Season 1, episode 4: “The Deer Hunters”
Original air date: 26 October 2000
Directed by: Alan Myerson
Written by: Jed Seidel

Summary: Rory struggles to adjust to her new school and receives her first-ever bad grade. Lorelai helps her to prepare for a big test – if she can only make it to school in time to take it.

Note: My timestamps are based on the series DVDs, which include a “previously on Gilmore Girls” montage at the beginning of some episodes, including this one. Streaming services may cut the recap sequence, placing their timestamps a minute or so behind my own.

On this page: References in Chronological Order | References Sorted by Category | Credits

References in Chronological Order

00:00 – 📺 reference
Episode title: “The Deer Hunters”

The Deer Hunter is a 1978 epic drama war film directed by Michael Cimino. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage star as three steelworkers who go on one final deer-hunting trip before deploying to fight in the Vietnam War. The film features John Cazale in his final film role and Meryl Streep in a supporting role for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. The Deer Hunter won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry in 1996.

00:55 – 🏷️ mention
RORY: I need legal pads. … Some number two pencils, three highlighters, an eraser, a staple remover, and a Pee-Chee folder.

The Pee-Chee All Season Portfolio, or Pee-Chee folder, is a stationery item used to store loose-leaf papers. Named for its peachy yellow color, the Pee-Chee folder was most commonly used by US students in the second half of the twentieth century. It became traditional for students to doodle on the folders, modifying the existing illustrations (created by US artist Francis Golden in 1964) of student athletes. The folders were originally produced by the Western Tablet and Stationery Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and are now sold by the Mead Corporation in a variety of colors.

Number two pencils are a common US school supply generally required for use in standardized testing. “Number two” is a grade indicating the relative hardness of the graphite, similar to HB in other countries.

01:50 – 🏷️ feature
LORELAI: We’re gonna stage an intervention with the neon Post-its and make them give up their wacky, crazy ways.

Post-it is a US brand of sticky notes produced by US multinational conglomerate the 3M Company. In 1968, US chemist Spencer Silver accidentally discovered a reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive, and in 1975, fellow US scientist Arthur Fry applied the adhesive to the creation of sticky notes. Fry filed a patent for the notes in 1993. Both Silver and Fry were employees of the 3M Company.

In US English, the term “Post-it” has become a generic trademark, or proprietary eponym, a brand name that, due to its prevalence or significance, has become a generic term for an entire class of products. Any sticky note, of any brand, may be casually referred to as a “Post-it” despite the fact that the term is a registered trademark owned by 3M. The sticky notes seen on screen in this scene are genuine, branded Post-its. They were mentioned previously in episode three at 17:25.

03:50 – 📖 reference
MR. MEDINA: Look at the large, red circles around various parts of your paper as friendly reminders that to err is human.

The phrase “to err is human” is probably best associated with the 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism, Part II, by English poet Alexander Pope. The full context reads, “Ah ne’er so dire a Thirst of Glory boast, / Nor in the Critick let the Man be lost! / Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join; / To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.” The last of these lines has been absorbed into the English lexicon, expressing the sentiment that “while anyone can make a mistake, we should aspire to do as God does, that is, show mercy and forgive sinners” (Phrase Finder).

However, the phrase was used in an earlier work, the 1678 book Of the Heart, and its Right Soveraign by English theologian Thomas Jones. Jones writes, “To err, is human, to recover, is Angelical; to persevere is Diabolical” (Merriam-Webster). He uses the phrase to express a slightly different sentiment than Pope did, namely that virtue lies not in freedom from sin, but in the quest for self-improvement.

04:05 – 📖 feature
MR. MEDINA: Shakespeare! The man we’ve been droning on about for the last three weeks finally comes back to haunt us on Friday.
26:05
LORELAI: Ooh, a test! Great.
RORY: On Shakespeare.
LORELAI: The Bard with a beard. Love it!

William Shakespeare (born c. 1564, died 1616) was an English poet and playwright “often called the English national poet. He is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time” (Britannica). He is sometimes referred to as the Bard, “bard” being a historical term for a poet. As he speaks, Mr. Medina gestures to a poster of Shakespeare on the wall of the classroom. Shakespeare was mentioned previously in episode two at 37:45.

04:45 – 🏷️ reference
PARIS: A D, however… That would be cause for concern.
LOUISE: A cry for help.
PARIS: A job application at McDonald’s.
LOUISE: Would you like fries with that?

