looks. I don't know what they are. - All right. - But yeah. I mean, you can say so much without saying anything. (Alexis laughs) (audience laughs) - I can't. I have to say a lot. I have to talk all the time. I have to use a lot of words just to say, "Hello. (Kelly laughs) Hi, how you doin'? I'm fine. It's cold outside. Why is it so cold outside? Why is it so hot here? Why is it so hot here? I've been hot for four days. All I do is walk around," and that's hello. (Kelly laughs) (audience laughs) - Speaking of which, let's talk about some of those scripts. Like, legendary, like these long walking and talking, these monologues and these, I mean, were these scripts like 20 pages longer than other hour long shows? - At least. They were at least 20 pages longer. A regular one hour show is about 60 pages and ours were regularly 85. And it evolved. I mean, it didn't, I feel like, well, the pilot was its own kind of thing but they just got longer and we almost, we almost never cut anything. So, you could never say, "Well, you're not gonna use this scene," because we used them all. We just had to speed it up and then, 'cause it was kind of just me and then us and then by the end every single person in the town was like on whatever that thing is that makes you talk fast. Like, (audience laughs) so- - Speed. - This thing, yeah. So (laughs), so they just got longer. The end. (audience laughs) - Well, when we did the pilot, we did what, it's called a pilot presentation which is supposed to be like, you do pieces of a pilot which I didn't understand that whole concept 'cause like how can you watch something and know if it's not the whole story like, what are you picking up? Like, "I really like the scene in the shower but what?" So I crafted a pilot presentation, a shorter version that was a full story and then it was about, I don't know. I can't remember what it was. It was like 64 pages and they kept saying, "Oh, you gotta cut it, you gotta cut it. That's too long, that's too long, that's too long." And I said, "I can't prove this yet but I feel like it's not going to be too long." And we shot the pilot presentation. They're like, "Great, we love it." It was a full thing, it was a full story. They're like, "We can show it as a pilot," except we were 15 minutes short. 15 minutes short was legally too short to put on the air. So, we had to like literally go and insert scenes into the pilot that were not planned to be in the pilot because they didn't listen to me. (audience laughs) Listen to me when I, I know very few things in life. This I knew. So, there were a lot of talks when we went into series about like, "Okay, well clearly you can't shoot anymore pages than we already shot. It's impossible." So there was lotta talks about like, "What are creative bumpers that we can do? And like, little pictures. Can we have like art drawings," and like, and I'm like, "For what?" Like "Frasier" was on then and "Frasier" would do like little things before each scene. I'm like, but "Frasier's" already doing that. What the? We're gonna just be like what, "Frasier?" And it's like, "Hey, "Frasier," send us your art drawings." And it was, just weird. And they kept trying, and so every week I just added a few more pages and added, and every week they were like, "Okay, yeah, okay, what about, is there like, are there animals or music things that we could put in that..." And finally, everybody just gave up and realized the page count just had to go up and it did and I'm sorry. - And what was that like for you all? And probably, Lauren, especially, you to memorize that and to speak at that like rapid fire pace? - It's a little bit the way I am anyway which I think is part of the weird mind meld that we just had and that's the luck of working with the right person and I'm to, I'm just gonna keep talking about dating, it's so weird. (audience laughs) But it's like you just fell in love. It's just how it was and so, that wasn't difficult. It was just the pure page count per day. I have a really good memory which then became a problem because Amy was like, "Well, you have a really good memory. I'll just give these pages to you in the makeup trailer." And so, it was hard but there really is a music to the language that kind of, it's challenging but it's not, it doesn't not make sense. If you follow it, it's like, well you couldn't sing that note. That wouldn't go in the song. You sing it like this. So, it was... What was challenging were the walk and talks and tryin' to get everything perfect because one of us has a chance we're gonna flub a line or the cameraman's gonna trip or... So, there became this kind of marathon, athletic holding your breath of like, "Please don't. We're almost near the end, we're almost near the end. Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall." And like, and still keeping that kind of light and bubbly and with the feeling of like, this is just coming off the top of our head. Those were like the challenges that are particular to this show that are unlike anything I've ever done 'cause it's really like theater. It's both technical and emotional and just more language than most TV or film has but to me that was like, heaven. - And Amy, was there a moment where a scene that you all shot where you thought, "Nailed it. This is the show I wanted to have?" - No, yeah, of course. Yeah. The whole pilot. I didn't... I knew from the pilot we had the show. I knew from that dinner table scene in the pilot we had the show. - Yeah! - That was it, like that was it. Like, there's no questions about it. If you liked the dinner table scene you're gonna like "Gilmore Girls" and they'll put it on. If they didn't like the dinner table scene then don't put us on because that, the core of it, the inner play, the way that the sniping between Lorelai and Emily, the way that the past came up, the way Rory was sort of caught in the middle, like that was the crux of our show. We just got faster, you know? And the first year I will say was particularly brutal on these two because in a new show you don't have the world yet. So, nobody has a established love interest and we didn't know how well Chilton was going to work out and we didn't know, and we were building the town. We didn't have Kirk and Miss Patty was there from the pilot so we had her but we didn't have all those crazy things and we hadn't done our festivals yet and stuff. So, it was literally, the two of them in every fucking scene of the entire first season and I remember, it was like right before the Thanksgiving break, the two of them came up to me at one point and both their eyes were like really wide. Like, it was sort of this like, "We're so tired. (audience laughs) Is there anything you can do because we're just so tired." And it was like, I'm like, "Please hang on, please. There's gonna be scenes without you, I promise, and I'm gonna get you out of scenes together," but until that thing you had to see the two of them together because that was what was gonna make the audience fall in love. They were gonna either fall in love with those two women walking through town talking about shopping or they were going to tune into something else. - It's funny 'cause one of my favorite openers to the show was in the first season that has no, or one or two words of dialogue but it's with Lorelai and Rory and they, the alarm goes off and then they get up and they put the, I mean you all probably know it. The waffles and the coffee and the hair clip. - And that we shot because we were short. (audience laughs) We were short that episode. We needed time. (audience laughs) We were. - Really? - Yeah, that's why. That's why it was there. - Is there a line that you all get quoted back to you the most? - [Audience Members] "Oi, with the poodles!" - "Oi, with the poodles already." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) (applauding drowns out Kelly's speech) - "Oi, - Or I'm gonna - with the poodles already." - get this wrong, "Huzzah for the Goldberg's." Is that the other one? Is that what it's called? - Huzzah for the- - I don't remember whose line, "Oi, with the poodles already-" - That was yours. - Well, it was my line obviously. (audience laughs) And I remember why I said it and where I was. I don't. (audience laughs) - Can we get the origins - It was- - of "Oi, with the poodles already?" - Well, I, look, it was the Jewish goyim show on television. Like there, it's this extremely white bread goyim family and all they did was talk and argue about, like Jews. They were like a bunch of Jews. So, eventually I'm like, she's just gonna start talkin' like a Jew. So, it was an oi in there and I just remember when she said it, it was like wow, this is, there's something so wrong and so right about this moment that, you know, which is- - Why did I say, why, oh, hi, why did I say it and why did people, why do you like it so much (laughs)? I- (audience laughing) - We were at dinner. - Yeah, it was- - Why do you remember that? - You were at the Gilmore house. (audience laughs) I just remember you were at the Gilmore house and you were sitting on that couch. - You all don't remember? Do I need to school you in this? - Yeah. - It's how you get people to stop talking about other things when they're like yapping on and on. It's how you shut people up. You say, "Oi, with the poodles already." Right? - That's so funny. