Golden Girls references I don't "get"

That same ep at the murdery mystery dinner....

BLANCHE'S MUSEUM BOSS: Blanche, I must commend you again. I have a feeling we're in for a weekend none of us will forget.

BLANCHE: (In her most Southern voice) I do declare, your sweet words could charm the morning dew right off the honeysuckle.

DOROTHY: That was good, Blanche. Now, do Braire (sp?) Rabbit.

OP you don't know shit from Shinola.

OP pronounces the word "polish" [the thing you do to your knob] the same as "Polish" [as in, someone from Poland], because she can't tell shit from shinola!

Br'er Rabbit, you dolt!

R1, Have you never heard of Br'er Rabbit and Uncle Remus and "Song of the South"? Theses characters and stories are Southern black stereotypes that are now considered demeaning and racist.

Did Blanche ever get the job with Kendall Nesbitt? That's what I wanna know!

The show places

The go places

It's Sheridan

No place on Earth you'd rather roam

Poor OP, you're all missing a teachable moment.

Learning aid, OP

...and another.

r5 I have a bootleg copy. What do you think of them apples?

It wasn't explained how Blanche avoided being arrested in Chatanooga or whether she was indeed allowed to return there. Also, why in particular would Blanche not lie about the U.S. space program?

I think we all know how Blanche avoided being arrested, R11. Did you ever even watch the show?

I think most of you are missing the double humor in the first scene and what might have confused OP. Dorothy is playing off of two different sayings: "No shit, Sherlock," which is said to someone who states the obvious, and "you don't know shit from Shinola," which is said to someone who is so dense she can't distinguish the obvious difference between two things. On the show, they couldn't say the word "shit."

[quote][bold]11 Golden Girls References Explained for Younger Viewers[/bold]

This site just schooled me on Fess Parker and "Ishtar."

I didn't get when Dorothy said, "I can't believe they tried to make an American version of Fawlty Towers, but that doesn't make it so."

It was one of the best episodes from season 7.

DL has become a Gay Reeducation Camp.

Re Fawlty Towers:

Four attempted remakes of Fawlty Towers were started for the American market, with three making it into production. The first, Chateau Snavely starring Harvey Korman and Betty White, was produced by ABC for a pilot in 1978, but the transfer from coastal hotel to highway motel proved too much and the series was never produced. The second, also by ABC, was Amanda's starring Bea Arthur, notable for switching the sexes of its 'Basil' and 'Sybil' equivalents. It also failed to pick up a major audience and was dropped.

Wasn't John Larroquette of Night Court in a failed "Fawlty" remake too?

Amanda's had problems but parts of it were enjoyable, particularly when Bea would beat the hell out of Tony Rosato!

Dorothy: He goes out Steve and comes in Edie. huh?

When Sophia shows up in Rose's dream about being in Moscow, she mentions a German kid flying her to Red Square. That was reference to Mathias Rust flying a plane to Red Square.

[quote]Dorothy: He goes out Steve and comes in Edie. huh?

EYDIE, not Edie. Famous husband-and-wife singing couple- Steve Lawrence and the late Eydie Gormé.

In the Frida Klaxton episode, at the opening of the meeting there is a comment about the petition for the outdoor Menudo concert being denied and then the petitioner leaves. It seems like it's supposed to be a joke, but if it is, I don't get it.

There were boatloads of insider jokes made on that show, a lot of them about the entertainment industry.

You getting the Menudo reference probably would depend upon your take on boy bands, R24. Outside of a few tweezed and plucked queens here that start threads about BBs, it's expected that reasonably normal adult males with descended testicles have nothing but contempt for them. Besides which, the members were rotated out as they 'aged'-it was all kind of pervy, really.

It ansuh quession?

R24 -

I love the Freida Claxton episode!! The scene where they're all at the court house to fight her to save the old tree.

Blanche (to Mrs. Claxton): "I'm your neighbor, Blanche Devereaux."

FC: "Oh yeah. You're the one with everything going on in your bedroom. I think some of the things you're doing are illegal. I'm looking into it."

Blanche (getting upset): "Why you miserable old..."

Dorothy (pulls Blanche away, addresses Mrs. Claxton): I'm Dorothy, Blanche's roommate.

FC: "Oh yeah. You're the one with NOTHING going on in your bedroom."

Dorothy (before being pulled away by Blanche): "Why you miserable old..."

In the McLean Stevenson episode, Dorothy makes a joke about Rose having a job like Donna Rice..the pay isn't very good but you don't have to get out of bed to work. Also, in another epsisode, Dorothy says something about "dropping him faster than CBS dumped Jimmy the Greek." Can someone explain these references to me?

