TV Article Mapping all the pop culture references in the Gilmore Girls pilot By Christian Holub Christian Holub Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 5, 2015 02:34PM EDT Photo: Warner Bros./Delivered by Online USA Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Gilmore Girls pilot. Over the next seven seasons, Amy Sherman-Palladino’s dramedy became famous for its rapid-fire dialogue packed with pop culture references. Entire web pages have been devoted to cataloging every book Rory read. This referential tendency was even present in the pilot. To prove it, we went back and rewatched the first Gilmore Girls episode and indexed every reference, as proof of what life was like for pop culture obsessives way back in 2000.