Finding: Stars Hollow

An in-depth guide for the Ultimate Gilmore Girls Adventure in Search of Real Stars Hollow, CT.

You won’t find Stars Hollow on a map. Stars Hollow, Connecticut, is the fictional setting of a comedic drama series that originally aired on WB in October of 2000 and is still available 24 years later on Netflix. It has been my guilty pleasure to watch every Fall ever since then. The series was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was having difficulty developing a concept for a series the network wouldn’t pass on. She finally landed on a storyline about a mother/daughter relationship that was originally set in a city. To her surprise, they loved it! While vacationing in Connecticut to visit Mark Twain’s house, she was inspired by the towns she visited in the Litchfield Hills Region. She combined all her favorite aspects into one town and named it Stars Hollow.

In 2000, Gilmore Girls was not a show I would typically watch. My friend was dating Chad, a guy who had recently graduated from our high school and was cast as Tristan on the show. Perhaps the only reason I started watching it was to support him. I can attest that Chad is nothing like Tristan in real life. Despite Chad moving on to star in his show, One Tree Hill, I kept watching Gilmore Girls.