R27 -

Jimmy the Greek was a sports (basketball or football) coach and/or owner who made a racist comment about blacks in the late eighties. CBS didn't really take long to let him go after this. Even Bill Cosby (who was respected back then) said he thought Jimmy shouldn't have been let go.

There's also a reference in the "Sophia's Day Out" (or whatever), where she's at a grocery store with a friend and, while trying to return an item, says, "I got a better case than Valerie Harper." This was in reference to the situation of Harper being "unfairly" let go from her mid-eighties sitcom "Valerie's Family". Even in that pre-internet time, the story traveled quickly and many people felt Harper was dealt a bad blow by NBC.

For R27:

Donna Rice was exposed as having an affair with democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart, sinking his chances for good.

[quote]Even in that pre-internet time, the story traveled quickly and many people felt Harper was dealt a bad blow by NBC. Harper was dealt a bad blow by NBC.

I don't blame anyone who takes Harper's side; Lorimar was the bad actor there, NBC was never implicated in the lawsuit. The tactics they pulled were similar to the ones they pulled with Donna Reed when she was on [italic]Dallas[/italic]. And as for them to crying poverty when Valerie asked for a raise, tell that to Edie McClurg, whom they were able to lure away from the syndicated [italic]Small Wonder[/italic] with a raise, regular status, and the coveted "and/as" credit, which the latter show's producers, Metromedia, which had just been merged into 20th Century Fox, apparently couldn't afford; they replaced McClurg with Alice Ghostley as Harriet Brindle's Aunt Ida Mae, and she did that on weeks when she wasn't doing [italic]Designing Women[/italic] while McClurg did the NBC show full-time.

I was wrong; turns out NBC was sued, too.

Why couldn't we have a weekly to showcase a similar degree of talent today? I guess Frankie and Grace is kind of that, but imagine getting some grand-dames together like that today for one of the major networks. In fact, Tomlin would be a rockstar. I think perhaps Goldie Hawn could work, too. What says you?

It's so weird. To think that almost everyone associated with GG is dead, while just about everyone associated with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran a full decade earlier, is still alive.

I'm paraphrasing some of this here, because I don't have the scene right in front of me:

Sophia enters kitchen

SOPHIA: Dorothy, have you seen my teeth?

DOROTHY: Ma, they're in your mouth

SOPHIA: I know that, I put them in the dishwasher, don't they look clean?

DOROTHY: Ma, you mixed up Martha Raye and Madge again.

Wahhhh??

Martha Raye hawked denture cleaner. "Madge" was a TV spokesperson for dishwashing liquid.

Next?

SIT DOWN ROSE!

Remember when Blanche told Rose her pussy stinks-I thought Rose was allergic to cats.

R33 And just about everyone from the Dick Van Dyke Show (Millie, Rob, Laura, Sally, Alan) is still alive, and that was a decade before MTM.

[quote]Tomlin would be a rockstar.

Lily Tomlin was a regular on "Malibu Country;" it only lasted one season on ABC.

R33 spoke too soon.

R22 which had happened earlier that year.

R1, have you never been on Splash Mountain at Disney? The whole ride is based around Brer Rabbit and crew.

I too did not get the Steve and Edie joke.

I was also too young to know who Pat Robertson, Bill Moyers and Gary Hart were.

When Dorthy tells Rose that her daughter moves faster than Marcus Allen.

[quote]Theses characters and stories are Southern black stereotypes that are now considered demeaning and racist.

By assholes projecting their own bigotry onto others.

R43, I thought Marcus Allen was a department store and meant she moved faster than the merchandise.

A racist is someone who's offended by a white boy and a black boy holding hands.

Marcus Allen was a famous football player when GG mentioned him. He later gained some notoriety in the OJ trial.. He was a mentor and close friend of OJ but it turned out he had had an affair with Nicole while she was still married to OJ and he testified in court that OJ had called him from jail to ask him to lie for him.

Marcus Allen is considered one of the greatest goal line and short-yard runners in NFL history. At the time the episode aired, in 1986, he was in his mid-twenties and playing for the LA Raiders.

R45 you're thinking of Neiman Marcus, which was name-dropped on the show often.

BLANCHE: I hate men! Stevie's leaving me.

DOROTHY: For another woman?

BLANCHE: Don't be ridiculous! He's leaving me for Tokyo.

[Rose enters room]

DOROTHY: Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry.

ROSE: What's going on?

DOROTHY: Stevie's leaving Blanche for Tokyo, Rose.

ROSE: Well, I can understand that. She is a big radio personality.

