High Noon

LORELAI: Oh no, what’s this?

LUKE: Looks like high noon in Stars Hollow.

High Noon, 1952 Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The plot, which occurs in real time, focuses on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide whether to face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife, a Quaker pacifist.

High Noon won four Academy Awards, including a Best Actor for Gary Cooper. It is revered as an iconic film and an early example of the revisionist Western, because for most of the action it focuses on a moral and psychological dilemma, rather than on gunfights and chases, and because the marshal’s wife, Grace Kelly, plays a pivotal role at the climax. It’s one of the most influential Westerns, its ending in particular inspiring numerous films.

Luke is referring to the way the mothers of Stars Hollow line up menacingly to confront Lorelai, in the same way that the gang of killers face down Gary Cooper’s character.

Lorelai’s Careers Talk Goes Off Script

Lorelai begins giving her careers talk at Stars Hollow High, but it is almost immediately hijacked by students who are more interested in hearing about when she got pregnant with Rory, and whether she regrets it. You get the distinct impression that for these teens, Lorelai has long been a source of fascination (and probably of gossip), and they have been waiting for an opportunity to ask questions about her decision to keep Rory and commit to being a single mother.

Lorelai looks to Debbie Fincher for help, but receives absolutely none – it’s a supervised event organised by the PTA, and yet nobody steps in to ask the students to keep their questions only on the subject of Lorelai’s career, not her personal life. Lorelai could have said something along these lines herself, but she makes an attempt to answer their questions honestly, to show that she’s not ashamed. Unfortunately, she makes a bit of a mess of it – by the end she is very unwisely offering to take them all out for coffee to discuss her life in more depth. Boundaries, Lorelai!

One of the girls asking questions is Riki Lindhome (she’s the one with blonde pigtails), who would play the role of Juliet in later seasons of Gilmore Girls. At that time she had had a small role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She later got her big break in Tim Robbins’ hit play, Embedded, and was then cast in her first film role by Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby (2004). She’s gone on to have a successful career in film and television, and performs in a comedy duo called Garfunkel and Oates with Kate Micucci.

If I Only Had a Brain

[Rory and Lane are in the bathroom. Lane’s hair is bleached blonde.]

LANE: It’s weird.

RORY: Like straw.

LANE: I feel like I should be singing ‘If I Only Had a Brain.’

“If I Only Had a Brain”, a song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg, for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, previously discussed and frequently mentioned. In the film, it is sung by Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, imagining all that he could achieve, if he only had a brain instead of straw stuffing in his head (just as Lane feels that her bleached hair is like straw).

There seems be yet another dig at blondes here, that dyeing your hair blonde automatically makes you brainless.

“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”

LORELAI: Oh, we’re happy to be here, right?

LUKE: Yup, zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”, a song composed by Allie Grubel with lyrics by Ray Gilbert for the 1946 Disney film, Song of the South. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on the Uncle Remus stories adapted by Joel Chandler Harris, taking place in the Reconstruction era of the South, after the Civil War.

The song is sung by James Baskett in the film, who stars as Uncle Remus, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song, while Baskett received an Honorary Academy Award, making him the first male black performer to win an Oscar. Song of the South was controversial upon its release for its portrayal of African-Americans, and has remained so.

The song has very upbeat lyrics:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

Naturally Luke is being sarcastic.

Vin Diesel

LANE: Thinking about the last movie I saw. Vin Diesel was in it. Thinking about Vin Diesel now. Thinking about where Vin Diesel got the name Vin Diesel. Thinking about Vin Diesel’s mysterious ethnicity.

Vin Diesel, professional name of Mark Sinclair (born 1967), actor and producer. One of the world’s highest-grossing actors, he is best known for his role in the Fast & Furious film franchise, the first one being released in 2001. His professional name is taken from his mother’s maiden name, Vincent, and the fact that he is highly energetic.

His most recent film at this point was XXX, which came out in August 2002. Vin Diesel plays Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious athlete, turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. It was a commercial success and received mixed reviews. The film’s soundtrack made #9 on the album charts, and #1 on the soundtrack charts, which might have been a reason Lane wanted to see it. She presumably watched it during her summer vacation.

In a 2001 interview, Vin Diesel described himself as being of “ambiguous ethnicity” – Lane seems to be alluding to this statement. He was raised by his white mother and adoptive African-American father, but his biological father’s origins are a mystery, although reported to be part African-American. Vin Diesel has never met him, and says all he knows from his mother is that he “has connections with many cultures”. He added, “Italian, and a whole lot of other stuff”. (Wouldn’t a DNA test provide some answers?).

Diesel considers himself to be a person of colour, and made a film about his ambiguous ethnicity in 1995 called Multi-Facial. On film, he has played characters from a variety of ethnic backgrounds (Italian, Cuban, Jewish etc), and their ethnic background is never essential to the plot.

[Picture shows Vin Diesel in XXX]

“Got a package”

RORY: Got a package.

LANE: What’s that?

RORY: Oh, Jim Carrey says that in Ace Ventura.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a 1994 comedy directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey in the title role. Ace Ventura is an eccentric animal detective who must find the abducted dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team.

