Without giving anything away, let me reassure fellow Gilmore fans that the Luke-Lorelai hook-up will not take the sizzle out of the series (as in past casualties like the 1980s detective drama Moonlighting where everything went splat after sparring co-stars Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd gave in to their attraction, and the 1990s comedy Frasier which also became less funny after Niles and Daphne started dating).

Although romance will be a key feature this season, the romantic Luke is not so different from grumpy Luke, and Lorelai ? well, she still is a motormouth. The elements that make Gilmore Girls a top show will remain. Which begs the question: Why is Gilmore Girls so appealing? Is it the superb script that's peppered with humour and pop culture references? Is it the small-town characters that make for quirky drama? Or is it the old-fashioned lure of relationships – family, friends and lovers – that makes the show tick? Let's find out.

Now, Gilmore fans will agree that one of the best things about the series is its dialogue. And how fast-paced it is – it almost seems like you get more than your hour's worth of television because there is so much dialogue (and so much in the dialogue).

Apart from the speed, the dialogue is full of cultural references made by the characters; references about movies, TV shows, music, books, celebrities – obscure ones at time – and even politics and world affairs sometimes. The exchanges between the characters are quite often laugh-a-minute, especially those between Lorelai and her parents; between Lorelai and Luke; and Kirk and everyone else (because he is just so eccentric).

In an interview with the US magazine Entertainment Weekly early last year, Sherman said the character of Lorelai resembled her while her husband was a mix of Rory and Luke.

To make it easier for viewers to understand what the characters are talking about, Warner Bros. has come up with “Gilmore-isms” booklets which are included in all DVD sets of the series. The booklets contain “the 4-11 on many of the show's pop culture references” and some comments from Sherman-Palladino.

Do we really need a booklet on “Gilmore-isms”? Well, it's really just for the fun of it. Let's have an example of a “Gilmore-ism” and what you can find on the booklet. In Season Four, Lorelai leaves Rory a Post-it note on her forehead to meet her for lunch at Luke's. At lunch, Rory ticks off her mother ...

The town of Stars Hollow is full of quirky characters, no one you can hate but many you can grow quite fond of. There are the Gilmore girls themselves: the manager-owner of The Dragonfly Inn, Lorelai (kooky but beautiful and really chatty), Rory (who is mature and girlish all at once), and of course the matriarch Emily, highly opinionated and meddlesome yet likeable. Then there is the crusty and practical, but oh-so-attractive Luke Danes, crazy Kirk Gleason (Sean Gunn) or the slightly neurotic Paris Geller (Liza Weil).

Although Luke is a permanent character of the series, fans may be surprised to know that he was initially only slated to appear in two or three episodes after the pilot. However, the show producers realised that he was a perfect foil to Lorelai and Rory's madness. His portrayal of no-frills-diner owner Luke also scored points with fans; men liked his independent style and rugged appearance – an everyday guy who could down a brewsky or two, and the ladies ? well who can resist a man's man, eh?

One supporting character that has a huge following is Kirk, the town oddball who has held jobs as a delivery man, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) installer, wedding photographer, entrepreneur, real-estate agent, tour guide, mailman ? the list just goes on and on.

Of course, the two most popular characters are Lorelai and Rory. Graham, who plays Lorelai to perfection, actually confesses that she is a lot like her on-screen daughter – a little shy and very bookish.

Bledel (a Spanish-speaking Hispanic for whom English is a second language) made her acting debut in Gilmore Girls! Her character, Rory, has probably gone through the most transformations in the series as she develops from a studious young girl with Harvard dreams to a rebellious teen who seems to fall for bad boys.

Her relationship with her mother also changes from Season One to Six. In the first two seasons the two are like best friends who share every aspect of their lives. But by the fifth season the two are estranged, with Lorelai finally having to play the mother card.

One of my favourite characters is the interfering and irritating but quite entertaining Emily. A veteran actress, Bishop (who acted in Dirty Dancing and Wonder Boys) says she is nothing like her on-screen character.

“My friends and neighbours get such a kick out of watching me on TV and in movies. They see me do and say things that I would never even think of doing in my real life. They just think it is hysterical, especially when I play mean,” she once said in an interview.

Gilmore Girls is definitely no Brady Bunch or Little House on the Prairie. Though it is, in essence, a series that focuses on family matters and relationships, it is far from patronising as it beautifully blends traditional human values with a hip attitude.

The story revolves around young single mother Lorelai Gilmore, who gets pregnant and gives birth to her illegitimate child at 16. Unable to get along with her rigid and controlling parents, Lorelai moves out of their home to raise her child on her own in a nearby town. Lorelai and her daughter, whom she also names Lorelai but calls her Rory for short, share an enviably close bond, the total opposite of the Lorelai-Emily relationship. However, as Rory grows up, Lorelai is forced to deal with her parents more and more and thus has to confront her resentment towards them.

The show also constantly tackles the romantic liaisons in Stars Hollow. Unlike many other shows, relationships are dealt with rather realistically – everything is not all hunky dory, things do get screwy and s**t happens.

It may be interesting to note that Gilmore Girls was originally created to satisfy the wish of major advertisers who craved more family-friendly shows. The pilot episode, for example, was developed with a pool of funds contributed by corporations including Procter & Gamble, General Motors and Sears, which all claimed to be “tired of hawking products on sexy and violent network shows”.

This is cache, read story here