Sesame Street

RORY: You know I bet you can tell a lot about people from their garbage … It talks about their eating habits, what they read, do they go to concerts, are they responsible, do they pay bills on time?
LORELAI: Yeah, you do know honey, that garbage doesn’t actually talk at all unless it’s on Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is an educational children’s television program for preschoolers which has been broadcast since 1969, and combines sketch comedy, short films, and puppetry using Jim Henson’s Muppets; humour and pop cultural references are used to help communicate its messages. One of the most popular and widely-watched children’s shows, it has won multiple awards, including more than a hundred Emmys and several Grammys – more than any other children’s program.

Lorelai is most likely referring to Oscar the Grouch, a green Muppet who lives in a trash can and periodically pops up to complain about something, usually ending by telling everyone to leave him alone and get lost.

G.I. Jane

RORY: Sorry [about making them walk through an alley to get to the diner].
LORELAI: No, this is good. This is like G.I. Jane but we get to keep our hair.

G.I. Jane is a 1997 action film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Demi Moore as Jordan O’Neill, the first woman to undergo a brutal training program for a fictional military team similar to the real-life Navy SEALs. The character shaves her head so she will fit in with the other recruits.

G.I. Jane did quite well at the box office and received mixed reviews; Demi Moore received Worst Actress at the Razzie Awards. Of course Lorelai is over-dramatising to the hilt by comparing strolling through an alley one morning with a weeks-long gruelling training program complete with mental and physical torture.

Rory’s Dilemma

As Rory and Lorelai walk to Luke’s for early coffee and breakfast, Rory explains that they can’t walk past Doose’s Market in case Dean is working there (she can’t remember if he is, but earlier he told her their anniversary dinner had to be on Friday as he was working on Saturday night). They can’t walk past the high school in case Dean is playing football, and they can’t walk down Peach Street because that’s where Dean’s house is.

The unique configuration of Stars Hollow means that the only three routes to Luke’s Diner are now cut off from them and they have to walk through an alley to get to breakfast, as staying in and getting their own coffee and breakfast is apparently just not possible.

The real question is why they are walking at all – they have a car, and don’t they have a lot of things to buy, not to mention taking all their stuff to the recycling centre? How are they managing all that on foot?

Footloose

RORY: Some people like getting up early.
LORELAI: You lie.
RORY: No, they do it voluntarily …
LORELAI: Ha! Jump back!
RORY: Excuse me?
LORELAI: Kevin Bacon, Footloose, reaction to the no dancing in town rule is revealed to him by Chris Penn, brother to Sean, sage to all.

Footloose is a 1984 musical film directed by Herbert Ross, and starring Kevin Bacon as a Chicago teenager who moves to a small town and discovers it has banned dancing and rock music. In the film, his character says, “Jump back!” when his new friend in town, played by Chris Penn, explains to him about the no dancing rule. (Chris Penn, who died in 2006, was a brother of actor Sean Penn, but I don’t know how he was a “sage to all”).

Footloose was the #7 film of 1984. Despite mixed reviews, it is generally held to be cheesy good fun, and has been turned into a stage musical, and had a remake in 2011.

Lorelai jokingly compares her shock at learning that some people get up early, even on Saturday mornings, to the shock Kevin Bacon’s character feels at discovering that an entire town has banned dancing.

Audiovisual Club

RORY: I mean, Harvard is hard to get into, and I don’t know why I even spend my time thinking about anything else.
LORELAI: Because you have a pulse, and you are not the president of the Audiovisual Club.

An Audiovisual Club was one in American high schools where children learned how to become proficient in using microphones, film, slide projectors, VCRs, and other audiovisual devices, often becoming assistants to library and teaching staff when they needed that equipment.

They’ve become more or less obsolete since the 1980s, or evolved into IT Clubs or Media Clubs, but the stereotype remains of an Audiovisual Club being made up of extremely geeky students who belong to the A.V. Club, often as a way of hiding from bullies. They feature in TV series set in the 1980s, such as Freaks and Geeks [pictured] and Stranger Things.

Lorelai is remembering back to her own school days in the 1980s. Rory is perhaps too diplomatic or too depressed to tell her mother that her school doesn’t have an A.V. Club.

Sad Movies

Lorelai suggests a number of sad movies they could rent so that Rory can wallow in her grief.

Love Story is a 1970 romantic drama directed by Arthur Hiller, and based on the best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Erich Segal, who also wrote the screenplay. The story is about a wealthy Harvard student named Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) who falls in love with a working-class Radcliffe student named Jennifer (Ali McGraw). Despite his family’s opposition, Oliver and Jennifer marry, but unfortunately she soon dies of a terminal illness.

Love Story was the #1 film of 1970 and remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time, but was panned by critics. It is considered to be one of the most romantic films ever made.

The Champ is a 1979 sports drama directed by Franco Zefferelli, a remake of a 1931 film directed by King Vidor. It’s about an ex-boxing champion named Billy (Jon Voigt), who has custody of his young son T.J. (Ricky Schroeder).

