SALT LAKE CITY — “Gilmore Girls” is a happy show with sunny characters — just ask Scott Patterson, who played diner owner Luke. From behind his counter, he closely watched the quirky people of Stars Hollow go about their day.
Twenty years after the debut of “Gilmore Girls,” Patterson still believes Stars Hollow is the “happiest place on Earth.”
“There’s always going to be an appetite for what I consider to be the happiest place on Earth — Stars Hollow,” he told the Deseret News. “We’re in the happiness business. We produce happiness.”
But that doesn’t mean the show is without contention — in fact, there’s one question in particular that can cause intense division among fans: Team Dean, Jess or Logan?
The opinions on Rory Gilmore’s boyfriends are wide-ranging, and have been since the show started.
Dean (Jared Padalecki) is the sweet, albeit overprotective, first boyfriend who builds Rory a car and admires her intelligence. About a year into that relationship, Jess comes crashing into town and causes Rory to question her feelings for Dean. Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) is smart, loves to read and shares similar interests with Rory — but he’s a bit of a troublemaker.
And then there’s Logan (Matt Czuchry), who Rory meets a couple of years later at Yale. Logan is a daredevil who keeps Rory on her toes. He’s got deep pockets, and represents the world Rory’s mother, Lorelai, chose to leave behind.
But who was the best match for Rory?
Patterson is firmly planted on Team Jess — and not just because he played Jess’ uncle in “Gilmore Girls.”
Scott Patterson played Luke Danes on “Gilmore Girls.”
UPtv
“I just thought he was the most soulful of them,” Patterson said. “There was a lot of Jess in me when I was growing up, so I relate to that character. If I was a younger man, it would’ve been the character that I would’ve wanted to play and probably would’ve auditioned for.”
During the show’s final season — which aired from 2006-07 — Rory turns down a proposal from Logan and embarks as a rising journalist, following then-presidential hopeful Barack Obama on the campaign trial. But her relationship with Logan picks up again in the 2016 Netflix revival — although she remains friends with Jess, who clearly still has feelings for her.
But no matter which team you support, the ongoing argument is a testament to “Gilmore Girls” and its ability to create such diverse and vivid characters, Patterson said.
“There you have a nice variety of boys for Rory to choose from, and all from different worlds,” he said.
“These completely eccentric characters were just a blast to be around,” he previously told the Deseret News. “They all are very well thought out, very well-cast, very well-acted. ... We were far more versatile and we had far more instruments going on than your traditional show.”