Golden Girls: Classic or Dud?

*ducks*

http://www.mariasducktales.com/FaithBabiesParade.jpg

No on both counts, 'cause she gets boring and icky when locked on earnest-mode.

Well, now we know who would make a great Sophia

i love how betty white's (character's) husband had a heart attack during sex! i mean, what are the odds?

Bea Arthur kicks ass. LITERALLY - I have shared my Bea Arthur story, yes? SHE KNOCKED ME ON MY ASS!

The best episode ever was where Bea Arthur did Jerry Orbach.

What happened to the gay cook they had on the first epsiode? Did he run off to live with Chuck Cunningham or something?

http://www.nexusdomain.org/pics/misc/BIG%20BANG!.jpg

Said fucking cunt was Betty White. Bea apparently once shat in Betty's shoe - which is another reason WHY I LOVE HER

Those who have forgot/blanked it out or are outside the UK are quite privileged.

So Bea had *sex* with Jerry Orbach? Have I got that right? I didn't see that. I thought for a second 'did' meant she impersonated him... which I somehow didn't find remotely surprising...

Bea Arthur in drag---as a woman

"The Old Comedy of the Greeks had three stock characters whose interactions constituted the standard plot: the alazon, or imposter and self-deceiving braggart, the eiron, or self-derogatory and understating character, whose contest with the alazon is central to the comic plot; and the bomolochos, or buffoon, whose antics add an extra comic element....Northrop Frye has revived these old terms [and] added a fourth, the agroikos -- the rustic or easily deceived character."

Obviously: Alazon = Blanche; Eiron = Dorothy; Bomolochos = Sophia; Agroikos = Rose

The Girls Are Back!

Cast DVD Signing for the Emmy-Award Winning TV Series
at Barnes & Noble in NYC November 22nd

WHO: "Golden Girls" cast: Bea Arthur, Betty White, and Rue McClanhan

WHAT: America's favorite girls are together again to celebrate the
release of the GOLDEN GIRLS Season 3 on DVD with an in-store
signing. Fans can now enjoy another helping of laughter,
misadventures, and cheesecake with this laugh-filled season of
the Emmy-Award winning TV sitcom -- all 25 episodes in this new
complete DVD set. Included are the original and unedited
"Golden Moments" episode where the girls share fond memories of
their times together, plus hilarious bonus features that prove
good comedy never grows old.

WHEN: Tuesday, November 22, 12:30 - 2:30PM

WHERE: Barnes & Noble Booksellers
675 6th Avenue (6th and 22nd)
New York, NY 10010

also, my little sister loves this story that when they were casting, they kept saying 'we need like, a betty white type' for rose. then they finally got smart and got betty white to do it!

The season five will apparently feature commentaries from Betty White.

http://www.laweekly.com/a-considerable-town/12958/that-golden-moment/

no dish on the bea/betty/shit/dressing room incident. I'd like to think that if Bea showed up, she would have told the story without prompting.

They were? I thought the whole point was that they got Betty and Rue but they decided to switch it around from their MTM days where Betty was the slutty one and Rue was the naive one.

all are outrageously good

where dorothy lets rose in on her little trick for public speaking - imagining everyone naked

and then blanche and rose try it, looking at each other, but it doesn't seem to do anything

but then they look at dorothyh and crack up hysterically

kills me

It's a strange world.

oh jesus

only a matter of time i guess?

ridic.

This is like my favourite sitcom ever.

MIAMI IS NICE
SO I'LL SAY IT TWICE
MIAMI IS NICE
MIAMI IS NICE
MIAMI IS NICE

rofl

I went to a golden girls dvd signing at Barnes and noble last year that had all of them there except for Sophia and it was the biggest freakshow ever. The collection of homosexuals in attendance had an oddly Slovenian Michael Jackson fan quality, I saw a guy wearing bleached denim jacket with massive shoulder pads 100% non-ironically and a weeping fan who had to be escorted out by security.

"Jean's a lesbian."
"So? Isn't Danny Thomas one?"
"Not *Lebanese* Blanche. Lesbian."

The first episode ever is on right now!

haha with Coco!!

omg i've been watching Murder She Wrote a lot -- Jean from GG is in a few!!!

i love the Jean's a lesbian episode (esp since i'm lebanese, always tickles me pink!)

While I will forever be a GG fan, I HATE MSW but mainly because my Mom used to make me watch it all the time when I was little. Even the opening music is enough to annoy me! You're right, btw - that's a great episode. I had lunch next to Rue once which was pretty great.

whaaaaaaat. amazing

Seeing Rue McLanahan in person would stir up all sorts of problematic childhood "learning things about sexuality via sitcoms" stuff for me.

See also: Jackee, Morticia Adams

oh i was so grateful to see her in person last year. it was incroyable.

"seeing her in person would make me as jumpy as a virgin at a prison rodeo"

a rue mclanahan, morticia adams and jackee threesome would be... weird

Rue and Jackee go together like French fries and ketchup: they were the comedy floozy archetypes of NBC Saturday-night comedy for years and years! Which, when you're 10 years old, is strangely captivating / confusing / intriguing

fuck nabisco, that is one of my favorite fucking rue quotes evah

I caught an episode recently where Rose was talking about how her husband died during sex, and how his last words were "I'm going! I'm going!"

I had originally watched that episode when I was 12, and only now do I get the reverse "I'm cumming!" bit to the joke. Damn that Rose is risqué.

that's a hilarious episode -- the joke about rose killing off men through sex continues and is falldown funny!

The collection of homosexuals in attendance had an oddly Slovenian Michael Jackson fan quality, I saw a guy wearing bleached denim jacket with massive shoulder pads 100% non-ironically and a weeping fan who had to be escorted out by security.

lol fags.

i was definitely in tears when blanche walked out at that bar... i mean, i watch this woman weekly sometimes nightly. she's definitely part of the family now. god what a show.

u know, i was SO PISSED i missed that appearance w/ the three of them -- i found about it the day after! andi worked like right uptown! awful of me.

i miss them

They were just on CBS This Morning! Harry Smith was all like "THey're the original 'Sex & The City' girls! Blanche is like Samantha!"

