Not just for teenage girls

Gilmore Girls was a very unique show on the television landscape.  The story of single mom Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory (short for Lorelai), it's easy to mistake this show for some sort of a teen-age girl lovefest.  Well, actually, it is that sort of a show, but Executive Producer Amy Sherman-Palladino is one of that rare breed that can create a show for one audience, but do it well enough that other audiences tune in as well (my other favorite show runner, Joss Whedon, is my other favorite show runner just for that reason).

Lorelai and Rory live in the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow, a small historical hamlet not far from Hartford. Lorelai grew up in the lap of luxury in her parents oppulent estate in Hartford, until she turned 16, got pregneant by her boyfriend Christoper, and chose to run away.  She got a job at the Indepenedence Inn as a maid, eventually working her way up to executive manager.  But she and her best friend, Sookie, who works as the head chef at the inn, have a dream of one day owing an inn of their very own.

We first join the Gilmores during Rory's sophomore year at Stars Hollow High School. Rory and her mother have a dream of seeing Rory attend Harvard someday (partly fueled by the fact that Lorelai's parents are Yale graduates), and they're concerned that a public high school like Stars Hollow High won't get her there. In the first episode, though, The Gilmores find out that a spot has opened up at the prestigious Chilton Academy, which is excellent news, until Lorelai finds out that the tuition for Chilton might as well be the tuition for Harvard. Lorelai decides to ask her parents for the money as a loan, parents that she'd only spoken to on major holidays for many years. Emily, Lorelai's mother, throws in a caveat - Rory can have the loan, but the girls will be expected to come to dinner at the Gilmore estate every Friday night for as long as Rory is attending Chilton on their money.

The show is quirky and fun, and though many of the characters are more caricatures than anything else, they're well written as such and they interact and fit in the town of Stars Hollow. Lorelai's best friend, Luke, is a scruffy, ballcap on backwards diner owner. Rory's best friend, Lane, is a first-generation Korean-American wanting to break free of her mother's oppressive view of how she should behave, and embrace rock-and-roll and cola wars and all of it.

We also follow the Gilmores as they fall in and out of love with a series of gentlemen callers.

In many ways, the show is a night-time soap opera, except more light and frothy and fun.  There are intense moments with tears, and there are times you'll laugh yourself silly.  Just like in real life.  Oh, and when Lorelai Gilmore goes off on a tear, she could recite an unabridged version of Tolstoy's War & Peace in about 10 minutes.