If you’re a fan of “Gilmore Girls,” you’ve probably wondered where it was filmed. Is Stars Hollow a genuine tiny town where people can go?
“Gilmore Girls” tells the story of a mother and her daughter through high school and college. The show’s pleasant, feel-good ambiance, lovable characters, and funny scripting helped it become wildly successful. All of this comes to reality in the little Connecticut hamlet of Stars Hollow, where the Gilmores talk over coffee at Luke’s Diner, have awkward dinners at the grandparents’ house, and catch up at the Dragonfly Inn.
You’re not alone if seeing the charming buzzing town on your TV makes you want to schedule a vacation to Stars Hollow immediately. Continue reading to find out if Stars Hollow, Connecticut is real and where “Gilmore Girls” was filmed.
Where was “Gilmore Girls” Filmed? All the Real Locations
Plenty of shows are set in small towns where everybody knows each other’s routine business and deep secrets. Still, Stars Hollow in “Gilmore Girls” seems different, with unique locales like Al’s Pancake World, which serves many cuisines from across the world but not the breakfast of the same name. Let’s explore the locations together.
Stars Hollow
Stars Hollow, sadly, is not a genuine town. Nothing in Stars Hollow exists in real life, from the fall foliage to the comfortable dwellings. Rather than a little hamlet on the east coast, “Gilmore Girls” was shot on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.
In the show, Stars Hollow is an adorable town with a lovely cafe and eccentric inhabitants, and the shooting for “Gilmore Girls” took place in a number of places to portray the imaginary town. Despite not being a real place, the show’s little village is full of charm and feels authentic, owing to the intricacies in each episode.
Although Stars Hollow’s neighborhood may not exist, Washington, Connecticut, served as its inspiration.
Warner Bros. Studio
No backlot at Warner Bros. is as identifiable as Midwest Street, which was turned into the classic fictitious town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, for the “Gilmore Girls” series. Other backlots at the studio were changed to seem like New York City and the Wild West. In this location, during the filming of “Gilmore Girls,” Luke’s Diner, Doose’s Market, the Dragonfly Inn, and Stars Hollow Books all formerly stood. The Stars Hollow gazebo, still intact and frequently used for fan pictures, is undoubtedly the most famous building on Midwest Street.
An episodic series like “Gilmore Girls” did very well on Midwest Street. The trees feature false leaves to provide the impression that the town is enjoying Christmas or the peak of summer. Potato flakes were used to simulate falling snow. The inside walls of the dwellings are easily movable. Some buildings even combine the front face of one house with the backyard facade of another. Several settings used during “Gilmore Girls” were swiftly built and then quickly changed for another scene.
Unionville, Canada
The show’s pilot episode was filmed in Unionville, Canada. The ideal location to shoot at was Unionville because it conveyed the same small-town feel that Sherman-Palladino fell in love with in Connecticut. Even today, many Stars Hollow fans travel to Unionville to view the show’s recognizable locations. Although the village made a terrific setting for the premiere episode, the rest of the series was filmed elsewhere.
The filming for most of the seven seasons of “Gilmore Girls” took place in Connecticut. A Gazebo was positioned in the middle of the set, and production designers built replicas of the famous cafés and businesses in Stars Hollow for the show.
The Greystone Park and Mansion
Rory’s graduation made Lorelai, Sookie, and Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) cry because of the difficulties she had at that specific school, both academically and socially, and because they understood how hard she fought to achieve it.
California’s Greystone Park and Mansion served as the backdrop for the outside scenes of Chilton Academy and the graduation scenes.
Greystone, which dates to the 1920s, is currently a Beverly Hills city property; Edward Laurence Doheny Jr. was its first owner.
How was the ‘Gilmore Girls’ set handled after the show ended?
Stars Hollow was still there after the last episode of “Gilmore Girls” had finished filming. The town’s overall structure remained the same. The TV program “Pretty Little Liars” built the city of Rosewood on the same set. A keen eye will allow one to spot Stars Hollow elements in movies like “La La Land” and television series like “You.”
