Gilmore Girls
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The show follows single, thirty-something Lorelai Victoria Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter, Lorelai "Rory" Leigh Gilmore (Alexis Bledel), in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Rory was fifteen when the show began (although Lorelai said she was sixteen in the pilot, she celebrated her birthday several episodes later).
The series explores family, generational divides and friendship, set in a close-knit small town with many quirky characters. By the time of its fifth season, Gilmore Girls received an American Film Institute, or AFI, Award and two Viewers for Quality Television Awards and was named New Program of the Year by the Television Critics Association.
Its actors have received many awards for their work on the series. Lauren Graham was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series and received two consecutive nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series from the Screen Actors Guild and won two Family Television Awards. Alexis Bledel has won a Young Artist Award and a Family Television Award. The series also won a Family Television Award for New Series, and was named Best Family TV Drama Series by the Young Artist Awards.
Gilmore Girls was the first series broadcast on network television to receive financial support from the Family Friendly Forum's script development fund for its pilot episode. The Family Friendly Forum was devised by some of the nation's leading advertisers and The WB to combat criticism from the Religious Right and to promote more family values programming on network television.
It was not a ratings success initially but has grown a following that eventually saw it defeat popular series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the ratings. [1] (http://www.gilmoregirls.org/news/144.html)
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Overview
Regular elements of the series include:
- Lorelai's conflicts with her wealthy parents, particularly her headstrong mother. Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann) had their hopes for Lorelai dashed by her becoming an unwed teenage mother at the age of 16. Lorelai repaid her parents for their disapproval by keeping their contact with their granddaughter Rory to a minimum; by the time the series begins, Rory's private school fees require Lorelai to approach her parents for help, which is provided with the proviso they both join Emily and Richard for dinner every Friday night.
- Lorelai's relationship with Luke (Scott Patterson), which, at the end of the fourth season, finally grew from a friendship into a romantic relationship, and in the season 5 finale, a proposal to Luke.
- Lorelai's periodic reconnections with Rory's father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), another child of a wealthy family and Emily and Richard's preferred partner for Lorelai. While it often seems like Lorelai and Christopher will get back together, other factors always seem to interfere.
- Rory's coming of age, complicated by:
- Her close relationship with her mother. At the time the series begins, Lorelai and Rory regard each other more as best friends than as mother and daughter; Rory's burgeoning adulthood and occasional need to pull away begin to complicate this relationship, although the closeness between them remains a constant on the show.
- Her academic aspirations. Rory wants to attend the elite Harvard University; to achieve this she is enrolled in the elite (fictional) Chilton Academy, an unfamiliar world to Rory filled with the rich and the high-strung. Rory ultimately decides to go to Yale after visiting the campus with her mother and alumnus grandfather.
- Her romantic attractions. Rory's affections first fluctuate between new-in-town Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki) and bad-boy Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), Luke's nephew. Even after Dean marries, Rory engages in a short affair with Dean and breaks up his marriage. Rory's current interests include Yale classmates, including the privileged Logan.
- Her relationships with long-time best friend Lane Kim (Keiko Agena)—a second-generation Korean-American from a strict background—and Paris Geller (Liza Weil), a friend/rival at both Chilton and Yale.
- Lorelai's career as the manager of an inn, with aspirations to open one of her own. After years of planning, she and best friend Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) have opened their own inn, the Dragonfly.
A trademark of Gilmore Girls is the extremely fast-paced dialogue which is sprinkled with pop culture references. The show's wit and character-based, gentle humor have won it a loyal following. With its humor arising from small-town eccentricities, it resembles the American television comedy Northern Exposure. Another similarity is both shows' extensive use of contemporary music—some quite obscure—to help set mood and tone.
The first season was released on DVD May 4, 2004, the second was released on December 7, 2004, and the third season was released on May 3, 2005.
Main characters
- Lorelai is the strong-willed, beautiful owner of the Dragonfly Inn in Stars Hollow. She has a daughter, Rory, who she had when she was 16. Partly because of the small age gap, they are the best of friends.
- Rory is a student, initially at Chilton and later at Yale. She once planned on going to Harvard but after making a list of advantages of going to each university, she decided to enroll in her grandfather's alma mater, Yale.
- Luke Danes - Scott Patterson
- Luke owns the diner in Stars Hollow and after many episodes of hinting at a relationship, is now Lorelai's love interest. Prior to this, they were still extremely close friends.
- Sookie St. James Melville - Melissa McCarthy
- Sookie is a brilliant, slightly neurotic chef who enjoys her own cooking. She has two children, one son and one daughter. She is Lorelai's business partner in the Dragonfly Inn as well as one of her best friends. Sookie is married to Jackson, her produce supplier and current town selectman.
