Autumn is almost upon us (although with the lack of Vitamin D this British summer is bringing us, it might as well already be here.) And when it's rainy outside, with a crisp wind and a crunchy carpet of golden leaves only a mere month away, there's only one thing to do on those slow weekends - pick up your TV remote and stick on some Gilmore Girls...
Set in the small town of Stars Hollow, there's something about this iconic mother and daughter duo that just hits different - and better - in the Autumn months. Watching the ups and downs of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore feels somewhat like a warm hug, a nighttime comfort getting us through the chillier months where a look outside your window shows more grey concrete that blue skies.
And with all seven seasons available to stream on Netflix (plus Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life) there's really no excuse not to pour yourself the biggest cup of coffee you can and settle yourself down underneath that pumpkin printed blanket.
But before you step foot back into Stars Hollow, why not catch yourself up on some Gilmore Girls facts that might have escaped your notice...
29 Gilmore Girls Facts
1 of 291. Unlike her on-screen alter-ego Rory, Alexis Bledel hates drinking coffee.
Her coffee cups were filled with coke instead. Who'd have guessed the real-life Rory was a coffee hater?
2 of 292. Alexis had never acted before her Gilmore Girls audition.
Before Rory, Alexis's biggest role was appearing in the background of Wes Anderson's film Rushmore - a role she landed whilst studying at NYU.
3 of 293. Wondering why Lorelai has her arm around Rory for so much of season one?
With Alexis still a newbie to the world of acting, her on-screen mum Lauren Graham would literally steer her into place to make the filming go smoother. A classic Lorelai move, we say.
4 of 294. Amy Sherman-Palladino has never seen the seventh and final season of the show.
The showrunner made the decision to leave Gilmore Girls after six seasons at the helm, with disagreements over contracts being behind the move. She's since revealed that she has never watched the final seasons, as she would have found it difficult to watch the characters she created being taken out of her control - though we're guessing the rest of the GG team brought her up to speed ahead of the 2016 Netflix revival.
5 of 295. Gilmore Girls only ever won one Emmy – in a pretty unexpected category
Over seven seasons of the now iconic show, it picked up it's one and only Emmy nod for Outstanding Make-Up for a Series (awarded for 'The Festival Of Living Art' in Season Four).
6 of 296. Luke was originally a woman named Daisy.
Bet this was a fact you never knew! We would have loved to have seen a Daisy on our screens... However, the network thought the show already had too many female characters as cast regulars, and that Stars Hollow needed a male lead instead. So, Daisy became Luke.
7 of 297. Luke wasn't always meant to be a series regular, though.
Luke Danes actor Scott Patterson was originally only contracted for a handful of episodes, until producers (and fans) became aware of his on-screen chemistry with Lauren Graham and thought best to keep him around!
8 of 298. English is actually Alexis Bledel's second language.
On screen, we see Rory chatting with Esperanza in high school Spanish - but in real life, the actress (who is of Argentinian descent) is fluent! She grew up speaking Spanish with her family, and learnt English when she started school.
9 of 299. Stars Hollow was inspired by Washington Depot in Connecticut.
As Gilmore Girls legend goes, Amy Sherman-Palladino took a trip to this picture-perfect New England town, returning with the idea for Stars Hollow. And the town has more than embraced it's fictional twin. Earlier this year, Washington Depot hosted the first Gilmore Girls Fan Fest ahead of the Netflix revival!
10 of 2910. The Stars Hollow set also doubles up as the town of Rosewood on Pretty Little Liars.
While these two fictional locations might look identical, Stars Hollow and Rosewood couldn't be more different. It's hard to imagine a psychotic cyber-criminal running amok in Stars Hollow, where all problems are solved by trading one-liners and coffee.
11 of 2911. It's not just your imagination – everyone does talk really, really fast.
The average script for a one-hour TV show runs to between 45 and 50 pages - but the average script for an episode of Gilmore Girls ran between 75 and 80 to allow for the speedy back-and-forth dialogue. As the show's tagline put it, 'life's short, talk fast.' Time to turn those subtitles on!
12 of 2912. A voice coach was hired to make sure that the cast was speaking fast enough.
Even funner fact: dialogue coach George Bell actually ended up appearing as Professor Bell when Rory went to Yale!
13 of 2913. Still nursing some bad feeling towards Luke's daughter, April? You'e not alone.
