Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI (referring to the double twin wedding): It’s like a really snooty Doublemint commercial.
Doublemint is a peppermint-flavoured chewing gum made by Wrigley. For a long time, their advertising used identical twin sisters as models in their advertisements. The longest-running Doublemint Twins were Linda Ryan Puffer and Lisa Winters Cox, who appeared in six commercials together between 1985 and 1995.
MRS. SHALES (to Jackie and Jessica): Now go away. My Advil is wearing off.
Advil is a brand name for Ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication used to treat pain, fever, and inflammation. In the US it is available over the counter.
LORELAI: Um, Drella? Drella! Please, a little softer.
DRELLA: Hey, do I look like I got Panasonic stamped on my ass?
Panasonic is a Japanese electronics corporation. Harpist Drella (Alex Borstein) is saying that she’s not a stereo whose music can be turned up and down at someone’s whim.
LORELAI: This is a jumbo coffee morning. I need coffee in an IV.
LUKE: I can give you tea and a Balance bar.
Balance bar is the brand name of a nutritional energy bar, first released in 1992, and adhering to the principles of the Zone Diet expounded by Dr Barry Sears, promoting a balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. In 2000, the company was bought by Kraft Foods.
EMILY: This is a very special girl. You take good care of her.
HEADMASTER: We’ll do our best, Emily.
LORELAI: Oh, God. Rory is not gonna be a problem. She’s totally low maintenance, you know, like a Honda. You know, they’re just easy, just . . . nice office.
Honda is a Japanese company which makes cars and other vehicles. Hondas are well known for being cheap to run and with low repair costs. Given how expensive Rory’s school is, Rory’s “running costs” are not really that low.
LORELAI (referring to Dean): Is he dreamy?
RORY: Oh, that’s so Nick at Nite.
Nick at Nite is the programming block that broadcasts every night on the Nickelodeon channel, appealing to a crossover audience of teens and adults. It is notable for showing reruns of old television programs, several of which are later revealed to be ones that Lorelai and Rory (the target demographic) watch regularly. This may be why Rory connects the 1940s teen slang “dreamy” with Nick at Nite: she may have heard it on old TV shows.
SOOKIE: Oh, God, I killed a Viking. Oh, you should fire me, or make me pay the cost of a new stove out of my paycheck.
LORELAI: Well, whatever you want.
SOOKIE: I can’t afford a new stove! Those things are expensive.
Viking make premium cooking appliances, including gas stoves and ovens. A standard Viking stove will set you back around $15 000 today, so Sookie is not kidding that she can’t afford to replace the one she damaged out of her own funds.
DEAN: Lorelai. I like that.
RORY: It’s my mother’s name too. She named me after herself. She was lying in the hospital thinking about how men name boys after themselves all the time, you know, so why couldn’t women? She says her feminism just kind of took over. Though personally I think a lot of Demerol also went into that decision.
Demerol is a brand name for Pethedine, a synthetic opioid medication and the most common narcotic pain relief given in US hospitals during childbirth.
Lorelai’s choosing to give her daughter her own name is another suggestion that she hoped Rory would be a “do-over” version of herself.
SOOKIE: I’ll make cookies [to celebrate Rory getting into Chilton]. Protestants love oatmeal.
Sookie has a number of eccentric beliefs in regard to food, and this seems to be one of them. The reason for her statement is something of a mystery to me, unless she is thinking of Quaker Oats, whose logo has a man dressed in 18th century Quaker clothing to represent simplicity and honesty. (The company was not founded by Quakers, and never had any connection with the religion).
The interesting part is that her saying this seems to imply that Sookie herself is not a Protestant, although this is never confirmed in the show.
Gilmore is a Scottish and Irish surname which means “servant of the Virgin Mary”. A very apt name for a show which revolves around motherhood, and maternal relationships.
Alternative titles for the show were The Gilmore Girls, and The Gilmore Way, which Lauren Graham thought sounded like a method of natural birth. Eventually Gilmore Girls was decided on. The font for the title card is Solid Antique Roman.
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino chose the name Gilmore after their bank, the Gilmore Bank in Los Angeles. It’s a family-owned community bank operating since 1955, and proud of their friendly customer service where everyone knows your name. That kind of cosy hometown environment must have seemed perfect for a show all about family and community.
There’s an odd sort of logic too, that the money they made from Gilmore Girls went straight back to Gilmore Bank!
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 