Core Post #1 - Charlotte

In reading Mellencamp’s summary of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, I felt a ping of recognition in a discussion of otherwise unfamiliar texts when she mentioned the phrase “say goodnight, Gracie.” I know this phrase, I soon recalled, from an episode of Gilmore Girls of the same title (Season 3 Episode 20). The parallels between the two series are striking; both texts are based upon the antics of comedic female characters, and gags are largely mediated through interactions with other characters. Mellencamp identifies this phenomenon as “containment operated through laughter” (87), wherein liberation through comedy is squelched by the reasoning of men. Gilmore Girls, at least in my orbit, experienced a mass resurgence when the entire series became available on Netflix in December of 2014. I remember this timing so specifically because, seemingly out of nowhere, a show that I had never heard of was wildly popular with every other teenage girl in my life: all the other girls at my high school, my quiet and reserved step sister, my older brother’s girlfriend. 

I was soon similarly obsessed with the show, drawn to the distinct personalities of the three generations of Gilmore girls. I have since rewatched the series in its entirety many (many) times, and while watching Gracie’s antics, I felt echoes of Lorelai and Rory. Like Gracie, Lorelai and Rory occupy a sort of world of their own - a logic perfectly natural to those who abide by it and completely foreign to those who do not. This logic is explicitly addressed another episode late in season three, in which Luke, the local diner owner and Lorelai’s sometimes boyfriend, observes Lorelai pick up and eat a cookie from the table (in preparation for Lorelai’s birthday, Rory has arranged mallomars in a cheerful message on the kitchen table) only to replace the cookie she removed with one from the box. Why, Luke asks, did she replace the cookie? If she didn’t want to disrupt Rory’s effort, why didn’t she just take a cookie from the box from the start? Lorelai sees no error in her logic, and responds to Luke’s questions with incredulity. “She says like I should just know this,” says an exasperated Luke, turning to the list of chores he completes for Lorelai annually as her birthday present.

Gracie’s actions are similarly perplexing to the men she encounters, and much of her character is developed in her explanations. After she explains her plan regarding George’s birthday gifts, her neighbor responds “Gracie, that’s an idea that only you could think of.” Her aloofness remains appealing due to her charm and femininity, yet she stands in stark contrast to some other television housewives like the poised and controlled Donna Reade. All three women challenge the flow of feminine domesticity in some sense: Gracie in her ditsy and outlandish thought process and Lorelai and Rory in their fierce independence and refusal to conform to conservative values. This precarity, however, is only removed from hegemonic values enough to create interesting characters, as their middle to upper class white femininity allows the three women to flirt with social deviance while evading any potential consequences of these behaviors.