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Gilmore Girls

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Gilmore Girls
Created byAmy Sherman-Palladino
StarringLauren Graham
Alexis Bledel
Scott Patterson
Melissa McCarthy
Keiko Agena
Yanic Truesdale
Liza Weil
Sean Gunn
Matt Czuchry
Kelly Bishop
Edward Herrmann
Opening theme"Where You Lead" by Carole King and Louise Goffin
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes150 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerDavid S. Rosenthal
Running time42 minutes (approx.)
Original release
NetworkThe WB (2000-2006)
The CW (2006-Present)
ReleaseOctober 5 2000 –
Present

Gilmore Girls is an hour-long American television drama/comedy that has aired since October 2000.

The show follows single mother Lorelai Victoria Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter Lorelai "Rory" Leigh Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, roughly thirty minutes from Hartford. The series explores family, friendship, generational divides, and American class issues. It is set in a close-knit small town with many quirky characters.


Gilmore Girls features intricate, extremely fast-paced dialogue, with numerous popular-culture references, along with many other allusions to politics, feminism, and high culture. It also has specific perspectives on social class, represented most regularly by Lorelai's sometimes contentious relationships with her wealthy upper class parents. The show's wit and character-based humor have won it a loyal following of both critics and viewers.

The program is currently broadcast on The CW network — successor to The WB — in the United States and in dozens of other countries. Re-runs in the US are shown on ABC Family. Amy Sherman-Palladino created the show and served as its executive producer with husband Daniel Palladino until the end of the sixth season. David S. Rosenthal, the current executive producer of the show, took over as show-runner in the wake of the Palladinos' departure. The traditional U.S. time slot of the series, Tuesdays at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central, remained unchanged with the move to the CW from the WB.

Cast

Main article: List of Gilmore Girls characters

Main Cast

Plot

Template:Spoiler

Background

Lorelai's conflict with her wealthy parents is central to the back-story for the series. Tension with her headstrong mother, Emily (Kelly Bishop), and her father, Richard (Edward Herrmann), recurs throughout the show. This presumably began when Lorelai became the teenage mother of Rory at the age of sixteen, which required the sacrifice of her elite prep-school education (and future as a college student). In addition, Lorelai opted to not marry the baby's father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), although her parents would have approved of the union.

As an extension of her stubborn and rebellious nature, Lorelai ran away to Stars Hollow, a small town near Hartford. There she met Mia, owner of the Independence Inn, who gave her a job as a maid and acted as a surrogate mother to both Lorelai and Rory. Lorelai eventually became general manager of the inn, her position at the start of the series. She and Rory lived in a converted potting shed behind the Inn for about ten years before moving to the house they live in during the show. Lorelai consistently tried to minimize her parents' contact with Rory until Rory needed money for school.

Rory's education

Rory's academic aspirations complicate matters on the show. Rory had wanted to attend Harvard University since kindergarten; to achieve this she transfers to the private (fictional) Chilton Academy, an elite prep school in Hartford, Connecticut, from the public Stars Hollow High at the beginning of her sophomore year. There, she encounters an unfamiliar social environment of wealthy, high-strung peers. Lorelai knows that she cannot afford Rory's Chilton education, and reluctantly solicits help from her parents. Richard and Emily Gilmore negotiate a mutual arrangement; Lorelai is given a financial loan on the condition that Rory and Lorelai attend dinner at their Hartford mansion every Friday evening. The dinners become a common setting for heated conversations and family drama.

After much deliberation, and with her mother's blessing, Rory ultimately decides to go to Yale, her grandfather's alma mater, instead of Harvard. Lorelai repays her parents' Chilton loan just before Rory's graduation, ending their mutual arrangement. However, she later discovers Yale is not offering any financial aid for Rory, putting her education in financial jeopardy once again. Rory requests the tuition money from her grandparents in exchange for the continuance of the Friday night dinners - until the spring semester of Rory's junior year, when her father, Christopher, begins paying her tuition. This creates tension with her grandparents, but ultimately the Friday night dinner tradition continues.

Lorelai's romantic life

Lorelai's various romantic entanglements also play a role in the show.

