Top 5 Reasons I Miss the 'Gilmore Girls'

Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel lit up the small screen for seven glorious seasons as the fast-talking "Gilmore Girls", a sassy single mom and her intellectual 16-years-younger daughter. After the final show aired in 2007, an absence of great character development and snappy dialog left a hole in my TV viewing repertoire that I've yet to fill. In honor of Rory, Lorelai, Emily, Richard and the whole Stars Hollow gang, here's a look at the top 5 reasons I miss my "Gilmore Girls".

#1: Luke and Lorelai's Romance. From the very first episode of "Gilmore Girls", there was something special about the interplay between the rough-around-the-edges diner owner Luke (Scott Patterson) and the coffee-swilling mama Gilmore. After years of will- they-or-won't-they drama, they finally got together, only to be torn apart again by the sudden emergence of Luke's pre-teen daughter. The couple ostensibly reunited on the series finale, but then... story over. I miss them and what could have -- what should have -- been.

#2: Kirk. The Stars Hollow everyman was a jack of all trades with a few loose screws. The strangest character on a show stuffed to the gills with quirky folk, we could never predict what Sean Gunn's Kirk would do next, from setting up his real estate headquarters inside a condemned building to performing abstract art in front of the entire town. His comical unpredictability made him invaluable, and cemented his role as one of TV history's most beloved freaks.

#3: Stars Hollow. The sleepy Connecticut town where a teenaged Lorelai Gilmore made a home after fleeing her wealthy parents is a slice of Americana that's as tasty as a big old hunk of apple pie. From charming old buildings and town hall meetings that actually draw crowds to annual festivals in the town square and well-intentioned busybody neighbors aplenty, it's precisely the kind of place any surburbanite would like to call home.

#4: The Opening Credits. I'm completely serious: An awesome, thematically perfect song in Carole King's Where You Lead (I Will Follow) paired up with gorgeous Autumnal New England scenery and clips from shows past equals TV credit magic. I loved it so much and found it all so soothing that I'd make sure to be parked in front of the tube a few minutes before 8 just so I wouldn't miss a single bar.

#5: The Quips. The first few seasons of "Gilmore Girls" were so stuffed with motor-mouth paced verbiage that I needed a DVR and the internet nearby to catch -- and figure out! -- all of the obscure references. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino never spelled it all out for viewers, apparently preferring that we do some of the work ourselves. At a time when jokes are typically cheap and easy, that's what I call intelligent TV.

So there they are: The top 5 reasons I miss my "Gilmore Girls". If there's ever a reunion show, you can bet your coffee cups that I'll be there to lap it up like a mocha java. If not, well, I guess the DVDs will have to suffice.