MaryKris

I'm sorry if this is not allowed, but I have a research paper due on 5th March, and it's about social changes in the media with an emphasis on the influence of American television shows, especially Gilmore Girls (I know, it sounds lame, but my teacher loves the idea).

So, what I would like to ask you is, to what extent has Gilmore Girls influenced your life? If, what did you change in your life because of the show? Has it in any way changed your relationship with your family/friends?
Did you maybe find new friends because of "Gilmore Girls", maybe even in this forum? What has "Gilmore GIrls" inspired you to do (such as writing fanfictions or making arts)?
Did you widen your knowledge because you wanted to be like Rory, because you wanted to read the same books like her? Or did you discover newe music becausse of Lane?

Those would be the questions I'm most interested in, but anything would be very helpful and it would be really great if you could drop me a comment, because this is reeally important to me, and if I don't have enough research, I will have to expand the part about the invention of the printing press, which is clearly not that interesting!

Thanks to all of you in advance!

PS: If you know any homepage where this topic is discussed a link would be fine as well.

Roswell 10/2/00

Hey MaryKis,

I find your topic for your paper sounds so interesting. I would love to help you out.

Lets see I recently just rediscoved Gilmore Girls and how much I love this show! I remember watching it from the beginning.

In someways I am like Rory. I love coffee and I am always reading. I love to read. I really hope to be a writer someday and have even lived in CT and have been to Yale many times. I have read most of the books Rory read on the show over the years but I am trying to read some that I always wanted to but never got a chance to.

I too like Rory went from my towns public school up until 8th grade and then for high school I to an all girls catholic high school that was about 45 minutes away from my town. It was my choice to go and it was the best decision in my life. I grew a lot there and I made some amazing friends. One being my friend Amy.

Amy was kind of like Paris in someways not all because no one is like Paris but we sometimes would get on each others nerves and not get along and then we would and over the years I learned to love her as a friend and she learned to love me as a friend as well. Even though we were so differnt we were very much the same. We learned to appreciate each other and she was always there for me when I needed someone as I was for her. I am now going to her wedding in July. I can't wait it should be a wonderful time. So I can relate to the Rory/ Paris friendship in someways.

Me and my mom in a lot of ways are like Rory and Loralie. She is my best friend and someone who I admirer so much. She is always helping me and giving me advice when I need it as I am with her. We have had some good laughs over the years. We have had our ups and downs but in the end she has always been there for me as I have been there for her.

AW Rory's first day of college so reminds me of my mom and I. I was cracking up over the scene when her mom sleeps over in her dorm room being my mom actually did that one time during my freshman year as well. I even have a photo of her sleeping over in my dorm room! It is so funny.

Even some of the guys Rory has dated on the show I can relate to being they remind me of some of the relationships I have had with guys.

The whole speech when Jess comes back in season 6 in the episode Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out and told Rory that he wrote a book really touched me being I want to write. And as Rory I was going through a similar situation at the time the episode aired and it really touched me Jess's speech to Rory about what was going on with her life being I had just transfered graduate schools. I didn't drop out like Rory did but I could in some way relate to the changes she was going through in season 6.

I even had the change of meeting some of the cast of Gilmore Girls this past year! I met the Gilmore Girl herself Alexis Bedel at the NYC 2006 Tribcea Film Festival after seeing her movie I'm Reed Fish in April. And I got to meet Milo Ventimiglia who played Jess on the show as well at the 2006 Heroes signing in NYC in November of 2006.

Me and Alexis


Me and Milo


I even got to go on the set of Gilmore Girls when I was on the WB tour in October of 2006 when I was in CA visiting my best friend Jen. It was so cool going inside Lukes Diner and seeing Stars Hollow.

Just recently I started making Gilmore Girl videos and I am in the process of writing my very first Gilmore Girl fanfic. Some of my friends such as my friend Kristen and my friend Jennifer and her sister Nichole are also very big Gilmore Fans so it is nice to share the same passion and intest with them about the show as well as on the Gilmore Girls board here on fanforum.

Gilmore Girls I found was differnt from other TV shows out there. It has classic characters who are very whitty, fun,and endearing. l enjoyed how they explored the relationship between Loralie and Rory who are not only mother and daughter but are best friends as well. I also enjoy watching the relationship they have with others in how they interact in the community of Stars Hollow and with their friends and family. So that is why I enjoyed watching the show all these years.

