Oy

with the Poodles Already 1

Oy with the Poodles Already
A Review of the TV Show Gilmore Girls
Samantha Zeegers
Matt Davis
Media Psychology

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Oy with the Poodles Already
A Review of the TV show Gilmore Girls

In the late 1990s, after finishing up with the authoring of popular TV show Roseanne, Amy

Sherman-Palladino had they idea to create a new type of family series. Gilmore Girls first aired on
October 5, 2000 on The WB. Although not being an extremely popular show, it quickly became WBs top
running show on the station. Year after year Gilmore Girls received relatively high Neilson ratings
(Lavery, 2010). Amy Sherman-Palladinos idea of having a mother and daughter who had a close
friendship-like relationship became a quick hit.

The show begins with the two main Gilmore girls, mother and daughter, Lorelai and Rory

respectively. At the time of the pilot episode Rory is sixteen and has just been accepted to the
prestigious Chilton prep school and Lorelai is the manager at the Independence Inn in the small town of
Stars Hollow. But their stories started much earlier, seventeen years earlier to be exact. Lorelai Gilmore
is the daughter of the very wealthy Richard and Emily Gilmore. At the age of sixteen she became
pregnant by her family friend of ten years, Christopher Hayden. After refusing an abortion or marriage,
Lorelai left home and moved to Stars Hollow on her own. The owner of the Independence Inn allowed
her to move into the potting shed behind the Inn and gave Lorelai a job as a maid. Lorelai named her
daughter Lorelai after herself because if men can name their children after themselves she could too,
but her daughter is most often referred to as Rory. Rory proved to be a very smart and independent
individual at a very young age. Eventually Lorelai would show her intelligence and good work-ethic and
soon became the manager of the Independence Inn. This allowed Rory and her to move into a real home
in Stars Hollow.

This now brings their story to the pilot episode. Although Lorelai was very good at her job, she

did not make enough money to pay for the elite Chilton Academy. Lorelai was then forced to face her
parents and ask for a loan to pay for Rorys education. Very eager to be involved in their lives Richard

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and Emily loaned her the money, but with one condition: Friday night dinners. The rest of the series
would thus far be focused on the issues surrounding the Gilmore familys lives and the weekly meeting
for dinner at the Gilmore mansion or as what Lorelai refers to as the Gilmore prison.
I need coffee in an IV

Gilmore Girls redefined family-friendly television. It was the first advertiser advocated show

funded by the Family Friendly Programming Forum (FFPF), a group consisting of major U.S.
corporations, who offered up a million dollars to fund family-friendly script development at the WB
(Keeler, 2010). Other shows funded by the FFPF were 7th Heaven (1996-2007) and Everwood (20022006). Gilmore Girls was definitely no 7th Heaven. A single teenage mother, estranged from her parents
in a very eclectic small Connecticut town is not the typical idea of a family show. What makes this show
special is that even with the lack of a nuclear family, there is still and maternal and paternal figure in a
family that goes through normal family problems in very unique ways.
Although Rory does not know her father well, nor visit him often she still has a strong paternal
figure to turn to. Luke Danes is the owner of Lukes Diner in Stars Hollow. He is the love interest and
eventual husband of Lorelai, but they do not admit their admirations to each other until the middle of
the series. Due to Lorelai and Rorys addiction to coffee they frequent the diner and become close
friends with Luke. For several episodes Rory dates Lukes troubled nephew while he lives in Stars Hollow.
Later in the series when Rorys father, Christopher, returns to become a bigger part in Rorys life Luke
and he clash. At an event in Rorys honor the two men fight over Lukes right to know what was
happening in her life:
Christopher: Its none of your business whats going on with Rory.
Luke: It sure the hell is my business.
Christopher: Rory is my daughter. Mine.

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Luke: Oh, really? Well then, where the hell were you when she got the chicken pox and would
only eat mashed potatoes for a week, or where were you when she graduated high school, or
started college? Huh? Who the hell moved her mattress into her dorm, and out of her dorm,
and back into her dorm again? (Wedding Bell Blues, 2005)
Luke played a large part in the lives of Rory and Lorelai. He was a shoulder to cry on for both the women
and an intermediary between the two women in times of stress.