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Oh, oh, so now you think it's funny. Oh, I get it. All right! (audience laughs) (Lauren laughs) - I love the delayed reaction. (Kelly laughs) - Oh my gosh. - How 'bout you, Alexis? Is there a line or moment that people wanna talk to you about the most? - That one. (Lauren laughs) That's the favorite I think. Is there any other ones- - [Audience Members] Copper boom! - "Copper boom, copper boom." - What's copper boom? (audience laughs) (audience applauding) Did I say it? - Yes. - We said so many things (laughs). (audience laughs) - So many things. - [Audience Member] In college. - In college? - [Audience Member] First day. - [Audience Member] Getting ready to go out for college. - She left, "Copper boom!" - First day of college, I left for college and I said, "Copper boom," and why did I say it? (audience laughs) (Kelly laughs) (audience members speaking indistinctly) What? - [Audience Member] (indistinct) Copper boom, copper boom! - But why those words? Or- (Lauren's speech drowned out by audience laughter) - [Audience Member] Coppertones. - Coppertones? - [Audience Member] Yeah, Coppertones. - [Audience Member] It's chapstick and zip- - Oh! Okay, so she's telling me when I go out the door don't forget to wear sunscreen, so Coppertone? - No. - No. (audience laughs) - Anyway. - Anyway. - [Jessica] How 'bout you, Kelly? - No one ever quotes a line to me. I don't know the- - [Audience Members] Aw! - Do they? Do they? I don't know. - Online they probably do. - Huh? - Online they do. - Oh, online they do. (audience laughs) (Alexis laughs) I'm uh, I'm of another generation. (audience laughs) I don't do that. - Good for you. - I do email, I text and I make phone calls and that's it, that's it. Every once in awhile I'll watch something on YouTube if somebody sends it to me and I have to watch it. No, I didn't know that. I didn't. I do remember, all I remember is early on and when Emily was just so harsh, well, I guess she always was but she was just tough and how many men would come up to me and go, "Oh boy, you remind me of my wife." And I'd... (audience laughs) (Alexis laughs) I literally said every time not meaning to, I went, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." (audience laughs) Can you imagine being married to Emily? I don't know. What are the lines? What? (audience members yelling indistinctly) - [Audience Member] "Buy me a boa!" - "Buy me a boa." - What are they? (audience members yelling indistinctly) - I don't get any of 'em. I can't hear them. - I like when you said, "Honestly Lorelai, it's not your looks that keep them away." (audience laughs) - I said that? - What? - See what I mean? "Just like my wife!" - I love when she says stuff like that and then just walked out and Lauren just had to like take it. It was great. - Something about when I had juicy on my butt. - I do remember that. (crowd cheering) - I remember a few. - Yes, I do remember that. I remember I- - Yeah, a tasty brassiere. I remember that. - Because I was totally confused it by it but- - But you said tasty instead of juicy I think. - No, I don't know what, but I just saw her walk away and whatever the line was but I'm going, "Why do you have," I thought it was juicy. - It was juicy. - I'm going, "Why do you have juicy on your"- - She had juicy on her ass. - On your ass. - Oh (laughs). - Did I say ass? - No, you didn't say ass. - Right, I probably, "Rear end," or something like that. "On your derriere," or something. (audience laughs) I don't know. - Well, it's so hard to think about the Gilmore family without acknowledging Ed Herrmann and- - Oh. (audience cheering) - We're going to show something but, Amy, I wanted to see if you would just say a few words about him before- - Well, it's really crappy that he's gone and we miss him so much and I wanted to try and put a little something together and it was really hard 'cause at the end like, our first pass was like two hours and I'm like, "Do we have to do the panel? Can we just show moments of Ed? How's that gonna go over?" But I think I speak for all of us when we were so surprised and I don't think any of us knew he was sick because that was Ed. Ed was the patriarch, he was strong. I mean, Ed was the first one to say he was gonna be at this panel. That's how- - Aw! - That's how like, fucked up it is - Yeah. - that he's gone and I just miss him and I am so grateful I got to work with him and I got to hear him say my words and I got to see him yell at me at dailies because I was making him do too many takes so he would complain on the dailies 'cause he knows I would sit in the editing room while he says, "We're not puppets! We're not puppets!" (audience laughs) And he certainly was not a puppet. He was just a drinkin', lovin', knew everything in the world. He was our Mr. President. (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - All right, well let's watch this. - [Audience Member] Ow, ow! - First of all, thank you, Amy, for putting that together. That was extraordinary. (audience cheering) Even just watching it from the wings there's the moment of handing the newspaper. There could be this, such a special thing about this show, there'll be this tiny moment that takes about a second and a half of screen time and it speaks volumes and it was a, I loved that you included that and obviously an extraordinary actor and man and I can tell how moved you all are having seen that. So. - Yeah. - To totally shift gears, (audience laughs) let's bring out- - But more about us. - Right, the rest of Stars Hollow. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Let's start with Dan Palladino. (audience cheering) Producer and writer extraordinaire. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Scott Patterson, Mr. "Luke Danes." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Milo Ventimiglia. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Keiko Agena, Lane. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Yanic Truesdale, "Michel." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Liza Weil, "Paris Geller. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Matt Czuchry, "Logan Huntzberger." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Liz Torres, "Miss Patty." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Jared Padalecki, "Dean." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) The American Dean. (audience laughs) Danny Strong, "Doyle." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Jackson Douglas, "Jackson." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Todd Lowe, "Zach." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And John Cabrera, "Brian." (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - And a chair for Ed. - Aw. (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - So, I can't tell, first of all, welcome everyone. This is extraordinary to see everyone here. - [Audience Member] Woo! - Everywhere I have turned here in Austin at the ATX Festival people have still, the show's been off for what, eight years at this point? Still debating Dean versus Logan versus Jess. (audience cheering) I mean, what do you guys make of that? - [Audience Member] We love you, Dean! (audience cheering) - Look, I've always been very vocal, I'm team Dean. I mean... (audience cheering) - Can I borrow that? - Yeah, sure. - I was gonna say honestly, I was team Jess. I love Matt as well, so. (audience cheering) I was always a team Jess guy. I love Milo and I thought he was cool and sexy and handsome and... - Thanks man. - Yeah, yeah. - But it was one of those tough things, too, 'cause I mean it really has nothin' to do with us. I mean, and then Rory and choices and all that but it's like we all know each other and it's hard sometimes, like Logan was a dick. (audience laughs) He kinda was a dick and but it's like, but Matty, Matty's the coolest guy on the planet. So when we're all around it's like, no, I don't know, I'm rootin' for everyone. - I saw somethin' that Amy said recently about the right boyfriend came at the right time. - Yeah. - And that's kinda what I feel with Dean and Jess and Logan is that they each brought something out in Rory that she needed at that time. So, I'm gonna steal that but I was also kinda team Jess. (audience laughs) (panelists laughing) - I will say this, I will say this. If Milo wasn't here today I'd have totally been team Logan, though. (Matt laughs) - [Audience Member] Logan! - [Audience Member] Woo! - I feel like it's really unfair when they ask me to pick one 'cause they're all such amazing actors to work with it just is, it's unfair. - So pick one. (audience laughs) (audience members yelling) Come on. - I think she's mad at me. - I think they're mad at me now. - No, they're not, they're not. I think kinda what Matty was sayin'. I think she had different stages and like, there was a new man, a new great culmination of maybe the three of us that knocked her socks off. I don't know. - (laughs) That's true. - What would that be like, Desogan or somethin' like that? (audience laughs) Deesogan? No, what would that... - You know, I think I have the final word on this. None of you are good enough for Rory, thank you very much. