Star Trek

LANE: I just met my soul mate.
RORY: Right, Rich Bloomingfeld. Does he still wear the Star Trek shirt?

Star Trek is a multibillion-dollar media franchise based on the sci-fi television series which ran from 1966 and 1969, and which is now referred to as The Original Series. A cult phenomenon for decades with a massive cultural impact, there have been numerous Star Trek films and TV series made over the years, as well as books, comics, games, and magazines.

In 2000, the most recent TV series made was Deep Space Nine, which ran from 1993 to 1999. It is not clear whether Rich Bloomingfield wore a shirt which had either the most recent series, or the original series of Star Trek on it, or if it was a shirt made to resemble a Star Trek costume.

Elsa Klensch

LORELAI: Dab on some lip gloss, clear but fruity. Maybe a little mascara. Wear your hair down and your attitude high.
RORY: You’re like a crazy Elsa Klensch.

Elsa Klensch (born 1933) is an Australian-American journalist and author with a background in fashion. From 1980 to 2001 she was the producer and host of Style with Elsa Klensch, a weekly fashion and design show on CNN.

Nancy Walker

Rory warns Lorelai she isn’t allowed to do any Nancy Walker impressions when she meets Rory’s new boyfriend.

Nancy Walker (1922-1992) was an American actress and comedian. Rory is most likely thinking of Walker’s role in the award-winning 1970s sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the show, Walker played Ida Morgenstern, the overbearing mother of Mary’s best friend Rhoda Morgenstern; she reprised the role in the spin-off show Rhoda.

Rory’s comment suggests that Lorelai had previously done impressions of Nancy Walker as a joke, pretending to be the sort of interfering mother that she tried so hard not to be.

“When do you have time?”

RORY: When do you have time to watch General Hospital?

A question we’d all like answered – General Hospital in on weekdays in the afternoons, when Lorelai is at work. Yet somehow she has managed to keep up with the show for at least the last few years. American soap operas are notoriously slow-paced, so that Lorelai could theoretically keep up with the show by only watching it sometimes. Even so, how did she manage to watch even a few episodes while at work?

Note that this is another example of shortness of time being mentioned.

General Hospital

LORELAI: I was watching General Hospital the other day and you know, they have a new Lucky ’cause the old Lucky went to play something where he could have a real name. So the old Lucky had this girlfriend, Liz, who thought that he died in a fire. So then they bring on this new Lucky and you’re all like “OK, I know that’s not the old Lucky because the new Lucky has way more hair gel issues” but still, Liz was so upset about his supposed death that you could not wait to see them kiss, you know?

General Hospital is an American soap opera which has aired since 1963, making it the longest-running soap opera still in production. It was most popular in the 1980s, thanks to the romance between popular characters Luke and Laura (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), which ended with their wedding.

Lucas “Lucky” Spencer Jr. was a character on General Hospital, the son of the aforementioned Luke and Laura. His birth was announced in 1985, and he first appeared as a ten year old in 1993, played by Jonthan Jackson. Lucky would also be one half of a soap opera power couple, when he got a girlfriend in 1997 named Elizabeth “Liz” Webber, played by Rebecca Herbst.

Jonathan Jackson left the show in 1999, and it was rumoured that he was going to play Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Although that didn’t pan out, he got other film and television roles.

The character of Lucky was declared to have died in a fire, but they brought him back in February 2000 with Jacob Young playing the “new” Lucky, who had returned brainwashed by another regular character. After months of de-programming, Lucky and Liz made a stab at being a couple again, but decided to be good friends for a while. As Lorelai notes, he just wasn’t the same Lucky.

The episode where Lucky and Liz kiss aired on Friday November 3 2000. As Lorelai says she saw the episode “the other day”, this fits in with the day being Saturday November 4 or Sunday November 5 2000, as autumn festival.