  • Her relationship with local restaurant owner Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) gradually grows from a playful friendship to a romantic relationship at the end of the fourth season, and they get engaged in the sixth season premiere — only to break up shortly after. During the Spring Fling, in the middle of the hay maze, they both apologized on how they both reacted in the relationship ending with a tentative friendship.
  • Lorelai periodically reconnects with Christopher, Rory's father. In the seventh season, they take a romantic trip to Paris and decide to elope. During the November sweeps 2006, they are a married couple. However, soon into their marriage they break up again.

Rory's romantic life

As with Lorelai, Rory's romantic attractions also run throughout the show.

  • Rory meets Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki) in the first episode of the series, and maintains a relationship with him for two seasons. She does break up with Dean briefly in the first season, when she isn't able to say "I love you." It is during this time apart that Rory kisses Tristan Dugrey (Chad Michael Murray), a Chilton classmate with whom she has a love-hate relationship. However, a kiss broke them in too. In the end, she renews her relationship with Dean.
  • She befriends Luke's belligerent nephew, Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), during the second season. Their relationship closens, and Rory kisses Jess in the second season finale. Early in the third season, Rory has conflicting feelings for Dean and Jess, but she chooses Jess and remains with him throughout the third season.
  • In season four, Rory and Jess break up, and she has a fling with now-married Dean (losing her virginity), which ultimately ends his marriage and creates a short-lived rift between her and her mother.
  • At Yale, Rory becomes involved with Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry), an underachiever whose wealthy family owns a newspaper empire and immediately disapproves of Rory. Logan's father, the infamous Mitchum Huntzberger, hires Rory as an intern. His crushingly negative evaluation of her work leads to her leaving Yale temporarily at the end of the fifth season. (The scenes of Logan's house are filmed at Doheny mansion on the Mount St. Mary's campus.)
  • In the sixth season premiere, Lorelai and Rory are estranged and Rory is living with her grandparents. She is taking time off from college and serving community service for stealing a yacht with Logan. Eventually, an intervention from Jess makes Rory regret her actions, and she reunites with her mother. Logan gets upset at Rory because of Jess' appearance and leaves without resolution. Rory then returns to Yale for the spring semester of the 2005–2006 school year.
  • Rory's relationship with Logan is particularly tumultuous after she attends the wedding of Logan's sister, and discovers that he had sex with all of the bridesmaids during their brief "break up" earlier in season 6. In the next episode, Rory takes Logan back, although she has not forgiven him.
  • Logan leaves for three days on a Life and Death Brigade event, although Rory had expressed her concern. During his absence, Rory visits Jess at his new bookstore and kisses him, apologizing and fully confessing her feelings for Logan. Logan is seriously injured on the trip. Rory takes care of Logan after his accident, and their relationship is repaired.
  • In the season 6 finale, Logan graduates and must leave for London. Rory reluctantly throws him a going away party, though feels as though they don't have enough time for each other. Logan and Rory wakes up and Logan kisses Rory goodbye before leaving for his plane. Rory waves to him and the elevators close on Logan, and he is gone.

Other characters

Rory's friendships with long-time best friend Lane Kim (Keiko Agena)—a first-generation Korean American from a strict background—and Paris Geller (Liza Weil), a friend/rival at both Chilton and Yale, are also themes in the show. At the end of the sixth season, Lane marries Hep Alien band-mate Zach, a sweet but slightly dopey rocker. At the beginning of the seventh season, Lane discovers that she is unexpectedly pregnant with twins and gives birth to them later in the season.

In season four, Doyle McMaster (Danny Strong) storms onto the show as the Yale Daily News editor. He and Paris start dating in the fifth season, after Paris ends her relationship with a much older Professor Asher Fleming. Template:Endspoiler

Production

History

The pilot episode of Gilmore Girls received financial support from the script development fund of the Family Friendly Programming Forum. It was the first network show to reach the air with help from funding provided by that organization, which includes some of the nation's leading advertisers.

The show was not a ratings success initially, airing in the tough Thursday 8pm/7pm Central time slot dominated by Survivor and Friends in its first season. It grew a following that saw it outdraw its time-slot competitor, popular series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the ratings. (Several of the writers of Buffy have been prolific writers on Gilmore Girls, such as Jane Espenson and Rebecca Rand Kirshner.)

In its fifth season, Gilmore Girls blossomed into The WB's second most watched primetime show, with a fan base which grew by double digits in all major demographics [1]. In its syndicated release in the U.S., the show airs exclusively on the ABC Family Channel.