Little T.J.worships his father, who he calls “The Champ”, and Billy begins working on a comeback to earn more money for him. T.J.’s mother Annie (Faye Dunaway) comes back into his life; now wealthy, she wants to regain custody of her son. Billy wins his fight, but unfortunately he dies from his injuries in front of a distraught T.J. The Champ received poor reviews, but is considered to be the saddest movie in the world.

An Affair to Remember is a 1957 romance directed by Leo McCarey, and is a remake of McCarey’s 1939 film Love Affair. It is about a painter named Nickie (Cary Grant) who meets a woman named Terry (Deborah Kerr) on a transatlantic ocean liner. They fall in love, even though both of them are involved with other people.

Arranging to meet atop the Empire State Building, Terry is unfortunately mangled in a car accident on her way there, and ends up in a wheelchair. Nickie believes she has rejected him, as Terry doesn’t want him to know she is disabled. It isn’t a tragedy and ends on quite a hopeful note. The #20 film of 1957, it is considered one of the most romantic films of all time.

Ishtar is a 1987 adventure comedy directed by Elaine May, and starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as two untalented singer-songwriters who get caught up in political unrest while on tour in North Africa. Shot on location and massively over-budget, Ishtar is an infamous box office failure that was panned by critics and earned May a Worst Director at the Golden Raspberry Awards; she never directed another film.

Lorelai includes the film as a joke, to suggest that they might rent Ishtar in order to cry over how bad it is – indeed, Ishtar quickly became regarded as the worst film ever made. However, since the film was released on Blu-Ray on 2013 its reputation has been rehabilitated to some extent, gaining a cult following, and praise from film makers such as Martin Scorcese and Quentin Tarantino.

Old Yeller is a 1957 family drama produced by Walt Disney, and based on the 1956 award-winning children’s book of the same name by Fred Gipson. Set in Texas in the late 1860s, it is about a boy named Travis (Tommy Kirk) and his faithful hound, a golden retriever cross named Old Yeller. Unfortunately, Old Yeller gets rabies and Travis has to shoot him.

Old Yeller was the #4 film of 1957, and warmly praised as sentimental family film. It’s a film that Americans, especially baby boomers, remember with fondness as having one of the most tear-jerking scenes ever, and has become something of a cultural icon. Lorelai wonders if it might be more of a crying film for guys; it’s definitely one for animal lovers, which Rory doesn’t seem to be.

Rory’s List

Throughout the series, it was often said that Rory had a strong need to make lists and organise her thoughts. In this case, her list is an obvious coping tool to get some structure in her life and handle her anxiety about breaking up with Dean.

What we know was on the list:

Garden hose
Three garden weasels (remember Rory’s system for buying three highlighters at once?)
Soap dish for the kitchen sink
Brown extension cord
Plug in air-freshener for Rory’s bedroom
Food shopping (unless the pizza was their reward that Rory promised for doing all their chores)
Take recyclables to the recycling centre

“Saturday is the day of rest”

LORELAI: Rory, my heart. It is Saturday, the day of rest.
RORY: Sunday’s the day of rest.

In Jewish and Christian tradition, the Sabbath is the “day of rest”, which is supposed to mimic the rest that God took after creating the universe, as told in the first chapters of Genesis. Jews and some Christian faiths (such as Seventh Day Adventists) believe Saturday is the day of rest, while most Christians think it is Sunday.

Docks

RORY: Do you want to wear docks or sneakers?

Dock shoes, also known as boat shoes. These canvas or leather slip-on shoes have rubber soles that can provide grip on a wet deck. They were invented in 1935 by Paul A. Sperry of New Haven, Connecticut, and designed to be used on boats. They became used as casual footwear in the 1970s, and have been fashionable since the 1980s.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

This is the play that the Stars Hollow Elementary School is currently performing; Rory suggests that she and Lorelai might see it as a reward for getting all their Saturday morning chores done. It doesn’t seem as if they ever did, however.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a black comedy by American playwright Ed Albee, first staged in 1962. It is about a middle-aged couple named George and Martha who have a volatile relationship. A drunken night they spend with a young couple named Nick and Honey reveals a poignant secret in George and Martha’s marriage.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won the Tony Award for Best Play, while its Broadway stars Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill won Best Actress and Best Actor. It was successfully adapted to film in 1966 with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the lead roles.

Needless to say, it is completely inappropriate as a play for elementary school children to even watch, let alone take part in. Not only is it unusually long with complex dialogue to memorise, but the characters are utterly vicious to one another. It heavily features alcohol use/abuse, and discusses death, murder (including murder of children by their parents and vice versa), and sexual themes, including infidelity.

It seems too much even for quirky Stars Hollow, so perhaps Rory used it jokingly as a hypothetical activity. It’s definitely a joke by the writer (Amy Sherman-Palladino).