Another reason to question the family wholeness of Gilmore Girls is the fact that Rory is an

only child as well as Lorelai. There are no biological siblings, aunts or uncles, or cousins to speak of. But
in the in the same way Luke became a surrogate father to Rory, other characters became her missing
family members. Rory found a sister in her best friend Lane Kim. Lane is also an only child of a single
mother. It is never discussed what happened to Mr. Kim, but he is never seen or mentioned. Mrs. Kim
however plays a major part in the series. She is seen as the strict Korean mother who disapproves of
junk food and rock musicboth of which Lane lovesand believes that her daughter should marry a
successful Korean boy. Rory, like any good sister, helps Lane hide her rock CDs and posters of Led
Zeppelin and other rock bands. After attending Chilton, Rory meets Paris Geller, her driven, slightly
pretentious, rival. They duke it out over test scores, positions on the school newspaper, and, of
course, boys. But eventually, they learn to realize each others strengths and become close friends. They
later become roommates at Yale. Paris is like an annoying little sister testing Rorys patience and
kindness. They learn from each other and grow immensely because of it. Lastly, another major
character in Rory and Lorelais life is Independence Inn cook Sookie St. James. She is the quirky, upbeat
sidekick to Lorelai, and eventually co-owns the Dragonfly Inn with her. Sookie is very motherly and helps
Lorelai raise Rory. She is very involved in their lives and has each woman become the godparents of her
two children.

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Rory and Lorelais relationship is also rather unusual. Often they act more like sisters, rather

than mother and daughter. Eugenie Brinkema in her article A Mother Is a Form of Time: Gilmore Girls
and the Elasticity of In-Finitude (2012) mentions an episode of Family Guy (2005) where they parody an
episode of Gilmore Girls:
Rory: Mom, I need to talk to you about Dean.
Lorelai: Which Dean? Howard Dean, James Dean or Jimmy Dean?
Rory: Uh, too old, too dead and too fattening.
Lorelai: You don't have to tell that to my thighs.
Rory: Can you ask your thighs if they borrowed my Gap Capris?
Lorelai: They did not and are insulted that you'd ask such a thing.
Rory: As insulted as Kitty Kelley when people accused her of taking liberties with her bestselling
tell-alls?
Lorelai: Almost. Wanna make out?
Rory: Absolutely not.
Lorelai: Oh, you are so lying.
Rory: I so am.
Although the incestuous relationship portrayed by Family Guy is a bit of an exaggeration, the pair is
unusually close for mother and daughter. With only sixteen years separating them in age, it is rather
hard for Lorelai to be a strict mother, especially with her own rebellious nature. However, this does
prove to be inconvenient when Lorelai actually has some motherly advice or when Rory needs to be set
straight. Most viewers will be quick to say that they want a relationship with the mother like Rory has
with hers. But it is shown throughout the series that this might not actually be the most practical
relationship, no matter how fun it looks.
If youre gonna throw your life away, hed better have a motorcycle

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Education is a very important part of the Gilmore girls life. Rory, as stated previously, is very

intelligent and gains admittance into a well-respected private school. The dream of her mother and her
since a young age is for Rory to attend Harvard University. This dream is disturbed by Lorelais parents
Richard and Emily, both alumnus of Yale. The matter, however, is settled when Rory does not get
accepted to Harvard. Although Rory is obviously very book smart, her mother raised her with a very
pop culture sort of education. Gilmore Girls has been criticized for its lead characters fast speech with
many obscure pop culture references. In a season two episode, while at a Friday night dinner, Lorelai
notes that the words Oy and Poodles were rather hilarious. She figured combing them would be
only appropriate, thus the catchphrase Oy with the poodles already was born.