By the time of its fifth season, Gilmore Girls received an American Film Institute Award and two Viewers for Quality Television Awards, and was named New Program of the Year by the Television Critics Association.

The WB was going to air a spin-off featuring Jess as the main character, called Windward Circle, in which he gets to know his estranged father better and befriends a bunch of California skateboarders. However, the network canceled the show before it aired, citing high production costs to shoot on location in Venice Beach as the reason.[2]

The show's actors have received many awards for their work on the series. Graham won two Family Television Awards along with a Teen Choice Award for Best TV Mom. Alexis Bledel has won a Young Artist Award and a Family Television Award. The series also won a Family Television Award for New Series, and was named Best Family TV Drama Series by the Young Artist Awards. The show won an Emmy for its only nomination in six years: 2004's Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic) for the episode The Festival of Living Art.

The first season was released on DVD on May 4, 2004; the second season was released on December 7, 2004, the third on May 3, 2005, the fourth season was released on September 27, 2005, and the fifth season was released on December 13, 2005. All five seasons are formatted in the traditional NTSC 4:3 format on the DVD box sets, despite the series transitioning to the widescreen, HDTV 16:9 format in the fourth season; this was an artistic decision made by Sherman-Palladino to present the program as she envisioned it.

The sixth season of the series was released on DVD on September 19, one week before the season premiere for the seventh season on September 26 [3], and also framed in 4:3.

Cultural references

In addition to fast-paced dialogue, Gilmore Girls is also known for numerous cultural references made by the characters. The references, which may point to anything from movies, television shows, music and books to quotes from celebrities, are frequently quite obscure and thus seem to be understood only by the characters.

To help the viewer understand what the characters are talking about, The WB has included "Gilmore-isms" booklets in the DVD sets of the seasons (except for seasons one, five and six, where purchasers of that set were referred to the site below). The booklets contain "the 411 on many of the show's pop culture references", along with comments from the show creators.

Music

Music plays a large part in the show. Most of the main or recurring characters on the show have had their musical tastes revealed at one time or another. Lorelai famously likes '80s music like that of The Bangles, The Go-Go's and David Bowie as well as Metallica, but Rory credits her with introducing her to new books and music throughout her life, and she and Rory often swap CDs. As we find out in 5th season Rory isn't a fan of the famous American singer Bob Dylan or The Smashing Pumpkins (whom Lane likes).

Lane is a music enthusiast, and her list of musical influences ran to five pages when she was writing her "drummer-seeks-rock-band" ad. David Bowie, the Ramones, Jackson Browne (Lane: "Ah, see, cool people know that he’s more than a mellow hippie-dippy polkie, that he actually wrote some of Nico’s best songs and was in fact her lover before he bored us with 'Doctor My Eyes.' That will separate the poseurs from the non-poseurs." —Season 3, Ep. 3 "Application Anxiety"), the Accelerators , The Adverts, Agent Orange, Angelic Upstarts, and Agnostic Front. She also owns a record of Rilo Kiley. Lane's band, Hep Alien (which is an anagram of producer Helen Pai's name), plays rock with different influences, and Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row, plays Gil, the band's guitarist.

The Bangles made a guest appearance in the Season 1 episode "Concert Interruptus" while The Shins guest-starred (playing their song "So Says I" from the album Chutes Too Narrow) in the Season 4 episode "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist" (also, their 2000 single "Know Your Onion!" is heard in season two "Like Mother, Like Daughter", while their album Chutes Too Narrow later appears). Carole King, who re-recorded her 1971 song "Where You Lead" as a duet with her daughter Louise Goffin as the Gilmore Girls theme song, appears occasionally as local music store owner Sophie Bloom. The original score to the show is performed by Sam Phillips. Grant-Lee Phillips appears in at least one episode per season (up to season 6) as Grant, the town troubadour. In the finale of the sixth season Stars Hollow is infested with musicians including Sonic Youth , Yo La Tengo, Pernice Brothers and Sparks.The aforementioned troubadour is "discovered" by a music producer and is set to open for Neil Young (who Kirk says is "one of the Monkees") but says he was booed off stage and never even got to meet Neil Young "Heart of Gold my ass" he tells Taylor. The famous singer Paul Anka appeared in season 6th as himself in the episode "The Real Paul Anka". Joel Gion, formerly of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, also appeared in an episode, playing tambourine for Zack's side project while Hep Alien is on hiatus.

