DEBBIE: Uh, well, we’ve had some suggestions, but do you know anyone?
LORELAI: Well, you know, my friend the Sultan of Brunei is so hard to pin down.
The Sultan of Brunei is the head of state and head of government as prime minister in Brunei, a country on the north coast of the island of Borneo in South East Asia, almost completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It regained its independence from the UK in 1984.
The Sultan of Brunei since 1967 is Hassanal Bolkiah (born 1946), the 29th Sultan. He is one of the last absolute monarchs in the world. He has been ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the people, with a net worth of around $20 billion. Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, he is the second-longest reigning current monarch.
LORELAI: I’m a success, who’d have thought? … From rags to riches . . . I wonder why Larry King hasn’t called.
Larry King, born Lawrence Zeiger (1933-2021), award-winning television and radio host. A radio interviewer in the Miami area in the 1950s and ’60s, he gained prominence in 1978 as the host of The Larry King Show, an all-night nationwide call-in radio program. From 1985 to 2010 he hosted the nightly interview TV program, Larry King Live on CNN. He continued hosting TV interview shows until his death at the age of 87.
Lorelai hasn’t really gone from rags to riches … she’s gone from riches to rags to a moderately comfortable independent existence.
[Picture shows Larry King on CNN in 2002 with former president Bill Clinton]
DAVE: There’s no way you’re gonna become our Pete Best. There’s no way.
LANE: You’re sweet.
Randolph Peter “Pete” Best (born 1941), English musician known for being the drummer for The Beatles, dismissed immediately before The Beatles found worldwide fame. Fired in 1962 in favour of Ringo Starr, he started his own group, The Pete Best Four, and later joined other bands. He is sometimes referred to as “the fifth Beatle”.
Note how quickly Lane finds a way to tell Dave he is sweet … Maybe Dave touching her arm supportively in this scene had an effect on her.
ZACK: Dude, Lawrence Welk cranked louder than this.
Lawrence Welk (1903-1992), accordion player, bandleader, and host of The Lawrence Welk Show on TV from 1951 to 1982. His style of music became known as champagne music, that is, light and bubbly. He had numerous hits, the most popular being “Calcutta”, which went to #1. For many years, he was a byword for “lame old people music”.
RORY: Christiane Amanpour spends half of her life standing in foxholes in third world countries, and she has a husband and a kid. And she was on C-SPAN last week getting some award, so if she and her husband can make it work, we can.
DEAN: So we’ll have access to the CNN jet?
Christiane Amanpour, previously discussed as Rory’s idol. From 1998 to 2018 she was married to James Rubin (born 1960), former Assistant Secretary of State and spokesman for the US State Department during the Clinton administration, and was an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton. Their son Darius Rubin was born in 2000, so aged two years old at this time. Because of Amanpour’s career, her husband James did spend a lot of time home alone with the baby, keeping in touch with his wife by telephone.
In real life, Amanpour received two awards in 2002. The Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism was presented to her at Harvard in March, and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Broadcast Journalism was presented to her at Washington State University in May. Neither of those were “last week” from Rory’s perspective, although it’s possible she only saw the broadcast of one of them on C-SPAN the week before.
Christiane Amanpour worked for CNN from 1983 to 2010, so throughout the run of Gilmore Girls. As chief foreign correspondent, she reported on crises from many of the world’s hotspots, and in 2002 had filed reports from the Gaza Strip, famously interviewing Yasser Arafat in his compound by phone.
[Picture shows Christiane Amanpour, her husband James, and son Darius in London, 2003]
DAVE: Or maybe Malcolm in the Middle fronting for the Butthole Surfers.
Malcolm in the Middle [pictured], sitcom which ran from 2000 to 2006. It stars Frankie Muniz as the title character Malcolm, one of four sons (later five) in a comically dysfunctional lower middle-class family. When Malcolm’s oldest brother is sent to military school, that leaves Malcolm as the middle child of the three boys still at home. Malcolm is an adolescent with a genius IQ of 165, forced into special classes for gifted children that are made fun of by the other students. The show was critically acclaimed and highly influential.