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Not true, not true. - Well, Scott, let's talk about Luke for a second. (audience cheering) How did you find that place of being grumpy but also just very heartfelt and emotional and, I mean, where did you find that? 'Cause he could've just been like a big grump in a flannel shirt. (audience laughs) - Absolutely. The "Gilmore" audition was the second audition of three that I had that day, and I was late for the third one. It was to play opposite Carmen Electra as a fembot. (audience laughs) And I was late. - Impossible. - Did Amy write that too? - I would have watched that show forever. - I had- (audience laughs) I had parking issues out front, we're in the West Side, remember the place. And I wasn't a happy camper at all. I was late for Carmen Electra, I was gonna get a ticket. It's like, "Let's go. (fingers snapping) I'm not gettin' this job anyway, the script is too good. I'm a nobody." And that's where I found him. I found it in the waiting room, actually. (audience laughs) - And Amy, when you saw Scott was it like that's my Luke? - Boom! We're done, check it off. Stamp it, ship it. We're done. It was a real, it's just, I'm telling you, there's reasons that shows work and nobody can tell you why. It's literally, the stars align, the right person walks in the door and I had that with this show because you can take the greatest script and the best director and the hottest talent in the world and put 'em together and you're like, "Why does this suck?" You know? And it just, it was my turn that day to be really, really lucky. - I'm curious how it's been for all of you since "Gilmore" started airing on Netflix and- (panelists laughing) (audience cheering) When all of these- - I knew. - [Woman] Life changing! - Life changing for some. When all of these new fans came to the show who were babies back when it first aired, - [Audience Member] Woo! - sorry, rage, sorry. - Oh, God. - Well, I mean, definitely like out of the woodwork, a new generation of fans started coming up to us in the streets. I mean, with the internet everyone knows what we look like unfortunately. And people are coming up to me and Amy and they were the next generation. They were in the embryo when the show premiered. So, Netflix definitely brought that out and for you tech geeks it's the first time you can see the show in widescreen format on Netflix. (audience cheering) So, that made my geek brain happy. But definitely like, it was sort of an explosion of new... My nephew kept telling me we're trending. I still don't quite understand what that means but we kept, we were trending on Netflix, trending on Netflix and it was definitely an explosion. - We went to the new Bobby Flay restaurant one night and I got toasted- - Why? - Wow (laughs). We were hungry. I don't know, it was new. It was new. - It's fine, it's fine. - And I feel - it's fine. - very defensive now. - "I was just hungry." - No, no. - I don't even remember what I had but I left my credit card there and I had to go back the next day and pick it up and when I went to get it, there was this like weird line of very young girls like stalking and pretending like they're staring at the walls and like they're just, I don't even think they were supposed to be cleaning something and they were just... And the girl's like, "Well, we looked at your credit card." And I'm like "Oh, did you charge something?" Like, did you all go out on some big shopping spree?" And she's like, "Oh no, just have to tell you like, you "Gilmore Girls?" And I'm like, "Yeah." And she's like, "It's her! It's "Gilmore Girls!" And they were like four 20-year-olds and all I could say was like, you're too young. Like how do you? But they did, they did. I didn't get a free meal or anything out of it. I had to pay. (audience laughs) - Damn that Bobby Flay. - Damn you, Bobby Flay. - (laughs) Liza, Paris, one of my favorite characters. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Can you believe that you auditioned for Rory? (audience laughs) - Yes. (audience laughs) Yes, I did. I went in and read for Rory and met Amy and Gavin and then I got a call and they were like, "They really liked you but they don't think you're quite right but if it goes then maybe they'll find something else for you to do." And that was really lovely and I'd never heard anything like that before. So, I thought that was really nice and I thought that that was probably the end of it and then the show went and they wrote Paris and that, and the younger version of myself was really freaked out that that's what they wrote (laughs). (audience laughs) I just couldn't fathom that they would think that I could do that based on the other thing but now I think it's very flattering and I'm really glad and it just, yeah, it was supposed to just be three episodes and then it just kept going and it's, yeah. It was very nice. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - And there was talk about all the casting here but we also had the opportunity once the show was going to write specific characters for specific actors that we knew. Liza was one of 'em 'cause Amy had seen her early. Danny actually for Doyle was one of 'em. We knew Danny from before. We thought he should be Doyle. (audience cheering) Milo, Amy found him and we just created the character for him. So- - Yeah, literally, I saw Milo do some, or it was a pilot that didn't go and I just said, "I don't know what the character is. I just want him before somebody else gets him." That's all I, "And it's only trial and we're not hanging up the phone until that happens," and again at that time, we were at Warner Brothers and they were really sort of like, "All right, sure." And we got a lot of freedom in the casting of it which I think that it's so much and today they really try to clamp down on the casting and there's tapes and there's discussions but it's gotta be a gut thing. You've gotta like see somebody, feel that you can write for them and that's somebody you wanna keep writing stories for and that's what happened- - I feel like I remember that too when I came in. I don't really remember if there was Jess yet. Like there was Jess - There wasn't. - but it was just - There wasn't. - kinda like that was- - Well, Matt was the same thing. - Yeah. - Matt I knew that I wanted a college boyfriend and we had talked a lot about what kinda guy. Like, this needed to be the first time that Rory didn't just have, like get that attention of that guy right away. Like it had to be the first time that there was a guy who was like, "I got girls. You're cute but I got four over there," and deal with- - Kinda of a dick, kinda of a dick. (audience laughs) Kind of a dick. - Kind of a young college man is how I would like to look at it. (audience laughs) And so we met Matt and I don't even think you read, I think you may have read Jess' sides when you came in or some other sides. - I think I actually auditioned twice for two different roles over the course of a couple years - Okay. - and then it was either two or three times for different roles and then Logan. - Yeah, and we wrote a special scene, like a Logan scene to bring him in and say this is the guy we want to be Rory's boyfriend, but it had nothing to do with anything. We just kinda wrote a scene 'cause we didn't, you can't bring him in reading like Jess' lines would be just strange and weird, so. I wrote something for you for nothing. (audience laughs) I never do that. I'm totally mercenary. I'm all about the Benjamins. That's all I can say. (audience laughs) - It was a really good scene. I remember that, yeah. - Danny of course, you have tremendous success right now going on with "Empire." I wanted- (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Doyle would be so proud. - Word. (audience laughs) - What do you think would happen if Cookie wandered into Stars Hollow? (audience cheering) - Oh man, I don't (chuckles)... If Cookie wandered into Stars Hollow? Yeah, she would just mess shit up for everybody. (audience laughs) She would storm into rooms she's not supposed to and yeah, it would be pretty crazy. - I'm wondering where you all think your characters would have ended up, might've ended up down the line. (audience member speaking indistinctly) (audience members chuckling) - I just wanna say I don't dislike Bobby Flay. I... (audience laughs) - No, I felt judgment. I felt like there's - No, it's just, - so many restaurants - it seemed like- - in New York. You left me- - I know, but I think of it as like a chain and I don't think of you as like a chain person - Your opinion means - so I just, - a lot to me. - but I watch Bobby Flay - Oi, the poodles! - and like I like him I just, - and there's nothing - now 'cause Rory said, - wrong with Bobby. - I feel like a lesser version of myself. - I think Rory would be a journalist still. (audience laughs) - What? - I think Rory would be a journalist. - Oh (laughs). - She'd be working hard. She'd be still on her highly ambitious career path post academia and- - Or macadamia. - Or macadamia, whatever. (audience