Exactly How Much Of Gilmore Girls Was Improvised?
The original "Gilmore Girls" series ended in 2007, and yet — thanks to a second life on the streaming service Netflix — Rory and Lorelai Gilmore's story is still relatable to audiences around the globe. When the series was briefly revived for a four-episode return to Stars Hollow, Connecticut, millions of viewers tuned in (or, rather, logged on) to watch, according to Cinemablend.
The show followed the lives of the Gilmores, a matrilineage consisting of book-smart Rory, her struggling mother Lorelai, and her strict, once estranged grandmother Emily. While navigating, exploring, and rebuilding these relationships in lives filled as much with drama as they are comedy, the Gilmore family is brought closer together throughout the years. The cast of "Gilmore Girls" always hit the nail on the head when it came to comedic timing, tone, and delivery. At the same time, they always made each word feel spontaneous, which is likely why some wonder if the comedians in the cast improvised their funniest lines.
Fighting to be word-perfect
Apparently, every word came from the page.
In an interview with Vulture, Sean Gunn (the "Guardians of the Galaxy" actor who played Stars Hollow's resident oddball, Kirk) described the relationship between the script and the actors. While recalling his favorite line ("So it's back to the desert for the Minutemen, perhaps for another 40 years..."), Gunn wanted to note that nothing in the show was made-up on set. "I should note there was no improvising at all. There isn't a single syllable that has ever been improvised by anyone on 'Gilmore Girls.' Literally." He went on to describe the stress of needing to be 100% perfect on dialogue, stating, "If you said 'didn't' and the script said 'did not,' we'd have to do it again. I say that from experience."
This aspect of working on the show was echoed by Matt Czuchry, who played Rory's pampered-bad-boy love interest, Logan Huntzberger. In an AMA on the r/IAmA subreddit, u/scattered_ideas asked Czuchry, "How difficult was it to learn all that dialogue in 'Gilmore Girls?' Were the writers annoyed if you ever changed a word for a synonym or something like that?" He responded simply, "The writers did want the material word-perfect." It's a credit to the writers and actors that, even while being so strict about dialogue, the words felt fresh and new to audiences.