Francisco “Frankie” Muniz (born 1985) was one of the most popular teen actors at the height of his career. He gave up acting in 2008 to pursue a career in open-wheel car racing. From 2012 to 2014, he was the drummer for indie rock band Kingsfoil, so he did actually end up in a band.
Butthole Surfers, rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas in 1981 by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary. Emerging from the 1980s hardcore punk scene, Butthole Surfers quickly became known for their chaotic live shows, black comedy, and a sound that incorporated elements of psychedelia. Although respected and with a loyal fan base, Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until their 1996 album Electriclarryland, containing the hit single “Pepper”, which went to #1.
LANE: Yeah, what’s next – Urkel joining the Wu-Tang Clan?
Steven “Steve” Urkel [pictured], fictional character from the sitcom Family Matters, which aired from 1989 to 1998. The sitcom revolved around a middle-class African-American family called the Winslows who lived in Chicago, and Steve Urkel was their nerdy neighbour. Originally scripted as a one-off character, he proved so popular that he quickly became part of the regular cast, and eventually, the main character.
The charter was portrayed by actor Jaleel White (born 1976). He has gone on to have a successful career in film and television, as well as bringing out his own strain of cannabis products called Purple Urkel.
DAVE: Yeah, now their front-man’s that kid from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
When the Dead Kennedys reformed in 2001, Brandon Cruz replaced Jello Biafra as lead vocalist. A Californian surfer and skater, Cruz had been the frontman for punk band Dr. Know in the 1980s. Brandon Cruz left the Dead Kennedys in 2003.
Brandon Cruz (born 1962) is best known for his days as a child actor, playing Eddie Corbett on the sitcom The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1969-1972), with Bill Bixby playing his dad. He continued working as a child actor for several years after the sitcom was cancelled. Cruz won a Former Child Star Lifetime Award from the Young Artist Foundation in 1991, and has worked as an assistant editor on animated TV series South Park.
Jello Biafra predictably did not approve of his replacement, describing the new incarnation of Dead Kennedys as “a karaoke band”.
LANE: Good thinking. Hey, uh, isn’t it a drag that Jello Biafra isn’t singing for them anymore?
Dead Kennedys, punk rock band formed in San Francisco in 1978 with its classic line-up of Jello Biafra (lead singer), East Bay Ray (guitar), Klaus Fluoride (bass), and D.H. Peligro (drums). One of the defining hardcore punk bands, their lyrics were usually political in nature, satirising political figures, authority, popular culture, and punk itself. From 1978 to 1986 they attracted controversy for their provocative lyrics and artwork. They released four albums and one EP before disbanding acrimoniously in 1986.
Jello Biafra (born Eric Boucher in 1958), former lead singer and songwriter for the Dead Kennedys. In the mid-1980s, Biafra became an active campaigner against the Parents Music Resource Center, a committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music, via labelling music with Parental Advisory stickers. Biafra’s campaigning culminated in an obscenity trial between 1985 and 1986, which resulted in a hung jury.
In 2000, Biafra lost a legal case initiated by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates over songwriting credits and unpaid royalties. In 2001, the band reformed without Biafra. Although Dead Kennedys have continued to perform live over the years, they have not released any new material since the release of their fourth studio album, Bedtime for Democracy, in 1986.
[Picture shows Dead Kennedys in the early 1980s; Jello Biafra is second on the left]
RORY: I’ve dreamt of going to Harvard since I was a little girl.
CAROL: Yeah, a lot of four year olds dream of that. It comes right after meeting Harry Potter.
Harry Potter, the schoolboy wizard who is the protagonist of the popular Harry Potter book and film series, the novels written by English author J.K. Rowling, previously mentioned. In the films, he is played by English actor Daniel Radcliffe.
Rory was four years old in 1988-1989, and the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997, so Rory could hardly have been interested in him as a toddler anyway. Presumably Carol is thinking of her young clients in the present day.
There’s a little mistake in the writing here. Rory never actually tells Carol that she’s been dreaming of Harvard since she was four – only that she was a little girl. We know she was four because Lorelai told Max in Season 1, but somehow Carol knows about it too.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 