11 things we learned from the real-life Gilmore Girls book.

The Gilmore Girls book exists, sort of, except Rory didn’t write it, nor did Alexis Bledel who plays Rory. It’s called Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between and it’s written by Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai.

And it’s brilliant.

“I read somewhere that Christopher Reeve said one of the ways he knew a part was for him was when he couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else doing it,” writes Graham who says she had the exact same feeling about Gilmore Girls. At the time she was cast Graham says she’d been working on a few shows that hadn’t made the cut in Hollywood. Adding to her feeling of synchronicity was when her mum said, “I have a feeling about this one”.

The book takes us through both phases of the show, Part One which covers the first seven seasons from 2000 to 2007 and Part Two which talks about the second coming of the show, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, out now on Netflix.

How well do you know Gilmore Girls? Take the quiz.

Skipping the chapters that deal with her childhood, Hollywood diets and attempts to ‘make it’, here are the highlights of every single chapter that even mentions Gilmore Girls:

1. Alexis Bledel and Lauren met for the very first time in the lobby of a hotel in Toronto.

Graham says she and Bledel were cast in the show without having ever met. “I was overwhelmed but I could tell I liked her right away,” she writes of the then 18-year-old Bledel who would play her 16-year-old daughter Rory. Graham was 32 at the time and not at all worried about taking on a mum-role so early in her career.

2. A few months later, the show was picked up, but Lauren wasn’t actually available to do it.

Graham was contracted to an NBC series called M.Y.O.B. and if that series had continued, Graham would have been replaced on Gilmore Girls. It was also given the worst time slot of Thursday night at 8pm, up against top-rating Friends. But the Gilmore Girls magic ensured its success, gaining a loyal following and then moving to Tuesday nights and away from Friends. 

3. From the start of the show, Kelly Bishop named herself Lauren’s ‘TVM’, or ‘TV Mum’.

Yep, the real-life Lorelai and Emily (Kelly Bishop) became firm friends, meeting often for lunch. Bishop gave Graham lots of relationship advice over the years, including a prediction about Graham and her now real-life boyfriend Peter Krause (Parenthood, Six Feet Under) whom she has been dating since 2010.

4. For you speed nerds, note how over the course of this year, the pace of the show increased exponentially, and everyone began talking a whole lot faster.

At first the cast of the show spoke normally, although Graham says the dialogue was witty and “dense”, however producers quickly realised the show was being recognised for it’s unique dialogue-style which Lorelai had always done, so they stepped it up and had all the characters embrace it and now it’s become part of popular culture to ‘speak like a Gilmore Girl’.

Rosie and Laura review Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on the latest episode of The Binge.

5. Lauren struggled with the Lorelai/Rory separation in Season Six.

Graham says she found Season Six difficult because she missed working with Alexis Bledel. After discussing it with writer-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino she understood it was important in order to develop the characters’ relationship. She says when filming the scene where Lorelai and Rory make up, “that reunion hug was for real! We were both excited to get back to happier times.”

6. No-one knew whether they were filming the last-ever scene at the end of Season Seven.  

Gilmore Girl creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Pallandino left the show after Season Six due to failed contract negotiations so at the end of Season Seven when Graham’s and Bledel’s contracts were up for renewal and they were both offered more to stay but felt it was time to move on. After various discussions with the original creators and cast the decision was made to end the show and that unfinished feeling they all had turned out to be a blessing. “Had the story lines been sewn up more neatly, it would have been harder to justify returning to them,” she writes.

SPOILER ALERT: Info on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, about to be revealed. For those who haven’t already watched all four episodes at least four times, why are your priorities so out of whack?!?

7. Everyone cried on the first day of returning to the Gilmore Girls set.

Graham says it was so emotional returning to set however it was happy-sad due to the recent passing of Ed Herrmann who played Richard Gilmore to seeing old friends who filmed cameos, many of whom were close friends.

8. For the reboot, all the sets had to be reconstructed.

The old sets and locations had all been pulled apart and repurposed so everything had to be rebuilt from scratch for the reboot and may have been slightly different to the original set. Graham says she noticed the differences because she knew them so well but we certainly didn’t pick up on any of them.

9. Graham rides a bike around the set.

Yep, Graham used a bike to get to and from her trailer to set, saying it's the time she uses to prepare. "Sometimes those short moments in between setups are the only ones I have to myself during a long day, and I like to get even that short burst of exercise." But she'd need a touch up by the time she got there. Cycling is sweaty work.

10. The final four words.

Graham and the cast didn't find out the final four words of the show until filming had already begun and Graham was struck by the fact they seemed like more of a cliffhanger than an ending, a comment that was met with secret smiles from producers. Fingers and toes crossed for more episodes.

11. Prince's death affected the reunion filming.

Prince died during filming and creator-writer Amy Sherman-Palladino was a huge fan. Graham writes that everyone is "generally depressed about the loss". As we all were.

Purchase your copy of Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between or download it on iBooks.