The Donna Reed Show

This is the television program that Lorelai and Rory watch with Dean, and is the basis for the episode’s title.

The Donna Reed Show is a sit-com starring Donna Reed as middle-class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz played opposite her as Donna’s paediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen were their teenaged children, Mary and Jeff.

Although Lorelai and Rory consider the show hopelessly outdated and sexist, episodes occasionally examined issues such as women’s rights (not with any radical outcomes, it must be said). But Donna Stone was a more assertive mother than had previously been shown on television, and it was the first sitcom to focus on the mother as the central figure in a domestic comedy. It helped pave the way for shows such as Roseanne and even Gilmore Girls (both shows that Amy Sherman-Palladino worked on).

The Donna Reed Show was attacked by feminists in the 1970s as presenting an idealised view of domesticity, so Rory and Lorelai’s criticisms feel really behind the times. It’s strange that they are giving feminist opinions from a generation ago as if they are clever and new – maybe they really do watch too many old movies?

The Donna Reed Show originally aired from 1958-1966, and was one of the most popular programs of 1963-64. It was only cancelled when Donna Reed became tired of doing the show.

Reruns of The Donna Reed Show were shown on Nick at Nite from 1985 to 1994. It wasn’t on TV in 2001, and hadn’t yet been released on DVD, meaning that the only way Lorelai and Rory can be watching the show is because they taped it off TV ages ago and are still watching it on video at least seven years later. Despite their mocking of the show, they must really be huge fans! (Again, how a show that hadn’t been on TV in nearly a decade is a relevant target for their attacks is a puzzle).

Jess and Sean’s Apartment Building

When the scene cuts to the exterior of Jess and Sean’s apartment building, sharp-eyed viewers will notice it is the same one used for Monica’s apartment building in the sit-com Friends. In real life, this building is at 90 Bedford Street, on the corner of Grove Street in Greenwich Village, and two college students could only live there thanks to rent control – just like Monica and Rachel.

“Waverly and First”

Madeline tells Rory and Paris that she and Louise have been asked to a party “on the corner of Waverly and First” by Jess and Sean, the boys they picked up at the concert. This is apparently just around the corner from the concert venue.

Waverly Place is in Greenwich Village, not far from New York University, suggesting that Jess and Sean are students there. In real life, there is no point where Waverly Place crosses with First Avenue, although it does cross with Fifth and Sixth. It is very possibly a deliberate error.

“1000”

LORELAI: We must be getting close, we’re running out of rows.
SOOKIE: And 1000. Okay, we’re here.

In real life, the theatre the concert scenes were filmed at, The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, is a small intimate venue, and not 1000 rows high (in fact nothing is 1000 rows high). Sookie is just joking – we can see they are only in Row 22.

The Concert in New York

Lorelai asks the three Hartford girls to join them at the concert that evening. They agree immediately, and apparently don’t need to ask their parents’ permission to attend a concert in another city with a woman they only just met, or don’t consider it necessary.

It seems that Paris, Madeline, and Louise never went home to Hartford, as they wear the same clothes to the concert as they did to visit Rory.The drive to New York from Stars Hollow would be just under two hours, and just over two hours to return to Hartford from New York, making this a long night for the girls – they wouldn’t get home until past 1 am the next day. Again, this doesn’t seem to be an issue for them or their families.

“How long has it been?”

LOUISE: How long has it been [that Rory and Dean have been together]?
RORY: … About a month.
LOUISE: Oh, lifers.

It’s quite clearly been more than “about a month” since Rory and Dean got together. It’s been more than two months since they went to the school dance together, so Madeline and Louise must know it’s more than a month.

By Louise describing a couple in a one-month relationship as “lifers”, we can tell she’s never been in a relationship for more than a few weeks at most, and that she views (or affects to view) a long-term relationship in terms of a prison sentence.

Pucci

MADELINE: There’s this great store under my therapist’s office who has the best vintage clothes. I found an original Pucci top for practically nothing.
LOUISE: Oh Pucci is very big right now.

Pucci is an Italian fashion brand originally founded by Emilio Pucci (1914-1992). Pucci clothing is synonymous with stretch-knit clothing in bright, geometric designs, and when Madeline says she found an original Pucci top in a vintage store, she means one that would have been designed by Emilio Pucci himself.