I can't stand morning news shows.

that's so cool! i knew i was thinking about them for a reason. they still kick satc's ass

CBS Early Show had Patti LaBelle on to sing about three songs earlier this week. Always chasing those elusive demos.

dorothy : "hi blanche"
blanche : "eat dirt and die, trash"

sometimes we just let the dvd's play on lazy sundays like this and the voices of the women ring through the house like the 3 good fairies in sleeping beauty.

Oh man, I would kill to have the Girls on DVD right about now.

it really is such a gift

i would love t owrite a paper about this show

d - so, what do you wanna do tonight? go to a movie?

b - we could do what we normally do... talk dirty and pig out?

no r says that. r for rose.

rue's acting in this show just grows and grows

I SEE LITTLE BALLS OF SUNSHINE IN A BAG

Hope that its not true (since TMZ is not the height of news reporting) but if so R.I.P. Sophia :(

http://www.tmz.com/2008/07/22/estelle-getty-thank-you-for-being-alive/

oh no :( this is awful.

aw, r.i.p. estelle, original queen of zing

Sophia: Look, Rose, God doesn't make mistakes. We were all put on this planet for a purpose. Blanche, you're here to work in a museum, so that art can be appreciated by humanity. Dorothy, you're here as a substitute teacher to educate our youth. And Rose, you're here because the rhythm method was very popular in the twenties.

q.e.d.

http://poolparty.typepad.com/poolparty/images/golden_girls17.jpg

aw, r.i.p. estelle, original queen of zing

true enough

blanche: "i am abhored"

sophia: "we know what you are blanche, it's nice to finally hear you admit it"

blanche: "sophia, i said abhored"

I don't ever remember watching this show.

i'm so sorry.

has anyone seen the episode Ebbtide's Revenge? it's the most heartbreaking thing ever. dorothy's brother dies and sophia is having a really hard time letting go of the shame she felt because he was a crossdresser. she ends up breaking down over it, with his wife, who tells her he was a good man, a good husband and father, no matter what. and estelle getty pulls out the acting stops like i've never seen.

Rose: Don't let that happen to you, Sophia. Let go of the shame. So what if he was different? It's okay that you loved him.
Sophia: I did love him. He was my son, my little boy. And every time I saw him, I wondered what I did, what I said....what was the day that I said or did whatever I did to make him the way he was?
Angela: What he was, Sophia, was a good man.
Sophia: (crying) My baby's gone! (edit)

it's nothing short of crushing.

Blanche: I treat my body like a temple.
Sophia: Yeah, open to everyone, day or night.

I have resisted downloading the Golden Girls, because it seemed redundant, it's not as if I haven't seen them all a million times, but oh maybe.

yeah, i'm wondering why i don't have this on dvd and why i'm not watching it every night. maybe lifetime will run a tribute marathon?

That tranny funeral episode really is a good one.

People do realize the jokes that have appeared here so far are rewrites of SCREWBALL COMEDY lines from the '30s, right?

So how many of her GG castmates were in fact older than EEG? Betty White for sure I think.

Bea Arthur as well. Rue McClanahan about 10 years younger (just looked this up to prove my husband wrong about Estelle Getty being the youngest)

People do realize the jokes that have appeared here so far are rewrites of SCREWBALL COMEDY lines from the '30s, right?

-- Dr Morbius, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 7:00 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

you've made this same post at least 300 times but that didn't stop you from doing it again

it was a friendly zing at EH, so stfu

People do realize the jokes that have appeared here so far are rewrites of SCREWBALL COMEDY lines from the '30s, right?

i don't fucking care

also, a lot of it is about the performers.

I understand that, Sur.

dorothy : "hi blanche"
blanche : "eat dirt and die, trash"

With lines like that, it'd have to be...

not sure what that means, but i love the line.

Morbz only likes NEW jokes lolz

like that shirt you've got on! BA DUM

I just think Dody Goodman got shafted in the Crazy Old TV Mom Deathstakes.

Very sad. But, based on reports of her health over the last few years, a blessing.

argh i know.

Yeah, her brain's been being eaten by disease for at least the last 7 or 8 years.

Any doubt that the mincing, unmarried 60-something man in my office is gay was put to rest when he came over to my cubicle just now giggling about some Sophia Petrillo zinger he'd just read in an online obit.

mincing??????

i'm still wondering who's gonna be the first d-bag to follow ilx tradition and piss on her still warm grave.

i thought it was put to rest when he sucked you off in the men's room?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mincing

yeah i know what it means, just surprised that you used it like that

Why?

mincing love it 5 up, 5 down hate it

Two people find a dead body. One puts their mouth over the penis, and the other elbow drops on the dead persons stomach.

uhm. ok.

it's just such a weird verb

adjective

whatever

It's an economical way of summing up all of the various campy and/or dainty gestures he makes.

I went to a mince meet at the swish chalet

my girlfriend's going to dress up in her sophia wig and eat lasagne in estelle's honor tonight.

It was only a matter of time.

I will tell my mom to shoot in Estelle's honor.

http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/img/product/resized/00005858-436328_400.jpg

i loved that movie when i was a kid!!

I can see Morbs using Sly's expression around his mom.

my girlfriend's going to dress up in her sophia wig and eat lasagne in estelle's honor tonight.

cosplay + worlds worst euphemism in one post.

:-(

really, she was just barely old enough to be Stallone's mother

dope show, got me thru some bad times

cosplay + worlds worst euphemism in one post.

-- chicago kevin, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 7:43 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

whaaaaat

(btw my mom will be 80 in about a week, and i've kept a couple 25-year-old refrigerator notes from her, I should transcribe them here, by popular demand.)

please do

ogeez PLEASE

I just want to make sure everyone got similar notes.

my ex-roomie's ex-gf used to write small "I hope you have a great day!" in the lunches she prepared us. She was living rent free in our home, eating our food, and stealing our cigarettes - but the lunches/notes were nice.

