EMILY KWONG, HOST:
It has been over 20 years since the TV show "Gilmore Girls" premiered on the WB.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHERE YOU LEAD, I WILL FOLLOW")
CAROLE KING: (Singing) If you're out on the road, feeling lonely...
KWONG: Oh, God, this is really nostalgia-inducing - featuring three generations of fast-talking, coffee-loving women - a teenage daughter Rory, her single-mom-slash-best-friend Lorelei, and their refined, disapproving grandmother Emily. The drama revolves around a fictional town, Stars Hollow, in the real state of Connecticut. So who better to investigate why this show has such staying power than the member station Connecticut Public with their new podcast, Generation Gilmore Girls. And joining us now is series producer Lily Tyson. Hey, Lily.
LILY TYSON, BYLINE: Hi, Emily. It's so great to be here.
KWONG: I am from Connecticut. So I'm really excited to talk to you because I watched this show voraciously as a teenager, and I never thought I'd be talking about it with anyone all these years later. So why do you think "Gilmore Girls" has such a following?
TYSON: Yeah, so our team traveled around the state to attend fan festivals, and we did ask...
KWONG: Oh.
TYSON: ...Fans this. We sort of were trying to get to the bottom of, why do people love this show so much after 25 years?
KWONG: Hard-hitting journalism. I love it.
TYSON: Exactly. And the biggest reason we heard from fans was how the show makes them feel. Here's what fan Kelly Doherty from Newington, Connecticut, told us.
KELLY DOHERTY: "Gilmore Girls" makes me feel like it's my home away from home wherever I am. So if I just put it on, if I'm feeling down, if I'm just in a bad state, or I just want something on, even in the background, it just makes me feel really, really good.
KWONG: Aw. It is. It's cozy.
TYSON: Yeah, we heard fans describe "Gilmore Girls" as a warm blanket, a bowl of soup, a Prozac show and, of course, Emily, like a hot cup of coffee.
KWONG: Yeah.
TYSON: And a big reason for that is the writing of the show. Series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino crafted scripts that are funny and full of references, from Old Hollywood to politics to alt rock.
KWONG: I did do a lot of Googling watching "Gilmore Girls."
TYSON: Yes. I...
KWONG: Like, my cultural knowledge just expanded so much.
TYSON: A lot of them definitely went over my head. I...
KWONG: Yeah.
TYSON: I get more each time I watch it.
KWONG: Yeah.
TYSON: Yeah, so another reason is that the show feels really special for its depictions of strong women and of sometimes complicated female relationships. Emily, you mentioned the mother-daughter relationship, of course.
KWONG: Yes.
TYSON: But also female friendships in the show.
KWONG: Yes, Kim and Rory. I loved them. Wait, it's - no, Lane.
TYSON: Lane and Rory.
KWONG: Yeah, yeah.
TYSON: And Paris, too.
KWONG: Yeah, Lane and Rory. I loved them. And Paris - and, like, the fact that Rory and her mom had a fight in Episode 1 I think really resonated with me as a - I was, like, 10 or 11 at the time. I was like, oh, my mom and I fight. These feel like real people, to me, you know?
TYSON: Yeah, the characters themselves feel so real. And another reason we heard that fans love the series 25 years later is about the depiction of community on the show.
KWONG: Yes, Stars Hollow - magical place. It seems like there's something going on every weekend, and everybody knows each other.
TYSON: Exactly. So many festivals.
KWONG: Yeah.
TYSON: And that's what we heard from actor Yanic Truesdale, who plays innkeeper Michel Girard on the show.
YANIC TRUESDALE: The show is very much about a community and a sense of community and helping each other and all that. And I think people are lacking that, and perhaps they're yearning for it.
TYSON: You'll probably remember, Emily. In Stars Hollow, people are there for one another. There's one episode in the first season where the whole town comes together to throw a wake for a neighbor's cat. Fan Elena Neice...
KWONG: Yes.
TYSON: You remember that one.
KWONG: I do.
TYSON: Fan Elena Neice works with college students, and this is what she told us.
ELENA NEICE: That we see there's, like, this epidemic of loneliness. Like, so many young people, especially, just, like, don't have authentic friendship. And I think what we see, especially in a town like Stars Hollow, is, like, there's these, like, lifelong connections. Like, sure, there's, like, small-town, you know, small-mindedness and all these other things, too. But there's, like, a camaraderie that comes together, I think.
TYSON: And what's cool, Emily, is that fans of "Gilmore Girls" have now created a community of their own, one that feels a lot like a small town. We mentioned these fan festivals around the state, and we heard from...
KWONG: Yeah.
TYSON: ...Fans who come back to them year after year, who have developed real bonds and friendships from these annual events. They even have a...
KWONG: Wow.
TYSON: ...Word for it, Emily. Here's what Jennie Whitaker, who organizes the annual Fan Fest Society's Firelight Event told us.
JENNIE WHITAKER: It's become this, like, really great group of people that, like, considers ourselves this family that gets together once a year. And I kind of not cringe at the word, but it sounds so funny, but I'm like, I guess that's kind of what this is because people will come - no matter where we put the festival, they're coming for each other. And I think if we stopped doing this, it would still be these people getting together.
TYSON: One fan told us...
KWONG: Whoa.
TYSON: ...That the show brings them together the first time, and then it's the friendships that keep them coming back.
KWONG: It's just like the real Stars Hollow.
TYSON: Exactly.
KWONG: I'm curious, Lily, what role do you think nostalgia has to play in all of this? - 'cause I mean, even hearing the theme song brought me back, and I understand nostalgia was a force at work in the first season of your podcast Generation Barney about everyone's favorite purple dinosaur.
TYSON: That's right. And in that first season, Emily, we learned that the term nostalgia comes from the Greek word for homesickness, which I thought was so interesting. And we heard in both these seasons that fans really return to these shows they love, whether it's "Barney" or "Gilmore Girls" - they return in times of crisis or uncertainty, like the COVID-19 pandemic, but also times of big personal transitions, like having a baby. And part of that is the desire to return to a simpler time, before smartphones and social media, a time where people really looked at each other and maybe felt a little bit more like neighbors. And I think these are big reasons why we love to return to the television that we grew up with.
KWONG: That's Lily Tyson, producer of Generation Gilmore Girls podcast from Connecticut Public. You can listen to the show anywhere you get NPR podcasts. Lily, thank you so much.
TYSON: Thank you so much for having me today. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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