Library scenes on film and TV

New Directions members get their glee on in the stacks.

In honor of National Library Week, I compiled more library scenes to add to last year's list. I think my favorite fictional library enthusiasts are Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls), Brick Heck (The Middle), Jesse St. James (Glee), and the characters on Community.

Beauty and the Beast (1991)
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Belle is imprisoned in the Beast's castle after offering herself to be held captive in place of her ailing father. Seeing the way Belle misses her home and how lonely she is, the Beast shows her his lavish library, and tells her that she has her pick from the thousands of volumes.

Before search boxes, you had to search card catalog drawers.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
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After Paul (George Peppard) and Holly (Audrey Hepburn) enter the library she asks him, "What is this place?" Yes, Holly Golightly has never been inside a library. Paul explains how each card is either a book or an author (what about subjects, Paul?). They look under his last name, Varjack, to find the card with his book, Nine Lives. They have to bring the card to one librarian and then wait until their number is called at a different desk. The librarian helping them at that desk is uninterested in the fact that Paul wrote the book. Holly informs her, "It's Varjack, Paul in person!" The librarian is quite annoyed with them, tells them to be quiet, and becomes upset when Holly encourages Paul to sign the library's copy of his book. That provides Holly's cue to go: "I don't think this place is half as nice as Tiffany's."

Community (2009-present)
Season 1: Find it in the catalog!
Jeff (Joel McHale), Britta (Gillian Jacobs), Annie (Alison Brie), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), Troy (Donald Glover), Abed (Danny Pudi) and Pierce (Chevy Chase) form a Spanish study group and every episode is set at least partially in the library, since that is their meeting place. I wanted to highlight a recent season 2 episode, because it demonstrates why Abed and Troy are among my favorite characters on TV and also have one of the best friendships on TV, in addition to the fact that the episode involves a librarian-centric plotline.

If only the librarian would notice them...

Season 2, episode 15: "Early 21st Century Romanticism"
Best friends Troy and Abed both want to ask the same librarian to the Valentine's Dance. They watch her from their study room and hope that if they're too loud she'll shush them, so they yell, "BOOKS!" and then pretend to sleep when she actually does look in their direction. When they finally do approach her, they suggest that she hang out at the dance with both of them, so she can get to know them before she makes her choice.

Troy: Why does being a librarian make her even hotter?
Abed: They're keepers of knowledge. She holds the answers to all of our questions, like "Will you marry me?" and "Why are there still libraries?"

Eastbound & Down (2009-present)
Season 1: Find it in the catalog!
Former baseball pitcher Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) now teaches gym at a junior high school, where his high school girlfriend April (Katy Mixon) also teaches. In a season 1 episode, he goes to talk to her in the library, where two girls get into a fight. Powers breaks them apart and yells, "If you're gonna fight, do it in a parking lot somewhere, not in a library, surrounded by books!"

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)
Season 2: Find it in the catalog!
Season 2, episode 15: "Lost and Found"
Rory's (Alexis Bledel) boyfriend, Dean (Jared Padelecki), can hardly hide his boredom as he sits next to two piles of books she has already selected to buy from the library's Buy a Book! fundraiser. After over two hours of perusing the sale, Rory is still going strong and has yet to look at the astronomy section.

Get stuck in "The Middle"

The Middle is a comedy about the Heck family set in the small town of Orson, Indiana. The characters are among my favorite on TV, and the cast is extremely talented and funny. Parents Frankie (Patricia Heaton), a car salesperson, and Mike (Neil Flynn), manager of a limestone quarry, face the everyday madness and exhaustion of raising three kids. Sixteen-year-old Axl (Charlie McDermott) lounges around the house in his boxers and is in a phase where "everyone and everything is lame." Even though he is almost always picking on his younger siblings, he occasionally shows how much he cares for them-- giving Sue his old football jersey, or telling Brick how much he loves him when he briefly loses him in a corn maze. Thirteen-year-old Sue (Eden Sher) is in junior high and very enthusiastic about school clubs, even though she never makes the cut. A running joke throughout the series is how nobody, from teachers to fellow students, is able to remember her. Eden Sher does a great job of portraying Sue's awkwardness, and you can't help but admire her positive attitude and root for her. Nine-year-old Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is happiest buried in a book and doesn't try to hide or apologize for his antisocial personality. "Okay. I'm done talking to you now," he tells a boy his age. He often whispers the last word of a sentence to himself, which everyone else finds really weird but he thinks is soothing (soothing!).

In one of the special features, "Raising a Sitcom Family," co-creators Eileen Heisler & DeAnn Heline talk about how the show is their "love letter to the Midwest." I think they did a great job on these season 1 episodes. Axl, Sue, and Brick actually look like kids you'd see in the neighborhood. Their near constant bickering is almost too real, as it reminds me of when I fought with my younger sister and brother over the tiniest things. I love Mike's honest reactions to the often ridiculous drama of teenagers. The relationship between Frankie and Mike is great to watch because unlike many shows where the husband and wife whine about each other's shortfalls, this is a marriage where they try to solve problems together. I also appreciate the details in the show's set design, with its messy kitchen table and counters. You know, I think it is the messiness of The Middle that makes the show so easy to relate to and so entertaining to watch. If you haven't already checkout out this show, now in its second season on ABC, I recommend you watch these season 1 episodes!

The Middle - Season 1
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