I was just watching this show last night. It's actually pretty funny. I just remember seeing it on as a kid while waiting for the Gary Shandling Show, understanding jokes from neither show. But I liked Shandling's style.

I'm really sad...I grew up watching Golden Girls reruns; Sophia was always my favorite (though the entire cast is brilliant). RIP x 10000000000000000

this shit is on like three or four times a day on the Lifetime channel kids

why am i not surprised you have the Lifetime channel's line up memorized.

I was home with my baby daughter for 7 weeks.

Lifetime channel is awesome ftw

I didn't realize she had Lewy body dementia. My granddad died of that in 2004. :(

Quote from one of her sons on the BBC report:

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents," said Carl in a statement, "and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents."

Funniest thing I've read all day.

aww.

Lifetime channel is awesome ftw

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:01 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

where else can I see Rosie O'Donnell as a mentally handicapped day-glo dork and Fred Savage as a serial date rapist

Designing Women, Project Runway, Tori Spelling

where else can I see Rosie O'Donnell as a mentally handicapped day-glo dork and Fred Savage as a serial date rapist

several people imitate them on ILE daily.

designing women rules!

xp occasionally at the same time

The lines are the weakest element of GG next to the production values, the laugh track, the scenarios and the over-reliance on clip shows, as you pointed out yourself ... so, yeah, I'm aware of their debt to screwball.

I went to a mince meet at the swish chalet

Did you steal that from a screwball? That one's pretty good.

i love the writing on the show, i don't know what you guys are talkin bout! and the production values, laugh track and scenarios are merely vehicles for the performances -- they're not meant to wow.

I will always watch GG when it's on, but Maude (at least the earlier episodes) is the keeper of Bea's two sitcoms.

Sophia could zing better than any ilxor.

i don't understand why people complain about the clip shows. honestly: they were old, estelle especially was already beginning to deteriorate (you can see her relying on cue cards more and more as the series progresses)- they needed time off. bea arthur probably would've quit the show three or four seasons in if not for the breaks provided by the clip shows.

as for the clip shows that were actually framing devices for new material, old folks like to reminisce. it was clever and it was in-character.

the golden girls remains my favorite television show of all time.

yup, and the clipshows were just fine. seldom enough.

You're referring to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman's mother upthread, right Morbs? She was seriously insane.

and dody goodman, mh's mother, died...exactly a month before estelle. frky!

no, EH, that was one of my rare original jokes, unless I inadvertently ripped it off.

I will always watch GG when it's on, but Maude (at least the earlier episodes) is the keeper of Bea's two sitcoms.

between sleep disturbance and my lack of coffee this morning i read this and thought "whoa, gg allin was on maude?" but then the chronology didn't add up.

the aids scare episode is petrifying

"aids is not a bad person's disease, rose"

i really have trouble figuring out what in life is better than this show.

have i bragged enough about the fact that my boyfriend has held rue mclanahan's hand? i don't think so.

http://photos-847.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v183/221/109/8403847/n8403847_30983762_917.jpg

him asking her his question

rue mclanahan is looking at the love of my life. in the face. (that jacket!)

Betty White on Palin, amazing

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Golden_Girl_vs_Palin.html?showall

she didn't declare Obama to be the new Lincoln like Rue, did she

nopers

What great timing. I just last night had a GG episode watching party with more than just myself.

Though now finding out I could've been watching Jour de fete on TCM is a little bit of a comedown.

I'm surprised you prefer Jour de Fete!

I haven't seen it.

Bea Arthur RIP

:(

So she was 86? I guess I didn't realize she was in her mid to late 60s while she was making the show (seemed younger somehow).

I <3 you Bea. R.I.P. classy lady.

Oh god no.

Thank you for being a friend. :(

omg :(((((((

nooooo I hadn't seen this topic before, and I happily read through only to be hit with that hammer blow at the end. :'( A real staple of my childhood, was Golden Girls.

sophia - "you were brought up a lady. keep both your feet on the floor"

dorothy - "i better go change. blanche, what should i wear?"

blanche - "well if you're gonna keep both your feet on the floor, something you can throw up over your head"

<3 <3 <3

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2009/05/classic_betty_white.jpg

The bad thing about coming back to work after being off sick for a week is not being able to watch Golden Girls reruns anymore.

So, I was watching some Empty Nest clips earlier today, and I never realized that the worlds of Golden Girls and Empty Nest are apparently one and the same! They live in the same community! Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MA_sgR1FFM

In walks Dorothy! Empty Nest used to follow Golden Girls in primetime, so I guess it's not too big of a leap, but still pretty weird.

Yeah - Empty Nest was a spin-off. They were neighbors iirc. EN was great because it had the Joe Isuzu guy. I wonder whatever happened to him.

I never realized it was a spinoff despite having seen probably dozens of episodes back in the day. Empty Nest may be one of the most boring tv shows ever made. I have no idea how it made it for 7 seasons.

SEVEN? wow.

1988-1995 according to imdb.

insane.

""Empty Nest" is set in Miami and tells of the day to day misadventures of a widowed pediatrician, Harry Weston, and his two adult daughters, Barbara and Carol Weston, who have come back to live with him after failed marriages. Much of the humour is derived from Barbara and Carols' ongoing attempts, and failure, to find the perfect partner, and once again leave the "nest". There is also the skirt-chasing next door neighbour, Charlie Dietz and Harry's southern nurse, Laverne Todd, unique for her unbelievable Hickory stories."

hilarious!!

I liked Empty Nest at the time, but there's definitely a reason it's not in syndication now (is it even on dvd?).

Did it make the 75 episode mark? Programs that don't get to that point don't usually get into syndication.

http://www.fatalfarm.com/tvthemes/FFGoldenGirls.mov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OPYq7bmpldw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crxCRJFbjEw&feature=player_embedded

from here

A long-distance friend and I emailed eachother our favorite GG episodes. I went overboard and included capsules.

