The Golden Girls - Final Season

I love Season 7. It had me really LOL. And the "Bull Durham" episode had one of my favorite exchanges.

DOROTHY: "What's wrong, Blanche?" BLANCHE: "Stevie's leaving me." DOROTHY: "For another woman?" BLANCHE: Don't be ridiculous! He's leaving me for Tokyo." ROSE (walking in): "What's going on?" DOROTHY: "Stevie's leaving Blanche for Tokyo, Rose." ROSE: "Oh, I can understand that. She is a big radio personality."

r1, I also love Season 7. It had some of the show's greatest episodes!

The tone of the show had changed by then. At this point, it was more slapstick and they all became caricatures. It happens with most sitcoms.

Tim Thomerson is hot!

I agree r3, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I love the later seasons precisely BECAUSE of the frivoloty. It's good comfort food. On the other hand, I refuse to watch early, serious episodes like Rose's blind sister or the one where Rose confronts her daughter about her husband's will.

I loathe the final two or three seasons of TGG, but will still suffer through the eps occasionally for the odd amusing exchange amidst all the horrible storylines. At least the final show was pretty good, a rare return to quality.

[quote]I refuse to watch early, serious episodes

Mary!

R8 made me laugh, I'm sorry to say.

And I treasure the later seasons of TGG.

A messa somethin'. I'll fix us up a messa somethin'.

The final season couldn't have been any worse than "The Golden Palace". Now that was excruciating!

Totally agree with r7. When the producing/writing team who'd been there from day 1 left at the end of season 4, the tone of the show definitely changed. They began recycling plots in season 4, but the tone of the show still remained consistent. I can tolerate season 5, but I though 6 & 7 were mostly terrible, except for the handful of eps where Susan Harris was obviously involved.

What's with you old people?

The Monkey Show is one of my favorites and I think that's the last season.

Season 7 had some of the most hilarious one-liners ever written for a sitcom.

The last couple of seasons really sucked. Bea Arthur said her favorites were only the episodes directed by Terry Hughes.

Are you kidding, OP? It's a hilarious season. Their senses of humor and remarks toward each other were more biting in this season than many of the others. The Murder Mystery episode alone is just hilarious.

I liked the fact that the latter seasons were more biting and risque.

The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome one was the WORST except for the Rita Moreno "Doroshee" attempt at a spinoff.

But The Case of the Libertine Belle and others make this season a good one.

The Case of the Libertine Belle was one of the best episodes.

'So what? I took a whole place setting.'

'NOT NOW, MA!'

Seriously, r19? That episode ranks up there with the Mr. Terrific episode in sheer awfulness.

I loved Libertine Belle too:

SOPHIA, as Dorothy re-enacts the murder by holding a knife to her throat: "Not part of the show, people! Not part of the show!"

Bea Arthur was understandably distracted during the last season. The network was very good at covering up the story, but she'd recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Fortunately, her treatment was successful, and she lived an arguably normal life for many years thereafter.

I often think that Bea should have stuck it out for at least one more season, to make it an even eight-season run. I know she was pretty much over it by that point, but I'd've loved at least one more season of the girls (I know we got "Golden Palace", but it just wasn't the same...)

Another here who loves "Libertine Belle." I like how Blanche calls her rival for the museum job a slut 'cause she was flirting with the boss, and Rose goes, "You flirted with him, too."

BLANCHE: "I'm from the South. Flirting is part of my heritage." ROSE: "What do you mean?" DOROTHY: "Her mother was a slut, too." XD

"Ma, what are you doing?"

"Filling sandbags Dorothy. There's a hurricane a'cummin?"

"A'cummin?"

"Yea. You only use the a' when a really big storm is a'cummin or a'brewin so grab a sack and start a'shovellin!"

DOROTHY about Gloria: "She's out of m-o-n-e-y."

STAN, holding his monkey: "Well she's not getting mine!"

DOROTHY: "She's not out of monkey, Stan, she's out of money!"

It's anti gay. They had a gay cook in the pilot episode and Bea Arthur and Betty White where to homophobic to allow it.

Loved the gg actors on other shows. And some shows i chuckle at. But i dont get the adoration among gays for this show. I always thought they all tried a bit too hard to be funny. Especially estelle getty. A lot of the writing was mildly humorous. Nothing more.

