Pilot (Gilmore Girls)

"Pilot"
Gilmore Girls episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Lesli Linka Glatter
Written by	Amy Sherman-Palladino
Original air date	October 5, 2000
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "The Lorelais' First Day At Chilton"
List of Gilmore Girls episodes

This is the series premiere of the television series Gilmore Girls. After Rory is accepted to the prestigious Chilton Preparatory School, Lorelai is forced to go to her wealthy parents for financial assistance. Her parents happily loan their daughter the money in exchange for an end to the estrangement and a family dinner every Friday night. Unfortunately, things hit a snag when a cute new transfer student flirts with Rory, leading the younger Gilmore to wonder whether leaving Stars Hollow High is really what she wants.

Plot

The show begins with shots introducing Stars Hollow, Connecticut, home of the Gilmore girls, Lorelai and Rory. Lorelai is a 32-year-old single mother who is so close to her daughter, Rory, that many people mistake them for sisters. The show opens at the local diner (Luke's) that the girls patronize often. Lorelai has a special relationship with the owner and an addiction to caffeine. She squares off with the owner on a daily basis over just how much coffee she's allowed to have.

While getting coffee, an unsuspecting male hits on both of the Gilmore girls, separately. This displays some of the quirky problems the Gilmore girls have. Clearly, there are hazards in being a mother and daughter pair so close in age.

Next, the scene shifts to Lorelai working at the Independence Inn. There's Michel, the rude French man who runs the front desk, the unbelievably sassy harp player, and Sookie, the chef, who is a walking disaster area.

Meanwhile, we find out that Rory is the kind of girl who is more interested in academic pursuits and reading Madame Bovary, than worrying about clothes and boys. But unbeknownst to Rory there is a new guy in town, and he has his eyes set on her. Rory and her best friend, Lane, hang out after school and discuss an upcoming teen hayride. Rory wouldn't be caught dead at the event, but Lane has strict parents who are trying to set her up with the son of a business colleague.

The real story is that Rory hears she has been accepted to the exclusive prep school Chilton, which typically means guaranteed admission to Harvard. Rory is psyched, but Lorelai gets a rude awakening:the school wants a pricey enrollment fee in addition to first semester's tuition. And they want it pronto. Lorelai doesn't have the money, but can't bear the thought of disappointing her daughter. The only thing left for her to do is ask her wealthy parents. But that's not such an easy task since Lorelai's relationship with her parents is beyond strained. As a teenager, Lorelai didn't exactly fulfill her parent's high expectations.

Lorelai does indeed end up asking her folks for money, where she receives quite the chilly reception. When she asks for the money, they agree, since it is really for Rory, but have one minor condition. Lorelai's mother, Emily, demands that she get to see her daughter and granddaughter once a week. That means dinner every Friday night. Lorelai hesitates, but agrees.

At school, Rory is explaining to Lane about Chilton when she bumps into Dean, the new kid from Chicago who has been eyeing Rory. They talk and Rory begins to really like Dean. Just how hard she falls for him isn't revealed until later when she tells her mom that she doesn't want to go to Chilton anymore. Lorelai is confused and astounded, but Rory doesn't back down. When the truth comes out, Lorelai flips out and says she will not allow her daughter to throw her life away for some random guy. Rory is going to Chilton whether she wants to or not.

When the Gilmore girls go to the grandparents' house for dinner, the whole night turns into a big disaster. Lorelai's father starts talking about Rory's dad, Christopher, and all thesuccess he has had with his Internet startup in California. This causes Lorelai to have a mini-breakdown. She and Emily end up fighting in the kitchen, and Rory overhears every word... including the part about paying for Chilton. When it's all over, Rory recognizes her mom's bravery and agrees to go to Chilton.

This episode ends with the Gilmore Girls sat in Lukes diner talking and the shows final episode ends in the exact same way.

Cast

Starring

• Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore
• Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore
• Scott Patterson as Luke Danes
• Melissa McCarthy as Sookie St. James
• Yanic Truesdale as Michel Gerard
• Keiko Agena as Lane Kim
• Kelly Bishop as Emily Gilmore
• and Edward Hermann as Richard Gilmore

Co-starring

• Emily Kuroda as Mrs. Kim
• Alex Borstein as Drella
• Liz Torres as Miss Patty
• Jared Padalecki as Dean Forester

Continuity Errors

• In this episode, the house has steps leading into the kitchen but in the rest of the series there are no steps.

• According to the sign Lorelai walks by on her way to Luke's in the beginning, Stars Hollow was founded in 1779.