I hope this helped with your report. If you have any questions please ask.

Love,
Erin

smeagolkitten

I'll try my best to help you with the Gilmore Girls part of this. But I'm wondering, what other television shows do you have included in this research of yours? Because I have a lot more material on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was my ultimate venture into the world of tv-show obsessions. Gilmore Girls entered my life at a later point where all the major changes in my life had already happened.

But okay, so you asked about our life-changing GG experiences...

As I already mentioned, I was already in a very obsessive pattern when GG entered my life. At first, like with pretty much any show it began as entertainment for me. Then my network decided to have fun with the "guess when we air it" game, and then I lost the channel where it aired and was pretty much without it for a couple of years, until I one day randomly turned on the tv right when an episode was playing and I got reeled back in. Around the same time they finally began releasing the box sets over here, so I got hooked bad.

What's different with this fandom compared to the others was how I managed to get my mom hooked on it and now whenever I come home, me and mom watch my newest dvd box together. Now, it hasn't really changed much dynamics between me and my mom in terms of a relationship, since me and mom have a very similar relationship that Lorelai and Rory has, despite the fact that mom had me at 34 and she and my dad are still very happily married. However, it opened her more up to the more alternative tastes of mine in music and movies. I have always been fond of watching movies with her, but we have earlier limited ourselves to what we thought we had in common, but lately we are more and more realizing we have more similar tastes than we originally thought. Mom has pretty much kidnapped my music collection, which consists with a large percentage of metal, a genre she just didn't think she liked, but now after hearing my music tells me she loves. So in a way GG was a great contributor there. We've always been able to talk and share everything personal with each other, but we've always kept some of our interessts sepparate because we were sure the other wouldn't be that interessted in it. And now we are just closer than ever.

It was when I began searching for episodes, trying to find out what happened next, that I finally stumbled onto this forum. At first I was only present int the spoiler thread, seeing as I didn't know there was a completely dedicated GG forum here as well. That was in April last year.

Around the same time I was fortunate enough to meet Matt Czuchry who came not only to my country, but also my town to participate in a charity event. Story and pictures are found here:
Dream Universe ~~~ dreams come true

This was also when I began writing GG fanfiction. I wasn't a stranger to fanfiction, far from it, since I've been writing since around 2000, but I do wanna say that there was something different when I began writing the GG fandom. First of all I got more and more fond of writing dialogue, something I earlier wanted to avoid more of all, but with how vocal the GG characters are it was inevitable that I would have to get used to write dialogue. I got much better at studying and really writing from a character's point of view and not my own. Also, now I am more dedicated to writing often and frequently. So in a way writing GG fanfics have enhanced my already large interesst in the written art.

I wasn't a stranger to vid-making when I started making GG fanvids and I can't say anything changed in my vid-making that wasn't part of a natural growt period, meaning learning new ways of doing it.

Obviously I've made new friends because of GG, after all I've become a regular on this forum and my MSN list contains a lot of people I know solely because of our shared GG interesst.



Again, let me know if you want my Buffy-stuff, because I really think I'd be much more of a contributor to your research with that. Because that show, believe it or not, really changed my life. It even saved my life.

Pauline73

That's an interesting topic, I thought I should bring my participation.

I discovered GG a long time ago, but I actually got addicted to it 2 years ago. And yes, this has changed my life. It was a period, when I had huge doubts in myself (still do, but I'm working on that!) I was alone at school, and couldn't find my place, everyone was mocking me. But thanks to GG and Rory, I learned that we could get passionated into something, and forget about the world around. That's something my parents has always taught me (mostly my father), but I forgot it due to some events in our lives. Rory re-activated it somehow, and thanks to her, I found my way back to books and music. Especially books, cause let's face it, when you're 14, and trying to show people you're not the "uninteresting jerk and geek" they think you are, reading doesn't help much!
So this has helped me to find the patience until I went to senior high school (oh so much better I'll tell you!) and I realised that when I had, again, last year some issues with some girls at school, some people defended me and said "at least, she has interesting things to say, and has a personnality". Which is something they didn't say about me in Junior High. Now, I learned that this quirky side of my personnality (I mean, get me started on a book, or even more, on a band, friends tell me I'm lighting up instantly!) was a good side of me, not a bad one that I should ignore.