laughs) Yeah. That's all I know. - Okay. I actually think if Richard were still with us, we would be pretty much in the same place we were. (audience laughs) I think we were very comfortable with that life with the country clubs and the right people and all that and probably still fighting the battles but now Emily's a widow so that's a whole other world so I don't know where she is. (audience laughs) - I'll take that, too. (Dan laughs) Yeah, I mean, for me there's two scenarios. Luke has either just stayed in town and is nose to the grindstone. The other scenario is he's closed it down, he's moved to a lake. I don't know why. The number 40 miles outside of town on a lake just popped into my head and I thought that's where he ended up. And he reopened Luke's Diner, and it's a bait and tackle shop. He sells camping gear as well. He fly fishes in the nice weather and maybe he'll be- - Does he have a girlfriend? - Yeah, does he have a- - No, no, no, no. He's- (audience applauding) (audience laughs) I'm gettin' there in a round about way. As I was about to say before I was so incredibly rudely interrupted- - What was that? - Lorelai is coming out for a fishing lesson. Fly fishing. And camping. (audience laughs) - Are you writin' this down, Amy? - Overnight camping. - Yeah, I got it, I got it all, I got it all. (Scott laughs) And that's just what popped into my head. - All right. - It's complete fish outta water, no pun intended. (audience laughs) And that's where I saw Luke somehow. (audience laughs) - I think Jess is just out bein' Jess, creatin' cool and then walkin' away from it when too many people show up. (audience laughs) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Woo! - Hi. In my imagination, Lane is trying to figure out what kind of mom she wants to be. I think she's sort of like, in between Mrs. Kim, she wants to be Lorelai but I think in her heart she's really a little Mrs. Kim. (audience laughs) I hope she's still music with (indistinct). That's where I think she is (laughs). (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Well, it's a tough one for Michel because I never really understood how he ended up in the town (laughs). (audience laughs) (audience applauding) But patronizing people for sure somewhere, maybe in an inn that he now owns or went back to Paris 'cause couldn't deal with Americans anymore. I don't know. - I like to think Paris and Doyle are still together. - Right, right? (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Ride or die all the way, baby. - (laughs) I think they're really well-matched. (audience laughs) And I think that, I hope that they're just supporting each other and just takin' over the fuckin' world, man. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - What's your gangster name? From "Empire," what's your gangster name? - D-Dizzle. - [Matt] D-Dizzle. - Or Lil Gangster. - D-Dizzle in the future. Oh. - I just, I love that Danny between the butler and this has become the voice of black America because it's just like the weirdest, like, finally they found somebody to speak for them. Danny Strong! (Danny laughs) (audience laughs) - Word. (Amy applauding) (audience applauding) - Logan would not be working. (audience laughs) That's about as much as I know. He would not be working. - Oh, oh, wait. - No, you can use this one. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Am I sitting on it? - No, it's right here. (audience laughs) Here you go. - Thank you. (audience laughs) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - (laughs) I don't know. - Thank you. (audience laughs) Somebody sent me a book, Amy, and it was Margaret Leighton, I don't know, but it was the story of Miss Patty before she came to Stars Hollow and I thought, "Oh." (Liz laughs) And it was online or something. So, I don't know where... I think that maybe a show came into town from television and Miss Patty had arranged it and she thought, and all her students and everybody at Stars Hollow is gonna star... By the way, I always thought she'd end up with you, Scott, because- (audience laughs) (man speaking faintly) No, I always thought that women fall in love with cold and withholding men. (audience laughs) - [Woman] Aw. - And yeah! I thought, I was, you're too young and too... You're just... And too tall. (Jared laughs) (audience laughs) So, Scott, I thought... But then... (laughs) Who knows? Anyway, I thought that Miss Patty would end up running for mayor of Scott's Hollow and winning and- (audience laughs) (audience applauding) Oh, thank you. And I thought she wouldn't know what she was doing and that she would call Taylor at three o'clock in the morning and ask her what's the next checker? And that she couldn't run the town and that's, and then the television show would come in and they would put her in front of the camera and she'd freeze. - Wow, that's a lotta thought. That's a lot. (audience laughs) So, that's a whole lotta thought. I'll remember that. - Yeah, write this all down. I think that Dean Forester would probably have worked long and hard at the market and he'd have taken over Doose's Market. It would be Dean's Market. He'd still have the apron. - Wow. - Aw. I think definitely married to Paris still, obviously. (audience cheering) Come on. There's no way. And probably a reporter working at a website thinking- - Head at the NAACP? - NAACP maybe. Right (laughs)? (audience laughs) I think that's about it, you know? And probably thinking everyone he was working for was an idiot 'cause obviously. And that's it. - I- (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - This one, that's a tough one because, and I don't wanna give a none answer but one of the greatest things was getting the script and finding out what I was going to do that week or in that episode. I think I was kinda the town fool and I swear to God that Dan and Amy - (indistinct) What fool? - would sit and just, "How can we torture Jackson?" I mean, the different things that, yeah, the vegetables and the turkey and the shoe and the pot. - The deep fried turkey. - Yeah, and the pot being dragged across. I think it was, "Let's see if we can make him run really fast and have to spit out a whole bunch of dialogue." (audience laughs) But I don't know. To give you an actual answer, I would say that the vasectomy never took. There's 42 children out there and I'm actually farming children now. So, I guess that's the best answer I can come up with. (Amy laughs) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Hello. Okay, so Zach got to have a nice homecoming and come back to his hometown where he went to college with his hot wife and his best friend, and rock the shit outta the place where he used to make lattes for people. So, mic drop. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Yeah, something similar happened to Brian, I think. Yeah, and I also kinda always imagine that maybe Brian started, like he had a tech startup and maybe he was makin' a music app or something. But I do like this idea that Brian is like, he's developed a really close bond with the twins and they're kinda like almost his best friends now. - Like a "Twilight"-y - Okay, - kinda weird bond? - now you're getting creepy. Can we cut him off? This is (laughs)... - Amy, when you started writing the show, did you have in your mind in those early days of writing, this is where I wanna end up? - Here? On stage here in Texas? - Yes. - Yes. I thought, "How do I get to Texas? (audience laughs) How do I do it? What's takin' me to Texas?" (audience laughs) I always had a feel for where we were going. But shows have a life of their own and they surprise you and I just sorta let it take me where it was telling me to go. I don't let a lotta people tell me what to do but show did, told me a lot. So, I just got to work with a murderers row of people. - Yeah, was there any storyline that you really did not see or you kinda fought a little bit and then you said, "This, it just, it has to happen?" - No. - Well, a big decision we had to make was when Lorelai and Luke were going to be together. I mean, you could hold it off dramatically. (audience cheering) Yeah! We got to a point, it was about midway through season four that we realized it's time and we're getting sort of osmosis like feedback from the audience like, "It's time. It's time." So, and then when we hit that and started hitting that storyline it kinda opened up a brand new thread of stories that went into season five. So, sometimes the characters kind of, Rory was going through school so there was like Chilton, Chilton, Chilton, four years of Yale. So her progression was kind of there and then we kinda followed the actors as the characters were kinda leading us and then we sometimes made the choice of, now it's time to get them together, now it's time to break them up. Now it's time to bring in- - Well, the big one was when Rory was going to have sex because at the time- - That was painful for me. - Yeah, Dan's still (indistinct). - Oh. That was painful for me. - We still tell Dan that Rory hasn't had sex yet. 