I've really been amazed by how this wonderful program has been enjoyed around the world.

So, where do you watch "Gilmore Girls?" Please let us know what country you're in, what channel airs the show, and how often it's broadcast. (And most importantly of all, is Michel still French in your version? ;-)

you already know my info, but here again for the others to read:

Germany, broadcast twice a day with one of them being reruns from the day before episode and its on channel VOX. and michel is french

but what i wanted to add is that I dont enjoy watching Gilmore Girls in German. In my opinion most of the jokes are lost in the translation or mean something entirely else. Thats why I just watch my DVDs and always in English

Wow, I never thought of that. I wonder who writes the scripts for the dubs. I'll try to find out.

Is Michel still French in the German dub? Yanic Truesdale (Michel) says that Michel is French even when Gilmore Girls is dubbed into French, which doesn't make any sense. He suggested making Michel English, which might've been interesting.

yeah, michel is still french here.

and michel is frensh in france?? thats dumb. doesnet make any sense. the accent is what makes michel into michel in my opinion.

I watch it in India. It airs here every Sat night at 10. We are on season 4, where Jason is suing Richard! (This is happening for the first time though. It's not reruns :)

It's on English TV, so it's not dubbed and Michel is French. Also, only disney shows are dubbed in Hindi for some reason and some movies, but the "grown-up" TV is in English :)

Yep, Michel is French in France. But what would be a good nationality for him if he can't be French?

As for India, I can't imagine how maddening it must be to only be on Season 4 two years after the whole series ended.

One thing I've always wondered: since there are so many cultural references in each episode that most Americans don't even get, do those references annoy you if you don't live in America and therefore may not get even more of those references? Or with the Internet, does that even matter anymore? (In other words, do you just look up some of the references?)

Sorry to be so inquisitive, but GG is one of my favorite subjects :-)

i think michel in france would have been perfect as an englishman (british not american). british are as unique as frensh people. have their own kind of humour like michel does in the original.

as to looking up all the references. i usually dont look things up. but thats mostly because im too lazy looking it up and not because im not interested.

:-) Yeah, I think I fall into that category too. The neat thing is that sometimes I will learn something new, then go back to an old episode a few months later and get a GG reference that I didn't get before. I think that's one of the reasons why it stands up so well to rewatching.

I'm in Scotland where GG plays on E4 daily at 8am, 12pm and 4pm (the same episode) Michel is still French here!

We are currently finishing season seven for the second time - they started airing the show last summer and after season seven they moved back to the pilot - I don't know whether or not they plan to do this again!

In terms of the references, some of them are extremely America-oriented & I have googled on many occasions I must admit. In general though, I do get them - I think if you are the type of person that enjoys the show then you would probably be aware of most of the things being referenced anyway! I know someone has said it before but it truly is an educated person's dream to watch this show!

I got hooked last summer after watching just season one and bought the entire series on DVD - I seriously don't think I would have been able to wait watching it in real time although I probably would have enjoyed that I was a similar age to Rory throughout!

Let me know if you need anything & best of luck with the book!
Claire

Wow, thank you Claire. I love the idea of someone being about the same age as Rory watching the show. Is the show very popular in Scotland?

when Gilmore Girls aired for the first time here in Germany I was althrough the show about rorys age. it was one of the things that amazed me. finally I had somebody on TV who was my age and I could relate to this person and her problems and everything

What was that like? Does it get weird at times seeing a fictional character go through some of the same things you do? It always seemed to me that GG showed some parts of life that few TV shows ever do...

for me it wasn't weird at all. I just thought that the writers of the show did a brilliant job in writing rory because she was so much like me. i think they didn't just make rorys character up but based it on talks they had with people beeing really that age.
rorys character helped me a lot to get through my teenage years. in her i always could see how everything could be for me if I worked hard enough

I'm English but my parents moved us to france a few years ago. We stuck with Sky so we could watch English TV and last July I found Gilmore Girls on TV & then got the DVDs at Christmas.

I drive my friends crazy with my GG talk but just recently it has started to air on French television. The French translation is terrible, & half as good. Most jokes they have to take out, & Michel is Italian.

It completely ruined the Paris episode for me. I mean, not that I ever choose to watch it in French, but when I invite my friends over, I do, & I've watched a few episodes in Spanish to improve my Spanish.

In response to Myriam Meinzer, earlier on, when Frenchies watch the show they know it's American, & no one pretends it's happening in France, so I think making Michel British would just confuse everyone.

Lol, when I started watching GG, I was Alexis Bledel's age (18) so yeah I grew up with Rory, but I cannot for the life of me relate to her personality!! I can relate more to Lorelai's more than anyone else's on the show...