The McDonald’s Corporation is a US chain of fast-food restaurants specializing in hamburgers and french fries (British English: chips). With a presence in more than one hundred countries, the company has become a symbol of US globalization. Founded in 1940, it employs more than 150,000 people directly and more than two million at franchised restaurants today.

McDonald’s employees are trained in various upselling tactics, such as asking customers if they would like to add a side of fries to their order. The question has become a cliché, usually used to invoke the low pay and low status of fast-food workers; it was a relatively common classist taunt at the time of this episode. In 2004, US country singer Tim McGraw recorded a song, written from the perspective of a McDonald’s employee, called “Do You Want Fries with That.”

05:50 – ⭐ reference
MICHEL: Ah! You imbecile!
DRELLA: Back off, Chevalier.

Drella is probably referring to French actor and singer Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972), who put on a heavy French stage accent when performing in English. He is known for his performance in the 1958 musical film Gigi, the source of two of his signature songs, “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” and “I Remember It Well.”

Chevalier (English: horseman) is a French honorary title given to knights and later to nobility. It also applies to members of some modern French orders such as the Légion d’honneur (English: Legion of Honor).

Though Michel has referred to a boyhood experience in Paris, France, the actor who plays him, Yanic Truesdale, was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. Truesdale speaks Quebec French, distinct from the Metropolitan French spoken in France, as his first language. He has also appeared on the Amy Sherman-Palladino show Étoile (2025).

06:05 – 🏷️ reference
DRELLA: What a baby!
MICHEL: These are three-hundred-dollar Italian loafers.
DRELLA: I wonder if Versace makes a pacifier.

Gianni Versace S.r.l. is a luxury fashion brand founded by Italian designer Giovanni “Gianni” Versace in 1978. “It produces Italian-made ready-to-wear and accessories, as well as haute couture under its Atelier Versace brand” (Wikipedia).

06:50 – 📺 reference
LORELAI: Behold, in theaters now, The Thing That Reads a Lot.

When Rory stumbles in laden with book bags, Lorelai compares her to an amoeba-like creature from another planet, like the one in 1958 science fiction horror film The Blob. She references the title of 1951 science fiction horror film The Thing from Another World and mimics the style of old B-movie trailers more generally.

The Thing from Another World is directed by Christian Nyby and based on US author John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, the same novella upon which John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing is based. It was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry in 2001.

08:25 – 📺 feature
NEWS ANCHOR: And the “Person of the Week” segment.

“ABC Person of the Week” is a segment included at the end of the Friday night ABC World News Tonight broadcast. Created in 1986, it highlights the achievements and contributions of everyday people. Canadian-born US journalist Peter Jennings was sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 to 2005, so he would have hosted the segment at the time this episode aired.

13:25 – 🪶 reference
RORY: Marco!
LANE: Polo!

Marco Polo is a call-and-response game typically played in swimming pools. In the game, one player shouts, “Marco!” and, keeping their eyes closed, tries to locate other players based on their responses of “Polo!” The game shares its name with thirteenth-century Italian adventurer Marco Polo (born c. 1254, died 1324), though it is unclear whether it was named for him.

13:40 – 🏷️ feature
RORY: What is that?
LANE: Twelve calories.
RORY: Here.
LANE: Oh my God, bless you.
14:35
MRS. KIM: That is chocolate-covered death.
RORY: With a creamy caramel surprise.

Lane is eating a rice cake, and Rory offers her a Snickers bar as an alternative. Snickers is a brand of candy bar produced by US confectionery company Mars Inc. since 1930. The bars consist of peanuts, caramel, and nougat in a milk chocolate coating.

13:50 – 📖 feature
Rory pulls a copy of The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works from her backpack.

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works is a 1986 compilation of the works of William Shakespeare, edited by English scholar Stanley Wells and US scholar Gary Taylor and published by Oxford University Press.

15:15 – 💿 feature + 💿 mention
LORELAI: No Black Sabbath.
DRELLA: No one is listening.
LORELAI: No Black Sabbath, no Steely Dan, no Boston, and no Queen.

Black Sabbath, Steely Dan, Boston, and Queen are all rock bands that rose to prominence in the 1970s. Steely Dan and Boston originated in the United States, Black Sabbath and Queen in the United Kingdom.

Drella is playing a rendition of Black Sabbath’s song “Iron Man,” from their 1970 album Paranoid, when Lorelai interjects. US cable television network VH1 ranked the song number one out of forty, and US magazine Rolling Stone ranked it seven out of one hundred, on their respective lists of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time.

