Footnotes to the TV series
TODD: There’s this scene [in Beethoven] where this little dog is running around with a huge cabbage in it’s mouth. Oh man, it’s classic! I shot my Dr Pepper right outta my nose!
Dr. Pepper is the brand name of a fizzy soft drink introduced in 1885, so it’s the oldest soft drink brand in the US at just one year older than Coke. It has a distinctive yet unclassifiable fruity, spicy flavour.
Todd tells Lane that his favourite movie is Beethoven, and Lane incredulously asks, “The one with the dog?”.
Beethoven is a 1992 family comedy film directed by Brian Levant and written by John Hughes (as Edmond Dantès). It is about the antics of a big friendly St Bernard dog named after the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, and the way he protects the family who have adopted him. The movie received tepid reviews but was enough of a commercial success to spawn numerous sequels and a television series.
Todd describes his favourite scene as the one where a little dog is running around with a cabbage in its mouth. During the movie, Beethoven’s family help him escape from an experimental lab run by an evil vet, and they release all the other dogs who have been held there. As the evil vet’s henchmen chase the dogs through a marketplace, a Golden Retriever puts an entire cabbage in his mouth, and spends the rest of the scene hanging onto it.
It’s one of those blink-and-you’d-miss-it funny background scenes, so this actually provides a glimmer of hope in regard to Todd’s intelligence. He clearly has a keen eye for detail (although Golden Retrievers are not really “little dogs”; maybe he means it in an affectionate way.) In the Gilmore Girls universe, perhaps even the dimmest people have a knowledge of obscure movie trivia!
SOOKIE: I know. I’m just – Oh, I’m so nervous.
LORELAI: You’re nervous? You don’t have some guy staring at you like he’s Cher and you’re the kid from Mask.
Mask is a 1985 biographical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It is based on the life of Roy “Rocky” Dennis (1961-1978), a boy who suffered from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare disorder commonly known as lionitis. It causes calcium to build up in the skull, disfiguring the facial features and shortening the life expectancy.
Rocky is played by Eric Stoltz, and Cher plays the role of Rocky’s mother, Rusty. Unlike Lorelai’s description of Cher as “staring” at “the kid”, Rusty was a supportive mother who encouraged Rocky to live the life he wanted, and fought for him to receive equal treatment – the exact opposite from what’s she’s getting from Rune. Perhaps she just means that Rune sees himself as physically normal, and Lorelai as abnormal.
Mask was a commercial success and received excellent reviews from critics. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.
SOOKIE: What was Rory, eight?
LORELAI: I believe she was.
SOOKIE: Oh God, that mud pie fiasco haunted me for a year! I mean, hers looked just like mine. Of course I used, you know, homemade chocolate cookies, bittersweet ganache, and she used well, mud. You know, but they did look damn similar.
Ganache is a glaze, icing, or pastry filling made from chocolate and cream with butter added to it; it has a smooth and shiny appearance. It originated in Paris in the mid-19th century.
This amusing anecdote from Rory’s childhood took place before Lorelai and Rory moved into their current house. Rory presumably made the realistic-looking mud cookies while visiting Sookie’s home, or at the inn.
TODD: If I major in gym, I only have to take four classes my senior year.
LANE: Oh, cool
[Pan to Rory and Dean]
RORY: Gym?
DEAN: We work on our bikes together. He’s got the good tools.
Lane is clearly frustrated by Todd’s apparent lack of intelligence, but their conversation is also making Rory (who has been eavesdropping) doubt Dean’s intellectual capacity. Having Todd as a best friend probably devalues Dean as a boyfriend in Rory’s eyes, despite his excuse that Todd has all the good tools to work on their bikes together.
This comment also reveals that Dean actually does have a motorbike, even though he told Lorelai that he didn’t in Kiss and Tell. Lorelai didn’t believe him, showing that she has excellent instincts. If the motorbike is still not in working order, or wasn’t then, he may have convinced himself he was technically telling the truth.
LANE: Wh-what kind of music do you like?
TODD: I don’t know – whatever.
LANE: Fugazi?
TODD: What?
LANE: The band on your shirt.
TODD: Oh. Huh, pretty cool picture.
LANE: You don’t know what’s on your shirt?
TODD: It’s my sister’s.
Fugazi is an American punk rock band formed in 1987, consisting of Ian MacKaye, Guy Picciotto, Joe Lally, and Brendan Canty. Their first album was released in 1990, and their most recent album from Lane’s perspective is End Hits (1998), which looks to be featured on the tee shirt Todd is wearing. The band has been on hiatus since 2003.
Fugazi are famous for not selling or licensing merchandising, creating an enormous market for bootleg tee-shirts. Presumably Lane knows that the shirt Todd is wearing is unofficial, but can’t see the point of discussing it with him.