Tokyo Rose broadcasted enemy propaganda during WWII.

I thought Marcus Allen was a gay porn star who's serving time for killing one of his tricks. But that was long after GG.

Marcus Allen supposedly has enormous endowment. During the OJ trial it came out that his nickname was "Driftwood."

Why driftwood?

Some of you are too stupid to live.

Human speed bumps.

[quote]Why driftwood?

The story goes that Nicole was on an outing at the beach with a friend. She picked up a piece of driftwood, saying that Marcus Allen's endowment was similar.

R50 And her German counterpart was Axis Sally.

What was Susan Hayward's climatic speech in I Want To Live? I've seen the movie many times, but I have no idea what scene he's referring to?

[quote]What was Susan Hayward's climatic speech in I Want To Live?

There was no speech about the weather. You are correct.

What is "the end" in the opening song when Blanche sings "Thank you for fucking my end"

Two jokes I don't get:

Rose comes in, Blache and Dorothy are sitting the living room.

Rose: Hi, girls. Is she here yet?

Dorothy: Who, Rose?

Rose: My sister. I left you a note on your bathroom mirror.

Dorothy: Why did you leave a note on my bathroom mirror?

Rose: It was the only one that had enough steam.

(audience roars)

---

Huh? Blanche doesn't react. Is she implying that Blanche takes cold showers?

Then there's this one:

Dorothy: Blanche, Steve called and canceled your date, didn't he?

Blanche: [voice quavering] Yes!

Rose: How did you know that, Dorothy?

Dorothy: I'm clairvoyant, Rose.

Rose: You're so lucky. I get into a pool and I sink like a stone.

....

What did Rose mix up with "clairvoyant"?

r61 Are you joking? (a) The joke is that she wrote the note on the mirror with her hand instead of on a sticky note like a normal person (b) buoyant

Thank you, r62, despite your cunty remark. Sometimes jokes go over our heads.

I don't understand when Blanche called Dorothy a slut. That would be like Blanche calling Dorothy attractive or well off financially.

There's this cool thing I do when I hear a name or something I'm not familiar with...in a post, or a TV show, or in a book...

I look it up on Google!

R61 - she mixes up clairvoyant with buoyant.

R61 the joke in your (A) scenario is also a dig at Dorothy's lack of a social/love life. Many lonely, depressed people take long, hot showers as a substitute for emotional warmth. Of course, that often leads to the mirror getting fogged up, which is how Rose wrote her message to Dorothy. But the joke was not necessarily her writing the note on the mirror but this: "(Yours) was the only one with enough steam."

In my last sentence, I meant the PUNCHLINE was not her writing on the mirror...

R65 is Frieda Claxton

When Dorothy says, "I hate the taste of New Coke" or when Dorothy says "Jimmy Stewart is coming down a waterfall" or when Dorothy says "The PLO is extreme," why that's racist and Dorothy isn't a racist, if so then why can't she go to Mortimer's Club?

R70 I don't understand what you're asking, exactly?

No, R70, what's racist is supporting the PLO.

[quote]When Dorothy says, "I hate the taste of New Coke"

She doesn't. She says that Rose is upset because they keep changing the taste of Coke. In 1985, the same year the show/episode debuted, Coca-Cola altered their classic formula to create New Coke, which flopped with the masses. The old formula was quickly reinstated and renamed Coca-Cola Classic.

[quote]or when Dorothy says "The PLO is extreme,"

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was a terrorist group. How is it racist to say they're extreme? Most terrorists are.

She was comparing it to the extremes of Elvis fandom. Ever notice how almost every single sitcom on the air in 1988 did an Elvis-related story or gag?

R74 I think 'cause he hadn't been dead for a decade yet and sightings of him were still novel. I think DESIGNING WOMEN also did one. Didn't they meet an Elvis impersonator who they suspected was the real thing?

Designing Women did a bit about Elvis and how it wasn't weird to love him so extremely because Elvis was a tender loving person and that people who were extreme about him were merely cherishing memories surrounding him.

R74 did ROSEANNE do an Elvis storyline? I can't recall, off-hand. But she's a big Elvis fan. She even made that movie THE WOMAN WHO LOVED ELVIS.

No, R77 but there was a joke in the episode where she throws her back out asking Jackie to get some tabloids so she can keep tabs on him.

It wasn't just them. [italic]Married With Children[/italic] and [italic]ALF[/italic] did Elvis-themed episodes in 1988, too. Even [italic]Newhart[/italic] sent Larry, Darryl and Darryl to Graceland.

Elvis sightings were big in the '80s.