And also, during that period when I was feeling so bad, this is when I started this "online life". I really needed it, I think, as a way to escape. I started talking with some older girls, they were sort of big sisters figures to me, even if I had my own siblings, who were always supportive. This was an extra help that I could really use back then. which is why I'm so thankful to them...

So I really do think that TV shows can influence you in a good way. It could be dangerous as well (I mean, being influenced can be good, wanting to copy can have be awful!), but it can help you find who you are, just like music, books, and movies... all of my favorite things!

Twiggy Ramirez

In some way, GG has changed my life too. But not only GG of course. Other american tv shows. And I suppose it's ok to speak more generally about american tv shows as it is your subject right?

Anyway, I started to be addicted to american tv shows err, eight years ago. Speaking about "online life", I started mine because of Roswell, a long long time ago. And I made myself really good "online friends" and I also met one. But this part of my life is now over for, I don't know,m aybe 3 years. I still post in forums cause people around me think being addicted to tv shows is stupid etc, you know what I mean. But of course it helps me. When I feel really depressed, I just turn my tv on, put a DVd in the machine and it really helps to forget for some time my problems, you know.

Now, speaking about Gilmore Girls. This show is so witty that I got addicted to it. And it had changed my life, but maybe not as you can imagine. For example, when something happens and I have difficulties to deal with it, I just ask myself "what would Lorelai or Rory do?". Stupid you might think, but sometimes it helps. But the major thing in GG that influenced me is that you can be different and just don't care about the people around you. Cause as Pauline said, it sometimes happen to some of us to feel different and rejected, and you suffer because of it. But then you realize it is not you, I mean, ok, you're different but it's not a bad thing. You just have to find a way to express it.

Hope it helped, cause I don't like to speak about myself, I mean, my "real life".

go_clo

GG has changed my life alot, in many ways.

Me and my family have gone through some rough times, life isn't easy, thats for sure but GG sort of helped me cope with the bad stuff going on. Um about 3 or 4 years ago we got cable again after getting rid of it for a few years. When we got cable again, I would watch it like crazy, any show that was on, I would watch and love cause I wasn't use to having so many things to watch. I got back into some old shows I use to watch (kid cartoons) and then I noticed Gilmore Girls. The second I switched over, I fell in love with it! I was too embarressed to admit I liked it though because I was/am a major tom boy and had never really been into anything that...girly before plus I thought the show was too far into storyline that I wouldn't be able to get anything that was going on so I wouldn't watch it, little did I know that the episodes were season 1 episode reruns! One day I was channel surfing with my mom and grandma and we came across Gilmore Girls and like me, it was love at first site for them. I came out of the closet and told them I was into it, we then started watching regularly. Most of the shows I started watching, I got extremely bored of and now when I watch tv and one of those shows are on, I laugh and think "Why did I like this" but Gilmore Girls has kept my interest for 4 long years and it will forever hold my interest!

So ways it has changed my life?

It really helped my relationship with my mom, we never really got along even though my mom had me young (17) it didn't work for our relationship, we sort of had a Lorelai and Emily relationship with a bit of Lorelai and Rory mixed into it (cause we are more like sisters then mother and daughter!) We would fight alot and not really get eachother but after Gilmore Girls, our relationship changed. I think its because we saw what kind of relationship we have and what relationship we want...I can't speak for my mother but thats what I think. It also gave us an unsore subject to talk about where we could actually agree on things....ok so maybe not AGREE but we still dont end up fighting about it.

Another thing that I tried to change was my attitude toward school. When I first started watching GG, the thing that caught my eye was Rory, I loved her character so much, her innocence, her love for music, movies, reading and school and I wanted to be like that so I tried to work harder on my school work...it didn't exactly work but I still tried. The show also got me thinking about my career, i've always had an interest for media. Cameras, computers, graphics, that sort of thing. GG helped introduce me to graphic art programs by giving me a reason to go on the internet, I would go on to chat about GG and I ended up seeing GG graphics and started to chat with GG artmakers. Thats when I got into GIMP/photoshop and WMM, GG also gave me something to make on those programs. It also helped improve my computer skills which was desperately needed, I was completely computer illiterate before GG which wasn't good especially since I was in home schooling (you need computers to do it!) Being in home schooling puts a dent in social life as well so I didn't have many friends but because of GG, I got on the internet, started chatting and now have some really great internet friends!