- Lane Kim - Keiko Agena
- Lane is Rory's closest friend, a Korean girl brought up by an extremely strict fundamentalist Christian (and vegan) mom. She rebelled and moved in with two male members of her rock band.
- Michel Gerard - Yanic Truesdale
- Michel is a neurotic Frenchman who works with Lorelai at the Inn, insults customers and annoys his colleagues, but is considered lovable because of this by people who know him. He, Sookie, and Lorelai are good friends.
- Emily is Lorelai's snobbish, critical, and demanding mother. She once had great hopes for her daughter, which were abandoned when Lorelai became a single mom at 16. In the 100th episode, Emily and Richard re-affirm their vows on their 40th anniversary after many months of difficulties, trial separations, and even Emily dating.
- Richard is Lorelai's father - a very wealthy but not very scrupulous insurance industry executive. He gives off the aura of New England patrician respectability and is very astute.
- Jackson Melville - Jackson Douglas
- Jackson started out as the produce supplier for the Independence Inn, where he and Sookie meet and start to date. At the end of the second season, Jackson and Sookie are married.
- Jess Mariano - Milo Ventimiglia (episodes 26 - 65, recurring otherwise)
- Jess is partly a stereotypical "bad boy" who lures Rory away from her first love, Dean. He acts tough and uncaring on the surface but, in reality, is very intelligent and sympathetic - he is rarely seen without a book. Seeing this, Rory falls for him, but Jess's problems prove to be too much and the two separate. In real life, Alexis Bledel and Milo are dating.
- Paris Geller - Liza Weil (episodes 22 -, recurring previously)
- Initially a serious rival of Rory at Chilton, Paris and Rory eventually become good friends in spite of their competitive natures. They now live in the same dorm at Yale. Paris ends up falling in love with a distinguished elderly English Professor at Yale, who dies while visiting England. In season 5, she starts dating Doyle, the vertically-challenged editor of the Yale Daily News.
- Kirk Gleason - Sean Gunn (episodes 44 -, recurring previously)
- Kirk is the definitive quirky weirdo of Stars Hollow and works at every conceivable job in the town. He is a geek without computer skills who lived with his mom until episode 104(season 5). Recently, he has found love with Lulu, a local elementary school teacher.
- Jason "Digger" Stiles - Chris Eigeman (episodes 68 - 87)
- Jason is the son of Richard's former employer. He leaves his father's firm to go into business with Richard. Not long after, he and Lorelai become lovers but keep it secret from Lorelai's parents. After Jason's father sues Richard and Jason, Richard brutally dumps his business partner Jason in a panic over losing everything and returns to Jason's father's firm. Jason sues Richard, prompting Lorelai to break up with him and creating an opening for the much-anticipated Luke/Lorelai partnership.
- Dean Forester - Jared Padalecki (episodes 22 - 65, recurring otherwise)
- Dean is a long-time occasional love interest of Rory's. His marriage now complicates their relationship, with Rory losing her virginity to him while he was married. He breaks up with her for the third time after seeing how her life and choice of company has changed after going to Yale.
- Logan Huntzberger - Matt Czuchry
- Logan is Rory's love interest in the latter part of season 5. He comes from an upper-class family and attends Yale with Rory. Logan didn't "do commitment" untill Rory threatened to break up with him, and they are now in a relationship. His mother and grandfather greatly dislike Rory, feeling that she is not good enough for him. His father owns a series of newspapers and employed Rory as an intern for a few episodes until telling her that he didn't think that she had what it took to be a journalist.
Other recurring characters
- Babette Dell - Sally Struthers
- Patricia "Miss Patty" LaCosta - Liz Torres
- Mrs. Kim - Emily Kuroda
- Headmaster Charleston - Dakin Matthews (Has been absent since Rory graduated from Chilton at the end of the third season, with the exception of episode 10 in the fifth season)
- Tristan DuGray - Chad Michael Murray
- Town Troubadour - Grant-Lee Phillips
- Morey Dell - Ted Rooney
- Christopher Hayden - David Sutcliffe
- Sherry Tinsdale - Mädchen Amick
- Taylor Doose - Michael Winters
- Brad Langford - Adam Wylie
- Louise Grant - Teal Redmann
- Madeline Lynn - Shelly Cole
Episode list
Season 1 (2000-2001)
- Pilot
- The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton
- Kill Me Now
- The Deer-Hunters
- Cinnamon's Wake
- Rory's Birthday Parties
- Kiss and Tell
- Love and War and Snow
- Rory's Dance
- Forgiveness and Stuff
- Paris is Burning
- Double Date
- Concert Interruptus
- That Damn Donna Reed
- Christopher Returns
- Star-Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers
- The Breakup, Part 2
- The Third Lorelai
- Emily in Wonderland
- P.S. I Lo...
