Farewell to Stars Hollow

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Tonight, sadly, will be our last visit to Stars Hollow, which ranks with Cicely, Alaska and Stuckeyville, Ohio among the top quirky fictional towns to live in. After seven years, Gilmore Girls will have its final episode tonight. There is some irony in having the show end as the Republicans debate. While I’ve had previous posts on the show, and Amy Sherman-Palladino’s amazing dialog, on blogs before Liberal Values, my first post on the show here was in August. The Washington Post had run a story on the declining support for Republicans in the Northeast. I used Stars Hollow as an example of a Northeast town where George Bush is disliked, quoting from Lorelei Gilmore:

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Lorelei has been blunt about her feelings about George Bush. “I hate President Bush! He’s stupid, and his face is too small for his head. I just want to toss him out.” She also shares our fears over the erosion of civil liberties. She saw an analogy to contemporary American when putting a leash on her dog (Friday Night Is All Right For Fighting):

Oh, he’s perfectly fine with having his personal freedoms slowly stripped away, as long as he’s completely unaware that it’s happening. Just like a true American.

Lorelai’s parents identify more with the Bush Administration (Fight Face):

Richard: I should tell Scooter Libby about this. I keep forgetting I know a man on the inside. I’ll give him a call.
Emily: Before an indictment comes down.

Lorelai rejects her rich parents, and identifies George Bush with them. When she came into some money (Happy Birthday, Baby) her views were apparent. “Seventy-five thousand dollars. I feel so rich. And suddenly in complete agreement with everything Bush has to say.”

Lorelei has also influenced the way in which her daughter Rory sees Republicans (One’s Got Class and the Other One Dyes):

Lorelai: So, I think I’m in touch with the other side.
Rory: The other side of. . .
Lorelai: The other side.
Rory: With Republicans?

The final season, without Amy Sherman-Palladino, was disappointing at times, but it was far better than not being able to vist Stars Hollow at all. The post discussed above also included previous posts on Gilmore Girls from earlier blogs. Under the fold I’ll repost one of these–an article from Esquire on why Gilmore Girls is the best show on television for men.

Update: The Finale

Gilmore girls is the best show on TV for men

Esquire; 10/1/2005; Jacobs, A.J.

I KNOW THAT professing my love for Gilmore Girls is a bit like saying that I just went to a really super scrapbooking workshop. It’s just not something straight adult males are supposed to say. I mean, the show has a Carole King theme song, for God’s sake. Sally Struthers plays a recurring character. Doesn’t matter. I love it, and you should, too.

I first tried Gilmore Girls a year ago, late at night, my wife asleep, The Daily Show over. I faced the dregs of her TiVo selections, and Gilmore Girls looked slightly more promising than Big Brother.

I was smitten from the first moment–or at least from the first moment after the Carole King theme song. The show, about a single mom, Lorelai, and her daughter, Rory (both of whom, incidentally, are quite hot), takes place in a small Connecticut town, a quirky Northern Exposure–like village free from homelessness and cops searching bags in the subway. The dialogue is clever, clipped, allusion-heavy–Billy Wilder meets Us Weekly.

And the characters speak fast, really fast, like FedEx-commercial-from-the-’80s fast. You have to pay attention; this is no time to work on your scrapbook, or else you’ll miss the best writing on TV. Here’s Lorelai, played by Lauren Graham: “My mother–she was here. I can feel it. Smell that? The room smells like guilt and Chanel No. 5.” And here’s Rory complaining about being held captive at a soul-deadening dinner: “This is Iran in ‘79 and you are Jimmy Carter. What do we do?” Or Lorelai and her contractor: “Tom, I’m lovin’ you like a two-dollar whore.” Tom: “Terrific. I’ll tell the wife.”

And, men–in case I didn’t make the hot-actress point sufficiently clear: This is a show worth watching even if the sound is muted, especially now that Rory–played by the stunning Alexis Bledel–is out of high school and you can leer at her without feeling like you should be chemically castrated.

6 Comments

  1. 1
    Heather says:

    Dear Ron, Visitors:

    LOL Lorelai seems to be a clone of me, she expresses my sentiments about Bush exactly, she even looks similar to me if she is the one sitting [in picture above] I’m 6’0″ slim/athletic build long dark brn/blk brunette hair hazel eyes.
    In any event I loved the post, it adds a little sunshine to my day to know i’m not the only one that holds Bush and his merry little neocon trolls in contempt and disgust!
    Sincerely
    Heather™

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    Heather,

    For you to be a Loreli Gilmore clone, the important thing is now whether you look like her, but whether you sound like her. You need to be able to speak at twice normal speed, and throw in cultural references in every conversation, as well as being sarcastic about conservatives.

    Amy Sherman-Palladino, who created the show and wrote many of the episodes for the first six years, reminds me a lot of Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night and West Wing). Nobody comes close to these two in writing dialog. There were even some rumors when the show first started it that Sorkin was actually writing it as people were surprised by the quality of the dialog. Amy Sherman Palladino is working on a new sit com. Hopefully this will show more of the type of work she did on Gilmore Girls, and not suffer the fate of Aaron Sorkin’s latest attempt at television (Studio 60).

  3. 3
    kj says:

    Count JBK in as a non-scrapbooking but avid Daily Show watching man who watched every single episode of Gilmore Girls. (We got into the show late and caught up the last year or so via re-runs.)

    I agree with Ron above, this was some of the best dialogue ever written for television. Maybe even better than Sorkin.

  4. 4
    kj says:

    “Oh, he’s perfectly fine with having his personal freedoms slowly stripped away, as long as he’s completely unaware that it’s happening. Just like a true American.”

    Lorelai talking about her dog, Paul Anka. I loved Paul Anka. (The dog, I mean!)

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    KJ,

    You, and JBK, have more will power than my wife and I did in going through the reruns. That’s only one show a day. We needed marathons, and caught up with the DVD’s. Sadly, there’s only one more DVD set to purchase. (After we had several sets, it was hard not to keep up the collection and continue to buy them for the years we actually saw.) While I’d rather have new episodes, it is helpful to be able to pull out any previous episode at any time. I’m hoping that some of thee Gilmore Girls fan sites continue and even expand, so that if we think of a line or a scene we want to review, we can find a good reference to quickly track down the episode.

  6. 6
    Anonymous says:

    i would die if they stopped playing the remakes i cry almost everynight b/c ik they ended it rory is like my roll modle and i wanna be just like her i want thm to make more so badly i wish my mom was like her mom my mom doesnt belive mother and daughter should be friends and bond and im just obsesed w/ the tv show it is the best

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