'Cause at the time, everybody who was under 18 on television was just fuckin'. And all the characters were little whores and I'm all for a buncha little whores runnin' around, but not my girl. And it was interesting because we weren't trying to make like a statement or anything like that. We were really trying to play the truth of who she was and that it's a decision she's not going to make lightly or, I didn't want her to like, get drunk at a party. It's like, woo! What happened? Oo. I didn't want that. And the thing is, we knew we wanted to have, but it got to a point where like the studio and the network were like, "Listen, seriously, she's gotta have sex, right? She's gonna, like, is she like a nun? Like, what's goin' on? She gotta take her vows? You gotta get her like a wimple." And we're like, "No, no, no, no. We'll know, we'll know, we'll know." And when we did our storyline I wanted it to be Dean and I wanted them to not be together at that time because I felt like there was something about... I always wanted her to have that great first boyfriend. Her first boyfriend was that ideal, great boyfriend so that you struggle with that as your life goes on and you have other boyfriends and you're like, "The first one was so nice." And you start to think, "Maybe I shouldn't have left that guy." And something about returning to that and trying to recapture that, I felt especially as she's floundering in her personal life a little bit just felt like a really good way to send Rory whose so thoughtful and sort of achieves everything she sorta sets out to do to sort of like, this is not quite working out the way she planned it. So, that was the biggest thing only because a lot of people were like, "What's up with her not sleeping with boys?" (audience laughs) - And what about with Luke and Lorelai? What was, and for you, Scott and Lauren? I mean, did you ever as actors feel like, "Okay, what's goin' on? Are we gonna get together? Are we not gonna get together?" - I just love the tension between them so much and there's always the worry that once you, that to change that dynamic changes the dynamic. But I think it was handled really well and then it didn't for me end in a satisfying way partially because we didn't, we weren't sure it was the end. Amy was not with us the last season. It felt, it didn't... I can't answer it because it didn't really end, you know what I mean? It didn't kind of resolve satisfactorily I don't think. I don't think you would - How would you - think so either. - have wanted it? (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Well, if I would stop talking about Bobby Flay, the answer I would've given is I think they're together 100%. (audience cheering) I do. - Not just fly fishin', guy. - Sorry. Yeah, so all true- - But I'm not fishing. - All true. - Yeah, we gotta rethink - No, that's better. - that bait and tackle - That's better, - and tackle angle - Let's go with that. - of the... (audience laughs) - I don't think I'll be a creative consultant on the movie. - No. - Anyway, simple story. Season four, I called Amy three o'clock in the morning. I went over. I stood in the lobby of her house and I said, "I want Lorelai. Get it done." - My house has a lobby by the way. I didn't know if you knew that. It's got a giant lobby and a concierge. That's how I wanted to live. - In LA. - I still got in. (audience laughs) Get it done. (audience laughs) - Boom, and then it happened. - Boom. - But you know, it couldn't happen until we knew what was gonna happen after and that's the thing 'cause I think TV sometimes rushes into things without thinking about what are you losing? We were very stingy with events on "Gilmore" for a specific reason because there's so much to mind in characters and when you jump to that next moment, you're gonna lose three or four moments. You gotta know, like, okay, if we take them here, where am I going from there? Because I could lose this, I could lose this, I could lose this and it was really important when these two finally got together, we knew there would still be conflict, they would still be funny. It wasn't gonna be all rosy. It wasn't going to be like, "Now we're in love." 'Cause there's nothing worse that those people who get together and the whole season they're like, "We're in love. Are you in love? I'm in love. We're in love together. Aren't we lovely? We're just in love." And it was like, "Great, I want you both dead." So, I wanted to make sure that Luke and Lorelai were people who basically had devised lives for themselves that worked perfectly but didn't really leave room to include a lot of other people in it who suddenly then decide, "Okay, we're gonna be together," were still gonna have those same issues of, "Now how do we... 'Cause I live and you live and we do and you're up late and I like to be up early." So, it was a very calculated move to make sure that we didn't just shoot ourselves in the foot and then we're like, "Oh, we're sad." (audience chuckles) - Amy, you've spoken before about having wished that they called you to write the series finale of the show, you weren't on. I mean, Lauren mentioned. - I have all sorts of like, "Poor me," things. That's me. I mean I, - That's cool. - there's no way they could have. Like, I wasn't working there. It would have been insane to say, "Amy, come work on something that you're not contractually working on and we're gonna ignore everybody." It doesn't work that way but in my mind it's like, "I'm me." So it was hard to like, not be able to say cut that final time and so I just did it all night when it was on and I just yelled at Dan. I'm like, "Cut, cut," and he's like, "Please, you've got to get over this. Just cut! Just pretend." So, I mock directed it. - I thought it was kinda hot. (audience laughs) (audience applauding) - And then did you ever go and watch season seven? - I didn't binge on it. I've seen it because like, weirdly I have ABC Family on a lot. I don't really know what that says about me, except my TV's on too much. And they still run "Gilmore" on like a crazy loop and so every now and then there'd be something on that I hadn't seen and I would be like, "Oh, I don't remember Alexis's hair being like that." Or what was that? Walk and talk. And why wasn't it longer? But it was just... I would like, so I'd catch, I sorta caught up just through having my TV on too much. - A lot of people have asked you I feel like in interviews, I have asked you about seven or eight times what your final four words were gonna be. (audience cheering) So I'm not going to ask you that. - [Audience Members] Aw. - I'm just gonna ask, just give me one. Just give me one word. - You know, here's the thing- - Limburger's one of 'em, I'll tell you that. - For awhile I thought, "I'll just hold onto it in case" and then I thought, "Oh my God, I've held onto it for so long. It's such a thing it's gonna let everybody down." And now I'm just being an asshole which is kinda fun. I'm holding onto it still 'cause in my mind I don't know, who knows? Maybe, but on my death bed it'll be like rosebud. Like, I'll be like laying there and it'll be, "Amy, what's the last four words?" It'll be Mike Gosiello like over my face. (audience laughs) "Like, I'm not gonna let you die 'til you tell me those last four words." So. - He's doing cardio and stuff on you and pumping and- - "Don't go yet!" - "I need two more liters of blood here!" - I've been kept alive like two extra years 'cause he won't let me go - "You're not a doctor." - until I say the last four words. - Who here knows what the last four, I mean, Dan, do you know? (audience laughs) Dan, do you wanna share? - Yes. I've known for 15 years, basically. Am I gonna tell you? I told you, Limburger. That's one of 'em. (audience laughs) It's a, well, I, no, it's a thing. It's a secret. - Secret. (audience laughs) - And I mean, Lauren, Alexis, you guys, you don't wanna like put the pressure on? - We don't know (chuckles). - Alexis had me in a headlock earlier. I still didn't tell. - It didn't work out, yeah. I'm not that strong. - I don't wanna know unless either I am saying them or I'm listening to someone say them whose in the show the way it was intended, you know what I mean? Like- (audience applauding) Otherwise, I would feel sad to know what I wasn't a part of. You know what I mean? The end. - I know what you mean. - Okay. - No, absolutely. Scott, you gave an interview recently where you sort of dropped maybe a little movie going on and I feel like - Here we go. - the world blew up over it. