The Marketeers Club (Marketing Dept.)

The Marketeers Club: Gilmore Girls Revival

Tayler Lord is a publicist at UNP and a member of #TeamJess for life. 

This Friday, Netflix will release four 90-minute episodes chronicling a year in the life of the Gilmore girls. I, for one, don’t know how to contain my excitement. I am a true lifelong Gilmore Girls fangirl. When I was in sixth grade, I used to come home every day after school, make a bag of popcorn, and call my best friend so we could watch Gilmore Girls at 4:00 p.m. on ABC Family together over the phone. I own every season on DVD and have seen every episode more than once (cough, more than five times). I cry at the thought of jam hands and long-kept horoscopes, deep-fried turkey, and Paul Anka. I’m mentally preparing for the day that I accidentally get an “Oy with the poodles already” tattoo. I love those Gilmore girls.

For so long, I (maybe embarrassingly) thought that the “Gilmore girls” only referred to Lorelai and Rory, the fast-talking, overeating, pop-culture obsessed mother-daughter duo. Watching the trailers and promotional ads for the revival, I realized that Emily, Lorelai’s mother and Rory’s grandmother, is also a “Gilmore girl.” Throughout the series, she is almost always linked to her husband, Richard, and a lot of what she does revolves around him. Like Rory says during her high school graduation speech, Richard and Emily are “twin pillars”—you can hardly say Emily without saying Richard. Even during their separation in season five, her antics are mostly about her reaction to being without her husband of nearly forty years. Edward Hermann, the actor who played Richard, passed away in 2014 and his death was written into the revival. It will be interesting to see Emily’s life as a widow and how it affects her relationship with Rory and Lorelai.

In my infinite excitement about the revival, I’ve put together a Rory Gilmore reading list, since she’s definitely the most literary of the three. But, after my revelation about Emily and the Gilmore girls, I realized there are a few perfect UNP titles for each of the Gilmore gals. Grab a cup (read: pot) of coffee, ditch the tofurkey, and dive into some books that will get you into the Gilmore state of mind!

For Rory:

 

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Pauline Frederick Reporting: A Pioneering Broadcaster Covers the Cold War by Marilyn S. Greenwald

Throughout the series, Rory continually works towards becoming an overseas correspondent; she writes for her high school paper and becomes the editor of the Yale Daily News while in college. As an aspiring journalist, Rory would love this biography of a groundbreaking female reporter.

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George McGovern and the Democratic Insurgents: The Best Campaign and Political Posters of the Last Fifty Years by Hal Elliott Wert

In the final episodes, we learn that post-grad Rory will report from Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign trail. The nearly three-hundred stunning images from this book of political posters would be an excellent read for those long hours between campaign stops.

For Lorelai:

 

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Married or Single? by Catharine Maria Sedgwick

This 1857 title “offers readers a wider range of options for women in society, recognizing their need and ability to determine the course of their lives.” Sounds like the perfect book for single, independent, and entrepreneurial Lorelai.

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There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others (March 2017) by William Daniels
Lorelai is a woman who loves all things pop culture and a child of the eighties. She would love to read about Daniels’ career in Hollywood, from The Graduate to Boy Meets World and everything in between.

For Emily:

 

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Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution by Jonathan R. Dull
As a Daughter of the American Revolution, Emily would appreciate this in-depth look at one of America’s founding fathers.
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Painting from the Collection of the Sheldon Museum of Art edited by Brandon K. Ruud and Gregory Nosan
Emily Gilmore, lover and supporter of the fine arts, would surely be impressed by the Sheldon’s extensive collection of paintings, featuring works by Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and more.

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