To me, it went beyond being fiction.. They were my escape, and also like my good friends, who went through pretty much the same thing! (I really hope it doesn't sound creepy) but I just relate to this show more than anything else :)

Michel is Italian?! Oh my! I'm trying to picture that and I just can't. Does he speak Italian sometimes or just have an Italian accent? What is he in the Spanish version?

And I think Myriam meant that it would restore the balance in the French dubs to make Michel another nationality (like British) because he's the only one on the show who is from another country.

It's this really odd alternative universe thing with TV shows that are dubbed into another language. We know that it's not supposed to be taking place in France, for example, but it kind of is if everyone is speaking French. Pardon me if I find this all very interesting :-)

That's probably the highest compliment you can pay to any work of fiction: that it feels "real" and you can relate it to your own life.

I don't think it sounds creepy at all. I think that's what good art does: it shows us a different way of looking at the world that feels natural. Maybe the English word I'm looking for is that it's "relevant" to our lives.

In Spanish he's French. :) It's my escape. Some teenagers turn to booze, sex, drugs. Well, I have my Gilmore Girls. :D Frankly, alcohol just doesn't do it for me, I need Gilmore Girls to get me out of a sticky afternoon, & it always does the trick! That sounds healthier than an addiction. :)

:-) Definitely. Not resorting to the "nitwit juice" as Emily would imply. Oh, I love Emily... She has such a unique way of putting things.

Hi,

No the show isn't overly popular here but I think that has more to do with when it is aired rather than the content of the show itself. I guess the audience is made up of students & housewives!

Now that you've got me actually thinking about the show in more depth I have a few other stories which may be of interest but I have no time at the mo! Will check back in later!

Looking forward to it, Claire. Thanks for sharing!

Hi, I watch Gilmore Girls in Chelsea Quebec Canada. Gilmore Girls kept me sane while I was breastfeeding my 2 boys in the middle of the night. In the past 3 years, i've watched the complete series twice, once while on maternity leave with my youngest son and once with my husband, who loves the series as much as I do. I don't know if I would ever get tired of watching it since it seems like every time I watch it, so many "new" things appear...either a clever anecdote or a cultural reference. Thanks for keeping the show alive!
Michelle from Chelsea Quebec Canada

Thank you for telling us about your experiences, Michelle. (I'm up way past my bed time here, so please forgive any garbled thoughts.) I think you really hit on the main thing that makes Gilmore Girls so special: the density of ideas that makes it a new experience every time you watch it.

The hardest part of putting this book together hasn't been the research, the interviews, or anything like that. It's been coming up with a way to discuss the episodes themselves without taking away some of that magic of finding something new in them when you sit down to watch them. It's like discussing a magic trick without revealing how it's done.

And clearly the magic for you was also in helping you get through your first years as a mom. A miracle indeed ;-)

I´m watching in Czech Republic. It has been on tv constantly since like 2003. It was first aired on Saturdays on 8:00a.m. Lately it has been on every week day, early afternoon on public network TV NOVA. They started to run the whole show from beginning last summer with 7th season premiere somewhere around February 2009. and rerun of 7th season started again on July 1st. Gilmore girls are usually on during every summer:-) The show has a quite big fanbase here but because of the airing time they are usually young teen girls.

I think our dubbed version is really good but I agree that lots of jokes get lost in translation. I myself watch GG in english, nothing can be better than original. And I don´t mind when I don´t understand all the american references, in contrary. As I get older and I learn new things I find myself watching an eppy for like 8th time and laughing loud out to a reference that I didn´t get before. It´s amazing. You can find something new everytime you watch.

And yes, Michel is French in our version:-))

Wow, it sure did take a long time for everybody to get the 7th season, didn't it. The channel that reruns GG in America, ABC Family, only started running it a month or so ago. In fact, there was some confusion because the way they advertised it, it made it sound like there was a new season of GG coming!

8 am sounds very early to be running it; I'm not even sure I would be awake enough at that time to really enjoy it. (Unless I was drinking Lorelai amounts of coffee...)

well, I didn´t know about the show when it run at 8a.m. The time is probably the reason.lol. I watched first eppy during one summer afternoon when I was bored one day and have watched it religiously since:)

Ha! The people who get up to watch it in the mornings, does that make them the true true true fans?

I used to get up a hour sooner (like 6:30) every morning to watch one eppy of GG (on DVD) before I needed to go to school. but that´s a loong time ago, Im so over that phase:D

Lol, definitely! It's a pretty clever way to get people to get the DVDs -- just put GG on super early :-)