Gilmore Girls Yale Set
Tour
Gilmore Girls Yale Set
Tour
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BURBANK - Gilmore Girls fans/alums received a quintessential "Yale in Hollywood" experience when they toured the elaborate Yale sets at the Warner Brothers lot. On the popular WB show, Rory chose to attend Yale over Harvard this fall. Since local campuses did not officer a look similar enough to Yale, the show decided to build themselves a little Yale in Burbank (click here for the Yale Alumni Magazine article).
Thanks so much to the producers, writers & assistants of Gilmore Girls for inviting us and arranging the tour! Thanks also to YAM article author Michael Taylor '81, and the club's event organizers Debbie Ezer and Kevin Winston. And thanks to long time fan Tanya Palomo '03 fan for the thrilling scene-by-scene description of the tour below!
"Was I excited when I rounded the corner in Burbank and walked down the main street in Star's Hollow? You have no idea. Or when I trekked through the fake snow-slush on the WB lot, and made myself comfortable inside of Luke's diner? "Yes! The gray and chilly weather seemed appropriate because I felt like I was back in Connecticut. "As a long-time fan of the WB's Gilmore Girls, I was thrilled when Rory chose Yale over Harvard, and even more thrilled when Yale references and images started making their way into every episode this season. The staff has done an impressive job of accurately portraying the Yale campus and experience on the show - so much so, that I have often wondered if they weren't really shooting in New Haven on the sly.
"I got my answer when we visited the set. The Yale that we see on TV every Tuesday night is indeed a Burbank sound stage, but you would hardly know it, if not for the friendly tour guide telling us to please be careful not to step on the equipment cables. The faux Linsley-Chittenden (LC) was frighteningly similar to the real thing, down to the bench in the hall and the authentic, borrowed posters lining the bulletin board.
"A painted banner for the Yale Klezmer Band greeted us as we walked into a gothic residential college courtyard, and then right into a semi-replica of the Calhoun dining hall, where it would've seemed perfectly natural to swipe my ID and chow down.
"The tour continued through the "Durfee's entryway," complete with cluttered white boards, and into the Yale bedrooms we always wished we could have - common room and all, with a lot more space, and nicer, non-Yale-white walls. "After a giddy look at the traditional sets of the Gilmores' homes, and a bonus trip to the exterior sets of ER, the tour came to a close. But we still managed to run into one of the stars of the show, Keiko Agena. And before leaving, we met with the Writer-Producer who made it all possible, to give her our sincerest thanks. It was a great day for this Gilmore Girls enthusiast, and a pleasant revisiting of the campus I just left behind."
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