Jimmy the Greek was not a coach or owner. He was a pro gambler who was part of the cbs pregame show who would share his advice for wagering on the games.

He said on air that lack athletes were bigger, stronger and faster due to selective breeding by those in the slave trade.

That was 30 years ago!

As for Marcus Allen, he is much younger than OJ and was less successful in almost every way. I doubt he mentored OJ. If anything, it was probably the other way around.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Sophia's line about hoping she isn't carrying Steve Garvey's baby...

It was Jimmy Swagart not Stewart

I didn't know about the AMC Pacer, the biggest disappointment to hit the streets.

[quote]When Dorothy says, "I hate the taste of New Coke" or when Dorothy says "Jimmy Stewart is coming down a waterfall" or when Dorothy says "The PLO is extreme," why that's racist and Dorothy isn't a racist, if so then why can't she go to Mortimer's Club?

Are you sure it wasn't Jerry Falwell, coming down a water SLIDE?

R84 And here's the explanation behind that picture/story.

Blanche's confusion between "Lebanese" and "lesbian" is still a riot.

The "She's in the attic! She's in the attic" Anne Frank play joke they did is was so old at that point, I'm shocked they did it. I believe it was originally a Pia Zadora joke. (How bad an actress she was)

What threw me off was Rose saying "note". If she said that she left Dorothy a message, I would have gotten the joke about her leaving a message on her bathroom mirror. Note = paper (in my mind).

Re The Elvis jokes. I remember one of Murphy Brown's secretaries looked liked an older Elvis and one joke was how he was overheard to order fried chicken on the phone.

r86

That was a reused joke, I'm trying to think what other sitcom had it first.

R88 is English your first language? I'm not being a smartass, just asking 'cause note is any written message, paper or otherwise.

R87 George Burns claimed in his memoir that he starred in a movie with an actress of questionable talent who'd appeared on a production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, where the audience got so fed up, they announced to the Nazis where 'Anne Frank' was, the moment they entered the scene. He didn't name her, but whoever the story's about is bullshit, anyway, 'cause at no point during the play do you see Nazis on stage. When the Franks and Van Daans are discovered at the end, you only *hear* the sounds of the gestapo running up the stairs and banging on the door. Then everything goes black, and the story resumes in the present (c. 1945).

[quote] I didn't know about the AMC Pacer, the biggest disappointment to hit the streets.

Now you know.

I swear I read the lesbian/isn't Danny Thomas one joke in an Ann Landers or Dear Abby column growing up (early 80s before GG was produced). I've tried googling, but found nothing, yet I can't believe I'd make such an odd connection to newspaper advice columnists not known for their wit.

BLANCHE: In many ways, I feel just the way I felt when I was a virgin.

SOPHIA: You mean the feeling isn't going to last long?

BLANCHE: Are you implying I lost my virginity at an early age?

SOPHIA: I'm just saying your lucky Jack & Jill magazine didn't have a gossip column.

DOROTHY: Ma!!!

R95 What don't you understand?

R96 I figured it may have been a kid's magazine (like the Highlights I used to get as a child), but I don't get what Sophia meant by it not having a gossip column. What was offensive about that?

In the German-dubbed version, "Lebanese" became "Libyan" and "Danny Thomas" became "Gadaffi" (because nobody in Germany knows who Danny Thomas is).

PS: Lots of other US-specific references must have been changed as well, but this is the only one I can remember right now.

At least the GG dubbers never did what the dubbers of "Alf" did repeatedly - substitute the names of American celebrities with those of German ones, so you'd get an alien living with an American family name-checking some German TV host. So cringeworthy.

R98/R99 Are you German, or just residing there?

I'm German, r100.

R97 Because then Blanche's slutty behavior would've been the subject of the gossip column, of course!

R102 oh, that makes sense! Thanks for helping me solve a problem that's been plaguing me for nearly 20 years.

I don't understand when Dorothy asked Blanche why her son and Blanche's grandson looked exactly alike?

"Rose, you can't be fashion show chairman. Why, you thought Giorgio Armani was a puppet on Ed Sullivan..."

R42 Pat Robertson is still around. He hosts that fundie 700 Club Show on TV, where he makes his most ridiculous statements.. Usually, he's blaming some catastrophe (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes) on homosexuals and liberals. And he's always butting his nose in politics in defense of the Republicans/conservatives.

R105

Sophia tals of getting "exposure" for her own pasta branda and rattles off some famous chefs: Mama Celeste, Chef Boyardee, and "Chef Balducci", which garners the laugh.