It's easy to find faults with the show now and, yes, it feels dated 25 years later but you have to look at what other sitcoms were popular at the time. Even as a kid in the mid-80s I could tell it was far more adult in the topics it dealt with than most of its competition. It wasn't your usual family-centered sentimental bullshit like most other popular sitcoms of that era. Also, it presented old people as sexual beings, which was quite novel.

say what you will about the chronic fatigue syndrome episode-but it contains, possibly, the single greatest comedic performance in GG history-Blanche's kitchen meltdown. That scene should be studied in universities.

r11, which Season 6 and 7 episodes was Susan Harris involved in?

Can anyone tell me - is there a Golden Girls episode where Leslie Uggams is mentioned?

Why didn't they ever have continuing stories on this show? Everything was episodic.

The first season is my least favorite in looking back. Arthur is still Maude Findlay in the first few episodes. Also, I was never interested in any of the family episodes especially since they cast such dull actors as the children- and we were lucky if it was ever the same actor twice.

Far easier in syndication if shows are episodic. No need for continuity.

R27, the gay character who was cut out was among the most stereotyped (although also among the earlier) gay people on television. Eliminating the character made the show work better, and eliminating such a caricature is gay-friendly, not homophobic.

r31, except for the finale and I think the murder mystery episode, not sure exactly which episodes Harris was involved in in the later seasons, but you can tell the episodes by the closing credits where she's listed as exec producer. It was a handful of eps in the final seasons. Guessing she didn't write the scripts for those eps, rather tweaked them. I think she was more involved in that terrible Nurses sitcom at that point.

"This is why Hollywood will not get my book. I will not have my words coming out of Glenn Close's mouth, I'd rather die!"

Dorothy: Let me guess. Miami's answer to Phyllis Hammerow...Meryl Streep. She is terrible.

Rose: Oh I thought Meryl was great last year in The Diary of Anne Frank

Dorothy: Please, Rose. The entire time, the audience kept yelling, "She's in the attic! She's in the attic!"

We wuz po.

[quote]Dorothy: Let me guess. Miami's answer to Phyllis Hammerow...Meryl Streep. She is terrible.

[quote]Rose: Oh I thought Meryl was great last year in The Diary of Anne Frank

[quote]Dorothy: Please, Rose. The entire time, the audience kept yelling, "She's in the attic! She's in the attic!"

Old joke -- Meryl used to be June Allyson

Was this the season when they started getting really mean spirited to each other? Every other joke was Dorothy being ugly, Blanch being a slut and Rose being stupid.

Bea Arthur seemed like an intimidating tuffian in real life.

Different on outside, same on inside.

[quote] I refuse to watch early, serious episodes like Rose's blind sister or the one where Rose confronts her daughter about her husband's will.

I bet Susan Harris is really upset about that 8O|

I loved the S7 episode where Rose talks Blanche and Dorothy into appearing on her cable access show, then they learn it's a talk show on Lesbian Lovers of Miami.

Season 7 was too mean spirited. It started in Season 6, but they still had some good episodes.

The last year, everyone is just miserable to each other for no reason, and the characters got too cartoonish. Plus, the continuity became ridiculous.

And the finale blew chunks.

R47 exactly. Bea Arthur said the best episodes were directed by Terry Hughes. The worst character in season 7 was Sophia. You could tell she wasn't the same. She was te one that was always so mean to Dorothy.

I saw Bea Arthur "Live at the Savoy" in London, and she told this same joke-only it was about Pia Zadora.

I know the tone of later seasons had changed some, but I still found it funny.

I have all 7 seasons on DVD and I hardly watch the last two at all. I find myself going back to the first four the most.

Season 5 has its moments: the two-part chronic fatigue episode is insufferable, but Blanche's aforementioned "little balls of sunshine in a bag" scene is classic and leaves me in hysterics no matter how many times I watch it.

From the last season, the episode where Blanche takes Dorothy to the Rusty Anchor is probably the best.

My favorite episodes, from the first two seasons:

Season One:

Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding? - the first appearance of Dorothy's ex-husband Stan (a brilliant character in the first few seasons who became a caricature in the last two)

The Triangle - Dorothy dates Elliot the doctor, who makes a pass at Blanche

Break-In - the house is vandalized while the GGs are at a Madonna concert; Rose goes off the deep end and buys a gun ("You shot my vase!")

A Little Romance - Rose dates a little person, Dr. Jonathan Newman ("Shrimp?!")

