Today over at the New York Times’ “Op-Talk” page, Hanna Kozlowska takes a look at what made Gilmore Girls so popular—and what’s behind its continued appeal.
This is, of course, prompted by the recent announcement that the show will be streaming in its entirety, beginning October 1. That announcement exploded the Internet in a good way (something we don’t see all that often these days, what with the NFL and the Middle East and the outrage-of-the-day), as Kozlowska points out.
In case you lived under a rock in a prior decade, Gilmore Girls was a WB (and CW) dramedy that aired from 2000 to 2007. In it, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) was a single mother who raised her brainy daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) in the small Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, populated by quirky, lovable characters, especially Luke (Scott Patterson), the gruff guy who owned the diner and Lorelai’s on-and-off love interest, and Lorelai’s best friend Sookie (Melissa McCarthy!), a chef. The show was funny, noticeably fast-talking, and mostly friendly enough for parents and teens to watch together; it grappled with some very big themes in both Lorelai’s and Rory’s coming-of-age stories, and it did it without seeming like a Story About Growing Up.
In today’s piece, Kozlowska (by the way, apologies to her for reusing her last line for this title; I couldn’t think of a greater one-liner) talks to a number of people who offer reasons for why the show was so popular: its mix of relentless pop culture and literary references, smart writing, and great characters; its central character of Rory, who was an instant best friend of all bookish, slightly nerdy girls (like, let’s be honest, myself) who nonetheless found herself struggling into adulthood; its focus on a family that didn’t look like the typical American TV family, but did look a lot like many actual American families; and, of course, its cast of weirdo characters and litany of quotable lines.
I started watching the show about a year before it ended and binged through it on DVDs. Turned out the impetus was my husband. He’d watched it with family, and loved it, and knew I’d love it too. I won’t lie: I was a hard sell (at the time any show with “girls” in the title seemed dubious to me; things have changed), but they hooked me right off the bat with the writing, and continued as I was drawn into the struggles that Lorelai and Rory and everyone else encountered. I was in the middle of a crisis of career and a new marriage, and trying to figure out who I was now.
The show gave me a safe place to see other people think about that, make mistakes (some very big) and learn from them, without all the sap and sentimentality. And I could laugh, too, and care about these people. And though its sole depiction of religion is somewhat caricatured (see below), I felt like a lot of what it dealt with were universal matters, no matter your religious background.
Last week on Twitter, I asked a very similar question, inquiring of my follower list why they thought the show was so important. And I got a bunch of interesting answers. Here’s a few of the things I’m still thinking about, days later, and some of my own thoughts. (Maybe some mild plot spoilers below, but the show’s been over for seven years, so, tough.)
— Sam Phillips did all of the music, except the theme song. Sam used to be a CCM artist, once upon a time, and was married to the extremely well-known music producer T. Bone Burnett (of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? fame) for years as well, and he produced some of her albums. Our friend Jeffrey Overstreet (author of that piece on Dead Poets Society last week) interviewed her for the faith-based arts journal IMAGE a few years ago. Go read it.
GILMORE GIRLS
"Say Goodnight Gracie" (Episode #320)
Image # GG320-0309
Pictured (left to right): Scott Patterson as Luke Danes, Milo Ventimiglia as Jess
Photo Credit: © The WB / Justin Lubin— One of my friends—the YA novelist Sara Zarr, author of Story of a Girl and others—tweeted to me that part of its appeal was “Rory as a recognizable human girl. Smart, insecure, cared about family & the world. Not just an object for romantic storylines or teen drama object lessons.” She also pointed out that Lorelai, “as selfish as she can sometimes seem . . . is always TRYING to love Rory sacrificially.”
— So here is something interesting: I did run across some violently negative reactions to the show. All were from men (thoughtful friends of mine!), who generally viewed the show as either presenting unrealistic or shallow characters. I argued (and I still think they’re wrong): I viewed Rory’s struggles, particularly in later episodes, as the most realistic thing about her, and their plethora of bad choices along with the good ones as being part and parcel of what I’ve experienced as I’ve grown up. I’ll be honest: this particular response astounded me (and, for her part, Sara Zarr, who characterized it as “unintentional/unaware devaluing of female perspective & experience.” What do you think?
— Lane Kim, Rory’s childhood best friend, doesn’t come up much in discussions of the show. But I found her fascinating. Lane was from a strict Korean Seventh-Day Adventist home, with a mother who seemed especially caricatured as strict and foreboding. But as the show wore on, it became clear that we’d seen Mrs. Kim through the teenager’s eyes. Lane wound up being in a successful band, with her mother acting as her agent and basically forcing her not to quit when things got tough, even after Lane dropped out of the Seventh Day Adventist college and was living with bandmates. She also—possibly uniquely, on TV comedies—tells her boyfriend that she wants to be a virgin until she gets married, and then holds to that unashamedly. But then! There’s a uniquely realistic and humorous take on the ins and outs of that choice, something I suspect that a lot of people like me can relate to. It was remarkable to see, and refreshing.
— Several people pointed out that the witty writing was part of it for them—but, even more interesting, the show is populated by a lot of female characters and frequently passes the Bechdel test. One person pointed out that in Gilmore Girls, the normal parent/child roles are richer than we often see on TV, especially in comedy: “having the adult be more than just an annoying buzz kill and the child being more than just a prop was huge.”
— And this bears repeating: part of the appeal of Gilmore Girls was that it was a show that expected its viewers to be smart and savvy, and not just up on pop cultural references. Rory was forever reading a book; there were references to journalists and celebrities and politicians and thinkers left and right, which not only lent the show a certain amount of gravitas, but also implied, strongly, to viewers that it was completely cool to be smart. I don’t know about you, but I have been in several life situations in betraying that you Knew Things was seen as a foible or a quirk, but Gilmore Girls said, no: it’s totally normal, and probably good.
— Totally taking authorial privilege here: Jess is my favorite of the boyfriends. I defy you to prove me wrong. (Though obviously she should have ended up with Marty.)
Enough about me. What about you? Did you watch the show? Did you like it? And what made it important?
