Golden Girls: Classic or Dud?

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

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.