01. "Till Death Do We Volley" (S4, E19) -- A lot of my choices have some dramatic or emotional heft to back up the punchlines, but this one is just a classic piece of sitcom writing from start to finish, with a perfect series of one-ups between Dorothy and the somewhat terrifying woman who was Dorothy's rival in high school and a reasonably twisty plot, given this is after all The Golden Girls and not Mulholland Drive. The bitchy quips between the two in this episode are fantastic. ("The way you picked yourself up after getting dumped by Stan, boy, I envy you your gumption." "And I your breast implants.") And Dorothy's poker face throughout the whole episode is flawless. Plus, the best Sophia fart joke of the series. ("You'll have to excuse Sophia." "Oh, you heard that? I thought I was safe backed up against these pillows.") Bonus: Blanche admitting that she loved her family and they had a few dollars but, "when you get down to it, basically they were trash," but not before sniping to Dorothy, "I'm sorry if we can't all come from places as socially acceptable as … Brooklyn." If I'm looking to show off what made this one of the great sitcoms that still stayed well within a potentially constricting format, this is the episode I choose.

02. "Ebbtide's Revenge" (S6, E12) -- It's no secret that Sophia is my least favorite of the four main characters, but in this case her antagonism just makes the moment she lets the facade drop all the more powerful. Structurally, this is a replay of the "Good Times" episode when Florida seems to be refusing to cry for her dead husband, but this episode goes much deeper into the nature of grief beyond the denial stage. Even beyond the obviously touching GLAAD Award-ish affirmation of Phil's cross-dressing, the episode taps into that regret we feel about the feelings we withhold from people, only to realize too late that they were standing in the way of fully realized relationships. Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Bea Arthur were all consistently great in the show. But none of them ever delivered a moment as unexpected and raw as Estelle Getty's admission of parental shame. I've admittedly never been a "drama trumps comedy" personality, but that's about the only explanation I can think of why this heartbreaking episode didn't flat-out take first place.

03. "Journey to the Center of Attention" (S7, E19) -- By the last season, the bloom was definitely off the rose (and the other three too). But there were a handful of episodes that got fresh mileage out of subtle twists on the characters' traits. And, in the case of this particular episode, offered the most rewarding switcheroo in the show's history. Blanche comes to terms -- kicking and screaming, at that -- with the fact that Dorothy has a talent for attracting men that she herself can't hope to compete with. And what a beautiful talent it is. Bea Arthur's performance of "What'll I Do" is an astonishment, effortlessly moving from quiet melancholy into a totally unexpected punchline (when she decides, after noticing she's entranced the entire room, to have another go around with the song).

04. "Isn't It Romantic" (S2, E5) -- The three episodes I've listed so far all spotlight Dorothy in a vital if not necessarily central role. I make no bones about it, she is the engine of the show for me. That said, Blanche often sneaks up from behind as the show's secret MVP, the middle ground between Dorothy's infallible intelligence and Rose's geniality. Blanche isn't the focus of this episode; Rose is. But Blanche gets the episode's best punchline, when she reacts badly to the news that Dorothy's friend Jean is in love with Rose. "To think that Jean would prefer Rose to me? That's ridiculous!"

05. "Job Hunting" (S1, E22) -- Clearly one of the earliest episodes they shot (actually, it looks like it was taped concurrently with the pilot), this episode boasts a much looser structure than virtually every other episode in the series, predominately because of the extended midnight snack session that serves no plot function, but is instead used to shade three still-new characters. Like many of the best episodes of Norman Lear's '70s sitcoms, "Job Hunting" plays like a showcase one-act play. "Alright, so you're a few years older. So am I, so is Blanche. Alright, so you're a little thicker around the middle. So is Blanche!"

06. "My Brother, My Father" (S3, E17) -- More episodes than not, I regard the arrival of Stan at the girls' doorstep with about as much enthusiasm as Dorothy. Usually, the writers would use the occasion to fall back on a string of cheap toupee jokes, but this is one of the few episodes where the writers manage to come up with zingers worthy of their animosity. ("I'll have to bring out the big gun." "You're wasting your time, Stanley. I'm familiar with the big gun.") Uncle Angelo became a nuisance in the last season, too, but at least this first time around, the cliches hadn't gotten stale. Also, Blanche, dressed as a nun and carrying her clothes: "We're collecting lingerie for … needy … sexy people."

07. "Dorothy's New Friend" (S3, E15) -- Dorothy's foibles are usually dismissed as evidence of her rule over the roost. She's the smartest, the most sensible and the most responsible of the quartet. That's why the other three always take cheap shots at her physical beauty or perceived lack thereof. ("It's not easy living with someone so perfect," Blanche explains in the episode where the four visit a psychiatrist.) This episode finds a more elegant means of highlighting Dorothy's character weaknesses: Barbara Thorndike, Dorothy's seeming intellectual equal who is also, as it turns out, a total bitch about it.

08. "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy" (S6, E5) -- One of my favorite guest stars ever is Ruby Dee as Blanche's mammy, who arrives after Big Daddy's death to tell an unreceptive Blanche that her father, well, had a touch of Jungle Fever. She requests a trinket from Big Daddy's belongings. "The Bible?" "No thanks, I don't drink."

09. "The One That Got Away" (S4, E3) -- The one where Blanche is reunited with the one man that wouldn't sleep with her and committing to finish the job even when he shows up fat, bald and still disinterested. I will never come up with a fake name more delicious than Ham Lushbough. Better fat jokes, on the whole, than "Blanche's Little Girl," too.

10. "Dancing in the Dark" (S5, E8) -- I love when glimmers of Sue Ann Nivens peek through the Rose facade, as when she sets up Blanche with Miles and then, behind her back, asks Dorothy "Can you believe that backstabbing slut?"

Honorable Mentions:

"Joust Between Friends" (S2, E9) -- "Eat dirt and die, trash."

"Blanche's Little Girl" (S3, E14) -- The surfeit of cheap fat jokes from Sophia sour the proceedings a bit, but this is a solid demonstration of the maxim that honesty is always better than lies via withholding.

"Scared Straight" (S4, E9) -- Rue's theory that gay men like Blanche so much because she is, for all intents and purposes, a gay man is a tad objectionable, but it gets a nice test drive in this episode when her basically identical brother Clayton turns out to be gay.

