Footnotes to the TV series
RICHARD: You never went to college, let alone an Ivy League college.
Lorelai did go to college. She studied Business part-time at the community college in Hartford as a mature student. Presumably Richard means that she never went to college straight from school. It does sound as though he is saying Lorelai’s education just doesn’t count, which is pretty hurtful, considering how much work it took for her to graduate while working full time.
RICHARD: Oh, I told him all about you and your grades and how well you were doing at Chilton. Well, of course, he insisted on seeing you. He wouldn’t let me off the hook.
RORY: But I haven’t applied to Yale.
RICHARD: Oh, I told him that you weren’t finished deciding, that you were being very picky. I think that made him want you even more. They can be very competitive, these Ivy League schools. He’s expecting you at three. Oh, look, it’s three now. Well, we timed this perfectly now, didn’t we?
While showing them the Administration Building, it transpires that Richard’s real reason for bringing Rory to Yale is to get her an interview with the Dean of Admissions, who turns out to be a good friend of Richard’s (shades of Chilton, where Headmaster Charleston was a good friend of Richard and Emily’s).
Lorelai is outraged by Richard’s manipulation, but he has a point. Lorelai has got a bee in her bonnet about Rory going to Harvard and nowhere else, and this was the only way that Richard believed he could give his granddaughter a chance to go to Yale if she wanted to. As he points out, Ivy League colleges are very competitive, and it would be easier for Rory to get into Yale as a legacy, because her grandfather went to Yale.
Although Emily didn’t know what Richard planned to do, she does try to defend him from Lorelai. She points out that if Rory got accepted by Yale, it might make her more attractive to Harvard, which I don’t think Lorelai would have thought of by herself.
[The four of them are walking through the administration building]
RORY: Wow.
LORELAI: Lions and tigers and bears . . .
RORY: Oh my.
Lorelai and Rory are referencing the film, The Wizard of Oz, previously discussed, and a touchstone for the show.
In the film, Dorothy is walking through a dark forest with the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, and they become frightened by noises in the foliage. The Scarecrow wonders if there might be animals in the forest, and the Tin Man suggests there are lions and tigers and bears, which the others nervously repeat.
Dorothy gasps, “Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my”. Pretty soon the three of them are skipping through the forest chanting, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my”.
In fact, the very next creature they meet is a lion – the Cowardly Lion, who soon becomes their companion on the quest to see the Wizard of Oz.
Lorelai is suggesting that the administration building is intimidating, like the dark, scary forest, and that they need to keep their spirits up, like Dorothy did in the film. Like Dorothy, Rory will soon be confronted by a “scary” unexpected interview, although like the Lion, it won’t really hurt her.
The scenes in the administration building were also filmed at Pomona College in Los Angeles, in the Bridges Auditorium.
RICHARD: You know, one day, when your mother was ten years old, she ran into my office and she said, “I’m going to go to Yale, just like you.” She actually took my diploma out of my office and put it in her room. She wouldn’t give it back to me for about six months.
Rory learns from Richard that Lorelai’s original dream for college, was not Harvard, but Yale. This was when she was ten years old, and presumably before her teenage years drove a wedge between father and daughter.
Richard’s point could not be clearer – if Rory is hanging onto a dream of going to Harvard to fulfil what Lorelai wanted, then that wasn’t even Lorelai’s original plan. And if Lorelai changed her mind, then Rory can too.
RICHARD: See that? That is my favorite building in the whole school … Because that’s where the Timothy Dwight Dining Hall is.
This is the dining hall of Timothy Dwight College, a residential college at Yale University which opened in 1935. Presumably it was Richard’s old college. The dining room at the college is a replica of a New England town hall with maple tables and captain’s chairs. According to Richard, they serve a delicious pot roast (one of Rory’s favourite meals), although that no longer seems to be on the menu.
EMILY: We were going to meet my girlfriends who were going to drive me back to school.
RICHARD: And you were angry with me.
EMILY: Because you wouldn’t commit to plans for the holidays.
RICHARD: Because I was going to invite you to the house to meet my parents after I proposed.
EMILY: Which I didn’t know because you gave me no indication whatsoever.
RICHARD: Anyway, you had just finished calling me a spineless jellyfish.
EMILY: And you got very annoyed, reached in your pocket, pulled out a box and said, “Here.”
RICHARD: And you opened the box, showed no emotion, slammed it close and said, “Fine.”
Richard and Emily describe the circumstances of their engagement at Yale University, which happens during a fight while sitting next to a trash can, with the engagement ring being offered and accepted in a fit of temper. It’s somehow reminiscent of screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.
They were both in collage at the time – when Emily says she was going back to “school”, she means her own college. They must have got engaged at the end of the year, because they were arguing about their “holiday” (ie Christmas) plans at the time. Yet they were still able to sit outside, so it can’t have been freezing or snowing – surely they would have mentioned that if it had been the case? They may have got engaged in November, before Thanksgiving – around this time of year, in fact, although neither of them mentions that the date is close.
RORY: Grandpa, that art gallery was amazing. Thank you.
RICHARD: Yale has one of the finest collections of British art in the world.
Richard refers to the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the UK. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward.
It was established in 1966 by a gift from philanthropist and Yale alumnus Paul Mellon, together with an endowment for operations of the centre, and funds for a building to house the works of art. It is across the street from the Yale University Art Gallery [pictured], and no doubt Richard has taken Rory there as well – this could well be the amazing art gallery she speaks of.
The Yale University Art Gallery is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses an encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on Yale’s campus. It was founded in 1832, after patriot artist John Trumbull donated more than 100 paintings of the American Revolutionary War.
It turns out that the art gallery at Yale was one of Richard’s favourite places to bring girls on dates, in order to impress them with his knowledge of art.
RORY: I’m sure you and I can figure out a fun thing to do while they’re off at dinner, some cool road trip thing.
LORELAI: In New Haven? … Sweetie, have you ever been to New Haven? … Take a look at the coffee pot tomorrow before I clean it, that’s New Haven.
New Haven is a city in Connecticut on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound, and is part of the New York City greater metropolitan area. With a population of around 130 000, it is the third-largest city in Connecticut. One of the first planned cities in America, founded by Puritans in 1638, it is the home of Yale University, New Haven’s biggest employer and taxpapyer, and an integral part of the city’s economy. It bills itself as the “Cultural Capital of Connecticut”, and is also known as “The Elm City” because of the trees planted during the first public tree planting program in America.
Lorelai’s view that New Haven is a complete dump is one shared by quite a few people. The city has the fastest growing income inequality in the US, so there’s a lot of poverty, a high crime rate, and apparently it has a problem with littering and dumping trash illegally. Another view is that it is a cool, diverse city that’s far more interesting than most of Connecticut.
RICHARD: You know, you might wanna come with me next week … To Yale … Oh, I don’t mean to the dinner, that would be boring for you, but you might enjoy seeing the school … Your mother could come too. It would be a fun little adventure … We could drive down, have a little roadside snack, get there about noon. Have a little tour, and then the two of you girls could go off and have fun, and the old folks can have a somber little dinner. I think you’d love to see it. I certainly would love to show it to you.
While in the kitchen together, Richard takes the opportunity to privately invite Rory to Yale University, to take a tour of the university. He couches this is in terms of them having a fun day out together, and him wanting to share his alma mater memories with Rory, but of course he’s hoping she might be persuaded to apply to Yale.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 