In a Bed of Rose's - Rose brings home a date who dies in her bed ("You could light firecrackers in his ears, you won't wake him.")

Nice and Easy - Blanche's floozy niece Lucy comes for a visit

Season Two:

End of the Curse - Blanche thinks she's pregnant, then discovers it's menopause

Take Him, He's Mine - Blanche goes out with Stan; Rose & Sophia sell sandwiches and are threatened by the mob (Johnny No-Thumbs)

Isn't it Romantic - Dorothy's lesbian friend Jean visits and develops a crush on Rose

Forgive Me, Father - Dorothy has a crush on Father Frank Leahy ("I look like the mother of a Solid Gold dancer!")

Diamond in the Rough - Blanche dates Jake, a hunky caterer who Blanche dumps because of their different backgrounds

Son-in-Law Dearest - Dorothy's daughter Kate leaves her husband, who has cheated on her, and Dorothy tries to talk her out of it when she decides to take him back

There's a reason that season 7 is in a funereal black DVD cover... Absolutely hideous. At least the two-part finale had a certain degree of charm and who can forget that tearful final segment. Wow.

Favorites from seasons three & four:

Season Three:

Bringing Up Baby - The girls care for an elderly pig that a relative of Rose's left her, in order to collect $100,000

The Housekeeper - The girls hire a voodoo housekeeper, Marguerite

A Visit from Little Sven - Rose's cousin Sven visits, and falls in love with Blanche

Charlie's Buddy - a friend of Rose's husband Charlie visits, but Dorothy discovers that he's really a con-artist and never knew Charlie at all. Very poignant episode.

Dorothy's New Friend - Barbara Thorndike. Need I say more?

Grab That Dough - the girls appear on a game show; hilarity ensues

Season Four:

Yes, We Have No Havanas - Blanche and Sophia both date Fidel Santiago; some of the best one-liners in the series in the form of insults exchanged between Blanche & Sophia ("You're only gonna sit in an inch of water?")

The One That Got Away - Ham Lushbough. One of my favorite episodes ever.

Scared Straight - Blanche's brother Clayton comes to town and eventually reveals that he's gay.

Till Death Do We Volley - another one of my favorite episodes of the series. Dorothy's high school friend Trudy comes to visit and winds up "dead."

Little Sister - Rose's sister Holly visits and Blanche & Dorothy take a shine to her, refusing to believe Rose's insistences that she's really a bitch.

>>the single greatest comedic performance in GG history-Blanche's kitchen meltdown

Interesting. I found that scene rather lame.

r55 = Posey MacGlinn

Thank you for fucking my end

Fucked me once or twice and then again

You're heart is true

You're a pal not a stupid Jew

And if you threw a party

Invited everyone but Jews

You would see

Every damn Is-ray-al-ee

Would say "Oh vey I'm so oppressed, plant trees in Is-ray-al"

I'm not seeing the humor here, R57.

Yeah, it's right up there with little balls of sunshine, R57.

Oh, who cares?

I can't remember the season much now. How did they justify Dorothy marrying someone who hasn't been in any other episodes? Couldn't they have brought back Miles or someone?

Also, for a show about a pack of old ladies in Miami, ending with a wedding is pretty dull. They could have killed one or just had Blanche sell the house so they can all go around the world, or have them move to another location. Or become cocaine mules.

Or have them buy a hotel....

Golden Palace would have been much better if it had been set on a cruise ship. Celebrity guests galore.

Hey Susan at R60, have you met your child yet? Whore.

r61 Miles didn't date Dorothy he dated Rose

The show didn't find it's stride until after season 1. After Bea announced she was leaving, it seems the writers had to come up with some sort of ending. Don't like the final two episodes, and won't watch. But the two prior dealing with Rose's heart attack were good. Love when Dorothy introduces Rose as the school's foreign exchange student...and after the guy says she looks different, Rose responds in a chinese tone, "Different on outside. Same on inside." Dialouge we can't say today in this PC world in which we live. Will we ever get writers that will give us the next All In the Family or MASH?

I hate "Little Sister", r54, because I hate the ones where they turn against each other, particularly when they believe the lies of an outsider over the pleadings of their supposed best friend.

I don't mean when they're fighting over a man like Laszlo or Fidel Santiago and exchange insults, that's good clean fun. But I find it totally disturbing when Rose pleads with them to recognize Holly's manipulations and they choose to give Holly the benefit of the doubt instead of Rose, or when they coldly cut Blanche off because they believe Gil Kessler's lie that he slept with her over Blanche's protestations that he didn't. Those upset me.