"Not Another Monday" (S5, E7) -- Geraldine Fitzgerald reading off the list of foods she's going to order before killing herself: "I'm having the shrimp cocktail, the cream of mushroom soup, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and a filet mignon." Also, Dorothy interrupting a Rose story with the promise: "I'm going to cut out your tongue."

"Henny Penny Straight, No Chaser" (S6, E26) -- "Help. The outlook is drear." Great capper too, with Blanche being unable to get totally out of character.

Love the Barbara Thorndike one, though the joke only works for me if we are allowed to accept that she's intended as a straight-up hack, otherwise it plays as typical sitcom anti-intellectualism.

Not as much of a fan as the serious ones as you are, since watching GG is purely a comfort/nostalgia thing for me. Even when the show was new, and watched pretty religiously in our house, my sister and I would instinctively start eye-rolling whenever an episode seemed to be headed in that direction ("oh no, it's a SERIOUS one"). This applies to most of the Ebbtide eps, I suppose, though the one where Big Daddy dies does have the great Blanche moment of "I'm far too upset to eat. Ok, something with frosting."

Yeah, normally the serious ones don't do a whole lot for me either, which is why I didn't list "Sick and Tired" (which has sleep deprived Blanche) or "72 Hours" (the AIDS ep).

I agree. One of the serious ones that I really dislike is where Dorothy gets chronic fatigue syndrome and lectures everyone about it for the entire episode.

haha i love that episode but mainly cuz there's this one hypochondriac at work we'll make fun of by comparing her to dorothy in that episode. great post eric, it's been interesting to see golden girls critical rep in recent years.

02. "Ebbtide's Revenge" (S6, E12) -- It's no secret that Sophia is my least favorite of the four main characters, but in this case her antagonism just makes the moment she lets the facade drop all the more powerful. Structurally, this is a replay of the "Good Times" episode when Florida seems to be refusing to cry for her dead husband, but this episode goes much deeper into the nature of grief beyond the denial stage. Even beyond the obviously touching GLAAD Award-ish affirmation of Phil's cross-dressing, the episode taps into that regret we feel about the feelings we withhold from people, only to realize too late that they were standing in the way of fully realized relationships. Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Bea Arthur were all consistently great in the show. But none of them ever delivered a moment as unexpected and raw as Estelle Getty's admission of parental shame. I've admittedly never been a "drama trumps comedy" personality, but that's about the only explanation I can think of why this heartbreaking episode didn't flat-out take first place.

this episode has changed my life more than most things in this world for sure. the ending is unreal, and you are otm through your analysis of the reasons why.

yeah I don't go in for the issue/serious ones v much. altho I do like the Blanche's bro is gay one.

amazing that when this show starts Dorothy/Blanche/Rose are all supposed to be in their 50s

01. "Till Death Do We Volley" (S4, E19)

watched this last night after reading this post and yeah this is SUCH a good ep - blanche's faux-scandinavian!

I bet Blanche was supposed to actually be roughly 5 years younger than the other two. (Which was probably tough for Rue, since she was 12 years their junior.)

03. "Journey to the Center of Attention" (S7, E19) -- By the last season, the bloom was definitely off the rose (and the other three too). But there were a handful of episodes that got fresh mileage out of subtle twists on the characters' traits. And, in the case of this particular episode, offered the most rewarding switcheroo in the show's history. Blanche comes to terms -- kicking and screaming, at that -- with the fact that Dorothy has a talent for attracting men that she herself can't hope to compete with. And what a beautiful talent it is. Bea Arthur's performance of "What'll I Do" is an astonishment, effortlessly moving from quiet melancholy into a totally unexpected punchline (when she decides, after noticing she's entranced the entire room, to have another go around with the song).

have also frequently listed this a favorite. Dorothy's performance is wondrous, and the dichotomy btw blanche and dorothy has never been more relatable than it is here. a beautiful way of looking at the world.

Thanks guys! Happy to share the GG love.

guys (in Blanche voice) "Girls."

to me this show is all about two things: 1) Bea Arthur deadpan reaction shots and 2) hermetically sealed world of bizarre-o old lady fashions

She was winning Worst Dressed Awards in '88 and '89, an acknowledgment of how horrible they looked even then.

even her nightgowns have like three scoop necks and two extra sets of sleeves

some of her deadpan reaction shots have literally stopped me from breathing in laughter

and yet funny how i would wear any of her outfits in a heartbeat

I just watched the performance of "What'll I Do?" Man.

not to mention "hard-hearted hannah" from the same episode

vamp of savannah GA!

A song she also did on "Maude." He loved that one.

She was winning Worst Dressed Awards in '88 and '89, an acknowledgment of how horrible they looked even then.

I have been wearing a lot of oversized sweater and scarves lately and feel like I've been having a Dorothy moment. In her defense, that stuff is very comfortable.

Holy shit I have watched SO MUCH GG in the past month now that it's on TV Land.

even her nightgowns have like three scoop necks and two extra sets of sleeves

― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 3:42 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally want one of these.

This and Roseanne are pretty much all I've watched for a month straight. It's been awesome.

where i live it seems like GG is syndicated on like 5 different channels and it's amazing

yeah it's on 24/7

Am I wrong in thinking that the show really got its groove going in Season Three (1987-88)? Several episodes I watched this weekend suggest so.

par for the course for sitcoms afaict. first couple seasons are always a little rough, characters finding their notes, then you get a few seasons of A material, and then the decline due to cast turnover/exhaustion of ideas etc

(says the guy who doesn't like sitcoms)

the first two seasons are golden. show definitely got KOOKIER in s. 3 -> onward. maybe some higher highs, but also some lower lows.

A good poll option. "The Cosby Show" didn't peak imo until Season Three.

that i don't own the complete series on dvd is a mystery even to me

S3 and S4 had, I think, easily the highest number of nominees for my top 10.

Lloyd Bochner as Patrick Vaughn is a favorite, mostly because the one woman's excessively drawled "It sho' is Biff" has become something of a catchphrase for me, to the point that my bf looks about ready to strangle me whenever I answer any of his questions with it these days (ie - "do you have my car keys?" "i sho' do Biff," and so forth).