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - So, listen... (audience laughs) - [Amy] Yes, Scott? - (laughs) There's probably a hit man from Warner Brothers up there somewhere so I'm gonna be answering this question like that. (audience laughs) It's nothing I haven't said and it's the most asked question I get from fans or anytime I'm doing any type of interview and it's my stock answer. And it springs more from a hopefulness and it's like a love letter back to the fans because you guys made this show, right? And now it's sort of growing exponentially with Netflix and all this. So, I think it's kinda time don't you? (audience cheering) (audience applauding) And not to put any pressure on anybody or the studio or whatever. It was a little podcast. It was just this little podcast. I mean, I'm with these two great, the "Gilmore Guys" in West Hollywood in their studio, and we were in there for a couple hours havin' a good ol' time and drinkin' tea and talkin' "Gilmore" and all kinds of things and they said- - Tea? - Tea, tea. - Tea is what brought it out? - Tea, sitting around drinking some earl gray. - I had my finger up. - [Amy] That's what happened. - And the question came as it inevitably does and I said, "Well, it's," I said what I said. And next thing I know I'm getting calls from all over the place and, "It's gone viral. It's viral." - [Amy] I know, I enjoy the viral. - And it was just like, I was the most surprised person on the planet. But it was just a little podcast. - It's okay, it's okay. - So, Warner Brother's hit man if you're out there it was just a little podcast, okay? So- - Here's honestly, if anything ever happened and there's nothing, I'm sorry, there's nothing in the works at the moment. - [Audience Members] Aw. - It would, look, here's the good thing, nobody here hates each other. (audience laughs) That's very important. (audience cheering) That's a very important step. It would have to be the right everything, like the right format, the right timing, the right way, the right budget. It would have to be honored in a certain way and I think that - Do a wedding. if it ever came around I think we would all jump in and do it. It's just unfortunately- - Would you all? - Yes. - It's not happening right now. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Really, it's up to Carole King. That's the bottom line. - It's all up to Carole King. And she won't call me back - No. - 'cause she's got that Broadway thing going and I can't get her on the phone. - Well, if all the stars aligned and $10,000,000,000 were backed up and everything, what is the format? Like, is it a movie, is it like a Netflix series? - I don't know. I honestly don't know because it's not real right now so, but if it ever happened, I promise you we'll do it correctly. That's all I can say. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Maybe a hip hop version. (audience laughs) - Danny! - Word. (audience laughs) (audience applauding) - All right, I know all of you have, or a lot of you have questions so I wanted to open it up. Now, there's mics over on the sides. - [Man] Yay. - [Woman] Whoa! - [Liz] Oh, I can't see. - Go. - Oh my God, this reminds me of like the WGA meeting when they were telling me we were ending the strike. We had to do the same thing. We had to line up there and ask, Liz, sit down, sit down young lady. - [Liz] I can't see. - Sit down, young lady. Sit down. - I can't see the- - Sit down. There you go. All right. Not on his lap. - Go on. - Not on his lap. There you go. Okay. - So, thank you. First of all, I think everyone says thank you. "Gilmore Girls" had very low stakes and not a lot of TV, especially now has low stakes and it was what made it feel so special a lot of the time. Can you kinda speak to why you would wanna tell a story in that way where maybe big things weren't happening every week but we still cared so much about the characters and wanted to see what happened next? - 'Cause life is big and sometimes the average, everyday things are more impactful than, "Oh my God, there's a dinosaur comin' down the road." We pitched that. We couldn't afford the dinosaur. (audience laughs) But my first job was "Roseanne" and the motto on "Roseanne" was- (audience cheering) it was an unbelievable training ground because the motto was make the small big, make the big small. And I kind of stuck to that my entire career 'cause I really do believe that that is the best story telling. It's in the small moments that lives change and the big, giant headlines have got to be there to serve the small moments. It's just my personal philosophy. Doesn't mean it's right. It's just, that's what I do. - I mean, in the writer's room, Amy and I and the writer's always work really hard to hide the plot. There was always plot but bad plot you're kind of aware of. It's like big things that happen, but those big things don't happen in a kinda of a low stakes or a low concept show like this. But stuff was always happening and we always tried to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. We put a lotta work in the writer's room. Lots of like "Beautiful Mind," John Nash writing on a whiteboard before we even started writing just to make sure that you never really saw what was coming so that when something happened that was a little bigger, it lands really hard in this show. It lands really hard and it's often very emotional and it just lands I think harder than I think other shows plots do. - Was there a moment that watching back an episode that you had shot that really got you? - Well, I remember when the wallowing thing at the end of that one episode, that was a great episode because it was Rory denying that she had any problem and Lorelai kinda needling her, needling her and then finally at the very end, Rory saying, "I'm ready to wallow now." Really emotional impact. - Yeah! - Because it went kinda slow and it built and it made everybody tear up including me and I have the heart of Luke, really. (audience laughs) I'm halfway modeled on Luke and weirdly halfway modeled on Rory. So- - Brother. - Yeah (chuckles). So- - Also, Rory's birthday parties which was one of our very early shows and it was, it was just about her birthday party and then getting kind of screwed up and her, but nothing really, like she didn't go and her cake fell on her or somebody put vodka in the punch or, like nothing like that happened but it all led up to Emily and Lorelai talking and Emily, and thinking like, "Okay, maybe this was sort of a togetherness moment because the Gilmore's came to the house which they'd never done and they, and Lorelai said, "This really nice thing" and it felt sort of like sweet and then Emily gets in the car and says, "I don't know her at all." - Yeah. - (squeals) And Ed was there. - Yeah, okay- - That's the kinda stuff that we did and I think we actually did it very well because it was what feels like not a lot's happening is gonna land in a moment and it's gonna carry you through 'til next week. - Okay, this actually comes from the other continent. I got on Reddit and told people I was coming. So, she sent me a question. She's doing her dissertation on "Gilmore Girls" so I wanna make sure I get it right so I'm gonna read it exactly the way she wrote it for me. Okay, "How much thought and awareness is going into giving each character linguistic uniqueness and at the same time showing their strong relationship links with each other in terms of their dialogue? I know they weren't allowed to stray from the script at all, so how did Amy make sure that you had a strong idea about how they sounded and why? Where did that come from and how do you write it?" - That person went to college. That's unfair. - [Woman] And as far as I Know it is her doctoral dissertation. - Yeah, you lost me at linguistic. - [Woman] Okay, basically from what I could figure she just wants to know how did you make sure that every person sounded different but still maintained a relationship between each other? - I'm a writer, man. It's what I gotta do. I can't do open heart surgery. I got no other skills. If I didn't do that shit, who's gonna watch the show? I mean, I don't know. It's like you gotta hear 'em in your head. You gotta hear who the person is and know, "Well, this person would say it that was and this," and if they sound too much alike then you're like, "Well, that's not gonna work." If anything can be given to somebody else, if any joke of Lorelai's I could have handed to Rory or to Emily it's not a good joke. - Right. - Because it's gotta only work for Lorelai. So, that's called, you gotta be your own worst enemy and be hard on yourself. - Okay. - And the actor's feed back into that, too. I mean, you had a TV show, you have the luxury of getting to know the actors from week to week and we writers adjust from week to week for their voices, their strengths, all of that stuff. They bring a lot. They're in it with us equally. - [Woman] And just real quick, I have to say, Lauren, I absolutely adore you. - Thank you. - [Woman] And Matt, I have to thank you because I did not watch the show it came on Netflix because I watched you as Cary Agos, fell madly in love with you. - Thank you. - [Woman] I watched everything, I'd worked my way through everybody else. Of course I'd watched "Dirty Dancing" as a four-year-old. