Afterschool Special

RORY: Okay, so, were you safe?
PARIS: Yes, it was a regular afterschool special.

ABC Afterschool Special, television anthology series that aired on ABC from 1972 to 1997, usually in the late afternoon on weekdays. Most episodes were dramatically presented situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were either in animated form or presented as documentaries. Topics included illiteracy, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy. The series won 51 Daytime Emmy Awards.

None of the episodes depicted a young couple having a sexual relationship, but “A Question About Sex” (1990), did advocate for teens to be informed about sex education.

Rory listens to Paris’ concerns about losing her virginity with a fair amount of sensitivity, and checks that she and Jamie practised safe sex, that it was fully consensual, and that Jamie treated Paris with respect. I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that this reflects the sex education training that Rory has received from Lorelai.

Televised House Vote

LORELAI: She’ll be on C-SPAN if she does … You’re a hell of a lot more interesting than that usual shit they have of all the white men walking around that big empty chamber with the numbers all over them.
RICHARD: That’s a televised house vote, and I find that fascinating.

Richard refers to the voting in the US House of Representatives, broadcast on C-SPAN (it’s now streamed live).

Cowabunga

MAX: I’ve been in California.
LORELAI: Well, cowabunga dude.

Cowabunga, a phrase of unknown origin which was popularised (as Kowa-Bunga) on the children’s TV show Howdy Doody in the late 1940s and early 1950s, where it was used by a character named Chief Thunderthud as a fake Native American greeting [picture shows it as Cowabonga, just to confuse things]. It became associated with the surfing subculture, who spelt it cowabunga, and used it to express delight or satisfaction.

By the early 1980s it was used as a catchphrase by Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, and became more widely known in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to its use by the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bart Simpson from animated series The Simpson gave it even broader recognition in the 1990s.

Lorelai presumably thinks of it as a particularly Californian phrase because of its use by surfers. It seems as if almost everyone who leaves Connecticut goes to California! Max is Lorelai’s second ex to move to San Francisco.

Ruth Reichl

SOOKIE: They sent it back. My food. My four star, ‘you haven’t lived ’til you’ve eaten there, says Ruth Reichl,’ food.

Ruth Reichl (born 1948), chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and been co-producer of PBS’s Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS’s Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.

Reichl was a food critic for The New York Times from 1993 to 1999, so if she ever visited the Independence Inn to review Sookie’s cooking for this publication, it would have been in the late 1990s. From 1999 to 2009, she was the editor of Gourmet magazine.

Jerome Robbins

PARIS: I’m only saying it won’t be a totally satisfying victory just beating Jerome Robbins and the rest of the losers here. I’d really like to take you down also.
BRAD: Boy, she is really up on her theater references.

Jerome Robbins, born Jerome Rabinowitz (1918-1998), dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his numerous stage productions were West Side Story, Gypsy, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award-winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story, and a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film.

Nathan Lane

RORY: Hey Brad, good to have you back. How was Broadway?
BRAD: It was great, but Nathan Lane is a very bitter man.

Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane in 1956), actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008.

I’m not sure how Brad would have met Nathan Lane in 2002, as he wasn’t doing Broadway that year – three of his films were released that year, and he was in an episode of Sex and the City. Maybe he heard a lot of theatre gossip.

Speech Contest

TEACHER: Yes, the speech will not go on your record. However, the bicentennial is going to be quite a prestigious affair. Past alumni and faculty will be there, some of these people are now professors at the same schools you’re planning an attending. Plus, C-SPAN will be broadcasting the event live. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a very exciting event. Think about it.

Here we see the high stakes involved with entering the prestigious speech contest – it will be broadcast on C-SPAN, with many illustrious guests who might very well be professors at the colleges the students have applied to.

Bookie

LORELAI: Mom, I know Gran gives you a hard time, but she did not tell anyone about this guy for a reason.
EMILY: Yes, because she’s embarrassed. She should be. He was dressed like a bookie.

Bookie, a bookmaker, a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. The idea that bookies dress in tracksuits seems to be influenced by the TV show The Sopranos – I wonder if Emily has also seen this favourite show of Lorelai’s?

Dr Phil

LUKE: Being jealous of Dean is pointless. You’re just gonna drive Rory away. You wanna have a relationship with someone, you’re gonna have to learn to open up your mouth and say something.
JESS: Give it a rest, Dr. Phil.

Dr Phil, previously discussed.

Having a girlfriend for a few weeks has certainly given Luke a lot of authority on relationship matters. This scene between Luke and Jess reads like Luke urgently giving Jess the sort of relationship advice he himself has badly needed during the show.

Columbo

JESS: Get a clue, Columbo. I don’t wanna talk to her.

Columbo, crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired from 1971 to 1978, then aired less frequently from 1989 to 2003. The show is still popular today, and has been described as “timeless”.