Actress Vanessa Marano didn't like her character too much, either! 'When I got the breakdown for the role, I was like "You're giving Luke a daughter! This is going to break them up,"' she told A. S. Berman in The Gilmore Girls Companion. 'I hated myself. How can my character do this?'
14 of 2914. Liza Weil (who played frenemy Paris Gellar) originally auditioned to play Rory.
Although she wasn't quite right for the part of Rory, she managed to impress Amy Sherman-Palladino so much that she created a new character, Paris, especially for her.
15 of 2915. The Gilmore Girls theme tune is – appropriately – a mother-daughter duet.
Folk star Carole King re-recorded her 1970 song 'Where You Lead' (taken from the album Tapestry) especially for Gilmore Girls, with the lyrics subtly shifted to mirror the show's mother-daughter relationship. Fittingly, the vocals are shared with her daughter, Louise Goffin!
16 of 2916. Carole King also crops up on the show as a guest character.
It's a star cameo! The singer appears in three episodes across the show's seven seasons as Sophie Bloom, the owner of Stars Hollow's music store.
17 of 2917. Her character Lorelai may have hated Friday night dinners with her mother, but these were Lauren Graham's favourite scenes to film.
Especially if they involved arguing with mum Emily Gilmore (played by Kelly Bishop). These scenes took a particularly long time to shoot for everyone involved, as crew used different perspectives and camera angles to get every viewpoint.
18 of 2918. Ryan Gosling auditioned for a role, but didn't get very far.
At the Gilmore Girls Fan Festival this year, casting director Jami Rudofsky revealed that she actually invited Ryan (who she had previously cast in an independent movie) to read for a small role on the show. The audition, however, fell flat, and Ryan never made it to Stars Hollow. Let's just take a moment to imagine what might have been...
19 of 2919. Kelly Bishop is also famous for playing another on-screen mum.
You may just recognise her as Marjorie Houseman, Baby's mother in Dirty Dancing (one of many films name-checked by Rory and Lorelai).
20 of 2920. A Jess spin-off show nearly happened.
Remember the episode where Jess heads to California to meet his father? Well, it was supposed to open the door for a spin-off show! Sadly, filming costs were too high and the series never made it to our screens. Far better that the Gilmore Girls legacy remains untarnished by spin-offs, we say.
21 of 2921. Over seven seasons of the show, 339 books were referenced.
It makes for quite the reading list! If you want to read every single book that the cast of Gilmore Girl did, book clubs have been compiled!
22 of 2922. Yes, that is Jon Hamm you spotted in an early episode.
John Hamm?! Believe it or not, your eyes don't deceive you. Pre-Mad Men, John appeared in Season Three as Peyton Sanders, Lorelai's rich but very dull date.
23 of 2923. Alexis Bledel returned the favour when she appeared in Mad Men as Beth Dawes, a neighbour of Pete Campbell.
The crossover of all crossovers! She actually went on to marry Vincent Kartheiser (who played the character of Pete) in 2014.
24 of 2924. Before that, she dated co-star Milo Ventimiglia (Jess) for three and a half years.
Ahhh, we love on on-screen romance. FYI, Jess, Dean and Logan all appear in the Netflix revival.
25 of 2925. Jared Padalecki doesn't appear as Dean in the pilot episode.
If you spotted an unfamiliar face in the pilot, there's a good reason why. Rory's first love interest was played by actor Nathan Wetherington, but the show's team didn't think he was quite right for the character and swapped him for Jared once the show was picked up by Warner Brothers.
26 of 2926. Before Kirk was Kirk, he was Mick.
Stars Hollow's resident odd-job man is introduced in the first episode in a different guise altogether: that of the equally abrasive Mick, who installs internet cables (remember those?) in the Gilmore home.
27 of 2927. Adam Brody's departure gets explained away with a subtle OC reference.
When Adam's character Dave (boyfriend to Rory's best friend Lane) leaves after one season, Lane reveals that he went off to study in California. In fact, the actor left Gilmore Girls to star as Seth Cohen in The OC which, of course, takes place in Orange County, California! He wasn't lying...
28 of 2928. Similarly, Tristan's departure from Chilton is because he gets sent to military school in North Carolina.
You guessed it! North Carolina is where Chad Michael Murray went to film his roles on Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill.
29 of 2929. Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote the final four words of the show early on.
But due to her premature departure, we never got to hear them at the end of season seven...
READ MORE: This Gilmore Girls Festival Is Bringing Stars Hollow To Life