Tag: Backstage

French Tourists

MAN: Bonjour Monsieur. Vous êtes francais? Vous parlez francais? … Parlez vous fracais?
….
MICHEL: Bonjour messieurs. Je m’appelle Michel. Ce soir pour vous aider.
MAN: (laughs) Vous avez faît un blague. Très drole! Très drole Michel!

The man says, “Hello sir. You are French? You speak French? … Do you speak French?”. After pretending he doesn’t and arguing with Lorelai, Michel eventually replies, “Hello sirs. My name is Michel. I am here to assist you this evening”. The man says, “You have made a joke. Very funny! Very funny, Michel!”.

The fact that Michel loathes French people seems to be another hint that he is not actually from France – the actor playing Michel, Yanic Truesdale, is a Canadian-American from Montreal. Truesdale has noted that the accent he used on Gilmore Girls is certainly not French, although readily accepted as such by Americans.

Jeep

LORELAI: So what does the deer look like? Huh? Does it have any distinguishing marks – besides the word Jeep imprinted on it’s forehead?

Jeep is a brand of American automobile, made by Chrysler; their range is in sport utility vehicles and off-road vehicles. The original Jeep was made in 1941 for the military, and was the primary four-wheel drive vehicle used by the Allies; after the war they were produced for civilian use. Lorelai’s car is a 2000 Jeep Wrangler (although in the show it is said to be a 1999 model).

A couple of episodes ago, a connection was made between Lorelai and Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard when Lorelai chose to wear denim shorts to Chilton. Another thing they have in common is that they both drive Jeeps – but Daisy’s was white, while Lorelai’s is tan. Gilmore Girls was filmed on several of the same sets at Warner Brothers as The Dukes of Hazzard – Stars Hollow High School was previously the Hazzard County Courthouse, for example.

After Gilmore Girls run ended, Lorelai’s Jeep was auctioned off in 2011, and sold to the highest bidder. It was bought by someone from Deep River, Connecticut – a small town with a selectman, a strong sense of community, a day devoted to colonial history, a quaint main street, and a town square with a gazebo. In fact, it’s gone to somewhere rather like Stars Hollow!

Artie Shaw

DRELLA: I am the Artie Shaw of harpists.

Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was an American musician who grew up in Connecticut, widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of all time. He led one of the most popular big bands through the 1930s and ’40s, and is best known for his 1938 recording of Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine.

A serious artist, Shaw was a perfectionist who was known for forming bands, working to make them successful, and then quickly disbanding them. In 1954 he stopped playing the clarinet, explaining that he had taken the instrument as far as it could go. After World War II, Shaw gradually withdrew from the world of music to pursue a writing career.

This comment may explain why we never see Drella again after this episode – like Artie Shaw, she simply felt she had achieved the pinnacle of success as a harpist and stopped playing. Of course, given her constant rudeness to staff and customers, it is quite believable that Lorelai sacked her. Artie Shaw was apparently a very difficult person as well.

The actor portraying Drella, Alex Borstein, was originally cast as Sookie on Gilmore Girls, playing her in the original, unaired pilot. Borstein was unable to continue in the role as she was still contracted to the sketch comedy show MADtv. Although busy voicing Lois Griffin on Family Guy, Borstein managed to appear as various characters on Gilmore Girls from time to time.

Mr. Medina

When the scene changes to Rory’s English Literature class, the teacher is now Mr. Max Medina (Scott Cohen). However, when Rory first started at Chilton two episodes ago, her English Literature teacher was Mr. Remmy (John Billingsley).

There is no attempt made to explain this away, such as Mr. Remmy suddenly leaving and Mr. Medina taking his place, or Mr. Remmy having filled in temporarily while Mr. Medina is sick (Mr. Medina says they’ve been studying Shakespeare for the past three weeks). It is just retconned as Mr. Medina having always been the English Literature teacher and Mr. Remmy never existing.

You can try to explain it as Mr. Remmy being the English teacher and Mr. Medina taking the English Literature class, except that if you add up all Rory’s subjects that she takes in her first semester, that would give her too many classes to attend. It also doesn’t quite gel with Rory being behind in her reading for Mr. Remmy’s class, and then getting a D in Mr. Medina’s class because she was behind in her reading.

The decision seems to have been made to match Lorelai up with Rory’s teacher, and Mr. Remmy wasn’t going to cut it as a love interest, thus entering Mr. Max Medina. The best-selling novel The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot had just been released in October 2000, which featured a teenage girl living with her single mother, and the mother began a relationship with the heroine’s Algebra teacher. Either this was an influence on Gilmore Girls, or it’s an example of zeitgeist.

Actor Scott Cohen does have some experience at the front of a school classroom: in his twenties he spent some time as a substitute teacher, teaching music to kindergarten children at an elementary school in Queens, New York. He was offered a permanent position, but had to turn them down so he could concentrate on his acting career. He and Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai, were already friends before they starred in Gilmore Girls as a couple.

Tutu

LORELAI: OK, I need more tulle here. I need the feeling of a major tutu, OK?

A tutu is a traditional ballet dress, often made from tulle, which is a fabric made from lightweight fine netting.

Amy Sherman-Palladino herself was a ballet dancer, and had the chance to turn professional. She became a writer instead, but there are numerous references to ballet in Gilmore Girls, and her show Bunheads was based around the world of ballet.

Country Club

In real life the main country club in Hartford is the Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford. It does look like the sort of place where Richard Gilmore would feel at home.

It doesn’t have a rose garden, which Emily told Richard to be sure to show Rory at the club. However, Elizabeth Park in West Hartford has a famous historic rose garden and is less than ten minutes drive from the golf club. While this probably wasn’t what the scriptwriter had in mind, in real life it would be possible to take Rory golfing and to see a rose garden in the same morning.

Exterior shots of the golf club were filmed at Brookfield Farms in Thousand Oaks, California – the same place exteriors of the Independence Inn were filmed.

Mick (Sean Gunn)

The man who comes to install the DSL line at Lorelai’s house has a name tag that says Mick, but Sean Gunn will later play regular Stars Hollow character Kirk Gleason. The truth is that Kirk did not yet exist in the scriptwriter’s (Amy Sherman-Palladino’s) mind, but some fans have argued that it isn’t out of character for Kirk to have simply taken someone’s name tag and pretended he always worked for the internet company.

Paris goes through Rory’s academic file

Paris (Liza Weil), Louise (Teal Redmann), and Madeline (Shelly Cole) gain access to Rory’s academic file before she even meets them. It is unclear whether something about Rory has Paris spooked, or whether she stalks every new student this way. The smooth running of their plan argues long practice, suggesting the latter, and it’s the first indication of Paris’ intense insecurity and competitiveness.

Liza Weil was originally considered for the role of Rory, and when Alexis Bledel was chosen for the part instead, the character of Paris was created for Liza.

Insurance

RORY: So, Grandpa, how’s the insurance biz?
RICHARD: Oh, people die, we pay. People crash cars, we pay. People lose a foot, we pay.

Richard Gilmore was written as having a job in the insurance industry because Hartford is known as “The Insurance Capital of the World”. Many insurance companies are based in the city or have major branches there.