Gilmore Girls also made me and my family feel somewhat normal, we saw GG and saw that we shouldn't be embarressed about bad things that happen in our life cause even the Gilmore Girls go through that sort of thing. Its nice to watch a show where you have so much in common with the character that it makes you think "was this show made for us?" It is just a really nice thing to look forward too and get excited about, it gives us something to sit down and watch as a family and just hang out over. I never have and probably never will be able to love a show and get this attached to a show in my life.

Well thats about it, I hope this helped!

charminggirl32

Such a good idea for your paper.

I have watched Gilmore Girls from the beginning and it has influenced a lot of aspects in my life. I have expanded my music horizens because of the artists either played on the show or mentioned in some capacity. I have also started to read more of the books that Rory would read. My favorite authors now include Dorothy Parker and Sylvia Plath. I also watch different movies like the old classics that we see the girls watching. I also look up references I do not understand so I get them better.

It has also affected the way I have done things. I now have movie nights just like the Gilmore Girls. I find myself talking faster and making references to all things.

But the biggest change has been my relationship with my Mom. We watch together and it is the one hour a week that is just Mother/daughter time.

I hope this helps. Good luck on your paper

ErinlovestheOC

Well, I lost four of my friends in the past 2 years. And its been tough. Gilmore Girls influenced me to keep moving on. It gave me hope. It gave me something to hold on to. When the days were long, I would watch GG. I would find comfort in it. Lorelai always made me strong. And so I thank them for that because I don't think I would have survived without it. It got me through some of the darkest days of my life. I made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me hope for tomorrow.

MaryKris

Thank you all so much! This alreade helped me a lot!!

btw, I'm happy for you all that GG has helped you so much, there was a time when I thought it was just me.

MaryKris

I know this is probably a lot to ask, but it would be so great if more of you could tell me something about the influence GG had on your life.

Anything would be very helpful, also influence from other tv shows, since I also have to talk about that in general.

Thanks in advance!!

smeagolkitten

Now we're talking

As much as I love Gilmore Girls and consider it an equal fourth of my obsessive mind, I can't give GG the same credit I can give Buffy for one simple reason. When Buffy began changing my life, GG wasn't even in the planning yet. The year was 97' and I was 13 years old and going through one of my tougher periods in life. It's safe to say I was one of the most upopular, if not the most unpopular girl in school. My everyday problems varied between being constantly put down verbally by people to being beating up on the way home from school. I'm not saying that the show put a stopper to it, but it became like an escape. The main character was far from popular, she too got into fights at school (though for different reasons than me), but she still kept her spirit up. She had hopes and dreams and I just couldn't help but become invested in not only her, but her whole circle of friends.

Like any other show it began as a source of entertainment, but the more I watched, the more emotionally I got invested in it. I've always been a creative person for as long as I can remember, but it was like these parts of me either was re-awakened or given an energy boost or something, because even though I had scribbled things before, it wasn't until I began writing Buffy fanfiction that my real passion for writing was lit. It was Buffy that got me into video editing. It was from drawing Buffy fanart that I developed my drawing skill. It was through all of these that I even began working on websites, which again lead to my chosen career.

Also, in a way it was through my awakened passion for storytelling that sparked the idea of attending high school away from home. I got brave enough to move away from home at sixteen, not because of my family, cause my family has always been great, but because I knew that I simply wouldn't be able to take another three years of the living hell that was elementary and jr high. I wanted to take drama and the closest school that offered it was situated four hours away on bus. I know in my heart that if I'd be forced to continue on the path I'd been on before this move, I can't even guarantee that I'd still be alive and I'm not even a suicidal person. So that's why I say that Buffy saved my life, because if it hadn't been for all thos changes my investment in the show brought me, I'd probably either be dead by choice or by someone else's hand (and I don't feel I'm exaggerating by saying this). I may still carry the mental scars from that time, but I'm a much calmer and more content person now than I ever imagined to become.

I can't even begin to count the number of friends I got purely from the shared interesst that was this show. All I can say that they are many. Both friends in real life as well as online friends. Many of them are still to this day close confidants for me.

18th of April, 2004, I got to meet one of my big idols, Eliza Dushku. One of the most precious moments of my life, which was followed up with several other really amazing encounters with wonderful actors and actresses from this show. My favorite; Clare Kramer, is someone who's managed to restore a large part of my very shattered self-image. Anyone who's lucky enough to meet this woman should know that she's one of the most wonderful people in the world. You have to look a long way before finding someone as invested in her fans as she is.