"Sorry ... It must be the heat!"

I'm watching the episode in which Dorothy dates Dick Van Dyke, the attorney turned clown.

there's an episode of 'the nanny' with an almost similar plot line

I spent waaaaay too much time thinking about this show last year

http://www.splicetoday.com/moving-pictures/the-golden-girls-increasing-decrepitude-part-seven

Alfred we JUST watched the clown episode here, for real

It wasn't particularly memorable, alas.

Heh. When you first mentioned that you were watching that episode, I struggled to come up with a memorable quote from it to post here, but couldn't think of one!

The courtroom scene was painful.

and Dick got no good lines!

Lloyd Bochner as Patrick Vaughn is a favorite, mostly because the one woman's excessively drawled "It sho' is Biff" has become something of a catchphrase for me, to the point that my bf looks about ready to strangle me whenever I answer any of his questions with it these days (ie - "do you have my car keys?" "i sho' do Biff," and so forth).

― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 22:41 (6 days ago) Permalink

amaaaaaaaaazing there need to be more people in the world like you

They slowly but surely ratcheted up Rose's assertiveness over the years, didn't they?

anyone who remembers Rose's first joke gets instant brownie points

It was something to do with Coco the gay cook, right?

LOL, I love that two of the episodes in your top 10 were in my bottom 5.

Lloyd Bochner as Patrick Vaughn is a favorite, mostly because the one woman's excessively drawled "It sho' is Biff" has become something of a catchphrase for me, to the point that my bf looks about ready to strangle me whenever I answer any of his questions with it these days (ie - "do you have my car keys?" "i sho' do Biff," and so forth).

― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 22:41 (6 days ago) Permalink

amaaaaaaaaazing there need to be more people in the world like you

― surm, Sunday, April 14, 2013 8:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It sho would Biff.

lol

xp well coco was around but it was when dorothy was talking about getting older, and she says something like " well, i looked in the mirror and i didn't even recognize the woman staring back at me "

and rose goes " who was it? "

Rose's first punch line!

A+ joke

Coco had a couple good lines iirc.

Dorothy: "Rose, Charlie's dead."
Coco: "Why tell her?"

I keep forgetting about Coco.

The wedding coordinator was a much more grating stereotype. I can't even watch that scene anymore.

Still, the show wins back a lot of gay cred with Blanche's brother Clayton. And Dorothy's lesbian friend whose name I forget.

Jean.

NOT LEBANESE, BLANCHE

incidentally both the actress who played jean and blanche's 2 sisters have been on more than one Murder She Wrote episode, fun fact

Right! Also lead to that great exchange:

BLANCHE: I don't think you should tell [Rose that Jean is gay]. She's not as worldly and sophisticated about these things as I am.
SOPHIA: Yeah, if she found out Danny Thomas was a lesbian, it would break her heart.

I have seen the Jean episode 3x this week.

<3

I'VE JUST BEEN KICKED OUT OF AN UNAYTHORIZED ELVIS PRESLEY FAN CLUB, I'LL TRY TO PUT THE PIECES OF MY LIFE BACK TOGETHER

Sophia: too trill

lol dorothy is great in that scene

I MEAN THERE MUST BE A SUPPORT GROUP FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME

The one where Dorothy's friend is in love with Rose was on this afternoon. I think the whole scene where Blanche finds out (from "isn't Danny Thomas one?" to "to think she'd prefer Rose over me?!" to Sophia's diss at the end of the scene) is my fave Blanche moment in the entire series run.

I love it when the writers get slap happy and show their hand on this show

as a Lebanese gay man the general public's intense appreciation of that Blanche moment means a lot to me

the episode was just on where Rose tries to seduce Dorothy's date to get him to show his true (vile) colors. she's p good at it

Haha

REX HUNTINGTON

"No, that was my MINOR point. My MAJOR point was..."

Yikes - Huntington was from a different episode, he was an asshole Blanche was dating until Dorothy made it apparent just how big an asshole he was.

Anyone ever notice how Sophia's sister Angela morphed into her brother Angelo in the later seasons?

Yeah

Because the actress playing the sister died and they couldn't bear to hire another actress to replace her

God, they could've just recycled Frieda Claxton/Philomena for one more round, or something.

I wonder which ones contributed most to this track. I'm thinking mostly Dorothy and Blanche with Sophia twiddling a few knobs and Rose making coffee runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MOhRBfIOY4

4 a.m. cheesecake eternal

(Beyond 3 a.m. because these girls have seen the sun rise more times than a flock or roosters.)

The pilot is so damn painful to watch, mostly because the script turns Bea Arthur in likable, Blanche wasn't fully Blanche, plus lame-o gay cook

Keep forgetting this existed. Cheech Marin! Don Cheadle!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wT8A-nupU

(quite a few other episodes are on YouTube as well)

Golden Girls dollhouse

No lanai?!

That'll be part of the expansion pack, along with the turnstile at the end of the hall by Blanche's bedroom.

That wasted triangle space in the middle of the house? Surely that wouldn't be up to code.

Someone needs to pull a Room 237 on the faulty floor plan of that house.

02. "Ebbtide's Revenge" (S6, E12) -- It's no secret that Sophia is my least favorite of the four main characters, but in this case her antagonism just makes the moment she lets the facade drop all the more powerful. Structurally, this is a replay of the "Good Times" episode when Florida seems to be refusing to cry for her dead husband, but this episode goes much deeper into the nature of grief beyond the denial stage. Even beyond the obviously touching GLAAD Award-ish affirmation of Phil's cross-dressing, the episode taps into that regret we feel about the feelings we withhold from people, only to realize too late that they were standing in the way of fully realized relationships. Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Bea Arthur were all consistently great in the show. But none of them ever delivered a moment as unexpected and raw as Estelle Getty's admission of parental shame. I've admittedly never been a "drama trumps comedy" personality, but that's about the only explanation I can think of why this heartbreaking episode didn't flat-out take first place.