15:30 – 💿 reference
LORELAI: We like that Mozart.
DRELLA: I am the Artie Shaw of harpists.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an influential composer of the Classical period and one of the most influential in the history of Western music. Born in Salzburg in present-day Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire), he was a child prodigy who, by the age of five, had performed before European royalty. He composed across the genres of his day, and his more than eight hundred compositions include some of the best-known works in Western music.

Artie Shaw (born Arthur Arshawsky, 1910-2004) was a US clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. “Throughout his career, Shaw had a habit of forming bands, developing them according to his immediate aspirations, making a quick series of records, and then disbanding. He generally did not stick around long enough to reap his bands’ successes” (Wikipedia). Drella may be alluding to her own musical restlessness, or to Lorelai’s underappreciation of her musical vision.

Shaw was married eight times, including to US actors Ava Gardner and Lana Turner.

15:40 – 🪶 reference
LORELAI: Sookie, I need coffee to go.
SOOKIE: There’s fresh over there.
LORELAI: …Fresh in my first lifetime as Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc (known in modern French as Jeanne d’Arc, born c. 1412, died 1431) is a canonized Catholic saint and patron saint of France, honored for her role as a military leader during the Hundred Years’ War. She is one of the most enduring cultural figures of the Middle Ages, known for her religious visions, masculine military attire (for which she was criminally charged with cross-dressing), and martyrdom; she was burned at the stake after being convicted of heresy.

18:05 – 🪶 mention + 📖 mention
MR. MEDINA: We are gonna be focusing on Elizabethan literature: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Bacon, Ben Jonson, John Webster.

William Shakespeare (who is also mentioned at 04:05 and 26:05), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Ben Jonson (born Benjamin Jonson c. 1572, died c. 1637), and John Webster (born c. 1578, died c. 1632) were all poets and playwrights who lived during the 1558-1603 reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a lawyer, statesman, essayist, and philosopher whose writings on natural philosophy influenced the development of empiricism and the scientific method.

18:20 – 🎓 mention
CHILTON PARENT: Yes, but will [Marlowe] be included on the Advanced Placement test?
…
CHILTON PARENT: How do we find out [what’s on the AP test]?
MR. MEDINA: Well, you could bribe somebody on the AP committee.

Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada that offers undergraduate-level course credit to secondary-school students who earn qualifying scores on AP examinations. The program was created by US non-profit organization the College Board (mentioned again later at 20:50) in 1952 and implemented nationally in 1955.

Though Mr. Medina is joking about bribing testing officials, such scandals have come to light since this episode aired. In 2019, thirty-three parents were charged with conspiracy after an FBI investigation (code named Operation Varsity Blues) found that they had attempted to illegally influence college admissions decisions in their children’s favor, including by inflating test scores.

19:15 – 🕊️ mention
LORELAI: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the camel! It’s really bad coffee.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” is an exclamation used, often by Catholics, to express surprise or frustration. It refers to Jesus’ earthly parents, Joseph and Mary (who was mentioned in episode two at 22:40 and 41:15). Lorelai also includes the camel popularly depicted in nativity scenes.

20:50 – 🎓 reference
MR. MEDINA: I apologize for the behavior of some of our guests tonight. It’s a tense time for some people.
LORELAI: The SAT season?
MR. MEDINA: The waking hours.

The SAT is a standardized test created and owned by US non-profit organization the College Board and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). It was originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and then the Scholastic Assessment Test. Today, the organization says the initialism stands for nothing. SAT scores are commonly used by US colleges and universities as admissions criteria, and, up until recently, were a required piece of applications to many schools.

The centrality of SAT scores to college admissions has been criticized for much of the College Board’s history. Educational and consumer advocate groups have accused the College Board of underestimating the aptitude of Black students, exerting monopolistic control over its class of products, and “violating its non-profit status through excessive profits and exorbitant executive compensation” (Wikipedia).

Early in her career, Lauren Graham appeared in a tutorial made by the Princeton Review, a US education services company that prepares students for standardized tests, including the SAT.

21:45 – 💿 feature
MR. MEDINA: So, are you a B-52s girl?

This question is prompted by the fact that Lorelai is wearing a promotional shirt for the B-52s, a US new-wave band formed in 1978. The B-52s released a number of hit songs in the 1970s and ’80s, including their debut release “Rock Lobster” (1978) and “Love Shack” (1989); the latter was named one of 365 Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001. The band’s name comes from a Southern slang term for a 1960s beehive hairstyle resembling the rounded, conical nose of a B-52 aircraft.

