Month: March 2022

Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller, Producers

RORY: Yeah. Oh, and later I pictured you marrying Matthew Broderick, and we lived in New York in this great apartment in the village and we would talk about his Ferris Bueller days.
LORELAI: Just think how easy Producers tickets would be to get.

Matthew Broderick (born 1962), actor who began his career in theatre in the 1980s, winning a Tony Award for his role in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs. His first starring role in a hit film came in the 1983 WarGames, where he had the lead role as a teenage hacker.

Broderick had the lead role as the charming school truant in the 1986 teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off [pictured]. Directed by John Hughes, the film is a joyful love letter to the city of Chicago, and about three teenagers seeking the best “day off” from school ever devised. It was the #10 film of 1986, and praised by critics. It is considered one of the greatest teen movies of all time.

The Producers is a musical with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, adapted from Brooks’ 1967 film of the same name. It is about two theatrical producers who plan to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a Broadway flop. Their scheme becomes complicated when their play is an unexpected success. The Producers opened on Broadway in 2001 and closed in 2007. Lorelai is apparently having trouble getting tickets for the musical. It went on tour in the US in September 2002, arriving at the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford in August 2004, but Matthew Broderick was not in the touring version.

Rory imagines living in New York in the village with her mother and Matthew Broderick. In 1997, Broderick married actress Sarah Jessica Parker. They live in the West Village in New York City, suggesting that it was after this date that Rory fantasised about Matthew Broderick as her stepfather, so around the age of 14-15. (Broderick and Parker actually spend more time at their second home in Ireland).

Rory’s imaginary stepfathers include a man-child who lives in a fantasy world, and an actor famous for playing both a slacker and a scammer. Not very different from her real father, then …

Pee-Wee Herman

RORY: I also pictured you with Pee-Wee Herman.
LORELAI: Wow.
RORY: Yeah. We lived in his playhouse and we’d be talking to Chairry and Captain Carl would be walking by.

Pee-Wee Herman, fictional character portrayed by comedian Paul Reubens (born Paul Reubenfeld 1952). The child-like Pee-Wee Herman developed as a stage act and then appeared in a feature film before becoming the host of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, an Emmy-winning children’s show that was broadcast from 1985 to 1991.

Chairry was a puppet armchair, voiced by Alison Mork, which would hug Pee-Wee when he sat down in her. Captain Carl was one of a host of human characters in the show; he was a sea captain played by Saturday Night Live comedian and actor, Phil Hartman (1948-1998). The show had a lot of big stars on it, and guest appearances by a host of celebrities.

Rory would have watched the show as a preschooler, apparently looking to the child-like Pee-Wee Herman for a possible father substitute.

Ricki Lake Show

RORY: I feel like I’m on the Ricki Lake show.
LORELAI: Go Rory, go Rory.

Ricki Lake, popular daytime talk show which aired from 1993 to 2004, hosted by actress Ricki Lake, who had first gained fame appearing in John Waters’ films such as Hairspray. The show, aimed at a Gen-X audience (like Lorelai), focused on guest’s personal problems and “true confession” style interviews.

Rory feels as if she’s being interviewed about her feelings about her father as if on Ricki Lake. Lorelai chants, “Go Rory, go Rory”, because the audience would chant “Go Ricki, go Ricki” to encourage the host. Lorelai and Rory seem to be fans of this trashy TV show.

“Rabbit boiling on the stove”

LORELAI: Oh, well, fine. Just took Mom a whole five minutes before she self-combusted and left the room in tears … She freaked out that you were with Sherry …
RORY: Well, what did she think, that you were gonna come home and find a rabbit boiling on the stove?

A reference to the film Fatal Attraction, previously discussed.

In the film, the stalker, Alex, takes revenge on the married man she had an affair with, and who is now ignoring her. After several threats and following him around, Alex breaks into his house, takes his young daughter’s pet rabbit from its hutch, and boils it on the stove in the kitchen, to be found by Dan’s traumatised wife. From this film comes the phrase “bunny boiler”, to mean a dangerously obsessed spurned woman.

[The picture is a still from the film, but from just before the bunny reveal, as it’s really quite gruesome].

“She was seriously considering single parenthood”

RORY: And the past couple of years she hasn’t even dated anyone unless she thought that for sure it could be a lasting relationship, and she’s got some specific goals now concerning children.
LORELAI: Oh, here we go.
RORY: She wants at least two, and before she met Dad she was seriously considering single parenthood.

Later events will seriously call into question this supposed strong desire Sherry has to have children.

Bruce Springsteen

LORELAI: What’s her music taste?
RORY: Big Bruce Springsteen fan. Seen him like twenty times.
LORELAI: Blue collar roots or is she just slumming?
RORY: Oh, her father owned a shoe store and her mom taught kindergarten.

Bruce Springsteen (born 1949), singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released twenty studio albums, many of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life.

During a career that has spanned five decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours in length. He is nicknamed “the Boss”.

Springsteen had a lengthy, top-grossing tour over 1999 and 2000, the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour. He played five concert dates in Boston in August 1999, giving Sherry several recent opportunities to see her favourite singer live. In 2002, Springsteen began his The Rising Tour, performing in Boston twice in October of that year. Sherry has probably already bought tickets.

Sephora

RORY: She’s a very cautious driver. She doesn’t roll through stop signs, doesn’t speed, she always signals before she turns.
LORELAI: Hm. Commendable, but not the person I want driving our getaway car.
RORY: What are we robbing?
LORELAI: Sephora. We had it all planned out.

Sephora is a French multinational retailer of beauty and personal care products, founded in Limoges in 1970 and now based in Paris. Since 1997, it has been owned by luxury conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (commonly known as LVMH). Sephora opened its first store in the US in New York City, in 1998.

The nearest Sephora store to Lorelai and Rory is the one at the mall in West Hartford. Presumably this is where their imaginary heist would take place.

Sparklers, Kicks

LUKE: You don’t seem your chipper self.
LORELAI: I brought some sparklers. I’ll light them later and do some kicks.

Sparklers are small hand-held fireworks that give off bright coloured flames and sparks. They are especially popular with children, and are responsible for 16% of firework injuries in the US, and 57% of firework injuries in children.

Lorelai saying she’ll be doing some kicks while she holds sparklers sounds like a reference to The Rockettes, a precision dance company founded in 1925, and since 1932, based at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. They are famous for their high kicks, and especially known for both their Christmas show, and annual performance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Luke immediately picks up on Lorelai’s low mood, and tries to cheer up by offering to play bagel hockey with her. He might act grumpy, but Luke doesn’t like seeing Lorelai unhappy, and his response is to try to return her to her normal chirpy disposition.