There are quite a number of vintage clothing stores in Hartford where Madeline might have found the top, but it seems unlikely they would sell an original Pucci top for “practically nothing” (the one in the picture costs nearly $200 today). She got very lucky that day.

We also discover from Madeline’s casual statement that she regularly sees a therapist. This might come as a surprise, as Madeline seems to be very cheerful and unconflicted by nature, but perhaps that’s because of all the therapy?

Monty

RORY: So did you guys find it okay?
PARIS: There’s no sign on this street.
RORY: I know, that’s why I told you to turn right at the big rooster statue.
PARIS: I thought you were kidding.
LORELAI: Oh no, we never kid about Monty.

There are numerous examples of big statues across the United Statues, often of ordinary things like animals and fruit. They are generally used as roadside attractions or as markers for a particular business. Stars Hollow seems to have one of a big rooster, affectionately known as “Monty” (by the Gilmore girls at least, who love to give names to inanimate objects), which marks the turn off to the Gilmores’ street, as the sign has quirkily fallen down or disappeared, and never been replaced. I feel as if the officious Taylor would not allow that to happen, but perhaps his powers were not yet so all-encompassing.

Rather disappointingly, this giant rooster is never shown, or discussed again, and it is not known why it was erected, or even if it was taken down at some point. We learn in the next episode that the Gilmores’ friend and neighbour Miss Patty raises chickens, and it is possible that Monty is there as a marker for her (hypothetical) side-business of selling eggs and/or poultry. It could be a marker for another type of rural business, or possibly Stars Hollow or its county is particularly famous for its poultry.

There is a big rooster statue in Salem, Connecticut [pictured], about an hour’s drive away from the area where Stars Hollow seems to be, so it’s perfectly plausible for Stars Hollow – this one is unusual for being painted black instead of the more usual white, and is a marker for a grain and feed store. Big rooster statues are common in California, where Gilmore Girls was written.

The Old Muddy River Bridge

RORY: Hey Luke, someone put a sign for the rummage sale up in your window over there …
LUKE: Your mom asked me to put it there, okay?
RORY: And you said yes?
LUKE: She’s not real good with “no”.

From the sign in the window of Luke’s Diner, we learn that the charity rummage sale is to raise funds to restore the Old Muddy River Bridge. There is an artist’s impression of the bridge, although it’s unclear whether this is what the bridge used to look like and needs to be restored to this condition, or this is what the new bridge will look like once it’s rebuilt. Either way, it looks as if the whole thing could be knocked up in a single afternoon with less than $100 worth of lumber and Luke donating his time to it.

However, for some reason this simple wooden footbridge is an ongoing project for the town, which spends much of its time raising money towards the bridge’s reconstruction and maintenance throughout the show’s original run. We can see that once again Luke is more civic-minded than he pretends to be, as he helps advertise the rummage sale, just as he brought hot drinks the Stars Hollow Battle re-enactors.

Also notice that Lorelai doesn’t even need to add her address: everyone in town knows where she lives, and she can just tell them to take contributions to her house. That’s some level of notoriety in a town of nearly 10 000 people.

In real life, the small town of Washington Depot, which Stars Hollow was originally inspired by, is surrounded by state parks and reservations. There are several wooden footbridges over rivers, creeks, and gorges; some quite elaborate, and others small and simple like the one in the drawing.

Measles

Madeline says that they can’t study at her house because her brother has measles.

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection causing fever, cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, and a red rash. It can be fatal. Madeline must be vaccinated against the disease or she would have it herself, and the household should have been quarantined so that Madeline shouldn’t be (and possibly isn’t) living at home while her brother is infectious.

Measles were declared to be eliminated in the US in 2000 by public health officials (this doesn’t mean nobody got measles that year, just that there were so few cases and such high vaccination rates that they weren’t any threat to the general population).

Madeline’s brother getting measles in 2001 is highly unusual, and it really makes you wonder why vaccination rates are so low in the Gilmore Girls universe – in real life, Connecticut has one of the highest rates of child vaccination in the world. It seems more in line with California, where Gilmore Girls is filmed, where vaccination rates tend to be lower.