It is interesting how a few of the names in General Hospital seem to have informed those in Gilmore Girls. Luke and Laura is suspiciously similar to Luke and Lorelai, especially since we later learn that Luke’s full name is Lucas, just like Luke Spencer and his son Lucky, and that Luke Danes has a sister named Liz.

“Smell a rose”

MRS. KIM: Maybe you should be less busy. Then you can remember to pick up chairs.
LORELAI: Right. Absolutely. Smell a rose, got it.

Lorelai is referring to the cliched advice to “stop and smell the roses”, meaning to slow down and allow yourself to notice and enjoy the beauty of life.

The saying appears to come from golfer Walter Hagen’s 1956 book of golfing memoirs, The Walter Hagen Story. In it he advises his readers: “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. ”

It was further popularised by American singer-songwriter Mac Davis, in his 1974 pop song Stop and Smell the Roses, from his album of the same name. Davis got the idea for the song from the bandleader on The Tonight Show, whose doctor had said the phrase to him.

Note the implication from Lorelai that she is so busy she only has time to smell one rose.

“Assume things”

LORELAI: You know what they say when people assume things.
EMILY: No, what do they say?
LORELAI: That – you shouldn’t.

Lorelai is referring to the phrase: “Never ASSUME, because when you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U and ME”. It became a popular catchphrase after being used in the episode, “My Strife in Court”, from the 1970s TV series, The Odd Couple. The writer on that episode, Jerry Belson, had heard a teacher say it many years before. Lorelai can’t bring herself to complete the saying to her already irritable mother.

The Waltons

LORELAI: And while some have called it [giving birth] the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite.
RORY: I wonder if the Waltons ever did this.

The Waltons (1972-1981) was a wholesome family drama TV series about the Walton family in rural Virginia, and their experiences living through the Great Depression and World War II. It was based on the film Spencer’s Mountain, from a novel of the same name by Earl Hamner Jr., who would go on to be an executive producer on the TV series. Extremely popular, the Waltons won several Emmy Awards.

The Waltons had a couple of things in common with Gilmore Girls. Both shows were set in small towns with quirky townsfolk, and the protagonist of The Waltons, John-Boy Walton (based on Earl Hamner Jr.) went to university in a nearby town and became a journalist, just like Rory Gilmore. Both shows were filmed at Warner Brothers studio, and the set for the Waltons’ house was used for The Dragonfly inn in Gilmore Girls.

Farrah Fawcett

EMILY: Oh, yes, and there was a tee-shirt with a Farrah Fawcett face.
LORELAI: A hero to many who aspire to the perfect feather fluff.

Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) was an American model and actress. Having already appeared in commercials and TV shows, she became famous in 1976 after posing for a poster wearing a red one-piece bathing suit. That same year, she got her breakout role as Jill Munroe on crime drama series Charlie’s Angels, becoming an international star. Her hairstyle was a phenomenon in itself, with the “Farrah-flip” a sought-after look well into the 1980s (during Lorelai’s teenage years).

A link with other references in this scene is that Farrah Fawcett played Barbara Hutton in a 1987 TV movie.

Jane

EMILY: This isn’t funny. I hardly get to see the girl and we only get to talk at dinner once a week and then it’s all about school and Jane.
LORELAI: Lane, Mom.

The fact that Emily mixes up Lane’s name and calls her Jane is a probable allusion to the MTV cartoon Daria (1997-2002), in which protagonist Daria Morgendorffer’s best friend is Jane Lane (I believe this to be source of Lane Kim’s rather unlikely first name).

Jane Lane is not Asian-American like Lane Kim, but her voice actress is Malaysian-born, and the character is drawn with some slight Asian characteristics, so that casual viewers sometimes assume she has Asian heritage. Besides both having black hair and being the less academic sidekick to an intellectual bestie, Jane Lane was a gifted artist, as a parallel to Lane Kim’s musical talent.

(By the way, if Emily only hears about Rory’s doings at Friday Night Dinner, whatever happened to that weekly phone call where she could catch up on Lorelai and Rory’s lives?)