It was the most anticipated press conference of the year — and I brought it to you live!

Netflix’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life panel — featuring stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and Scott Patterson, as well as series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and exec producer Daniel Palladino — took place Wednesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, and I live-blogged the highlights. Check ’em out below!

11:31 am: Gilmore Girls release date announced! And you can watch the first teaser!

11:36 am: We’re getting a first look at the first two minutes of “Winter”!

11:37 am: It’s Lorelai and Rory at the gazebo with snow falling talking a mile a minute!!!

11:38 am: Panel has begun! Amy is wearing a hat!

11:39 am: Amy urges fans NOT to fast-forward to the final scene to hear the final four words. It will ruin the experience. “It would be great if people who wanted to see the last four words first got some therapy first and got rid of that inclination. It really is a journey… It’s going to mean a lot less if you just flip to the last page. I would hope that people would want to take the whole trip. It’s a fun trip. It’s worth it.”

11:40 am: “It was really like no time had passed. It was easy. It was fun. It was joyous. It was exhilarating. It was the old show. ” — Graham on slipping back into the series. “It’s my favorite thing to do. It’s my favorite part of the show… It brought me back to the first time I read this part and fell in love with it. It felt like such a perfect fit, I couldn’t believe I got to do it again.”

11:42 am: AS-P: “I really feel like the s–t in your family never really gets worked out. But that’s what’s so great about family. That’s why the show was a great show to write. You’re never going to run out of conflict.”

11:45 am: AS-P not ruling out new episodes. “This is what it is right now. We put these together, we told these stories and now we throw them out into the universe.”

11:46 am: I’m asking Amy if she’s disappointed the episodes will be released all at once versus two at a time…

11:47 am: “told them I was going to hang myself with a shower curtain if they put them all out at once, and they said, “Wow, OK.” —AS-P

11:48 am: She continues: “It’s such a journey and it’s such a build to the last four words… However, you don’t always get what you want. I don’t have the a– I want. The good outweighs the bad in the sense that this is a wonderful place to create things and do things in a different way.”

11:49 am: AS-P on walking back into Luke’s for the first time: “It’s not Luke’s diner anymore. The Pretty Little Liars are lying there all the time now.”

11:50 am: Graham on original sets being destroyed: “No one saved anything because, why would they? Who would’ve thought we would go back?”

11:52 am: “Literally until the nght before we started filming, we didn’t have [the entire cast on board]” —Graham

11:54 am: Bledel on whether she wishes people talked about more than just which guy Rory should end up with: “I think it’s kind of interesting that that’s what people are excited about. There is so much more to her character. It’s great when people focus on her ambition and her accomplishments.”

11:55 am: “All of her exes make an appearance, and it was great to work with all of them… People’s questions are answered, but we can’t answer them today.” — Bledel

11:56 am: Graham says the death of Richard gives the episodes “a depth and emotional complexity that felt like, ‘Here’s the show, [only] more grown-up” and that plays into “all the choices the characters” make.

11:59 am: “It’s amazing to know that people are eagerly awaiting these episodes. It’s incredible.” — Bledel

12:00 pm: The revival “was a chance to go to college when you’re really ready. We were given the gift to go back knowing” what we know now.” — Graham

12:02 pm: “For me, there will be nothing else in my career like what we got to do.” —AS-P

12:03 pm: On getting Melissa McCarthy back, AS-P says, “We knew we were going to figure it out. Everyone wants everybody to hate each other.”

12:03 pm: “We love her,” AS-P continues. “We always knew amongst us and amongst her, we were going to figure it out. It just took on this weird life of its own.”

12:04 pm: McCarthy “came on one of our last days,” Graham adds.”If it had not happened, we would have felt a gap in what we were trying to do. We had an incredible time. It just made it even more perfect.”