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On this episode of I Am All In, Scott Patterson talks with Gilmore Girls assistant director and unit production manager Carla McCloskey. Besides having an amazing career working on everything from Jurassic Park and Point Break to Ally McBeal and Babylon 5, Carla worked for years behind the scenes to make Gilmore Girls the iconic television series it is today. She joined the show from the very beginning, so she has plenty to say about the characters, story, and scripts – she and Scott go over everything from finding dialogue coaches to hiring countless script supervisors to sleeping in a cast member’s dressing room because the hours were so long. But mostly, she remembers laughing. “We were so sleep-deprived….I just remember we were all cracking up. We couldn’t roll the camera or anything,” she recalls fondly.
Carla’s job was extremely hard; an assistant director is responsible for every department, so it’s a lot of scheduling, coordinating, and keeping everything on as firm a time frame as possible. So the hours are very long – ”you’re often the first one there and the last to leave” – and the amount of juggling to keep ahead of every single department’s tasks is intense. But Carla loves it, especially when the show is good. “I’ve been on a lot of shows and stuff, and this show was top-notch,” she says. Scott asks if she ever thought the show would have the impact it has on millions of fans around the world, and she replies, “I totally believed in the show. I thought it would be a hit right away. So I'm not at all surprised.” Though she does betray a little bit of shock when she tells Scott about fans who tell her they watch an episode every single day: “I mean, wow! Every day!”
Scott wonders if Luke should have spoken up sooner about his love for Lorelai, but Carla says no. First of all, the show would have been too short, she laughs. Secondly, did Luke even know how deep his feelings were for her? Probably not. And more than that, it was important for them to establish a real friendship before things escalated. “What is a good relationship based on? It’s based on friendship. I’m best friends with my husband of 45 years and we’re still madly in love. So I think that’s a good start.” But when it comes to Team Dean, Team Jess, or Team Logan, she refuses to commit: “I’m Team All of Them. How can you not be?” Hear all this Gilmore Girls goodness, including the importance of side characters in a small town, the dynamic between Emily and Lorelai, and whether or not Carla remembers Scott’s nemesis Max Medina, on this episode of I Am All In.
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