Originally aired October 5 – November 16, 2000
I’ve decided to go ahead and re-watch one of my biggest crushes: Rory Gilmore. Every seven or so episodes I’m going to recap some observations and favorite moments. Maybe alone with reviews of some sort… So, here we go:
It’s amazing to me how slow the pilot is compared to the rest of the series. I’ve read about how the show’s scripts were considerably longer than most similar series at the time because of how fast they talked and how quickly the angle cut. This didn’t happen in the pilot and I’m glad. It would have been a nightmare for the show to gain viewers.
In fact, the differences between the pilot and “The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton” aren’t even that drastic. The pacing is still slow and some of the character quirks – like Sookie being extremely accident-prone – don’t begin to dial back and get shaken up until later.
Even characters like Luke, who clearly becomes an all-important character, isn’t developed. It seems like he was supposed to be a love interest, maybe, sort of, but Amy Sherman-Palladino wasn’t entirely certain it would work.
I think my favorite moment of the first handful of episodes of the series was when Rory got hit by a deer. It’s so absurd and so cutely silly that it’d never be on a teen-family drama now. Nowadays the show would open with Rory moving to a new school and hooking up with the pretty boy and having a pregnancy scare. Not Gilmore Girls, however. The show, which definitely has its fair share of relationships and romance took its time with both of the Girls. Lorelai sort of dates Mr. Max Medina within these first episodes, but she continually pushes it back. Maybe the wholesome WB didn’t want a woman who was knocked up at 16 to still seem a little slutty.
I really appreciate how they handled Rory, Dean and Tristan. It’s a love triangle, but not really. Not this early at least. We only see Dean in a few sporadic episodes through the first seven, which gives viewers time to want to see him again instead of their relationship being forced on us.
If there is one phrase to describe the first grouping of episodes it would most certainly be: “organically wholesome.” Maybe “cute” would work, too. It sincerely isn’t an edgy show and I still think it’s one that mothers and daughters should be able to watch to this day.
ADAM VITCAVAGE 