24:40 – 📺 reference
RORY: It was too humiliating.
LORELAI: Oh, honey. You once told me that you loved Saved By the Bell. What could be more humiliating than that?

Saved By the Bell is a US teen sitcom that aired on Saturday mornings from 1989 to 1993. The series is known for its “very special episodes” touching on social issues such as drug use, homelessness, grief, and environmental issues. Such episodes marked a departure from the show’s typically more lighthearted subject matter and could be cheesy and moralizing in tone. For instance, in one 1990 episode, “Jessie’s Song,” overachiever Jessie becomes addicted to caffeine pills and, in a scene made viral by memes in the 2010s, has a nervous breakdown.

26:30 – 📖 feature
PARIS: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments. Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove. / O no! It is an ever-fixed mark / That looks on tempests and is never shaken; / It is the star to every wand’ring bark, / Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.”

Paris tries to intimidate Rory by reciting part of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, which was first published in 1609 and can be read in full here. It is written in iambic pentameter and consists of three quatrains (stanzas of four lines) followed by a final couplet, making it a typical example of a Shakespearean sonnet. It is one of the most famous in his sequence of one hundred fifty-four sonnets.

27:15 – 🏷️ mention + 📺 reference
LORELAI: Sookie! What’s with all the risotto? Have we gone theme now? Ooh, is it gonna be like the Scotch Tape store?

Scotch Tape is a US brand of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape (comparable to Sellotape sold in several other countries) produced by US multinational conglomerate the 3M Company. US scientist Richard Drew developed the tape in the 1920s for use in the of painting two-toned automobiles. The name came about when a body shop worker, frustrated with a failed prototype, told Drew to tell his “Scotch bosses” to be less stingy with the adhesive. “Scotch” was then used as a pejorative relying on a stereotype of Scottish people as excessively frugal. Today, Scotch Tape features tartan in its branding. Just as “Post-it” is often used as a generic term for sticky notes, “Scotch Tape” is sometimes used as a generic term for adhesive tape; both are registered trademarks owned by 3M.

There is a sketch in a 1978 episode of US comedy variety series Saturday Night Live (1975-present) about a mall store, The Scotch Boutique, that sells only Scotch Tape. Though still images are available, the sketch does not seem to be available without accessing the full episode. The episode features US actor Fred Willard as host and US new-wave band Devo as musical guest.

28:10 – 📖 mention
LORELAI: The Comedy of Errors. Written?
RORY: 1590.
LORELAI: Published?
RORY: 1698.
LORELAI: Ooh, 1623. Close.

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and the shortest in the Shakespearean canon. It is also “one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the [humor] coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play” (Wikipedia). It is uncertain in what precise year the play was written (estimates range from 1589-1594), but it was published in Shakespeare’s First Folio in 1623. The play’s title has become a phrase in the English lexicon, used to describe a sequence of events made ridiculous by a series of errors committed throughout.

28:30 – 📖 mention + 📖 feature
LORELAI: Okay. Richard III.
RORY: 1591.

Richard III is a history play, sometimes classified as a tragedy, by William Shakespeare. It “is the last in a sequence of four history plays,” the first three being King Henry VI, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. “Known collectively as the ‘first tetralogy,’ the plays depict major events of English history during the late [fourteenth] and early [fifteenth] centuries” (Britannica). Richard III chronicles “the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England” (Wikipedia). It was written c. 1592-1594 and published in a quarto edition in 1597. Like The Comedy of Errors, it appears in Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio.

When Rory sits down, a copy of Who’s Who & What’s What in Shakespeare, a reference guide by US scholar Evangeline M. O’Connor, is visible resting open and face down on the arm of her chair. The guide was originally published in 1887 as Topical Index to the Booklover’s Edition of Shakespeare and was republished in 1978.

28:50 – 📖 mention
RORY: The sonnets are one hundred fifty-four poems of fourteen lines.
LORELAI: Except?
RORY: Except for 126, which is twelve lines.
LORELAI: Good.
RORY: They’re written in iambic pentameter.
LORELAI: Except?
RORY: Except for 145, which is in tetrameter.

William Shakespeare wrote one hundred fifty-four sonnets that were published together in 1609. When someone refers to “Shakespeare’s sonnets,” it is almost always this collection that is being discussed. Unlike Sonnet 116, which follows the typical format for a Shakespearean sonnet, Sonnet 126 consists of six couplets, and Sonnet 145 is in iambic tetrameter rather than pentameter.