In the opening scene, Ace Ventura is disguised as a mail delivery man, wearing the brown UPS uniform, but the logo actually says HDS. As the credits roll, he throws and kicks a box marked “FRAGILE” around until it is rattling with what sounds like broken glass. When the man opens his door, Ventura says cheerily, “Got a package for you”.

In fact, the whole set-up has been a ruse to gain access to a dog in the man’s apartment, which comes to the front door, allowing Ventura to nab it while the man is filling out some paperwork Ventura has provided. The man abducted the dog, and Ventura has rescued it on behalf of its owner.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was made on a shoestring budget and became an unexpected commercial success, proving a hit with males aged 10 to 20. It received mixed reviews, and has been criticised for being homophobic and transphobic (and that was when it first came out, so I can’t even say it didn’t age well or that times changed). It did well enough to have a 1995 sequel, an animated TV series from 1995 to 2000, and a made-for-TV reboot in 2018.

Love Burns

The song Jess has playing when Lorelai is at Luke’s apartment.

“Love Burns” is the opening track of rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s 2001 debut album, B.M.R.C. Released as a single, it went to #37 in the UK the following year. The band were heavily influenced by classic English rock, and tended to do better in the UK than in their home country of the US.

The song’s lyrics speak passionately of Jess’ feelings for Rory, and the depth of his pain and anger caused by her neglect and rejection:

She cuts my skin and bruise my lips
She’s everything to me
She tears my clothes and burns my eyes
She’s all I want to see
She brings the cold and scars my soul
She’s heaven sent to me

Now she’s gone love burns inside me
Now she’s gone love burns inside me
Now she’s gone love burns inside me

Never thought I’d leave you like the way I do, yeah
Kiss my love and I wish you’re gone
You can kiss my love and I wish you’re gone
Never thought I’d leave you like the way that I do

Lorelai said in the pilot episode that bad boys have motorcycles. Even though it’s actually “good boy” Dean who has the motorcycle, Jess is still linked with them through the band. The band takes their name from Marlon Brando’s character’s biker gang in the 1953 film, The Wild One.

If Lorelai is listening to the song, it can’t make her feel any more comfortable about Jess. They would tell her he is still obsessed with Rory, and is furious about her. Lorelai has always said that Jess is a messed up, angry kid, and the lyrics are actually a little scary, as a reflection of Jess’ feelings.

Hello, Dolly!

The song that Lorelai sings in a Louis Armstrong voice to annoy Luke.

“Hello, Dolly!” is the title track to the popular 1964 musical of the same name, the song was written by Jerry Herman. It was first sung by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production, which opened to great success. Louis Armstrong‘s recording of the song was released shortly afterwards, which reached #1 in the US, ending The Beatles‘ streak of three chart-topping hits over fourteen weeks.

“Hello, Dolly!” is Louis Armstrong’s most commercially successful song. It won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1965, and Armstrong received the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Male. Louis Armstrong performed the song with Barbra Streisand in the 1969 film version of Hello, Dolly! [pictured]

Bohemian Rhapsody

LANE: Once, a guy in our town named Kirk was practicing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with his band, the Kirk Gleason Five, and my mom shut them down so fast that the band fled without their instruments and never came back for them. To this day, Kirk can’t listen to Queen without tearing up.

“Bohemian Rhapsody”, a 1975 song by English rock band Queen, previously discussed, released as a single from their fourth album, A Night at the Opera. Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it is a complex six-minute suite, one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s with mainstream appeal that to achieved widespread commercial success.

Initial critical reaction to the song was mixed, with the UK music press disdainful or indifferent. Several of them, even ones who disliked it, did predict it would be a hit, and it went to #1 in the UK, and several other countries. It went to #9 in the US. It is now one of the most revered rock songs in history, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004. It is consistently voted in by the public as a favourite song, and is regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” enjoyed renewed popularity after it featured in the 1992 comedy film Wayne’s World, and went to #2 in the US (most popular in the Netherlands at #1). Chances are that Kirk and his band discovered the song through the movie.

Zack and Brian

This episode is the first time we see Lane’s bandmates, Zack and Brian.

Zack is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the group, shown almost immediately to be a typical frontman, good looking and confident. He later becomes Lane’s boyfriend, then husband. Zack is played by Todd Lowe, who at this stage had had small roles in a few films, such as Where the Heart Is, and The Princess Diaries, and appeared in two episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger (once as a character named Zack!). Amy Sherman-Palladino used him again later in Bunheads, and he became best known for his role on vampire drama True Blood.

Brian is the bassist for the group, a little awkward and nerdy. He is played by John Carbrera, who is a friend of Sean Gunn who plays Kirk on Gilmore Girls; they attended the same theatre school in Chicago. At this stage Carbrera had had a few minor roles in TV shows such as CSI and NCIS. The previous year, he had won an award for his work in theatre. Recently, he has increasingly concentrated on screenwriting.

There have already been characters with these names on Gilmore Girls – Zach was Lorelai’s classmate at community college in Season 2, and Brian was one of the waiters at the Independence Inn in Season 1.