Will the Real 'Stars Hollow' Please Stand Up?
Wheels up in five
I’m itching to visit the ‘real’ Stars Hollow. But we kinda have a choice of three. Which one do you think should host our inaugural Gilmore Girls Convention?
1. Washington Depot, Connecticut The story goes that the Palladinos passed through this place on vacation. They were so taken by the place, they based the show in it. It checks a lot of boxes: There are town meetings and the residents go serve themselves coffee from behind the diner counter. On the plus-side, we could make daytrips to the real-life Woodbury and Danbury, both within a half hour’s drive.
2. Unionville, Ontario The pilot episode was shot in Main Street, Unionville, Ontario. Remember Lorelai in her woolly hat, crossing the street to The La’s ‘There She Goes’? And then this memorable encounter:
Lorelai Please, Luke. Please please please. Luke How many cups have you had this morning? Lorelai None. Luke Plus? Lorelai … Five. But yours is better. s01e01 Episode Title
This one’s cool, because it was actually on the show. Also because it’s Canada and Canada’s cold.
3. Burbank, California Aside from the pilot episode, the Stars Hollow we saw every week was filmed on the Warner Brothers Studio backlot. The Studio Tour takes you down those very streets and I propose we leave the tour at that point and raid the surrounding buildings for any remaining memorabilia. I have dibs on the entire counter at Luke’s including any scribbled orders, butt napkins and faulty toasters.
There’s an unintentionally helpful review of the studio tour on Tripadvisor from 2010, user ‘chrose07′ commenting that:
chrose07 While we did enjoy the tour, we all agreed that the tour was too heavily skewed towards the tv shows currently in production or recently shot at Warner Bros… [I] walked away from the studio scratching my head and wondering if Gilmore Girls was now being considered as some of the studio’s best work!
Well, duh.
chrose07 In that case, I better run out and buy the seasons on DVD!
I just read this back to my girlfriend and she says I did not put enough emphasis on just how much they focused on Gilmore Girls during our tour. So there, now you know.
Wheels up in five. Grab your bag and let’s go.
Which is your preferred Stars Hollow?
Have you been?
Do you live in one?