Iambic pentameter and tetrameter refer to the number of syllables and pattern of rhythm in a line of verse. A line written in pentameter contains five pairs of syllables per line, with the emphasis landing on alternating syllables (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM), whereas tetrameter contains only four pairs (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM).

29:35 – 📖 feature
Lorelai flips open a copy of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by US chef Anthony Bourdain. The book is visible again at 46:15 lying face down over the back of the couch.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly is a 2000 nonfiction book in which US chef Anthony Bourdain details his experiences in the stressful, hazardous, and sometimes unsavory world of gourmet restaurant kitchens. Bourdain would later come to be known for his travel documentary television series, including A Cook’s Tour (2002-2003) and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005-2012).

30:00 – 💿 feature
“My Darling” by Wilco plays when Rory finds Lorelai asleep on the couch and covers her with a blanket. It continues as Lorelai wakes up and finds Rory asleep at the kitchen table.

This song comes from the 1999 album Summerteeth by US rock band Wilco.

32:10 – 💿 feature
As she is driving to school, Rory makes a frantic phone call to Lane, who is at home sitting in her closet/music den listening to “Wendy” by Wesley Yang and Gavin McNett.

This song does not seem ever to have been released commercially, but rather licensed for use in film and television.

35:00 – 💿 reference
DRELLA: Hey, what do you think about Pat Benatar?
LORELAI: Great idea. Can she play the harp?

Pat Benatar (born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, 1953) is a US singer and songwriter known for songs such as “Heartbreaker” (1979), “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” (1980), “Love Is a Battlefield” (1983), and “We Belong” (1984). Seven of her albums have been certified platinum, two of them multi-platinum, by the Recording Industry Association of America. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Though she is known professionally by her name from her first marriage to Dennis Benatar (her high school sweetheart), she has been married to her musical partner, US musician Neil Giraldo, since 1982.

38:35 – ⚖️ reference
LORELAI: We have stretched ourselves as thin as humanly possible without going completely postal.

“Going postal” is a slang phrase used to describe someone who is pushed to a psychological breaking point by excessive stress, often with violent results. The expression has its origins in a spate of workplace violence committed by then-current or former employees of the United States Postal Service throughout the 1980s and ’90s. More than forty people, mostly supervisors or coworkers of the perpetrators, were killed in at least twenty incidents from 1970 to 1997.

The incidents were widely referenced in popular culture, including in a 1993 episode (“The Old Man”) of Seinfeld and a 1999 episode (“Sunday, Cruddy Sunday”) of The Simpsons.

39:15 – 🪶 reference
MR. MEDINA: I didn’t call this place a rat hole.
LORELAI: Oh, no, that’s true. I added that. Wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with Il Duce, here.
45:10
RORY: You called him Il Duce.
LORELAI: Which means “kind sir” in Cantonese.

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the founder of Italy’s National Fascist Party. He was appointed Prime Minister of Italy following the 1922 March on Rome, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship under which he was known as Il Duce (English: the Leader). He was deposed in 1943 and executed in 1945. Mussolini’s Italy was one of three Axis powers, along with Germany and Japan, during World War II.

39:20 – 📺 reference
LORELAI: I thought this place was gonna be so great, and now I guess this goes on the “boy, was I wrong” list, right above gauchos, but just below the Flashdance phase.

Flashdance is a 1983 US romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne. Jennifer Beals stars as an aspiring professional ballerina who works by day at a Pittsburgh steel mill. The film is known for its costuming, particularly the iconic leg warmers and off-the-shoulder sweatshirt worn by Beals, and for its music-video-style dance sequences.

The film’s title song, “Flashdance… What a Feeling” by US singer Irene Cara, spent six weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and won awards at the 1984 Academy, Golden Globe, and Grammy Awards. It was selected for preservation in the US National Recording Registry in 2023. “Maniac,” a song by US musician Michael Sembello, was also used in the film, propelling it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.

42:20 – 🪶 reference
RORY: Well, stay in the car.
LORELAI: It’s dangerous in the car with all the kamikaze deer running around.

Kamikaze were part of the Empire of Japan’s “Divine Wind” Special Attack Units (Japanese: 神風特別攻撃隊) during World War II. Kamikaze units waged suicide attacks in which planes were willfully crashed into Allied naval vessels, sacrificing crew and aircraft in order to achieve more lethal strikes than conventional air attacks.

42:30 – 🏷️ mention
LORELAI: So, what does the deer look like? Does he have any distinguishing marks? Besides the word Jeep imprinted on his forehead.

