Return To Stars Hollow
by Sonia Kulkarni
Photo Courtesy of Milo Ventimiglia's Twitter
In October of 2014, all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls began streaming on Netflix. Fans everywhere rejoiced when it returned and began binge watching the show. Some fans felt right at home watching the lives of Rory and Lorelai unfold, while new fans were falling in love with the quick-witted banter and craziness in the small town of Stars Hollow.
But despite all seven seasons finding a home on Netflix, fans still wanted some questions answered.
Was Rory successful? Who does Rory end up with? What’s in store for Lorelai and Luke? The list goes on and on. Then, in October of 2015, a revelation: the Netflix revival was announced.
Based on Netflix’s success with their own productions, it’s no wonder why the producer of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino, agreed to revive the show online. Netflix struck a deal with Warner Bros. to revive the beloved Gilmore Girls in a miniseries of four 90-minute episodes, retitling the show Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Each episode represents each of the four seasons.
Since the announcement, Netflix did its best to whip up fan fervor in anticipation of the reboot's release—and it worked. Lovers of Lorelai and Rory have been going crazy on Twitter and Facebook, sharing their hopes for the new series.
Buzzfeed, Time, Entertainment Weekly and other sites have joined in on the craze and have released several articles speculating about what the new series might bring.
As the year went by, Netflix slowly released bits and bits of new information. First came tweets, Instagram posts and interviews. Then came the trailers, photos, pop-up shops and a Stars Hollow-type town. Even before the trailers, Netflix kept fans updated by putting together mini-clips of previous episodes, highlighting the witty banter and heightening nostalgia. Netflix has gone above and beyond trying to recreate the scenes from the show and bringing them to life for fans to enjoy.
When Netflix released the reboot’s first trailer on Twitter and Facebook in July, it was retweeted and shared over 338,000 times and viewed over 2 million times. In between the first trailer and the second, Netflix recreated the show’s famous diner, Luke’s, by recreating the atmosphere in several existing coffee shops around the country.
In Boston, Luke’s was recreated at Brighton’s local spot Caffénation; customers scrambled to sip out of official Luke’s coffee cups, customized with quotes from either a past episode or a future episode. They even boasted a code to unlock an exclusive filter on Snapchat.Netflix did all this to celebrate not only the impending release of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, but also to celebrate the 16th birthday of the show.
“The Luke’s coffee shops were such a fun and creative idea to get people excited for the show,” said Giselle Gonzalez (COM ’19), who stood in line in Brighton for nearly two hours.
“Netflix already has been doing such a great job with promoting the show and this just helps their online media coverage,” Gonzalez said.
Even though Netflix has kicked its promo into overdrive for Rory and Lorelai, the company is exercising extreme caution with the way they are promoting the show. Their social media pages are dominated by mini-clips, old quotes and gifs and character guides.
“I think in regards to marketing, they have done a great job,” said Reen Chabria (CAS ‘19). “The trailers and mini clips they are releasing are just great and I honestly can’t wait until November 25.”