The 3 Roles Sean Gunn Played on ‘Gilmore Girls’
Sean Gunn is best known for portraying Kirk Gleason in Gilmore Girls. The role made him famous, and it’s the one fans most associate with Gunn. Still, it wasn’t his first Gilmore Girls job. Sean Gunn actually took on three different parts in the series. His first two roles occurred in the first few episodes. Then he officially became Stars Hollow’s town eccentric, Kirk Gleason.
Sean Gunn first appeared as a DSL installer
Gunn first appeared in Gilmore Girls in the series’ second episode, but he wasn’t Kirk back then. In the episode, Gunn appeared as a DSL installer named Mick in just one scene. He had a single interaction with Lorelai Gilmore before he disappeared.
At the time, it appeared as though fans of the series would never see him again. While they never saw Mick again, Gunn did return. He would appear in two other roles during the show’s seven-season run.
Gunn returned to ‘Gilmore Girls’ as an unnamed deliveryman
Gunn walked away from his role as Mick on Gilmore Girls, assuming he’d never return to the set. In a 2020 interview with Vulture, Gunn said he was shocked when he was called back to the set. He remembered his manager calling him a few weeks after he shot his initial Gilmore Girls scene to let him know they wanted him back. Gunn said he was confused because he initially thought he would reprise his role as the DSL installer. That wasn’t what showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino had in mind.
Instead, Gunn returned to appear as a man delivering swans to the Independence Inn for a wedding. His second role was even less significant than his first. In his first appearance, Gunn’s character at least had a name. In his second appearance, he was nameless, although he interacted with more than one person.
He eventually returned as Kirk Gleason
While Sean Gunn’s first two Gilmore Girls roles didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, he would go on to become an important part of the cast. Gunn was called back yet again, but this time for a much more significant part. Amy Sherman Palladino liked Gunn so much that the role of Kirk Gleason was created for him. He first appeared as Kirk in episode 5, but developing the character and his eccentricities would take a while. In fact, Kirk’s first interactions on screen and the development of the character would lead to several significant Gilmore Girls plot holes.
Over time, Kirk revealed that he grew up in Stars Hollow in a large family. He also explained that he was bullied as a kid, and Miss Patty admitted to teaching Kirk to dance when he was a child. None of what fans learned about him in later seasons made sense when you return to his first tense interaction with Miss Patty. It doesn’t really matter, though.
Despite the plot holes, Kirk Gleason is still a beloved Gilmore Girls character, and the actor returned to reprise the role in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. If a second revival were ever made, Gunn would likely appear again. After all, there is no Stars Hollow without Kirk Gleason.