And who can forget in the 2nd part of The Monkey Show, when Sophia and Angelo are trapped by the hurricane in his apartment building. Angelo states he was taught what to do in an emergency by the Italian army. "Help-a. Help-a".

Doesn't Sophia sometimes make reference to Gloria as being her pretty, desirable daughter?

Then why were both of the actresses who played her basically as homely as Bea Arthur?

When you look at Sophia and Sal what do you expect? Thank God we never actually saw Phil. Only his wife, played by the great Brenda Vicarro. And I can't imagine her Phil was "hot" even in the teddy he was buried in. Also, remember Dorothy's sister in the Monkey Show episodes was Mother Nature on the tv commercials in the '70's. And, it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!

I liked GG, but was never a hardcore fan like many on DL seem to be. I want to know if anyone else remembers and likes this joke though, which I remember because it's surreal. Sophia says something referring to them having a cat, and Dorthy probably, corrects her and says that cat has been dead for years. Sophia then says she wonders who's been using the cat box then. See, a neat surreal joke, they have a cat box in the house that gets used even though the cat's been dead for years. Hilarious to picture someone squatting to take a dump in a cat box too. And you know it had to be Rose if anyone.

"Hilarious to picture someone squatting to take a dump in a cat box too."

It's a riot!

r55: Eat dirt and die, trash.

I liked it when Stan and Dorothy yelled at each other.

Typical 'Mo spreading AIDS

Mr. Marcus worked in heterosexual porn, and it was syphilis he admitted to spreading.

Still, WTF does this have to do with "Golden GIrls"?

Blanche used to like to have the anal with blacks.

It would've been so great if Blanche talked about her love of anal, especially with the blacks. And if she talked about the lover that requested she peg him.

r72: one sperm with a sense of direction and I'm paying for it for the rest of my life.

Hello everyone!

Send my regards to Madge.

Anything for a friend.

Ciao!

Dorothy: "Um, tell me Rose, did they ever shoot a herring out of a cannon?"

Rose: "Just once. But they shot him into a tree. After that no other herring would do it."

My, my, r16, I do declare, your sweet words could charm the morning dew right off the honeysuckle.

I watched "Blanche's Little Girl" just yesterday and it was hilarious, the last season only had one episode that good.

I think Dorothy/Rose's conversation about moist cupcakes in S7.

If that last season had been GG first, there would have never been a second. That sucked.

R82's clip just proves what a great actress White was. Was Arthur reading off cue cards in that scene, her eyes seem to be looking down and darting a bit.

[quote]If that last season had been GG first, there would have never been a second. That sucked.

The last season isn't good compared to the rest of them, but if we hadn't seen the rest of them we wouldn't have known. I think I would've gotten a second season.

Even if you didn't know you could tell the last season was the last though. They were in more contrived situations, they were caricatures of themselves, the humor wasn't as flowing and whilst I was happy we didn't have any of Susan Harris' love and kisses episodes they had practically no heartfelt episodes aside from "Room 7".

The murder mystery episode was good.

That was the episode I was referinng to in my post (R81), R85.

ultimately the monkey becomes the size of a key chain.

"It WAS the dress."

Loved that episode.

In retrospect I would have liked to have seen Betty White be more bitchy. I always thought she was biting when they gave her bitchy material like when Blanche agreed to date Miles because Rose felt too dumb for him. Rose turns to Dorothy and says 'can you believe that slut.' It was just brilliant how she went from sweet to nasty and the latter was just as convincing, if not more.

Hey, Look Me Over (ep 7.1) is my favorite episode! The Monkey Show, Home Again, Rose, The Pope's Ring, etc = CLASSIC!

LOVE season 7. Yes it was broader, crazier, more mean spirited, more "90s" humor so to speak - and you either love that or you don't. It started season 6 when Marc Cherry (who I still can't believe was the sole gay writer on the show) came on. So the camp quotient went up like tenfold, and it's just so much fun. Now those are my favorite seasons to watch in reruns.

And I'm glad they more or less did away with the VSE's by then - making the handful of touching the moments they did for the most part well-earned (though Rue was always the best at this).

R89 totally agree. She got more opportunities to do that in the later seasons, although her part essentially became a supporting one (I swear in some episodes she didn't have more then a handful of lines). In the first few episodes especially Rose was so fucking dippy.

poor Estelle had to read from cue cards, must have been tough for her.

why did they switch Gloria's?

