Mr Freeze (Dr Victor Fries) is a supervillain from the Batman comics, created by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff in 1959, and originally called Mr Zero. Mr Freeze was a rogue scientist whose design for an ice gun backfired, spilling cryogenic chemicals on himself, so he needed sub-zero temperatures to survive. The Batman television series gave him a more sympathetic back story, making him a complex, tragic character. He was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 Batman film.
LORELAI: I’m telling you, it’s knocking ‘Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?’ right out of first place.
“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”, is a catchphrase from the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes (1978-1985). The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African-American boys from Harlem, taken in by a rich white businessman and widower Phillip Drummond (played by Conrad Bain) – the former employer of their deceased mother – and his daughter Kimberly (played by Dana Plato). The show was known for its “very special episodes”, which would dramatically tackle serious issues such as drugs, alcoholism, eating disorders, and child abuse.
Arnold would say this line with great scepticism or confusion, his face screwed up in disbelief, whenever his older brother gave him information that came as a shock or didn’t sound right to him.
LORELAI: Thanks for coming, Sook, Marcus Schenkenberg.
Marcus Schenkenberg (born Marcus van Mierop in 1968), Swedish model, actor, singer, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his 1991 Calvin Klein advertisements, and had appeared on the Pamela Anderson sitcom VIP, previously discussed.
EMILY: I hope Raul’s getting enough shots of Lorelai. I don’t want the whole damn ceremony and none of her.
RICHARD: Oh, no, I disagree. I hope he gets every inspired word articulated by the East Coast Marketing Director of Pup ‘N’ Taco.
Pup ‘N’ Taco, a chain of fast-food restaurants in Southern California, originally headquartered in Long Beach, L.A. It was founded in 1956 by Russell Wendell as a drive-in restaurant selling tacos, hot dogs, and pastrami sandwiches. The first officially named Pup ‘N’ Taco opened in Pasadena in 1965. The business was bought out by Taco Bell in 1984, effectively ending the chain.
Not only did Pup ‘N’ Taco never have an East Coast Marketing Director (they were Californian), but they didn’t even exist in 2002! I presume Richard has no idea who he’s been listening to, and only knows the name Pup ‘N’ Taco because Johnny Carson used to make a lot of jokes about it on The Tonight Show in the 1970s and ’80s.
LORELAI: Yeah, I never leave home without all the essentials: mirror, makeup, picture of Shaun Cassidy.
Shaun Cassidy (born 1958), singer, actor, writer, and producer. He is the son of Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy, the half-brother of David Cassidy from The Partridge Family, and the brother of actor Patrick Cassidy.
While still in high school, he signed a record contract and forged a career as a teen pop idol. His biggest hit was “Da Doo Ron Ron”, which went to #1 in 1977. At the same time, he starred in The Hardy Boys Mysteries on television, and had a role on General Hospital.
During the 1980s and 1990s he concentrated on stage acting, performing on Broadway and in the West End. He wrote his first television pilot in 1995 while appearing in Blood Brothers on Broadway alongside David Cassidy, and has gone on to have a successful career as a screenwriter and TV producer.
Lorelai implies she had a crush on Shaun Cassidy when she was a little girl, although also, a bit oddly, that her make-up routine dates to the same period, when she would have been aged 8 to 12. This actually makes more sense for someone Amy Sherman-Palladino’s age, as she would have been around 14 at the end of Cassidy’s pop star career.
JESS: There’s a record store you should check out. It’s run by this insane freak who’s like a walking encyclopedia for every punk and garage-band record ever made. Catalog numbers . . . it’s crazy. The place is right out of High Fidelity.
High Fidelity, 2000 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears, based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the film’s action moved from London to Chicago, but otherwise faithful to the book.
The film stars John Cusack as a music-lover named Rob with little understanding of women who owns a record store called Championship Vinyl. He and his employees Dick and Barry (played by Todd Louiso and Jack Black), armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of music, compile “Top 5” lists for every occasion, and openly mock their customers’ tastes. Eventually, Rob is able to produce a mixtape to please his girlfriend, Laura (played by Iben Hjejle).
