When Gilmore Girls sent Rory (Alexis Bledel) to Yale, she met a lot of new people. In the season 4 episode, “The Fundamental Things Apply,” Rory meets a table full of boys in the dining hall. Adam Shapiro plays Sugarman, who is wearing a pink shirt over a T-shirt. The pink shirt covers the text on the T-shirt, so Shapiro recently explained what his shirt said.
Shapiro was a guest on Scott Patterson’s I Am All In podcast Nov. 16 to discuss his Gilmore Girls episode. He explained how the T-shirt ended up on the show and what it said in its entirety.
Sugarman wears Adam Shapiro’s Temple Basketball shirt on ‘Gilmore Girls’
You can kind of see the word Temple and Basketball on the gray T-shirt. Shapiro is, in fact, a Temple University Basketball fan. The pink shirt covers Temple coach John Chaney’s slogan.
“So on the show I am wearing a Temple Basketball shirt that says ‘winning is an attitude’ and they just pinned my overshirt over the logo,” Shapiro said on I Am All In. “I have a screengrab of me wearing that shirt signed by Temple basketball coach John Chaney. For my first time really on TV to be able to represent my favorite team like that was pretty [serendipitous].”
‘Gilmore Girls’ let Adam Shapiro wear his own shirt
Since Rory was at Yale, it might seem odd for a Yale student to be wearing a different university shirt. But, Shapiro bonded with the wardrobe department over Temple. He casually wore the shirt to his Gilmore Girls wardrobe fitting and they put it in the show.
“I remember I showed up to the wardrobe fitting and I was wearing a Temple Basketball T-shirt,” Shapiro said. “That’s my favorite team. I’m a huge Temple guy. It said ‘winning is an attitude,’ coach John Chaney, Temple Basketball. I forget if it was the costume designer or an assistant. She was like, ‘I went to Temple. That’s so crazy you’re wearing that shirt. You should wear it on the show.’”
The beginning of a career
Shapiro actually graduated from University of Maryland in 2002 according to the university’s own website. He did make it on television during his college years.
“I had a line on one television show when I was a PA on The Andy Dick Show while I was in college,” Shapiro said. “I didn’t audition for that. It was just like put your walkie talkie down and say this line on the show. Yas, I’m going to get my SAG card, you know. Gilmore Girls I think was my first audition that I booked. It was just straight go to the audition with a bunch of dudes, book it, show up. It was like my first time really on a set and first time really doing the whole thing.”
Now Shapiro’s resume includes Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, The Affair, Never Have I Ever and films like Steve Jobs and The House Bunny.
