Tag: Television

Mission: Impossible

LORELAI: What, did you break into our house, you got all dressed in black and pulled a Mission: Impossible?

Mission: Impossible, award-winning television series about the exploits of a small team of government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force, used for covert missions against hostile Iron Curtain governments, third world dictators, evil organisations, and, later, crime lords.

Each episode opened with a montage of clips from that episode accompanied by the theme music, and the first scene showed the lead characters receiving instructions from a voice on a recording, beginning, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it …”. The recording invariably self-destructed when complete.

Financed and filmed by Desilu Productions, owned by Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball, it originally aired from 1966 to 1973, and was revived in 1988. It also inspired a series of action-adventure films starring Tom Cruise, the first one released in 1996.

Euell Gibbons

LORELAI: So, are you a healthy eater like Luke?
JESS: No. No one’s a healthy eater like Luke. Euell Gibbons wasn’t a healthy eater like Luke … Many parts of a pine tree are edible.

Euell Gibbons (1911-1975), outdoorsman and early health food advocate. He promoted eating wild food during the 1960s, having begun foraging for food as a teenager to supplement the family diet. His books on wild food were instant successes, and he became a celebrity, appearing on TV shows such as The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and The Carol Burnett Show, often good-naturedly sending himself up by pretending to eat wooden plaques and so on.

A 1974 television commercial for Grape-Nuts cereal featured Gibbons asking viewers “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” While he recommended eating Grape Nuts over eating pine trees (Grape Nuts’ taste “reminds me of wild hickory nuts”), the quote caught the public’s imagination and fuelled his celebrity status.

How Jess knows about Euell Gibbons and the advertisement, which was broadcast ten years before Jess was born, is a mystery. Teenagers seem to have an amazing knowledge of 1960s and 1970s pop culture in the Gilmore Girls world.

Rory’s Books from the Buy a Book Fundraiser

Rory buys several books at the fundraiser, but only a couple of the titles are visible. Gypsy the mechanic is volunteering her time to work at the fundraiser, and she points Rory to the astronomy section, as if Rory has an interest in this area, and Gypsy somehow knows about it. Both quite surprising things to learn! The Buy a Book Fundraiser is held outside the library, and may be raising funds for new books.

Inherit the Wind

A 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, fictionalising the events of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. This was a legal trial in July 1925 where schoolteacher John Scopes was taken to court by the state of Tennessee for teaching human evolution. There was intense media scrutiny of the case, with publicity given to the high-profile lawyers who had taken the case. The prosecution had former Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, while Clarence Darrow defended Scopes – the same lawyer who had defended child murders Leopold and Loeb, previously discussed. Scopes was fined $100, but the case was overturned on a technicality. The case was seen as both a theological contest, and a test as to whether teachers could teach modern science in schools.

The play gives everyone involved in the Scopes Trial different names, and substantially alters numerous events. It is not meant to be a historical account, and is a means to discuss the McCarthy trials of the 1950s, where left-wing individuals were persecuted as Communist sympathisers, under a regime of political repression and a fear-mongering campaign.

Rory might be particularly interested in the play because of the focus it places on the media, with reporter E.K. Hornbeck covering the case for a fictional Baltimore newspaper. He is based on journalist and author H.L. Mencken, previously discussed as one of Rory’s heroes, who gained attention for his satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial for the Baltimore Morning Herald.

Inherit the Wind premiered in Dallas in 1955 to rave reviews, and opened on Broadway a few months later with Paul Muni, Ed Begley, and Tony Randall in the cast. It’s been revived on Broadway in 1996 and in 2007, as well as in Philadelphia, London, Italy, and India.

It was adapted into film in 1960, directed by Stanley Kramer, and with Spencer Tracey starring as the defence lawyer, Dick York as the schoolteacher, and Gene Kelly as the Baltimore journalist. It received excellent reviews and won awards at the Berlin Film Festival. It’s also been made for television in 1966, 1988, and in 1999 (starring George C. Scott, Jack Lemmon, and Beau Bridges). It seems likely that Rory watched the most recent version on television.

Letters to a Young Poet

A 1929 collection of ten letters written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, to a young officer cadet named Franz Xaver Kappus at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Austria between 1902 and 1908.

Kappus had written to Rilke, seeking advice on the quality of his poetry, to help him choose between a literary career, or one as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Kappus had been reading Rilke’s poetry when he discovered that Rilke had earlier studied at the academy’s lower school in St. Pölten, and decided to write to him for advice.

Rilke gave Kappus very little criticism or suggestions on improving his writing, and said that nobody could advise him or make life decisions for him. Over the course of ten letters, he instead provided essays on how a poet should feel and seek truth in experiencing the world around him. They offer insights into Rilke’s poetic ideas and themes, and his work processes.

Kappus did meet Rilke at least once, and despite his concerns about pursuing a military career, he continued his studies and served for 15 years as an army officer. During the course of his life, he worked as a journalist and reporter, and wrote poems, stories, novels, and screenplays. However, he never achieved lasting fame.