Buffy also very naturally to my second obsession; Angel. And through my combined obsession over Buffy and conventions, my third obsession; Firefly came to my attention and with it another cast of really wonderful people.

Buffy entered my life at a very critical point and helped aid me to the life I'm living today and I can't be more grateful than I am and not even when I almost tear my hair out in frustration whenever I encounter one of those tricky everyday problems, can I honestly say I want things to be different. Because I don't. I'm 22 years old and I have already had most of my dreams come true. Not many people my age can say that. And for whatever I may still lack, I know deep in my heart that it'll come with time.

In a way, I'd say that my deep obsession with Buffy was what helped prepare me for this obsession. I already mentioned what changes GG brought to my life.

So, to sum it all up in two very short sentences:

Buffy saved my life.
But GG enhanced it.

Lozza9294

hey your idea sounds friggen awseme.

Gilmore girls has influenced my life a whole lot, like even the little things if my friends do something funny or say something stupid il end up saying something from gilmore girls & they automaticly look at me and go "gilmore girls" im like i cant help it the show is soo good it teaches you alot about life, love & freindships.

i guess you could say me & my mum dont really get along we have our days but most of the time i dont really talk to her, the hardest bit ever is when my mum comes in while im watchin gilmore girls she'll turn around & go "why cant we be like lorelai & rory" and i explain the same story every time, lorelai & rory are best friends before mother & dauhgter & we would never be able to have that kind of relationship.

its simply the best show in america thats the only show il wake up to every morning & come down on the computer & read spoilers & whats happend in the ep just aired.

hope that helps you out..
xox
lozzzaaaaa

Roswell 10/2/00

When you are done with the paper you so should post a copy for us to read.

You know what would be a really cool idea if we could put together all of these wonderful stories of our thoughts about how GG has infulenced our life in so many ways and send it to the CW and to the Gilmore Girls cast as a tribute to Gilmore Girls in how much the show infulenced all of us being this might be there last season. It might be a beautiful way to say goodbye to Gilmore Girls.

Roswell 10/2/00

smeagolkitten I was reading your wonderful GG account. That is awesome you met Matt and that he came to your country. Aw what a sweetheart for him to take some photos even when your new camera wasn't working that great.

Milo was the same way with me when I met him at the Heroes signing in NYC. People were taking photos at the event and I was the 7th person in line. Soon secerity was saying how we couldn't take photos but Milo was sweet and nice enough to take one with me anyway despite what they said. Such a sweetheart that one! Very kind and shy.

I even gave him a thank you card and mentioned GG in it. I try to do that if I am going to an event where an actor or actress I like is going to be at. It is just my way of giving something back to them being they give back so much to us. So far everyone I have met has loved them.

I was also lucky to get a photo with Alexis as well when I met her. I went to an after party for her movie I'm Reed Fish at the NYC Tribeca Film Festival and it was at the end of the night she was about to leave when I spotted her outside. She was talking to her friend and it looked like she had had a long and hard night.

So I gave her space and tolded her how wonderful I thought she was in her movie. I then asked if I could take a photo with her she said sure. However my camera was on it's last legs so it took a while to take the photo but she was really sweet about it and I made her smile. I think I made her night. At least I hope I did. Alexis is very shy but very sweet.

I also saw you are a Buffy fan. I too met Eliza and Sarah this past year as well along with Marc Blucas in NYC. All are sweethearts!

I love meeting actors and actresses so far all the encounters I have had have been wonderful! Thanks for sharing your GG encounter with Matt.

Hope all is well.

Love,
Erin

NewHaven2005

mh...that might be a little late since your paper is due in 3 days. however, i'd like to add my story, too.

GG has influenced my life in three different ways.

1. i applied for a clerkship in yale and got it and i only did that because of GG, it was the best time in my life !!!
2. i definetely planned to remember the GG lifestyle when i have a daughter of my own, i would love to be a mother like lorelai, however, if my kid doesn't turn out to be like rory, it won't work, i guess
3. the most important aspect is: GG made me focus on increasing the creativity in my life, it told me to start enjoying the simple things by acknowledging the absurdity that's hidden behind a lot of these small things.
4. AND it is my cultural reference and guide to American culture