Choate has built an impressive reputation with its notable alumni and student achievements. More impressive, however, is the number of cameos Choate has made in pop culture. Here are just a few examples of how Choate has made its way into America’s audiences.
Gilmore Girls
For many prospective students, perhaps the knowledge that Choate Rosemary Hall was the inspiration behind Rory Gilmore’s fictional Chilton Preparatory Academy in Gilmore Girls is the deciding factor during application season. Author Amy Sherman-Palladino was inspired by Choate’s sprawling green fields and historic architecture while envisioning a boarding school worthy of Rory.
Responsible for some of the most important events within the Gilmore timeline, Chilton (Choate) lays the groundwork for much of the show: the budding friendship between Rory and Paris Geller, Friday night dinners with Emily and Richard, Rory’s acceptance to Yale, as well as her eventual meeting with Logan Huntzberger, one of her three love interests in the show.
Like Choate, Chilton boasts an impressive array of graduates, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert Frost, and even Thomas Edison. In fact, The Choate News inspired the fictional newspaper, The Franklin, with which Rory was heavily preoccupied during her four years of school. For our Gilmore Girls fans out there, where’s a better place than Choate to channel your secret inner Puff and start your very own secret society on campus or embark on a search for a certain Tristan DuGray brooding in the hallways?
Family Guy
One of America’s longest-running sitcoms, the tales of Family Guy’s dysfunctional family has been airing on TV for 18 seasons and 20 years now. From accidentally becoming a local hero to competing for the inheritance of a wealthy old heiress, the show has brought many laughs to audiences over the years. In “Road to Rupert,” episode nine of season five, Choate makes its very own appearance in the show’s infamous sequence of references.
When Brian accidentally sells Stewie’s beloved teddy bear, Rupert, during the Griffins’ yard sale, the pair is forced to chase down Rupert’s new owner. This includes hitching a ride from a mysterious man and old-school dancing to convince a helicopter rental worker to give them a helicopter. When they finally track down the new owner, however, they discover that they must challenge him to a skiing contest to win Rupert back. To convince Rupert’s new owner, Stanford Cordray, to compete against him, Stewie tells him that Brian will lick peanut butter off any part of his body. To this, Stanford replies, “Well, I did go to Choate.” Now, before any Choaties get mad, the mastermind behind this dig, Seth MacFarlane, is a Kent graduate, so it was only natural that he felt obliged to make fun of the obviously superior school. In a later season, the line, “You think you’re so good ‘cause you went to Choate,’” also makes an appearance. Seth, I’m sensing some bitterness here.
The Catcher in the Rye
Since its publication in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has become one of the most influential and controversial novels of the 20th century. A classic coming-of-age story, the novel follows the events of a chaotic weekend in main character Holden Caufield’s life as he battles issues surrounding belonging, identity, innocence and loss. Of course, Choate couldn’t be left out of such a high-profile piece. In the novel, Holden’s main love interest, Jane Gallagher, dated a former Choate student, who, according to Holden, was “all muscle and no brains.” He had a fondness for white Latex swimming trunks and was always going off the high dive. Perhaps a little jealous and intimidated, Holden makes fun of Pike for thinking of himself as “very hot stuff” and calls him a “showoff bastard.” Jane, however, calls it an inferiority complex. Indisputably, this was not Choate’s brightest moment in the literary realm.
Perhaps it’s time we as a school start reflecting on how we present ourselves to the rest of the world because we most certainly want to be the Rory Gilmores of Choate and not the Al Pikes or Stephen Cordrays. Regardless of Choate’s diverse representations in media, it is always exciting to hear Choate’s name while watching T.V. or reading a book.