In 2002, a soundtrack to the show was released by Rhino Records, entitled Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls. The CD cover of the album features anecdotes from show producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino covering the large part music has played in their lives.

Food and drink

Food is another important part of the show. Lorelai and Rory are known to be coffee addicts, and are frequently seen drinking it on the show. In reality, the actress who plays Rory, Alexis Bledel, refuses to drink coffee anymore. When shooting, her "coffee" mug is filled with Coca-Cola or tea.

It is a running gag that Lorelai and Rory can eat copious amounts of junk food but never seem to gain weight. When they aren't eating (or playing bagel hockey) at Luke's Diner or having formal Friday night dinners at Emily and Richard's, they often order pizza or take-out Chinese food, which is why their refrigerator is ALWAYS filled with leftovers. They eat tons of food, including french fries or tater tots, various types of pies, and ice cream straight from the carton. Lorelai and Rory love to eat Mallomars, which Rory uses to spell out "Happy Birthday Lorelai" on their kitchen table in the third season. The two also like doughnuts and various other chocolate and baked goods. They also enjoyed many international foods while on their European trip in the 4th season, and ate the Italian dessert, biscotti on the night before Rory left for Yale (see Season 4:Episode 1 Ballrooms and Biscotti). Rory has a fondness for Indian food, while Lorelai doesn't and complains that Indian food makes the house smell strongly of spices whenever Rory orders it. Additionally, pop-tarts occur on the show recurringly as both Lorelai's and Rory's favorite breakfast and snack food. Sookie, the chef at the Dragonfly Inn, is very passionate about cooking and often obsesses over the inn's menu. Lane Kim's mother, Mrs. Kim, is a fan of health food, and Luke's healthy eating habits are sometimes contrasted with Lorelai's junk-food diet.

DVD releases

The Complete First Season
File:Gilmoregirls s1 cover.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 21 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • "Welcome to the Gilmore Girls" — Making-of Documentary of the First Season
  • Gilmore-isms — Montage
  • Gilmore Goodies & Gossip: On-Screen Factoids — "Rory's Dance"
  • Additional Scenes



Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
May 4, 2004 February 6, 2006 November 16, 2005 November 16, 2005 April 5, 2006
The Complete Second Season
File:Gilmoregirls s2 cover.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • 4 Unaired Scenes
  • "A Film by Kirk"
  • "International Success" featurette
  • Gilmore Goodies & Gossip: On-Screen Factoids — "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"
  • "Who Wants to Argue" shouting matches
  • Gilmore-isms booklet
Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
December 7, 2004 March 13, 2006 March 15, 2006 March 8, 2006 April 5, 2006
The Complete Third Season
File:Gilmoregirls s3.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Additional Scenes on 3 episodes
  • All Grown Up: a Documentary with the Cast about their Childhood Experiences
  • Who Wants to Fall in Love: a Montage of the Best "Love Moments" from Season 3
  • Our Favorite '80s: the Cast and Crew Show off their Favorite '80s Dance Moves
Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
May 3, 2005 July 17, 2006 April 12, 2006 June 28, 2006 July 5, 2006
The Complete Fourth Season
File:Gilmoregirls s4.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Additional Scenes on 2 episodes
  • Who Wants to Get Together: A Montage of Season Four's Most Romantic Moments
  • Gilmore Goodies & Gossip: On-Screen Factoids — "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist"
  • Stars Hollow Challenge Trivia Game


Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
September 27, 2005 TBA June 14, 2006 November 15, 2006 July 5, 2006
The Complete Fifth Season
File:Gilmoregirls s5.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish and French
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Commentary by: Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino on "You Jump, I Jump, Jack"
  • Gilmore Girls Turns 100 – Featurette on the 100th episode
  • Behind-the-Scenes of the 100th episode
  • Who Wants to Talk Gilmore? The Season's Wittiest Wordplay Moments



Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
December 13, 2005 TBA August 16, 2006 January 24, 2007 September 6, 2006
The Complete Sixth Season
File:Gilmoregirls s6.jpg Set Details Special Features
  • 22 Episodes
  • 6-Disc Set
  • 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Subtitles: Spanish and French
  • English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • None
Release Dates
 United States  United Kingdom Europe  Norway  Australia
September 19, 2006 TBA May 8, 2007 May 25, 2007 February 6, 2007

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