• Beginning with the pilot and lasting through the first season, Emily and Richard's house looks different, specifically the room where Lorelai and Rory come in for pre-dinner drinks. In later seasons, this room will be open with direct access to the front door, but in this season, the room is enclosed.

• In this pilot episode, the counter at Luke's Diner is on the left side when you walk in. However, in future episodes, the counter was always straight ahead when you walked in.

• When Lorelai and Emily are fighting at the end of the episode, Emily says at one point, "When you get pregnant, you get married. A child needs a mother and a father." These are exactly the same words that Emily also uses in Season 6's Friday Night's Alright for Fighting, when she and Lorelai have one of their most famous blow-ups.

• In this episode Lane talks about her "parents" setting her up with a Korean future doctor, and yet we never see her father, and never really hear him mentioned. There are allusions made to events which involved him, but that's it. We know at least in future episodes that Mrs. Kim sleeps alone, and that no Mr. Kim appears even at Lane's wedding, which would strongly imply that there no longer exists a Mr. Kim.

• If you look at Rory's teacher in this episode you will realize she is also the same actress who plays Crazy Carrie (Jill Brennan) starting in the 4 season.

• Almost all the set is different in the pilot episode. For example, the school is in front of the diner, not a road and buildings. The diner used in the pilot is also different than the diner used in the rest of the series.

• When Rory tells Lorelai that she cannot believe that the next day is her last day at Stars Hollow High, it is dark outside meaning that it must be Thursday night. However, when Lorelai goes to visit her parents after her business class, it is still, somehow, Thursday because Emily says that she will see Rory and Lorelai for dinner the following night. Then the scene moves to Lorelai and Rory eating dinner at Lukes. The only possible conclusion would be that Lorelai had gone to Emily and Richard that afternoon, and the scene was a flashback. However, that cannot be the case, seeing as Sookie and Lorelai had just been discussing ways for Lorelai to get the money for Chilton.

• In the beginning of the episode, Sookie and Lorelai both taste the sauce off the spoon, and then Sookie sticks the spoon back in the sauce and intends to serve it the next morning. Since Sookie is a chef, she should know that would violate healthy cooking procedures.

• Interestingly enough, when we see Rory and Lane enter Kim's Antiques (owned by Lane's mother), there is a label on the door that says that Mrs. Kim accepts Interac, the Canadian debit system. Of course, this is Stars Hollow, Connecticut, so this would sound unusual seeing that the Interac system is non-existent except in Canada. It's likely a continuity error that comes from the pilot being shot in the Metro Toronto area.

• When Lorelai and Rory are at Luke's, and Rory talks about the timing not being right, the food on Lorelai's plate changes between shots. Sometimes there's a slice of tomato on her hamburger and sometimes there's not.

• The portrait of the Gilmores and a young Lorelai above the fireplace shows Emily with short hair, similar to the hairstyle she has at the time of this episode. However in future episodes, Emily's hair in the portrait seems to have grown to the 'long below the shoulders' style as seen in the flashback in the episode "Dear Emily and Richard". Furthermore, given that this picture was taken when Lorelai was a kid—probably more than 20 years ago—it's strange that Richard and Emily don't look at all younger.

• When Lorelai is standing in front of the fireplace, she turns to look at some family photos on the mantel. You can clearly see that there is a picture of Rory in a pumpkin suit at the left side of the mantel. However in a close-up of the photos, the pumpkin picture is standing at the right side of the mantel.

• Kirk is called Mick in this episode and he and Lorelai do not know each other, despite the fact that both Kirk and Lorelai have lived in Stars Hollow for many years.

• Lane calls her mother 'Mom', yet in all other episodes she always call her 'Momma'.

• In this first episode, Luke's diner doesn't have a 'no cell phones' sign. On the side of the diner where the big windows are going to be, there is now a closet. A part of this closet will hang above the coffeemaker in following episodes, but isn't there yet in this one. Also, the entrance is here on the left side of the diner and will be on the left front corner in later episodes.

• When Rory and Lorelai are eating dinner in the diner, before Luke warns them that red meat can kill them, there's a shot from outside the diner. That shot is from the last scene of the episode - you can see Lorelai's face and Rory's back in the window, clearly in different outfits.

• In the first couple episodes, Lorelai drives a different Jeep than in the rest of the series

The Jeep she drives in this episode will reappear in season 7 ("It's Just Like Riding a Bike"). At the car shop, she goes to with Luke, Lorelai tries different cars, among which the Jeep she was driving in the pilot.

• When Rory and Lorelai are eating dinner in the diner, after Luke warns them that red meat can kill them, Lorelai's right hand appears 'touching' and 'not touching' the coffee cup between shots.

External Links

Pilot on Tv.com

Pilot on IMDB