Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino mark the 20th anniversary by celebrating "the cast that changed our lives"

TVLine

“To a cast that changed our lives — none of us had any idea what the hell we were doing,” Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband/producing partner Daniel Palladino said in a statement to TVLine. “We just knew we would walk in circles around a backlot in Burbank and hopefully someone world care. Melissa, Yanic, Liza, Sean, Milo, Jared, Scott, Matt, Sally, Keiko, Liz, and so many others that came and played in our sandbox — who we tortured with ‘oners’ — we can’t believe you let us. We owe you our lives. To Ed (Herrmann), who we’ll miss forever. And to our Gilmore girls: the incomparable Kelly Bishop and devastatingly elegant Alexis Bledel and the Queen of them all, Lauren Graham. There are really not words that express how we feel except to say we are old and we will forget your names very soon. But until then — you are literally everything to us.”

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• Director Lesli Linka Glatter recalls the Gilmore Girls casting process and directing the pilot episode: “I was sent the pilot through my agent, so not a very mysterious or interesting beginning. But I remember reading the pilot and just thinking, Oh my God, I have not read anything like this, that deals with the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship where each of the characters is so verbally articulate, and without it feeling false.” Glatter says of casting Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel: “We met so many different actors, and there was a reference to Jack Kerouac...I can’t tell you how many actors came in and pronounced it (wrong). Amy and I looked at each other, and we realized we cannot cast anyone who doesn't know who Jack Kerouac is, or at least doesn't look it up. That became the deciding factor during the casting process, which is hilarious. The characters had to be incredibly smart and witty, and you had to believe that's who they were, that it was not something that was put on top of these characters. Over the years, I've loved talking to mothers and daughters who watched the show together. It made them be able to talk and establish a rapport. That's kind of incredible.”
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