Jeep is a brand of automobile produced by US automaker the Chrysler Corporation since 1987. Though the vehicle seen in the pilot episode is an older model, the one Lorelai drives for most of the show is a 2000 Jeep Wrangler. It was auctioned off to the public in 2011, and a writer for Audotrader tracked it down to the small town of Deep River, Connecticut, in 2016.

The term “jeep” has long-standing military associations in the US, having been used for the light four-wheel-drive vehicle used by Allied forces in World War II.

44:55 – 🪶 reference
RORY: I do, however, reserve the right to change my mind.
LORELAI: It’s your prerogative as long as you remain a woman.

“A woman’s prerogative” refers, historically, to a woman’s privilege to call off an engagement. “From at least the Middle Ages to the early [twentieth] century, many jurisdictions regarded a man’s promise of engagement to marry a woman as a legally binding contract” (Wikipedia), the violation of which could make him liable for damages. “The converse of that was seldom true. The concept that ‘it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind’ had at least some basis in law (though a woman might pay a high social price for exercising this privilege).” Breach of promise suits are uncommon in the English-speaking world today, and “a woman’s prerogative” survives mainly as a turn of phrase.

46:15 – 📖 feature
Another of Rory’s study books, Shakespeare by Ivor Brown, is visible in a stack Lorelai clears from the coffee table.

Shakespeare is a 1949 biographical book by English author and drama critic Ivor Brown. Brown had a special interest in Shakespeare and wrote numerous books about Shakespeare’s works and their historical context.

References Sorted by Category

🎓 Academia

18:20 – Advanced Placement (educational program), AP (also known as)
20:50 – SAT (standardized test)

🏷️ Brand Names

00:55 – Pee-Chee folder (stationery item)
01:50 – Post-it (sticky note)
04:45 – McDonald’s (fast food)
06:05 – Versace (luxury fashion)
13:40, 14:35 – Snickers (candy bar)
27:15 – Scotch Tape (adhesive tape)
42:30 – Jeep (automotive brand)

⭐ Famous Figures

05:50 – Maurice Chevalier (actor and singer)

📺 Film, Television & Theater

00:00 – The Deer Hunter (1978 film)
06:50 – The Blob (1958 film)
06:50 – The Thing from Another World (1951 film)
08:25 – “ABC Person of the Week” (television news segment)
24:40 – Saved By the Bell (television show)
27:15 – Saturday Night Live (television show), “The Scotch Boutique” (comedy sketch)
39:20 – Flashdance (1983 film)

🪶 History

13:25 – Marco Polo (adventurer and merchant)
15:40 – Joan of Arc (military and religious leader)
18:05 – Queen Elizabeth I (monarch)
39:15, 45:10 – Benito Mussolini (dictator)
42:20 – Kamikaze (Japanese special attack aviators in WWII)
44:55 – “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” (phrase)

📖 Literature

03:50 – “To err is human.” (phrase)
04:05, 26:05 – William Shakespeare (playwright and poet)
- 26:30 – Sonnet 116 (sonnet)
- 28:10 – The Comedy of Errors (stage play)
- 28:30 – Richard III (stage play)
- 28:50 – Shakespeare’s sonnets (poetry collection)
13:50 – The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (book)
18:05 – Christopher Marlowe (playwright and poet)
18:05 – Francis Bacon (philosopher and statesman)
18:05 – Ben Jonson (playwright and poet)
18:05 – John Webster (playwright)
28:30 – Who’s Who & What’s What in Shakespeare by Evangeline M. O’Connor (book)
29:35 – Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (book)
46:15 – Shakespeare by Ivor Brown (book)

💿 Music

15:15 – “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath (song)
15:15 – Steely Dan (band)
15:15 – Boston (band)
15:15 – Queen (band)
15:30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer)
15:30 – Artie Shaw (clarinetist and bandleader)
21:45 – B-52s (band)
30:00 – “My Darling” by Wilco (song)
32:10 – “Wendy” by Wesley Yang and Gavin McNett (song)
35:00 – Pat Benatar (artist)

🕊️ Religion

19:15 – “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” (phrase)

⚖️ True Crime

38:35 – “going postal” (phrase)

Credits

Episode citation: “The Deer Hunters.” Gilmore Girls, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, cinematography by Teresa Medina, season 1, episode 4, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, Hofflund/Polone, Warner Bros. Television, 2000.

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Season 1, Episode 4: “The Deer Hunters”