LANE: And the amazing thing is, all these girls are screaming and none of them are getting the joke. He’s playing the character of a rock star. I mean, Beck is a genius and all these stupid girls are screaming at him just because they’re buying into the rock star image. I love Beck. I understand Beck. And the Foo Fighters – gods. I mean, have you heard the acoustic version of Everlong? I can’t even talk about it you know? Hey, you know who I’ve really gotten into lately? The Velvet Underground. Oh and Nico – she’s amazing. Depressing scary German chick. I have the CD if you wanna borrow it sometime.
Lane rather nervously attempts to make conversation with her crush, Todd by giving him a list of some of her favourite musical artists in the desperate hope of finding something they might share in common.
Beck Hansen (born Bek Campbell in 1970), known professionally as Beck, is an American alternative rock singer, songwriter, music producer, and musician. First performing in the mid 1980s, he rose to fame in 1994 due to his single Loser, releasing his first album the same year. His most successful album is Odelay, released in 1996. It’s amusing to think that all the “stupid girls” probably also believe they “understand” Beck.
Foo Fighters is an American rock band founded in 1994 by Dave Grohl, the drummer for Nirvana; he conceived of it as a project for himself after Nirvana dissolved following the death of frontman Kurt Cobain. Their 1997 song Everlong is from their second album, The Colour and the Shape; it went to #3 on the alternative music charts and is regarded as a classic rock anthem. Dave Grohl played an impromptu acoustic version of the song on Howard Stern’s radio show in 1997, and it proved so popular that an acoustic version was recorded for radio use in 1998 and became more famous than the original. The band is now more likely to play the acoustic version live.
The Velvet Underground is an American avant-garde band formed in 1964 by founding members Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Angus MacLise. They were first active between 1965 and 1973 and were once managed by Andy Warhol who used them as his house band. They had little commercial success and met with critical indifference, but they were highly influential in the development of punk and experimental rock, and are now regarded as one of the greatest musical acts of all time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. The Czech writer and activist Václav Havel, earlier mentioned, was a big fan of theirs, and coincidentally or not, a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Nico was the stage name of Christa Päffgen (1938-1988), a German singer, songwriter, musician, model, and actress. When Andy Warhol began managing The Velvet Underground he suggested they use Nico as a singer, which they reluctantly agreed to. She sings lead vocals on three songs and backing vocals on another for the band’s 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Initially ignored, it is now regarded as one of the greatest albums in music history. This seems to be the CD that Lane is talking about.
This is the movie that Rory, Dean, Lane, and Todd go to see on their double date at the Black-White-Read Bookstore.
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 science fiction film directed by Nathan H. Juran (credited as Nathan Hertz), and with Allison Hayes in the title role. It is about a beautiful but rather unstable socialite who increases to a gigantic size after contact with a mysterious alien figure. She uses her new stature to take revenge on her cheating husband.
Made on a very low budget, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a technically “bad” sci-fi movie that is fun to watch, and has become a camp classic.
The joke is that they are watching a film about a giant woman while Lorelai is on a double date with Jackson’s cousin Rune, who thinks she is too tall, and acts as if she is freakishly huge.
(A movie date is not really suitable for Lane’s purposes, since she wants to talk to Todd and get to know him better. I’m guessing Lane and Rory chose the cinema as a way to hide from Mrs. Kim – if they went for coffee at the diner or just strolled around town together, there was a higher chance of being spotted. Luckily, Lane only needed a couple of very brief chats with Todd to learn all that she needed to know about him).
LORELAI: What is that – Rune?
RUNE: What do you mean?
LORELAI: I mean, where did Rune come from?
RUNE: I’m from out of town, I thought Jackson told you?
LORELAI: He did tell me, I meant the name “Rune”. You just don’t meet a lot of Runes, right?
Rune is a Scandinavian name, coming from the Old Norse for “secret lore”; it is the same as Old Norse rune letters and rune stones used for divination and meditation. It’s a rare name in the US so Lorelai is interested in its origins. (The Scandinavians would pronounce the name ROO-ne, whereas in English it’s said ROON). Rune’s father is also named Rune, so perhaps the family has some Scandinavian ancestry).
RUNE: That’s Lorelai?
JACKSON: Yes.
RUNE: Did you see how tall she is?
Lauren Graham (Lorelai) is 1.75 m tall (just under 5 foot 7 and a half inches), while Max Perlich (Rune) is 1.62 m tall (around 5 foot 3). There’s a height difference in Lorelai’s favour – somewhat increased by heels – but Rune ridiculously compares her to a basketball player, an East German maid, and a freak of “bearded lady” proportions.
(The East German comment refers to the decades-long systematic doping of East German athletes with steroids and testosterone for the purposes of cheating, leading to some impressively large and strong athletes. The program ended in 1989 with the fall of communism, but unfortunately the men and women involved – some of whom were only eight years old at the time – are still experiencing physical and mental health disorders because of the doping. Lorelai is in the right age bracket to be an East German maid who was doped as an athlete in the 1980s: picture shows 1980s East German athlete Marita Koch, who holds the world record for the 400 m, partly due to steroid use).
Lorelai rarely has any trouble attracting men, so having a date openly and constantly insult her physical appearance must be a bizarre experience for her.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 