I like the 7th season because it has some of the best one liners of the whole run but yes by the final year the show's quality was in decline. That's one of the reasons Bea Arthur decided to leave she felt the show wasn't as consistently funny...that and her ongoing passionate hatred of Betty White.

Oh, don't hate me, r94. Learn a trade!

[quote]why did they switch Gloria's?

She was probably doing another show.

Agree that Season 7 was quite horrible, but there were highlights.

"Journey to the Center of Attention" is one of the best of the series. Dorothy sings, Blanche is jealous, and Rose bothces Sofia's wake. It's also reportedly Rue's favorite.

"That's For Me To Know" where Blance tries to get a hot tub without a permit and gets caught never having declared rent. The vote with everyone agreeing to boot out Dorothy (including Dorothy voting for herself) is hilarious.

"Old Boyfriends" with Betty Garrett and Ken Berry both bringing a lot of warmth to a very funny episode.

Agree about Hey, Look Me Over, Room 7, Home Again Rose and the Finale.

That's why I have Season 7 in my collection :)

Smh why would you say rue liked anal sex with black men. So disrespectful.

Some of you are so disrespectful of bea Arthur saying she had prostate cancer. She was the best actress on gg show would not have lasted long without her.

I agree season 7 had its moments but don't care for it much. I prefer seasons 1 through 6 those were bea better looking years.

I thought the whole series was dreadful.

Bea doing the urkel is hilarious she can move.

Is it true about bea taking dump on floor in Betty dressing room?

The hate bea had for Betty was real in the reunion special they taped from different studios. And bea rarely talked about Betty ever. It's different rumors why she doesn't like Betty .

The humor may have waned, but the fashion sense soared.

Why did Dorothy, a divorcee who looked to be in her seventies by that time, wear a full length, traditional wedding gown complete with long veil? It seemed very un-Dorothy like for her to wear something like that. Not only was it a major fashion faux pas (a woman that age, marrying a second time wearing THAT; how tacky) but the dress itself was hideous, one of the ugliest wedding dresses of all time. It was just so inappropriate; gray haired, wrinkled Dorothy looked more like she was wearing a funeral shroud than a wedding dress.

r3

I never understood why some sitcoms took this low brow approach

[quote]Old Boyfriends" with Betty Garrett and Ken Berry both bringing a lot of warmth to a very funny episode.

Betty Garrett was a horrid actress, ruined everything she was in

Almost as bad as when Dick Van Dyke was on Carol Burnett

So funny this thread was bumped because as a Season 7 lover I knew I must have posted on here. I can’t believe it was 6 years ago damn I feel old. I posted as r91 and I stand by everything I wrote.

Two of my favorite episodes are in season 7: the murder mystery and the one at the rusty anchor where Blanche sings on the piano. But I do agree that you can start to feel the quality of the show slipping. Bea Arthur was totally right to want to end the show at this point. I actually hate the last episode of the show because it becomes a Dorothy episode because the other three decided to go on and do Golden Palace. I wish they just would have ended the show and given closure to all four characters.

This was such a good season.

"Tomorrow I'm going to tell him he is the worst lover I ever had".....great season 7 episode with Hal Linden. Mr Gordon episode also another favorite.

Well, pardon me while I play the Grand Piano.

r113, that's a great line, one of Dorothy's best on the show. But it wasn't season 7. "What a Difference a Date Makes" (with Hal Linden as Dorothy's prom date) was episode 22 of Season 6.

and r91, Marc Cherry (who wrote that episode) didn't come on board in Season 6. He (and his writing partner) joined in Season 5 (when they wrote both "An Illegitimate Concern"--George's love child shows up--and "Sisters and Other Strangers"--where Charmaine shows up).

And count me in with those who think that the season 7 had some highlights, but wasn't very good overall--so cartoonish and outright dumb at times.

Did anyone get a load of the bulge in the pants of George's love child in "An Illegitimate Concern"? (Sorry, can't find a screen shot.) It was something to behold. And great back-story casting; if he truly was George's son, and these things are hereditary – explains why Blanche was so horny all the time.

I wanted to get a load of that bulge but he wouldn't let me.

This is so entertaining to watch.

Maybe it was the last name "Cherry" that put him off...

The best episode was the last one. And don't call me Shirley