High Fidelity was a commercial and critical success, receiving praise for its witty dialogue, strong performances and solid soundtrack. It’s been voted one of the best romantic comedies, and one of the greatest films of all time. It was made into a 2020 television series.
It’s interesting that Jess compares the record store he is taking Rory to with one out of a romantic comedy – especially one where a smart but emotionally obtuse young man learns to express his feelings.
EDIT: Thank you to High Fidelity fan Alisa for supplying the correct name of the actress playing Laura.
LORELAI: Hey, try to seat us next to a celebrity on the Concorde, like Sting or Screech or someone.
Gordon Sumner, known as Sting (born 1951) [pictured], English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He was the frontman, songwriter, and bassist for new wave rock band The Police from 1977 to 1984. He launched a solo career in 1985, and incorporates elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new age and world music in his compositions. He has won 17 Grammy Awards, 3 Brit Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement, and been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. As a member of The Police, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. One of the world’s best-selling musical artists, he is regarded as one of its greatest living songwriters, and one of the great musical stars of the twentieth century.
Samuel “Screech” Powers, a character from Saved by the Bell, previously discussed. Portrayed by Dustin Diamond (1977-2021), Screech was a geeky high academic achiever who lacked common sense and social skills.
Central Park, a 843 acre park in Upper Manhattan, New York, the fifth-largest park in the city. Opened in 1858, it is the most visited park in the US, and the most filmed location in the world.
Washington Square Park [pictured], a 10 acre park in the Greenwich Village district of Lower Manhattan, New York. One of the best known of the city’s public parks, it is a cultural icon and popular meeting place. It is notable for its arch, modelled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and its fountain. The ground was first made into a park in 1849.
Jess says that Washington Square Park is “cooler” than Central Park. Apart from its location in fashionable Greenwich Village, it has a history of street performers, and protests and demonstrations. It has been a focal point for students, artists, musicians, and writers in the Beat, folk, and hippie movements. Robert Louis Stevenson once met Mark Twain here. Buddy Holly spent time here helping guitarists with their technique, and Barack Obama held a rally here. It’s a popular spot for filming, and Amy Sherman-Palladino’s show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has filmed scenes here.
Washington Square Park, with its Beatnik and counter-cultural heritage, seems like the perfect place for Jess to hang out. I’m not sure if this is meant to suggest that he and Liz live in this area (if so, only with the kind of magical rent control that appears in TV shows like Friends!).
Jess obviously isn’t attending school, because he went back to New York right near the end of semester and its too late to start at a new school. This is breaking the law, but I guess he’s fallen through the cracks in the system as nobody knows where he really lives.
LORELAI: Instead, I got pregnant. I didn’t finish high school, I didn’t marry your father and I ended up in a career that apparently Jessica Hahn would think was beneath her.
Jessica Hahn (born 1959), model and actress. She accused televangelist Jim Bakker of rape while employed as a church secretary. After the 1987 scandal,Hahnposed nude forPlayboy, appeared in several television shows, including Married … with Children, and was a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show on radio in the 1980s through to the 2000s.
LORELAI: Hey, is Jackson in the house? Let me hear you say “unh”.
JACKSON: Unh.
“Jerome is in the house” is a catchphrase from the sitcom Martin (1992-1997), starring comedian Martin Lawrence in the title role as a free-spirited radio DJ in Detroit, and also as a host of supporting characters, including his own mother Edna, an annoying neighbourhood child named Roscoe, and a stereotypical white surfer-redneck named Bob (performed in whiteface with a blond wig).
Jerome was another of Lawrence’s characters, a loudmouth, once-flashy, now aging pimp who runs an illegal casino and sports a gold tooth. His signature spiel and personal theme song was, “Ooh, I say, Jerome is in the house … I say, watch your mouth!”. The catchphrase “in the house” quickly became highly popular.
Martin won numerous awards and was one of the highest-rated shows on the Fox Network at the time. It went into syndication, and is still on cable television and streaming services.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 
