Dean and Donna Reed

Dean makes himself unpopular with Lorelai and Rory when he says it seems nice that Donna Reed likes cooking for her family and that she seems happy to do so. Even the most ardent Dean fan must feel at this point that he and Rory are not perfectly suited to each other. He receives short shrift from the two Gilmores, and in the end is stifled into silence, with a “Hey, I’m not saying anything”.

Apart from showing a serious discrepancy in the values of Rory and Dean, it also demonstrates how Lorelai and Rory don’t allow the men in their lives to have any say in things. When Dean first came to a movie night at their house, he was basically told he wasn’t allowed to choose the movie, and had to run any suggestion past Lorelai (as he picked an inappropriate movie, it didn’t seem unjustified at the time).

But now he isn’t even allowed to voice an opinion on what the Gilmores are watching. It raises the question of what role Dean has in Rory’s life: is he just there to bring pizza, look handsome, kiss her, tell her she’s pretty, phone her fifty times a day, and agree with everything she says? Even Donna Stone got to do a lot more than that!

“Written by a man”

 

Lorelai says that the scripts for The Donna Reed Show were written by a man, which Rory endorses. Although most of the writers on the show were male, there were female writers too, including Barbara Avedon (creator of Cagney & Lacey) [pictured], Helen Levitt, Erna Lazarus, Peggy Chantler Dick, Kay Lenard, Mathilde Ferro, Jacqueline Trotte, Sheila Lynch, and Janet Carlson.

Amusingly, That Damn Donna Reed was written by a man – Daniel Palladino. There may be a slight suggestion here that just because a man writes a script for female characters doesn’t automatically make it anti-woman or oppressive to them, just as a script by a woman isn’t necessarily a feminist text.

Sister Suffragette

LORELAI: She’s [Donna Reed] medicated.
RORY: And acting from a script.
LORELAI: Written by a man.
RORY: Well said, Sister Suffragette.

Sister Suffragette is a song from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, written by Richard and Robert Sherman. Sung by Glynis Johns in the role of Mrs. Winifred Banks, it is a pro-suffrage song as Mrs. Banks is a supporter of votes for women. The song’s chorus ends with the words, “Well done, Sister Suffragette!”.

Mary Poppins was loosely based on the children’s book of the same name by Australian author P.L. Travers, and directed by Robert Stevenson, with Julie Andrews in the title role. The story is about a magical nanny who comes to care for two children in Edwardian London, and improves the lives of all the family.

Mary Poppins was the #3 film of of 1964 and received universal acclaim from critics. It won five Academy Awards, including a Best Actress for Julie Andrews, and is generally seen as Walt Disney’s crowning achievement. It was released on home video three times during the 1990s, suggesting that Lorelai may have bought it for Rory the previous decade.

Lorelai and Rory’s Commentary

As they watch The Donna Reed Show, Lorelai and Rory make up their own snarky dialogue to accompany the episode. This is highly suggestive of the American comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which originally ran from 1988 to 1999.

The premise of the show is that the host has been kidnapped by mad scientists and imprisoned on a space ship to watch bad movies until it drives him crazy. To keep his sanity, the host builds sentient robots to act as his companions, and makes sarcastic comments on the film he is forced to watch. This may be one of the inspirations for Lorelai and Rory’s behaviour.

” … and nothing happens”

RORY: My favorite episode –
LORELAI: Mm, mm … tell me, tell me.
RORY: – is when their son, Jeff, comes home from school and nothing happens.
LORELAI: Oh that’s a good one. One of my favorites is when Mary, the daughter, gets a part-time job and nothing happens.

Television episodes where “nothing happens” is also criticism that could be levelled at Gilmore Girls, and has been (for example, at A.V. Club). Maybe your favourite episode is the one where Lorelai’s house gets termites, and nothing happens, or the one where Lane dyes her hair purple, and nothing happens – or even when Rory dresses up as Donna Reed, and nothing happens.

Like The Donna Reed Show, the world of Gilmore Girls is one where interpersonal relationships are more important than dramatic outer events. Even when something quite exciting does happen, the characters have often been returned to the status quo by the end by the episode, or only subtle changes have occurred.

Donna Reed

DEAN: So, who’s Donna Reed?
LORELAI: You don’t know who Donna Reed is? The quintessential ’50s mom with the perfect ’50s family?
RORY: Never without a smile and high heels?
LORELAI: Hair, that if you hit it with a hammer, would crack?

Donna Reed, born Donna Mullenger (1921-1986) was an American actress and producer, with a career lasting over 40 years, and roles in more than 40 films. She is well known for her role as Mary Bailey in the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life, and in 1953 won Best Supporting Actress playing Lorene Burke in From Here to Eternity.

The Donna Reed Show made her a household name and earned her a Golden Globe for Best Female TV Star, and several Emmy nominations. She also appeared on television in The Love Boat, and as Miss Ellie Ewing on Dallas from 1984-85, her final role.

As Lorelai and Rory only talk about Donna Reed in regard to her role on The Donna Reed Show, it suggests that they are ignorant about her life and career otherwise, or simply discount it. You can’t help but feel that the writer is setting them up as straw feminists.

The Donna Reed Show

This is the television program that Lorelai and Rory watch with Dean, and is the basis for the episode’s title.

The Donna Reed Show is a sit-com starring Donna Reed as middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz played opposite her as Donna’s paediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen were their teenaged children, Mary and Jeff.

Although Lorelai and Rory consider the show hopelessly outdated and sexist, episodes occasionally examined issues such as women’s rights (not with any radical outcomes, it must be said). But Donna Stone was a more assertive mother than had previously been shown on television, and it was the first sitcom to focus on the mother as the central figure in a domestic comedy. It helped pave the way for shows such as Roseanne and even Gilmore Girls (both shows that Amy Sherman-Palladino worked on).

The Donna Reed Show was attacked by feminists in the 1970s as presenting an idealised view of domesticity, so Rory and Lorelai’s criticisms feel really behind the times. It’s strange that they are giving feminist opinions from a generation ago as if they are clever and new – maybe they really do watch too many old movies?

The Donna Reed Show originally aired from 1958-1966, and was one of the most popular programs of 1963-64. It was only cancelled when Donna Reed became tired of doing the show.

Reruns of The Donna Reed Show were shown on Nick at Nite from 1985 to 1994. It wasn’t on TV in 2001, and hadn’t yet been released on DVD, meaning that the only way Lorelai and Rory can be watching the show is because they taped it off TV ages ago and are still watching it on video at least seven years later. Despite their mocking of the show, they must really be huge fans! (Again, how a show that hadn’t been on TV in nearly a decade is a relevant target for their attacks is a puzzle).