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner." I think she gets it from me. And so, I have to thank you because you introduced me to this amazing cast and the past few months of my life have been amazing 'cause if life sucks you go and you sit down and you're like, "I'm gonna go watch "Gilmore Girls" and my life is much better now. So, thank you all for everything that you do. Thank you for coming to Texas and dying in all of our lovely Texas heat. I know Alexis, you're probably relatively used to it. Jared, you're used to it by now. But thank you, thank you, thank you. So... (audience applauding) - Thank you. (audience cheering) - Yes, go ahead. - Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for being here. I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that there's not a weak link on the stage in the cast and so we really appreciate all of you being here. Okay, I wrote it down. I'm horribly nervous. I'm sorry. (audience laughs) (sighs) I was wondering if Amy could answer whether the rift between Lorelai and Rory that culminated when Rory decided to leave Yale was always in the show's plan? I was also wondering whether Amy felt the rift would be partly caused by the men in Rory's life, Dean and Logan at the ends of seasons four and five respectfully and I would also like to know if Lauren and Alexis could describe how they felt at the time about the impact of this storyline on their mother/daughter relationship? - I need beer. (audience laughs) I need beer. Beer! - I remember not liking it. I remember really struggling with it and feeling bad. It just didn't feel, not that it was a poorly told or wrong story in any way but it was personally, it was difficult. - [Woman] Yeah. - As it should have been. As the actor and as the character I think it was hard. But it set up something that was also important. - Yeah, I think I was always used to Lorelai and Emily being the ones in sort of arguments and Rory and Lorelai always got along until that point and she was only afraid that her history was gonna be repeated through Rory but I think... I don't know. I think Rory inherits a lot of the drama that came from Emily and Lorelai's relationship and she's literally just fielding emotional activity (laughs). She's like, she's kind of a character that's formed through the experience of living with these two women (laughs) because there's so much anger and hurt and so much to stay between them. And so she really was in the middle a lot and I think that's what that storyline was for me. - I don't know that I knew it from day one but at the beginning of the season we always sort of talk about like, what are our arcs, what are our themes, what are we gonna go through? And the thing about their relationship because it was so close and it was so tight and it was so girlfriend-y, it always those moments where Lorelai had to be a mom suddenly which Lorelai fuckin' hated. Lorelai wanted to be the friend. She didn't wanna be the mom but sometimes you gotta be a mom. And Rory who never really acted out at some point had to act out. And she had to sort of push away to be able to grow and become her own person. So, while I totally understand like the feeling of like, "Oh my God, they're apart!" I felt like it was really important for the characters to have that moment of what is our lives if we're not close like this? Because I'd counted on that. I count on it every day when we wake up and when I go to bed that the only thing in the world I know is gonna be there is my relationship with my daughter or my mom and when that's not there, what does that mean? - [Woman] No, it's very real. It just really stressed us out. (audience laughs) - Sorry. - Any regrets with storylines? (audience laughs) - No. (audience laughs) No, I'm too old to regret. Really? Oh God, it's exhausting. No, I don't think so 'cause it gets you somewhere and even if it doesn't like, a love interest doesn't work out exactly the way that we want it to or a thing, it's going to get you someplace new and more interesting. - Yeah? - [Girl] First of all I wanted to say, Lauren- - Oh, come on. You really are eight. Seriously? (audience laughs) How old are you? - 12. - [Amy] You're adorable and you're 12. (audience laughs) (girl giggles) - I really liked Lauren on "Repeat After Me." I thought you were really funny. - [Lauren] Thank you! On "Repeat After Me." Thank you. - And I wanna say happy birthday to Paris and Doyle. - Thank you so much. - Aw! (audience applauding) - And I wanna- - Yes, Danny's birthday's today and Liza's was yesterday. - [Audience Members] Aw. (audience applauding) - Paris and Doyle forever. (audience laughs) (girl giggles) - And I wanted to know what Lauren, Alexis and Keiko's favorite episodes are? - [Audience Members] Aw. - Thank you so much for your kind question. I don't remember. (audience laughs) I honestly don't. I don't remember (laughs). - But do you remember? - I don't. Do you have a favorite? - I'm just gonna go with the pilot 'cause it informed - Yeah. - the whole rest of the show. - It's hard when you're in it to have any perspective and someday maybe I'll sit around and like watch and compare and think to myself, "What do I think about this?" But like until that day, the whole experience was incredible and certain days and certain scenes were really fun and exciting to do and then you kinda keep going. So it's hard to look back when you're still in it and I guess in some way I'm still in it. I just keep trying to answer your question but it's I don't remember. (audience laughs) - [Jessica] Do you go back and have you gone back and watched it at all? - I have not watched myself on television since like 1995 and I'm not kidding. I don't really watch it except occasionally when it like assaults me on TV. I'm like (gasping), God! (audience laughs) I just don't find it helpful. Someday. - I know you're really good, Lauren, you should really check yourself out. - Thank you so much. (audience cheering) - And I'm actually split between the two because I think when you're doing it every episode, you're just in it in the moment and I have to say it's the pilot. When I think back to us being in Toronto and like just discovering everything and meeting each of the people that we got the chance to meet that very first time, there's nothing like that and- - I do have to say I have recently watched the pilot because as a piece of research for something I was working on and what was incredible to me, especially given what the TV landscape is today, is for the first 25 minutes, nothing happens. All you do is meet these incredibly charming people and we have an exchange at the inn and you and I have an exchange and nothing happens until Rory gets into Chilton and you would never have that today. There would have to be explosions before the first commercial and I was so drawn into it having nothing to do with me, just with the charm of the town and the people and that, but I was really struck by how much things have changed. - [Jessica] Yeah, I mean, Amy, what would happen if you pitched this show today? - They would validate my parking and I would leave. (audience laughs) - Okay. - [Woman and Girl] Thank you. - Hi, everyone. - Or they might - Oh. - not validate the parking, too. I don't know, I don't know. Yeah. - Hey, everyone. First of all, I just wanna say, I was born and raised in Brazil and one of the reasons I can speak a reasonable English is because of this show. - Stop. - Wow. - So, this is amazing. And my question (laughs)- - [Amy] Amazing. - And my question is "Gilmore Girls" is really famous for the witty, quick dialogues and I was just wondering, and this if for the whole cast, how was it like to say those lines? Like what was challenging about it, about saying them and for you guys to listen to them and follow it? Not get too lost? 'Cause sometimes for me it was kinda like, okay, I need subtitles for this (laughs). (audience laughs) So, I was wondering what was it like for you guys to deal with that quick dialogue? - Okay. Okay. Actually, when I was first acting I was a dancer first and then I became and actress and maybe it was living in New York or maybe it was energy or whatever, I was always talking fast and very often I would be told by a director to slow down. So, when I got ahold of this stuff and it was really important to talk fast, that was great. I think as far as memorization, I really had to cram sometimes. I really, really worked it but again, I think someone said it earlier, or Lauren said it, when the scene is right, when the words are right, they have an ebb and flow and it is almost like a song, it's like music and then it pops back and forth between characters and it all makes sense. So, I think what you start to do is you start listening to the music of it because it is fast and one of my favorite things about this show always was that it was so deeply funny and it was like, did you get the joke? Didn't get it? Movin' on. (audience laughs) And so you really had to be intelligent to enjoy the show properly and that thrilled me because we have, I mean, see, you're all like really, really smart. Isn't that awesome? - Smartest audience ever! (audience applauding) (audience cheering) How many of you had pop culture references go over your head? - Probably all of us. - Oh, I did. All the time, all the time. The only things I knew about I know, you even asked me once when we were shopping at a department store, it was early on and was it Betty? Who was it? Amy, was it Betty Hutton? - Oh, it was that... - That- - It was that... - Betty? - [Audience Member] Barbara. - Barbara Hutton. - Yeah, Barbara Hutton. - And Lauren who has one of the most incredible minds I've ever met along with Ms. Sherman-Palladino. You know, Mr. Palladino. (audience laughs) Lauren knows everything. I mean, she's really sharp. She's like bam, bam, bam. And we're blocking the scene and we're going through it and we know what the camera's gonna do and we'd done it about four times, not filmed yet and Lauren for the first time said, "I don't know who Barbara Hutton is." (audience laughs) And I went, "I do (laughs)." No, she said it to me because I knew that reference but all of the, I mean some of the pulp culture references, I then had to ask them because I had no idea who these people were. So, you know. - Alexis, is it true you had to ask Lauren who "The Waltons" were? - Yeah, I think she contributed information to me because I probably was a little, I probably looked a bit lost. - I just remember you didn't know "The Waltons" and you didn't know, maybe "Little House on the Prairie" or James Taylor, is that possible? Anyway, either way- - I knew those two. I did not know "The Waltons" at all. - It made me feel old. - And weirdly the house that we shot on the back lot as your house was a Waltons' set. - Oh, no way. - So, another layer. - There you go (laughs). - Yeah? - Hi, y'all. I was just wondering, other than the character that you all played, who is your favorite Stars Hollow personality? - Oh, can I- - Kirk. - Kirk. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - I loved Rose Abdoo, Gypsy. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) I thought it was so brilliant to make a woman the town mechanic. (audience laughs) It was just flawless and that was, so I thank you. - Yes. - And we miss our Sean Gunn here. He's out of the country - Oh! - but Kirk was one of our favorite comic mouthpieces and he was great. - Yeah, he's doing a movie and he literally wrote me an email that said, "I would fly in but my doctor told me my lungs would explode because of the altitude and I'm worried that might happen so I can't." (audience laughs) And I'm like, he can't be lying about that. That's just too Sean. So, he really wanted to be here but he's in Bogota. - I thought Taylor was a pretty necessary character. (audience cheering) There needed to be a bad guy or, yeah. - I have this shirt, I think it was maybe a Christmas gift for the cast. It says, "A film by Kirk." I almost wore it here today. (audience laughs) And I think that black and white video of Sean Gunn doing, (audience laughs) it made me laugh harder than possibly anything over ever seen and just knowing Sean and then watching the film of him kinda doing crazy things, it makes me laugh thinking about it. I shoulda worn the shirt. (audience laughs) - Did you all lift anything from the set before the show went off? - We didn't know it was ending (laughs). I woulda stole so much. (audience laughs) - We've got the original Stars Hollow sign in our house. - [Audience Member] Yeah! (audience cheering) - The outdoor one. - I've got Jess's leather jacket. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - The glasses that I actually wore were my glasses and they still have them there so I it was actually negative for me. - John, they have my glasses too and that was from like seven seasons. I want my glasses back. - So, last question. - Oh, dang. - Aw. - No pressure. - Okay. - Like I don't already have my heart pounding. So, all right first I wanna thank you for three things. I'm a sophomore English teacher and I show your, I shouldn't say this but I quit, so. I showed (laughs), they can't fire me. I show your shows all the time just 'cause of the dialogue. I mean, you have so much illusion, assonance, consonants, alliteration, puns, there's so much I use all the time. The second thing would be the "Gilmore Girls" reading challenge which I don't know if any of you had tried that but oh my gosh it is so hard, and then what's even harder- - [Amy] It's something like 337 books. It's all the books - It's insane. - that Rory read over the course of the series. - It's insane and expensive but harder than that is probably the "Gilmore Girls" drinking game. (laughs) It's on Pinterest. 20 minutes in you're feelin' good but- - [Lauren] What do you drink on? - [Alexis] Trivia? - Anytime you're sarcastic so (laughs). - [Lauren] Anytime I'm sarcastic? (audience laughs) - Anytime like, Emily says, "Where is that maid?" (audience laughs) But really I do have a question, I promise. I wanted to ask the cast, was there ever, 'cause you guys, you seem to associate with your characters quite well, was there ever a time where you got your script and you're just like, (inhales) "Fuck." And you just looked at it and you were like kinda like, "Ugh, does my character have to do this?" Just like maybe you were disappointed in a choice they made or something like that? - Anybody? - No. (audience laughs) - It happened a lot in season seven. - No, nothing, nothing. - It happened a lot in season seven. (audience cheering) - [Lauren] What'd he say? - It happened a lot in season seven of "Gilmore Girls." - Oh, yeah. - [Girl] Oh my gosh. As my students would say, "Throwin' shade." - I'm joking about that. That's a total joke. - Yeah. One of the things I found, you make up as you start a character in order to give it life for yourself even if nobody's gonna know anything, you make up a back story for yourself to justify your behavior and all that. And an amazing thing, as the years went on, I would get a script and there would be a reference which was exposition in the three years into it and it was spot on exactly what I'd been thinking the whole time and I'd go, I mean it was just thrilling to think that we were so attuned to, I think you've had that experience, too. I mean it was exactly what was going on in my mind that I never mentioned to anyone and out it comes in his script, so it was great. - I used to feel like my life was being robbed because I would have like a break up and then I'd have an episode about a break up and like she couldn't have known necessarily in the amount of time. I think one of the things we all feel and felt about this show is the characters felt even, they felt so real and so consistent and so unique and so through that kind of gift and through that kind of lens everything makes sense. Like I said, I didn't love Rory and I being apart but the way it was done is exactly how it would have been for Lorelai. So, it was very gratifying. - For me I would get that reaction but it was because it was so difficult. - I don't think as fast as everybody talks on the show. (audience laughs) So, it was always a big challenge. I mean, I don't even know how I got on the show. I think you all had to read and test and I swear to God I just wandered into the studio and, "Hey, what's goin' on here? Hey, put that guy over there and then..." Honestly, it's mostly because it was so difficult which, and I was always amazed by Lauren and Alexis that they were able to do that. I had the pleasure of directing a couple episodes and unfortunately the only note is, "Okay, faster and funnier." But it was always amazing to watch the amount of work that had to go into it and to be able to spit it back so fast is incredible. - Well, Amy, - Thank you. - Amy, I wanna give you the last word in this. Just where the show, you've earned it- - I've been talking for three days. - Just where the shows likes in your heart right now of all the things that you've done. - You get one, I think sometimes in a career. You get one. You get that (tongue clicks) thing where you can go, okay, you know what? If everything else fails, if I wind up like a big dumb drunk in the gutter saying, "I used to be a writer," at least I got this because when, I used to say it all the time when I was with "Gilmore," I literally said, "It's all downhill from here." Like, there's just no way I'm gonna top this experience, this cast, this leading ladies here. It's just not gonna happen again and that's okay because that's what this business is. This business is some people get lucky and some people don't and God, I got so lucky. So. (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - Just one more question. Hi. - [Boy] Well, right now I'm very scared because three people I really don't know just told me to ask my question. - Okay. - But my question is depending on- - [Amy] We will not buy you beer. (audience laughs) - He's really scared. - Well, that's not what I was gonna ask, thank you very much. (audience laughs) But my question is depending on Lauren and Scott's character and how they like reacted with each other in their relationship, do you think they ever would've gotten married? - My character and Luke? - [Boy] Mm hm. - Is that what you're asking? - Yeah. - I think they probably did. (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - [Boy] I'm very pleased with that answer. - Thank you, I'm very pleased with your question. Thank you guys, thank you so much. Thank you. - Thank you all very much. (audience cheering) (audience applauding)

Channel: ATX TV

Views: 3,798,245

Keywords: ATX Television Festival, Season 4, Panel, Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Kelly Bishop, Scott Patterson, Jared Padalecki, Milo Ventimiglia, Matt Czuchry, Reunion, Keiko Agena, Yanic Truesdale, Liz Torres, Liza Weil, Jackson Douglas, Todd Lowe, John Cabrera, Danny Strong, Daniel Palladino, Paramount Theatre, The WB, Entertainment Weekly

Id: Dh0Tw7qyZ0o

Length: 109min 13sec (6553 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2015