‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’: Show exec on Melissa McCarthy return

Come Friday, there’s more to celebrate than just great deals at some of your favorite stores: You’re also going to have an opportunity to see the arrival (finally) of “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” This is a chance for you to get your necessary character updates, learn the famous four words, and also enjoy a little bit of escapism at a time people need it dearly. We’re not sure at the time that Amy Sherman-Palladino knew precisely how important that the show would end up being at the time in which she started to plan it out.

One of the things that does make this return so wonder is wide array of familiar faces who are turning back up beyond Lauren Graham and Alexis Biedel. It’s a list that includes Matt Czuchry, Jared Padalecki, and even Melissa McCarthy, who managed to fit in a scene despite her having an incredibly busy schedule.

Speaking to TVLine, Sherman-Palladino made it clear precisely how much work with McCarthy’s character of Sookie they managed to get into the show, and how she also managed to completely deliver on some of their personal expectations and then some:

“We had [Melissa McCarthy] for one day and of course we threw her, like, a 10-page scene, because, why not? She did say, ‘Bring it.’ And we brought it. … The weird thing was, she walked on [sporting Sookie’s signature] ponytails, with the chef thing and [everything] sort of clicked back into the way it was. She was just delightful.”

We imagine that this will boil down to just a few minutes over the course of four 90-minute episodes, but it’ll still be worth it. It’s that welcome shot of nostalgia, and given how important she once was to the series, it admittedly would’ve felt a little bit weird to not have her around.