Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI: Hey, did you notice when he gets mad he gets taller? … The day I told him I was pregnant, twenty-four feet tall.
And yet in “Rory’s Birthday Parties”, Lorelai told Rory that on the day she finally told her parents she was pregnant, “it was the only time they ever looked small to me”.
RICHARD: This has nothing to do with me, it’s for the children!
CHARLESTON: But they’re not the ones who are causing the public scene right now, you are.
Yet another public meltdown by a disappointed Gilmore when they don’t get their own way. Richard has been stressed and unhappy for at least the past seven months, and Rory’s group not winning the Business Fair after all their hard work is the final straw.
RICHARD: I have been in the business world for thirty-five years.
Richard has been in business since 1967, about a year before Lorelai was born.
RICHARD: So how are we doing?
RORY: Paris is practically spiking the football then doing a backflip.
Another sporting metaphor. In American football, it is common to perform a celebration after making a touchdown, such as “spiking the ball” – throwing the ball at the ground. The manoeuvre is credited to Homer Jones of the New York Giants in 1965.
Doing a backflip as a celebration after a touchdown is another possibility. The NFL has at various times been strict and then more relaxed about these celebrations.
PARIS: Did you see the brilliant hose hook idea over at table five? A hook on your belt for your garden hose. There’s a Buster Keaton routine waiting to happen.
Joseph “Buster” Keaton (1895-1966), actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films of the 1920s, in which his trademark was performing comedy stunts with a stoic, deadpan expression – his stunts were so physical he once broke his neck without noticing. The General (1926) is regarded as his masterpiece [pictured]. Keaton received an Academy Honorary Award in 1959.
PARIS: We are going to win.
RICHARD: Yes, we are.
RORY: Okay, the two of you need to take a time-out.
In sport, a time-out is a halt in play which stops the game clock and allows the coach to communicate with the team. In American football, asking for time-outs is a major part of strategy, extending the time a team has to score. Rory is saying that Richard and Paris need to take a break from their overconfidence.
[Picture shows the signal players give when calling for a time-out]
PARIS: Okay, I swept the room and I have to tell you, all sad. I think we’re a lock.
RORY: Really? I actually thought the locker alarm was pretty good.
“We’re a lock”, American slang meaning “we’re a sure thing, we’ve got this”. It seems to originate from American football, and to date to the 1980s.
Rory seems to have a much more realistic idea of their chances of winning than Paris does, although she looks pretty confident as well.
MICHEL: Now she knows I’ve been hiding something from her. Suddenly she’s asking questions. Why did I leave France at eighteen? Where do I go at night? Who are my friends? What do they do? Where do they live? Why have I chosen this career? On and on and on and on – it never ends! I can’t stand it, she’s a complete pain. She won’t stop. I took a six hour bath last night just to escape the incessant nagging. You did this to me! You turned my Giselle into a mother, and I hate you for it! I hate you very, very much! [leaves]
SOOKIE: So, feel better now?
LORELAI: Yeah, I do, thanks.
Lorelai is jealous of Michel and Giselle’s relationship as both a daughter, unable to spend time with Emily as Michel does with his mother, but more importantly, jealous and possessive as a parent. She has to ruin things for Michel because only Lorelai and Rory can have the “perfect” mother-and-child-yet-best-friends relationship. Sookie’s question suggests that she understands Lorelai’s feelings (although perhaps doesn’t approve of them), and has seen this coming.
MICHEL: We talk about clothes and food and Posh Spice and David Beckham and that is all.
Victoria Beckham (born Victoria Adams in 1974) was one of the Spice Girls, previously discussed, where her stage name was “Posh Spice”. After the Spice Girls split up in 2001, she began an unsuccessful solo recording career, and even before that had made her debut as a fashion model. She has gone on to become a recognised style icon.
She married English football star David Beckham (born 1975) in 1999 – he retired from sport in 2016. They have four children, and together are worth an estimated ₤355 million. At this period, their image, lives and marriage were under intense media scrutiny and a constant source of gossip. They are still married.
LORELAI: I don’t understand, Michel. You and your mother seem to have the perfect relationship.
MICHEL: Yes, because I tell her nothing. We keep all subjects light and fluffy. We talk about clothes and food and Posh Spice and David Beckham and that is all. Nothing of value, nothing of substance.
A warning to Lorelai that her “perfect relationship” with Rory likewise only works on the most superficial level. Like Michel and Giselle, their “best friends” act revolves around fashion, food, and pop culture – it’s all getting coffee, watching movies, and eating snacks together. Once anything serious comes up, they can have quite serious arguments, and even fights.
Rory actually keeps a lot from Lorelai – she hasn’t discussed her changing feelings about Dean, or her efforts to understand her feelings about Jess, for example. As Rory gets older, there will be more and more things she keeps to herself, until there is a complete rift between mother and daughter.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 