‘Gilmore Girls’ Kirk Deserves Our Love

As far as ensemble casts go, Gilmore Girls features one of the very best. The dreamy, fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut is home to a plethora of unique and zany characters who never failed to contribute to the show’s shenanigans and elevate its quirky charm. One townie, however, stands out above the rest as the most devoted member of the small community, and it’s no one other than Sean Gunn’s intense and endearing everyman, Kirk Gleason.

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Sean Gunn’s Kirk is One of the Best Parts of ‘Gilmore Girls’ Ensemble Cast

Kirk has been on Gilmore Girls since day one, even though in the first episode he was named “Mick” and was only there to sneak into Lorelai’s (Lauren Graham) house to install a DSL. From that point on, Kirk became a staple of Stars Hollow, taking on every job imaginable in his quest to impress town selectman Taylor Doose (Michael Winters) and hopefully, one day move out of his mother’s basement. Over the years, we see Kirk take on roles as a pest control specialist, a beauty salon clerk, a mailman, a wedding photographer, and more. You name the gig, and Kirk has probably taken it on eagerly, never failing to show up in the most random places and bring his signature, unhinged hilarity.

Kirk is also shown to have an impressive entrepreneurial spirit, launching his own hay-based skincare line “Hay There,” and later selling mailboxes that look like famous people, including one of Condoleezza Rice. His inventive streak continues in the revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, when we’re reunited with Kirk as the proud father of a pet piglet named Petal, and the proud founder of the rip-off transportation company, “Ööö-ber” — not to be confused with Uber. He is also shown to be incredibly competitive in a variety of odd endeavors, be it a 24-hour dance marathon or a wrapping paper sale raising money for schoolchildren, where he decides that he is just as deserving of donations.

‘Gilmore Girls’ Kirk Takes on Every Job with Unbridled Enthusiasm

However, the best part about Kirk is that while what he’s doing is often insane to the outside eye, he takes his work very seriously, and always gives 100%. If you need a Jesus for the Festival of Living Art, he’ll round up his disciples and take his seat at the Last Supper. If you need a lead for the elementary school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, he’ll slap on a fake beard and give you the performance of a lifetime. Basically, if you’re searching for an unusually enthusiastic and versatile man who is fully committed to the bit at all times, Kirk is your guy. Whether he’s breaking into your house to install a home security system or taking in stray cats that harbor violent, killer tendencies, Kirk is just trying to do right by others, no matter how unconventional his methods may be.

While many of the characters on Gilmore Girls treat Kirk as something of a beloved but annoying pet, he actually has some tight bonds with many of Stars Hollow’s residents. Taylor Doose maybe Kirk’s ultimate inspiration, but he also has a deep admiration for Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) and often looks to the disgruntled diner owner for some snarky, sage advice. Whether he’s struggling with night terrors or trying to plan the perfect first date, Kirk relies on Luke for guidance, and Luke, shockingly enough, often helps him out. Speaking of the perfect first date, in Season 4 of Gilmore Girls, Kirk finally finds the love he’s been searching for in Lulu Kuschner (Rini Bell). Lulu is Kirk’s brother’s ex-girlfriend and a lovely young schoolteacher who finds the value in Kirk’s strange talents, seeing a rugged, hardworking heartthrob where other people see, well, Kirk. Lulu and Kirk’s love endures throughout the rest of the series, and they’re shown to still be happily together in A Year in the Life.

Netflix Doesn’t Pay Enough to Gunn or the Rest of the Cast of ‘Gilmore Girls’

Beloved though his performance as Kirk may be, we’ve recently learned that even though Sean Gunn devotedly played him for seven seasons, he’s barely getting compensated for Gilmore Girls’ ongoing success. Standing with the rest of SAG-AFTRA in the ongoing strike, Gunn revealed that although the show is one of the most popular rewatched shows on Netflix, the actors of Gilmore Girls don’t receive any residuals from the streaming giant. While Netflix pays a licensing fee to Warner Bros. to stream the beloved series and Warner Bros. then gives the actors residuals from that fee, it’s apparently a very small sum.

This points to one of the central elements of the strike itself, in that given the changing media landscape and the insane popularity of streaming services, many actors are receiving far less in residuals than they were when shows were being syndicated on broadcast television. Gunn says that Netflix isn’t totally transparent with its numbers, and so even a performer on a show that brings in millions of dollars will barely see any of that profit. While it seems insane that the stars of popular shows don’t get to share in the success of the streaming services that distribute them, it just shows that there’s still a long way to go to ensure that artists are getting compensated fairly for their work.

Given his fighting spirit and passion for pretty much everything, we can only imagine that Kirk would be on the picket lines advocating for underpaid and underappreciated workers, even if he was largely just there to pitch a bizarre screenplay idea or get a free sign. Even if he has to suffer crashing cars into diners, searching for rotten Easter eggs for days on end, or dealing with second-degree cheese burns from a giant pizza incident gone wrong, there’s nothing that Kirk won’t do for the town — and the people — that he loves. Now that Sean Gunn is on strike supporting his fellow writers and actors, it’s the perfect time to appreciate everything that Kirk brought to Gilmore Girls, and appreciate all the performers that work so hard to bring our favorite characters to life.