One big, happy 'Gilmore' family

Fans of the beloved TV show flock to the Grove for a 25th anniversary bash.

- BY KAITLYN HUAMANI

LAUREN and mom Joelle Perlmutter celebrate at Stars Hollow, a.k.a. the Grove.

(ETIENNE LAURENT For The Times)

Lauren Perlmutter is a "Gilmore Girls" superfan.

She's watched the show on a loop for the last 10 years. It’s mostly been in chronological order, and sometimes just in the background while she’s working on something else but craving the show’s comforting familiarity.

“It’s like my bowl of chicken noodle soup,” she said.

Perlmutter, 23, like many fans of the beloved series, was born after it premiered Oct. 5, 2000, on the WB. Her mom, Joelle, had caught “Gilmore Girls” every now and then when it was airing, and she introduced it to her daughter years later, watching it more intently with her new viewing partner.

The series, which starred Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore, a young single mom, and Alexis Bledel as her teen daughter Rory, is beloved for its witty writing and the small-town charm of its fictional setting, Stars Hollow, Conn.

Like the Gilmores, the Perlmutters established a Friday night tradition, except instead of a tense (mandatory) dinner between three generations, the pair would churn through episodes of the show and enjoy spending quality time together.

Lauren said she saw herself in the bookish Rory.

"I was so academically oriented. I strived really hard, and I was valedictorian at UCLA, and [my mom] was there in the audience and we made the same faces they did during Rory's graduation, and I had a speech very similar to Rory's," she said. "Being able to have this background story of two women being raised, and then translated over into my life with my mom was just so special."