Lorelais education halted when she became pregnant with Rory. It wasnt until many years later

that Lorelai returned to community college to earn her AA in business. Like her daughter, Lorelai loves
to read and watch TV, which is where their vast pop culture knowledge comes from. Their comments
are so random that the Gilmore Girls box set comes with several booklets of Gilmore-isms which
define each of their references during the show. Even so, both women truly value a more traditional
education as well. However, in her junior year at Yale Rorys boyfriends father tells her that she was not
cut out to be a journalist. This causes her to take a semester off, in which she does not speak to Lorelai
at all. Lorelai knows that she is making a huge mistake. Lorelai has always seen college as very important
and sometimes regrets not going herself. In the pilot episode she says, She can finally go to
[college] like she's always wanted and get the education that I never got and get to do all the things that
I never got to do and then I can resent her for it and we can finally have a normal mother-daughter
relationship (Pilot, 2000) Eventually, Rory does return to Yale and graduates the following year.
Laura Detmering in her article Good Breeding and Acute Discernment: The Politics of Literacy
and Family in Gilmore Girls (2012) references the 2003 episode of Gilmore Girls where Lorelai and Rory

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meet Harvard alumnus Darren Springsteen and his family. The family seems relatively normal until the
group sits down for lunch. The Springsteen family starts their favorite mealtime game, quizzing each
other with extremely difficult trivia question. The message of this episode appears to be that families
who engage in these kinds of elite activities are weird (Detmering, 2012). Rory and Lorelai are shown to
be the more normal family. Their education comes from reading or watching television. Rory can enjoy
reading literature classics such as Shakespeare, but can also enjoy reading magazines like Cosmo.
Gilmore Girls also represents the idea of the American dream. Money is a major issue
throughout the entire series. It begins with Lorelai loaning money from her parents for Chilton, and then
Rory loaning money from her grandparents for Yale, and Lorelai loaning money from Luke to buy the
Dragonfly Inn. Detmering (2012) suggests that Gilmore Girls promotes a notion that hard work leads to
financial, commercial, and academic success. The series demonstrates the financial struggle of the
average American: Rory and Lorelai borrowing money, Paris cutoff from her parents financial support
when they attempt to escape the IRS, and Rorys ex-boyfriend Dean working three jobs just to keep his
family fed. The show constantly reinforces the idea that hard work leads to a big payoff. But it is also
sending a mixed-message, because the characters that have already made it big are often criticized.
It is viewed that Lorelai achieves her dreams on her own through hard work. As a sixteen yearold single mother, she is able to move out on her own and climb the ranks from maid to manager and
eventual owner in the hotel business, all while successfully raising a well-rounded child. But what is the
reality in this? How many women across America could truly achieve all that she had by the time they
are thirty-six? Danielle Stern in It Takes a Classless, Heteronormative Utopian Village: Gilmore Girls and
the Problem of Postfeminism (2012) notes that the show does not take into account that women of
different ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds would be unlikely to achieve what Lorelai had. The

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writers endorse the idea that she does it all on her own, but in reality she actually relies on a lot of
people to make it through.
Bon Voyage, Rory
The series had a rather bittersweet ending, with everyone going their separate ways. Lorelai and
Luke (finally) get married, Rory gets a job to follow Barack Obamas campaign, and the rest of Stars
Hollow move on with their lives. The shows popularity can easily be seen through the references to it in
other major TV show such as Family Guy, MadTV, Scrubs, Will & Grace, and Veronica Mars. Amy
Sherman-Palladino created not only a television series, but also a cult of witty, fast-talking, sarcastic
people. Although her portrayal of women and education may have been a little far-fetched, it gained
great admiration. One can still find people fighting over which of Rorys boyfriends was the best eight
years after the finale. However, if were all being honest, Jess was obviously her best boyfriend.

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References
Brinkema, E. (2012). A mother is a form of time: Gilmore Girls and the elasticity of in-finitude. Discourse,
34.1, 3-31.
Detmering, L. (2012). Good breeding and acute discernment: The politics of literacy and family in
Gilmore Girls. Studies in Popular Culture, 34.2, 1-21.
Keeler, A. (2010). Branding the family drama: Genre formations and critical perspectives on Gilmore
Girls. (D. Diffrient & D. Lavery, Eds.). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Lavery, D. (2010). Impossible girl: Amy Sherman-Palladino and television creativity. (D. Diffrient & D.
Lavery, Eds.). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Sherman-Palladino, A. (Creator). (2000). Gilmore Girls. [Television series]. California: Warner Brothers
Studios.
Stern, D. (2012). It takes a classless, heteronormative, utopian village: Gilmore Girls and the problem of
postfeminism. The Communication Review, 15, 167-186.