- Love, Daisies, and Troubadours
Season 2 (2001-2002)
- Sadie, Sadie...
- Hammers and Veils
- Red Light on the Wedding Night
- Road Trip to Harvard
- Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy
- Presenting Lorelai Gilmore
- Like Mother, Like Daughter
- The Ins & Outs of Inns
- Run Away, Little Boy
- The Bracebridge Dinner
- Secrets and Loans
- Richard in Stars Hollow
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket
- It Should've Been Lorelai
- Lost and Found
- There's The Rub
- Dead Uncles and Vegetables
- Back in the Saddle Again
- Teach Me Tonight
- Help Wanted
- Lorelai's Graduation Day
- I Can't Get Started
Season 3 (2002-2003)
- Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days
- Haunted Leg
- Application Anxiety
- One's Got Class and the Other One Dyes
- Eight O'Clock at the Oasis
- Take the Deviled Eggs...
- They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?
- Let the Games Begin
- A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving
- That'll Do Pig
- I Solemnly Swear
- Lorelai Out of Water
- Dear Emily and Richard
- Swan Song
- Face-Off
- The Big One
- A Tale of Poes and Fire
- Happy Birthday, Baby
- Keg! Max!
- Say Goodnight, Gracie
- Here Comes the Son
- Those are Strings, Pinocchio
Season 4 (2003-2004)
- Ballroom & Biscotti
- The Lorelais' First Day at Yale
- The Hobbit, The Sofa and Digger Stiles
- Chicken or Beef
- The Fundamental Things Apply
- An Affair to Remember
- The Festival of Living Art (aka Love Me or Louvre Me)
- Die, Jerk
- Ted Koppel's Big Night Out
- The Nanny and the Professor
- In the Clamor and the Clangor
- A Family Matter
- Nag Hammadi Is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels
- The Incredible Shrinking Lorelais
- Scene in a Mall
- The Reigning Lorelai
- Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' The Twist (aka Gilmore Girls Gone Wild)
- Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom!
- Afterboom
- Luke Can See Her Face
- Last Week Fights, This Week Tights
- Raincoats and Recipes
Season 5 (2004-2005)
- Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller
- A Messenger, Nothing More
- Written in the Stars
- Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too
- We Got Us a Pippi Virgin
- Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant!
- You Jump, I Jump, Jack
- The Party's Over
- Emily Says Hello
- But Not as Cute as Pushkin
- Women Of Questionable Morals
- Come Home
- Wedding Bell Blues
- Say Something
- Jews and Chinese Food
- So... Good Talk
- Pulp Friction
- To Live and Let Diorama
- But I'm a Gilmore!
- How Many Kropogs to Cape Cod?
- Blame Booze and Melville
- A House is Not A Home
Music
Music plays a large part in the show. Most of the main or recurring characters on the show have had their musical tastes revealed at one time or another. Lorelai is into '80s music like The Bangles, while Rory and Lane have more eclectic tastes. Even Jackson is revealed to have a penchant for Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Bangles made a guest appearance in the Season 1 episode "Concert Interruptus" while The Shins guest-starred in the Season 4 episode "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist". The original score to the show is performed by Sam Phillips.
The theme of the show is performed by Carole King and Louise Goffin. "Where you Lead" was originally written as a song about a woman who will follow a man anywhere and because of this, King is said to have refused Amy Sherman-Palladino's request that she re-record the song for the show. However, the idea Palladino presented of remaking the song as a song about a close mother/daughter relationship appealed to King, who has a close relationship with her daughter Louise and she re-recorded the song with Louise for the show. King has guest starred as the proprietor of the local Stars Hollow music shop, first making an appearance in the Season 2 episode "Dead Uncles and Vegetables".
In 2002, a soundtrack to the show was released by Rhino Records, entitled Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls. The CD cover of the album features anecdotes from show producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino covering the large part music has played in their lives.
External links
- Gilmore Girls official site (http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/gilmoregirls/home.jsp?fromtout=homepage_a)
- Gilmore Girls at The WB's website (http://www.thewb.com/Shows/Show/0,7353,||159,00.html)
- Review of Gilmore Girls (http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/nov02/nov11/2_tues/news3tuesday.html)
- A Review of Season One (http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/gilmoregirlsseason1.php)
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- The Gilmore Girls TV Show (http://www.crazyabouttv.com/gilmoregirls.html) page at Crazy About TV contains trivia, a plot summary, cast list, and episode titles for the series.
Unofficial web sites
- GilmoreGirls.org (http://www.gilmoregirls.org/)
- Stars-Hollow.org (http://www.stars-hollow.org/)
- Gilmore Guide (http://www.gilmoreguide.com/)
Fan sites
- [2] (http://luisdile02.blogspot.com)
- [3] (http://beba2009.blogspot.com)de:Gilmore Girls