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Sex and the City premiered in 1998 and aired its final episode in 2004. Gilmore Girls premiered in 2000 and aired its last episode in 2007. The two shows could not have been more different. Sex and the City followed the lives of four friends and their dating mishaps in New York City, while Gilmore Girls relied on family dynamics to drive its storyline forward. One show dealt with sex head-on, while the other sidestepped the topic as often as possible. While the shows may seem completely different, they do have a couple of things in common.

Charlotte York and Trey McDougal have something in common with Richard and Emily Gilmore

Charlotte York and Trey McDougal made a lovely pair if you leave out Trey’s meddling mother and their sexual incompatibility. While their marriage didn’t last like Richard and Emily Gilmore’s, they do share a commonality. Charlotte, like Emily, attended Smith College. Trey, like Richard, was a Yale graduate.

Trey revealed he attended Yale when he found a couple’s counselor through the Yale Alumni Association. Richard’s association with Yale is mentioned throughout Gilmore Girls. Emily and Charlotte’s associations with Smith College are also mentioned throughout both series.

An ex on an answering machine threatened relationships in both Sex and the City and Gilmore Girls

Trey and Charlotte’s collegiate connection to Gilmore Girls makes perfect sense. Charlotte and Trey, like Emily and Richard, both came from prominent East Coast families. Their collegiate choices seem to go hand-in-hand with their privileged upbringings, but did you know that two relationships, one on Gilmore Girls and one on Sex and the City, were almost ruined by an ex leaving a message on an answering machine?

In the fourth season of Sex and the City, Carrie rekindled her romance with the furniture designer, Aidan Shaw, after cheating on him with her married ex-boyfriend, Mr. Big. The couple was doing just fine until Big called Carrie’s apartment and left a message for both Aidan and Carrie to hear, while they were in bed one night. Aidan, passive as ever, made a choice to ignore the source of his anger, and instead yelled at Carrie for letting the milk go bad the next morning.

In the sixth season of Gilmore Girls, Luke and Lorelai have a fight in the middle of dinner with Sookie and Jackson, over a message left on Lorelai’s answering machine by Christopher Hayden. Luke and Lorelai’s relationship had been previously thwarted by Christopher during Richard and Emily’s vow renewal ceremony.

Emily Gilmore referenced Sex and the City

The characters on both shows share commonalities, but it’s safe to say the shows did not exist in the same universe, although their air dates did have some overlap. In the Gilmore Girls world, Sex and the City is a fictional television show. Emily references the show at least once during the series.

In the fourth season of Gilmore Girls, Emily begs Lorelai not to dress Rory up in one of her “Sex and the City ensembles.” Lorelai is incredibly surprised to find out that Emily knows what Sex and the City even was. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. The Gilmores may not have made a habit of watching television regularly, but both Richard and Emily were well-versed in what was going on in the world. It stands to reason that Emily would have come across the show at some point, but, clearly, she wasn’t a big fan.

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