This is a book which features a future journalist – but one who yearns to become a poet. Is it a sign that Rory secretly wishes she could become a creative writer instead? Is she hoping that being successful in journalism will help her become a published author (it’s definitely a help in getting novels published, or at least considered). Is it even a hint that she will become a writer in the future, as she does in A Year in the Life, but is not destined to become famous from her writing? (Most published writers, even quite successful ones, don’t get famous, after all).

And is this correspondence between a poet and a student at a military academy meant to suggest that Rory is still thinking of Tristan, who went away to military school? Are she and Tristan actually writing to each other, or is the show leaving the door open for Tristan to possibly return in a future season, since they didn’t know how long One Tree Hill was going to last?

Maybelline Fresh Lash Mascara

LORELAI: Sorry, it’s just . . . so excited about the ducks that, uh . . . do you want something to drink? You have good timing ‘cause we shopped yesterday, and in addition to a case of Maybelline Fresh Lash Mascara, I also bought some of that new, uh, freaky Coke with the lemon in it.

Maybelline is a multinational cosmetics company, founded in Chicago in 1914, and now based in New York. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of L’Oreal, previously discussed.

Maybelline’s Fresh Lash Mascara has now been replaced with Great Lash Mascara. In 1981, their Fresh Lash Mascara was advertised on television by Lynda Carter, who played superhero Wonder Woman, previously discussed as one of Lorelai’s favourites. I can imagine young Lorelai buying the mascara because of the face of the brand and remaining loyal to it.

“Patience, grasshopper”

RORY: What are we waiting for?
LORELAI: Patience, grasshopper.

Lorelai references the action-adventure Western martial arts television show Kung Fu, broadcast from 1972 to 1975. It follows the adventures of Shaolin monk named Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine, as he travels through the American Old West, searching for his half-brother, Danny. Caine had an American father and a Chinese mother.

The show would often flashback to Caine’s training, where he was called “Grasshopper” by his master, a man named Po, in recall of this early scene:

Master Po: Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Caine: No.
Po: Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?
Caine: Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?

This is where the name Grasshopper came from, and further flashbacks would see master Po giving the young Caine advice, such as “Patience, young Grasshopper”. Many of the aphorisms in the show are taken from the Tao Te Ching.

Kung Fu was very influential, and at the time highly acclaimed by critics, winning several major awards. These days it tends to be discussed for its representation of Asian character, and having a protagonist playing by an actor with no Chinese heritage. It has been adapted into film three times, and in 2021 was rebooted as a crime show television series with a female lead, played by Olivia Liang.

Some people incorrectly think “Patience, grasshopper” is a quote from the 1984 martial arts film, The Karate Kid.

“You called him Duke”

RORY: People are different once you get to know them. If you’ll remember, you weren’t too fond of Luke when you first met him.
LORELAI: That’s not true.
RORY: You called him Duke for two years just to make him mad.

A meta-reference to the fact that in the original pilot of Gilmore Girls, the Luke character was named Duke. Amy Sherman-Palladino, the writer for this episode, jokes that must’ve been the teasing nickname Lorelai gave him at first. Luke’s character was originally meant to be a woman named Daisy, so the change from Daisy to Duke seems like a Dukes of Hazzard reference.

Apparently Luke and Lorelai didn’t get along when they first met, and it took two years for Lorelai to call him by his correct name. This sounds awfully similar to the plot line where Tristan keeps calling Rory “Mary” when he first meets her, as a flirtatious tease.

In the world of Gilmore Girls, someone getting your name wrong is a sure sign they secretly like you! As Tristan was originally slated to be Rory’s boyfriend (before the actor went to a different show), it also seems to be a sign you are destined to end up together.

Pee-Wee Herman

RORY: I also pictured you with Pee-Wee Herman.
LORELAI: Wow.
RORY: Yeah. We lived in his playhouse and we’d be talking to Chairry and Captain Carl would be walking by.

Pee-Wee Herman, fictional character portrayed by comedian Paul Reubens (born Paul Reubenfeld 1952). The child-like Pee-Wee Herman developed as a stage act and then appeared in a feature film before becoming the host of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, an Emmy-winning children’s show that was broadcast from 1985 to 1991.

Chairry was a puppet armchair, voiced by Alison Mork, which would hug Pee-Wee when he sat down in her. Captain Carl was one of a host of human characters in the show; he was a sea captain played by Saturday Night Live comedian and actor, Phil Hartman (1948-1998). The show had a lot of big stars on it, and guest appearances by a host of celebrities.

Rory would have watched the show as a preschooler, apparently looking to the child-like Pee-Wee Herman for a possible father substitute.

Ricki Lake Show

RORY: I feel like I’m on the Ricki Lake show.
LORELAI: Go Rory, go Rory.

Ricki Lake, popular daytime talk show which aired from 1993 to 2004, hosted by actress Ricki Lake, who had first gained fame appearing in John Waters’ films such as Hairspray. The show, aimed at a Gen-X audience (like Lorelai), focused on guest’s personal problems and “true confession” style interviews.

Rory feels as if she’s being interviewed about her feelings about her father as if on Ricki Lake. Lorelai chants, “Go Rory, go Rory”, because the audience would chant “Go Ricki, go Ricki” to encourage the host. Lorelai and Rory seem to be fans of this trashy TV show.