Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: Get your books or I’m going home.
JESS: Wait there. [does magic trick]
At the end of the trick, Jess presents Rory with an apple by sleight of hand. It’s an apple for the teacher, but also a potent symbol of sexual temptation – Jess is the cunning serpent in the Paradise of Stars Hollow. Although Rory receives it with a bashful smile, clearly charmed, she never takes a bite from the apple – she’s a virginal Eve, not ready to give into temptation.
JESS: Well, hurry – a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste is the marketing slogan of the United Negro College Fund, adopted in 1972, and one of the most widely recognised advertising slogans in the US. Despite its name, the UNCF has scholarships open to people of all ethnic backgrounds, although the majority of recipients are African-American.
This is something said as a joke which is all too true. On some level, Jess must realise that he is letting his good mind go to waste, or that it is being wasted.
JESS: I just can’t wait for that learning to begin. Hey, are we gonna do some of those Schoolhouse Rock! songs?
Schoolhouse Rock! is a series of short animated educational musical films that aired during Saturday morning children’s programs on the ABC network from 1973 to 1984, with a revival between 1993 and 1996 (when Rory and Jess were aged 9 to 12). Themes covered grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. Soundtrack albums and songbooks were released as tie-ins.
Jess consistently equates formal education with something dated and childish, but I think he actually would learn better if the facts were presented as rock songs!
RORY: Just don’t answer the phone.
LORELAI: Hello, I get calls there, too. I’m not Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? yet, thank you very much.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962 psychological horror-thriller film directed and produced by Richard Aldrich, and based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. It stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as an ageing former child star named “Baby Jane” Hudson, who torments her paraplegic sister Blanche, a former Hollywood star, in an old Hollywood mansion.
The film was a box office success. At the time, it received mixed reviews, but as time has gone on, it has been almost universally acclaimed.
In the film, Jane suspects that her sister is going to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital, and she removes Blanche’s phone from the bedroom, cutting her off from the outside world. This is what Lorelai is referring to when she complains to Rory that she receives calls on the phone as well.
RORY: Listen, just in case, and I don’t think he will, but if Dean calls, will you tell him I’m with Lane? ….
LORELAI: How come I have to lie to Dean?
Lorelai balks at lying to Dean, and suggests to Rory that if she feels as if she needs to lie to Dean about tutoring Jess, then maybe she shouldn’t be tutoring him. Yet when Rory lost her bracelet, Lorelai encouraged her to lie to Dean. Has she realised the error of her ways, or is she simply being sulky and stubborn, and trying to stop Rory spending the evening alone with Jess?
Lorelai says that if Rory needs to lie about Jess, maybe she shouldn’t tutor him. She never considers saying that if Rory is too frightened to be honest with Dean, then maybe she shouldn’t be with him.
LORELAI: Egg cream? Now, I never had an egg cream but it sounds just disgusting enough to be fabulous.
An egg cream is a cold soda fountain drink made from milk, carbonated water, and flavoured syrup (usually chocolate or vanilla). Despite the name, there are no eggs or cream in it. The egg cream originated at the end of the 19th century among Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in New York City.
KIRK: It’s not exactly Babe, it’s more like Babe 2 …Same pig, harder edge.
Kirk references Babe: Pig in the City, a 1998 comedy-drama adventure film that is the sequel to Babe, previously discussed, and has the same director and most of the same cast. The story focuses on the journey of the pig Babe (now voiced by Elizabeth Daily), and Farmer Hogget’s wife Esme, in the fictional city of Metropolis. The film, which is noticeably darker in tone and setting compared to the first film, received poor reviews, and was a box office bomb.
KIRK: No, I’m sorry, I have the wrong person. Who’s the guy who directed all those Facts of Lifes? … Asaad Kelada, sorry. In my soul I know I am Asaad Kelada.
Asaad Kelada (born 1940), Egyptian-born American director who was educated at the Yale School of Drama. He has directed many television sitcoms, including Rhonda, The Facts of Life, Family Ties, and Who’s the Boss?
The Facts of Life, previously discussed.
KIRK: But as much as the mail letter delivered and the DSL line installed and the latest J. Lo flick rented fills me with a deep sense of pride, in my soul I am Akira Kurosawa.
LORELAI: Seven Samurai, great movie.
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Japanese filmmaker who directed thirty films in a career spanning five decades. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in history. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Seven Samurai, a 1950 epic samurai drama film, co-written and directed by Kurosawa. Taking place in 1586, it follows the story of a village of farmers who hire seven rōnin (samurai without masters) to fight off bandits who are stealing their crops after the harvest. At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made in Japan, and was the #2 domestic film in Japan in 1950. It is consistently rated as one of the greatest films ever made, and remains highly influential, one of the most referenced films in cinema.
KIRK: Don’t get me wrong, I love the blue collar work. I enjoy the plight of the everyman. But as much as the mail letter delivered and the DSL line installed and the latest J. Lo flick rented fills me with a deep sense of pride …
Although something of an inside joke, this does provide confirmation that the “Mick” who was going to install a DSL line for Lorelai was in fact Kirk. Perhaps he got the job using a fake name, or stole/was given someone else’s name tag?
It also confirms that Kirk is doing all his jobs simultaneously, as he refers to delivering mail, installing DSL lines, and working at the video store as all jobs he is currently doing. Although he mentions it now, we don’t see Kirk working as a mailman until a later season.
Kirk’s numerous jobs are a tribute to Amy Sherman-Palladino’s father Don Sherman, who likewise took on a multiplicity of jobs to support his family while working as a comedian.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 