Been sorta hoping to catch this one ever since Eric posted this, as I don't think I've seen it in twenty-some years. Estelle Getty's closing scene, the only thing I even remembered about the episode from the first time around, is indeed a heartbreaker. Better still, the episode makes up for years of treating the never-seen Phil as a punchline, even if the clear establishment of him as a heterosexual transvestite all along was an unexpectedly progressive gesture.

But the scene with the priest cracking wise at Phil's expense and eventually giving up on his sermon ("No charge") is rather shockingly mean, the kind of thing that suggests that the show still maintained a certain discomfort with the subject matter. Still, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that bits like this are in there to keep the episode from skewing too far astray of the sitcom format, particularly as its ramping up to that finale.

I saw this one last week! I swear to God I've seen them all at least 3x times now. I hadn't really thought about the priest bit but I guess it was kind of mean! I kind of wanted to see the teddy tbh.

Yeah, I agree that some of the jokes aimed at Phil were/are a little too barbed, but they at least serve a specific function in this episode -- to put Sophia's secret sense of mortification and responsibility into a legitimate social context.

Probably my biggest glitch with the episode is how the writers oversold what could've been the funniest punchline, when Blanche sees the guys from Phil's Thursday night poker game and says, "This is too funny. I have to get my camera from the car." The second line would've implied the first line, and the first line is so on-the-nose that it nearly kills the effect.

You know what's the best? Coming home from walking the dog and finding that the Patrick Vaughn episode is on.

"Sorry ... must be the heat."

"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark."

"It's their cheese."

"They refuse to use preservatives."

Rose, did any of your relatives star in Deliverance? sorry, i know it's not in that scene but i had to

"Help. The outlook is drear."

ftw

Waiting for the used price of the complete series on DVD to drop juuuuust a little bit (still over $60) and then I'm probably gonna get rid of my cable

lol <3

my friends newborn stops crying when she puts GG on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVCqV63krw

yesss.

even better http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pTGoe9KN97A#t=243

"This is the last drop of that perfume Big Daddy gave me on my 21st birthday. I want to see if it still has its fragrance. After all, that was 20 years ago."

"Oh, Blanche. If your 21st birthday was 20 years ago, you'd only be 41."

"That's right."

"Gee, you look terrible for your age."

haha. o god is that big daddy's little lady? one of my favorite episodes of all time

"Say hello to Big Mommy."

I deeply regret not putting that episode in my top 10. So much good stuff floating around in there.

I should attempt a top ten of my own one day. Right off the top of my head, Patrick Vaughn and Barbara Thorndyke ones would likely be close to the top, but I'd have to revisit quite a few episodes before assembling a list.

Another episode I regret I didn't give enough consideration to: "Flu Attack."

Dorothy's date to the banquet ("so after I threw up...") in that one always makes me laugh.

It always gets me that Rose tries to claim "I've been the worst" when they're all making amends. Nice try, Rose.

I'm sure this one's been done and I think I'm paraphrasing but

Rose: Is it possible to love two men at the same time?

Blanche: Set the scene, have we been drinking?

I deeply regret not putting that episode in my top 10. So much good stuff floating around in there.

― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Monday, 30 September 2013 03:23 (4 days ago) Permalink

to be honest i was sure you had. priceless episode.

Why my face is smooth, my body's taut, and my gears are grindin'!

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/LskAEKsXn.hHRlU1hgwQEA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTUyNztweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzA-/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/tv/2013-10-28/748f8475-0986-48f2-a2ee-f4910b5aa395_01-golden-girls-LegoLadies-etsy.jpg

^ said photo newly making the rounds today.

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1654407_605176536229236_496043476_n.jpg

that made me lol

That made me feel all warm and tingly. If you girls will excuse me, I think I'll slip under the covers and enjoy it.

http://www.avclub.com/article/golden-girls-made-aging-fabulous-202641

look where I was a couple weeks ago

http://www.offerstone.com/UpLoadFile/Product/201404/Flower%20Monument_MG0422_0DS.jpg

Funny you should revive this thread today because I'm so going to this tonight:

https://www.facebook.com/events/282454278581810/?ref_notif_type=plan_mall_activity&source=1

Estelle is a stone's throw from Mel Blanc and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. I stumbled upon her after I failed to locate Alfalfa. :(

Did you get a photo of Mel's? Best epitaph.

I did! Even though there is no shortage of them.

"That's all folks?"

(oh damn, it actually is!)

You should've taken another stab at Switzer's.

man

jesus i don't think i realized til now just how fucking young most of the little rascals died. spanky was a relative methuselah making it to 64. darla died at 47, buckwheat died at 49. froggy died at 16. petey lived to 119 in dog years.

I had a grave-rubbing of Mel's epitaph for a long time

the mel blanc coma story is one of the best stories i've ever heard

Tomorrow is Cheesecake Day!

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls1g0dCLGP1r0xiug.gif

happy belated cheesecake day, y'all

I forgot to eat a cheesecake. I only looked at pictures of cheesecake.

http://rankings.gawker.com/golden-girls-episodes-ranked-1633984767

"the Actor" way too low at #80. "Fiddler on the Ropes" way too high at #142.

IKR. Gah, disqualifying clip eps and "Empty Nest," it seems pretty clear to me "Fiddler" is the show's lamest ep.

U guys

Remember ally ?

God ilx in 2003 listening to tATu and Stacie orrico

Thank you for being a friend.

I will always watch GG when it's on, but Maude (at least the earlier episodes) is the keeper of Bea's two sitcoms.
― Eric H., Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:21 PM (6 years ago)

How much has changed in the Obama years!

idk any of these by title! I want to watch the worst and the best to see what's up

jaymc was inebriated Sunday, September 14, 2014 1:56 AM (Yesterday)

"Empty Nest" has next to nothing to do with the Golden Girls. It has almost nothing to do with the eventual GG spinoff Empty Nest. It's all quite confusing.

And I don't think the murder mystery episode is anywhere near the best of the lot, but like I said, not a whole lot separates the great GG eps from the non-great ones.

