KIRK: He kicked my dog when I was a kid … Toto was always different after that.
Yet another reference toThe Wizard of Oz. Toto is the name of Dorothy’s little dog in both the book and the film. In the film, Toto was a female dog played by a brown Cairn Terrier named Terry. In the original book, Toto is only described as a small, black, scruffy male dog, but the illustrations depict what looks like a Yorkshire Terrier. It’s possible Kirk’s pet dog Toto, a female, was likewise some sort of small fluffy terrier.
Uncle Louie is made even more unpleasant by not only kicking a dog, but probably a very small dog.
The Stars Hollow Revolutionary Battle Re-Enactors tell Luke that they don’t want to attend Louie’s funeral the next day because they hated him.
Louie always had a scowl on his face, and never said anything nice. He blew smoke from his cigar into people’s faces, and then spit after each puff. He repeatedly hit on Cy’s (crank in the hat) wife, until she lost interest in her favourite soap operas. He kicked Kirk’s pet dog Toto, and after that her mind was affected, so that she couldn’t fetch any more, but just lay down and went to sleep. He never participated in town functions, and when the battle re-enactors gathered (including his own brother, William), he’d throw rock and small tools at them. Unmarried and without children, he was a loner, and only got meaner with age.
When he retired to Florida, the town threw a big party to celebrate (somehow Luke never heard about this big party). Cy made love to his wife that night as never before, and Kirk’s dog gave a happy bark and died, as she was quite elderly by that stage.
TROUBADOUR: ‘Cause you left me twistin’ for a long time before you did, Taylor, and it didn’t feel good. I even wrote a song about the experience.
LORELAI: Oh, I heard it. It’s called “Taylor Left Me Twistin’.”
The Troubadour writes songs based on his own experiences in Stars Hollow, and Lorelai and Rory have listened to this one, even offering the Troubadour encouragement, feedback, and advice as to what to add to the song. Apparently they, and perhaps others, are on friendly speaking terms with the Troubadour, even though in the show people just walk right by him. We never see him perform this song in the street, or anything else so personal, but that might happen off camera.
TAYLOR: Wait a second, wait a second! You there, when Lady Godiva here wanted to be town troubadour over you, I stood by your side.
Lady Godiva, in Old English Godgifu (died between 1066 and 1086) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, married to Leofric, Earl of Mercia. According to legend she rode naked, covered only by her long hair, through the streets of Coventry to protest an oppressive tax her husband had imposed on his tenants. The legend dates to the 13th century and is not considered plausible by historians.
This is another long-haired character referenced by Taylor in regard to the Second Troubadour.
[Picture shows Lady Godiva, a 1897 painting by John Collier].
Charlie Rose, television interview and talk show, hosted by journalist Charles “Charlie” Rose (born 1942). Rose interviewed thinkers, writers, athletes, politicians, entertainers, business people, leaders, scientists, and fellow journalists. It was broadcast on PBS from 1991 to 2017, only coming to an end when Rose was accused of sexual harassment. The show was then replaced by one hosted by Christiane Amanpour. Transcripts of the show were made available online after broadcast, and in fact many of them still are.
Mac and Tosh are the names of the two Goofy Gophers in the Warner Bros cartoons, created by Bob Clampett, and originally appearing in the 1947 short film The Goofy Gophers. The cartoon features the two gophers making frequent raids on a vegetable garden while tormenting the guard dog. They both speak in high-pitched stereotypical upper-class British accents.
They may have been intended as a spoof on the Disney chipmunk characters, Chip ‘n’ Dale, and their mannerisms and speech were patterned after the 1900s comic strip characters Alphonse and Gaston, drawn by pioneering cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper, where the jokes came from the ridiculous over-politeness of the French characters as they got on with each task. Another suggestion is that they were influenced by the British film Great Expectations, based on the Dickens novel, which was released in 1946, the year before the Goofy Gophers were created.
The pair’s dialogue is peppered with such over-politeness as “Indubitably!”, “You first, my dear,” and, “But, no, no, no. It must be you who goes first!”. They also tend to quote Shakespeare and use humorously long words.
The gophers only received names in a 1961 episode of the TV show, The Bugs Bunny Show – an obvious pun on the word mackintosh, meaning a raincoat.
RORY: What are you doing here anyhow? This is a town meeting for people who participate in and care about the town.
JESS: Well, Corky’s Country Cavalcade on public access was pre-empted, so I thought I’d check out the next best thing.
Corky’s Country Cavalcade, a fictional rural television program Jess has sarcastically invented to suggest that the town meeting is the closest real world parallel. Coming to a town meeting might mean that Jess does feel more connected to Stars Hollow since Rory has nagged him into helping out at the diner more at a time of family crisis, or that he wants to lend Luke some support. Or he might just want another chance to see Rory … his expression says he does. (Remember when Dean turned up to a town meeting just to see Rory?).
In North America, pre-empted is used in broadcasting to mean that a regular scheduled program has been interrupted or replaced.
TAYLOR: Harry’s House of Twinkle Lights has been an integral part of this town for twenty years, so it’s only right that we honor his retirement. So I hereby designate next Tuesday, Harry the Twinkle Light Man from Harry’s House of Twinkle Lights Day.
One of the barely-plausible niche businesses in Stars Hollow, about to close due to the owner’s retirement. Apparently there are so many festivals in Stars Hollow requiring twinkle lights that a store can remain in business for twenty years (since 1982) just providing for the town’s twinkle light needs. It’s not quite believable, but this is a town that has a store just for cat-related gifts, and a dozen that only sells porcelain unicorns!
It seems as if nobody is willing to buy the business or take it over, perhaps suggesting that in these decadent times, more and more townspeople are simply buying their twinkle lights from discount chain stores. The end of an era, with a tiny bit of magic leaving Stars Hollow with Harry’s retirement. But he will be sent off in style, with a festival on the following Tuesday entirely in his honour.
A town meeting takes place in this episode, with the order of business being the retirement of Harry from Harry’s House of Twinkle Lights, and the issue of whether the Second Troubadour has the correct permit to run a farmer’s market in the park across the road from Doose’s Market.
Town meetings are held on the second Thursday of the month, so it must be 11th April.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 