So, am I to buy my first LEGOs since I was 6?

Apparently the new Animal Collective song samples some GG dialogue, but I still don't want to listen to it.

Oral history.

The Golden Girls puppet show runs through Dec. 11 at DR2 Theatre

http://dlisted.com/2016/10/03/open-post-hosted-by-the-only-thing-i-want-for-christmas/

maybe you want this for Christmas too

https://twitter.com/keithuhlich/status/811685290305789952

Golden Girls Clue

Bea doll appears to be throwing the gaze she did after knocking over Allyzay

http://mentalfloss.com/article/551922/the-golden-girls-action-figures-neca-comic-con

Now in cereal form!

https://thetakeout.com/share-this-golden-girls-cereal-with-a-pal-or-a-confidan-1829974755

I tasted a piece. It was dry and tasteless.

like ILX wit

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-09/1/10/enhanced/webdr08/anigif_enhanced-32687-1441116940-14.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/tcXc0LOuZcGzK/giphy.gif

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4tN2MCoJ9K0/WzTcT_rdTEI/AAAAAAAAjVY/qQFQ8zYPCacughpdEYSJVT9nAb557HWNQCLcBGAs/s400/giphy.gif

there's a whole bunch of them, here is the second roll out

https://www.funko.com/blog/article/coming-soon-funkos-cereal-wave-2

luv u Elaine Stritch

Stritch entered a room of black suits. “I hope you all don’t mind that I’ve rewritten some of these lines to fit me,” she told them. “I’m Catholic, so I don’t want to say, ‘oh God.’ I can’t stand that.” She tried a curse instead. The suits stared back at her, aghast.

“I’m just glad I got out of there alive,” Stritch said years later. “I hate that show. Who’d be crazy enough to live in Florida with two other women and their mother?”

“For me to work with Betty White every day would be like taking cyanide.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/theater/elaine-stritch-broadway-roles.html

https://variety.com/2002/film/columns/stritch-almost-a-golden-girl-1117860373/

Classic. Both Stritch and the Golden Girls. I’m glad she botched that audition.

https://imgur.com/8eEhf3I

just leaving this here

https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/the-real-mud-on-golden-girls.html

It's really wild how the only difference between a "zoomer shocked to find piece of old media problematic" clickbait article and "Northwestern professor wrestles with TV show that's been off the air for 25 years" is peppering your piece with "As epidemiologist Julia Marcus explains"

No surprise that a sitcom from the 80s would be full of questionable material. I think we even discussed some of its hypocritical queer affirmation above, so no need to re-litigate that; the racial stuff works much the same way (pleas for tolerance on one hand, scoring easy punchlines on the other) but Sophia's many racist/homo- and trans-phobic zings are generally shown to be embarrassing to her daughter (yes, I know, the audience still gets to laugh).

Re: the rape--the show's notorious inconsistency complicates things a little bit, I think, in that we are given so many versions of Michael's conception that it is hard to take any one of them as definitive. In the case of "he must have slipped me something," I'm willing to read this variant on the story--which generally sets up a joke about Stan's lack of sexual prowess and/or Dorothy's insecurity--as a convenient set up to a punchline ("Apparently!"). More to the point, the kind of date rape scenario proposed in this scene likely would not have been uncommon mid-twentieth-century, and would have resulted in a young woman marrying her abuser and carrying around the "shame" of it (I once had a similar combination re: Biff's attempted rape of Lorraine in Back to the Future). If it is shitty of the series to make light of this, I'd argue that there is enough pathos in Dorothy's character (and Bea Arthur's performance) that the viewer isn't unconscious of it.

i find contemporary culture full of questionable material

Good calls, crypto. (Also, the series has tons of fat jokes and low blows about Dorothy's looks that are impossible to overlook. Still my favorite sitcom.)

the series has tons of fat jokes

Have Oliver Hardy and Jackie Gleason been cancelled yet?

Fatty Arbuckle sure was.

never found guilty in 3 trials

A prince of a man, then.

But thanks for willfully overlooking the point.

Really good piece.

Saw a couple of episodes of this the other day and they were not very good. One of the storylines was about the possibility that Estelle Getty was not Bea Arthur's real mother and that's when I realized they're supposed to be Italian - the fear of having actual Jewish characters writ large.

designing women is better anyway

You take that back!

XD

One of the storylines was about the possibility that Estelle Getty was not Bea Arthur's real mother

IIRC that's a later season episode. Even a lot of die-hard fans have their issues with the last couple seasons.

That episode sucks.

Some gems in the later seasons: I love the murder mystery weekend, Dorothy singing "What'll I Do," and Alan King as Mel Bushman. But yeah, it was definitely where the show's famously sloppy writing got even more ridiculous.

On a GG recap podcast I used to listen to until I realized I couldn't stand one of the hosts anymore, one of their guests made the bold assertion that he preferred the later seasons for their "more flexible sense of reality." Which I took to mean, yes, sloppiness.

But yes, the "What'll I Do" ep is top 3.

That's the same reaction some fans have about the last couple Rosanne episodes

Yes, but which series had more indefensible fat jokes?

The Cosby Show.

At the same time, Golden Girls had more punchlines about The Cosby Show than The Cosby Show had indefensible fat jokes.

I prefer the latter seasons of Seinfeld because of their more flexible sense of reality.

btw all silent film buffs now call Fatty Arbuckle "Roscoe" (as his colleagues did)

I wish that more film buffs were silent.

disappointed that a ctrl+f for "rattan" yields zero (0) results itt

we're all disappointed in life from time to time, but we find the hope to carry on.

Oh please, it’s wicker.

I saw a bumper sticker for “St. Olaf College”; took a pic and sent it to my wife, thinking it was a GG joke… she was like, “Yeah, that’s a real school.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/14/theater/tituss-burgess-moulin-rouge.html

Those four ladies and the writers together made television magic. It’s like a fine wine: The jokes somehow are even funnier now, or I’m just getting older and maybe I understand the references a little more. On some level, every creator can reference it as a source of inspiration. For me, TV’s never been funnier.