Then says, about Balducci (don't know the spelling), "Ooohhh yeahhh. That was INDECENT exposure. He should've stuffed the cataloni in the traditional manner." [more laughs]

Who is this Balducci she's talking about? I've Googlwd to no avail. I may be spelling it wrong, too.

Balducci is just a family she knew back in Sicily. That's why Dorothy doesn't remember a Chef Balducci, because he wasn't on TV. Sophia got "television exposure" and "indecent exposure" confused.

The Balducci family is mentioned a few years later when Sophia's sister comes to visit from Sicily.

I'm just taken aback at how utterly stupid some of you all are. I mean seriously.

ESPECIALLY R97.

Thanks r109! That one has always flown over my head.

[quote]He should've stuffed the cataloni in the traditional manner."

I really hope you meant CANNELONI. I don't think Italians eat cats.

^ Yes, forgive me.

You know what I don't understand? I don't understand how a thermos can keep things both hot AND cold.

"I haven't felt this stupid since I thought William Conrad was one guy in a jacket and another guy in a pair of pants" - Rose in 'The Housekeeper' episode

r115 William Conrad, star of "Cannon," and "Jake and the Fatman" was quite large.

I never understood what Rose meant when she said "I drive a Gremlin for God's sake". Back when the show first aired, I thought Rose was referring to the movie "Gremlins".

Years later I found out that a Gremlin is a car manufactured by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1970-1978.

In case your Google is broken, I found this. It explains some of the GG references.

In the episode where Blanche and Sophia are swindled by a con man. The scene at the mall begins with Blanche and Sophia sitting down, sipping drinks through a straw. Then Sophia says, "I don't care what the salesgirl said, I looked good in that bathing suit! You know, sometimes I wish I did live in Brazil."

Didn't one of the girls mention Ish Kabbible or Pinkie Lee on an episode? I get that those were old time television references, but I don't really know who those people were.

r119 I'm pretty sure that Blanche said the first part about the bathing suit. Sophia's response was a reference to the fact that most Brazilians heavily trim their pubic hair (ever heard of a Brazilian wax?) Therefore, she was implying that Blanche's bush was probably peeking out from the swimsuit.

R121 Sophia said both sentences. Blanche didn't say anything until the con man approached them with the 'found' wallet a few moments later. She just smiled at Sophia's remarks. The audience laughed. Why?

r120 Pinky Lee a "baggy pants" comic who hosted an early kid's TV show.

Ish Kabibble

In the episode of Rose's birthday, Dorothy and Blanche are in the kitchen being catty to each other about who got Rose a better gift. Meanwhile, a gentleman friend is still in Blanche's bedroom.

Dorothy says, "There's a man leaving in 10 minutes. Be under him."

What does it mean?

R125 I think she was telling her to go fuck him (i.e., quickie) before he departs.

The weirdest part of that entire episode is that "Kendall Nesbitt" is the name of a major character from the forgotten but once exceptionally popular musical Ira Gershwin-Kurt Weill "Lady in the Dark."

You all slipped through the cracks of the St. Olaf school system.

It's a clumsy way of saying "fuck off," R125. Blanche under the guy = Blanche fucking the guy, as he's leaving. They would be fucking off together.

Old comment I know, but Ish Kabibble was mentioned a few times on "MASH" (and apparently in some 1980s cartoons like "Scooby Doo") so the reference wouldn't have been obscure back then.

Thanks r129! It is indeed an awkward line.

R125, isn't that a movie line? Something like, "There's a train in 10 minutes. Be on it."

I'm going to google.

One of my favorite lines is Dorothy telling a story that goes something like, "Aren't you going to tell us about a duck that married a bull. They had a bulldagger who now runs a tattoo parlor." And the KNOWING look she gives the camera!

[quote] Designing Women did a bit about Elvis and how it wasn't weird to love him so extremely because Elvis was a tender loving person and that people who were extreme about him were merely cherishing memories surrounding him.

This was a surprisingly touching episode.

Shoot--I can't remember! I feel like it was in a Humphrey Bogart movie.

R67 is really reaching. The audience laughter that followed that joke had nothing to do with anything so convoluted, I promise. Everyone likes long, hot showers. It was the visual of goofy Rose hurriedly scrawling a note with her finger on a steamy bathroom mirror instead of using pen and paper like a normal person. Just another "Rose did/said something dumb" joke, of which there were thousands.

And more specifically, the humor is that Rose asked them if they had seen the note that she had written in steam condensation which would dry up quickly and disappear.

But when Rose tells Dorothy that she wrote the note on Dorothy's bathroom mirror because it had "the most steam" was also a dig at Dorothy's pathetic, single life, since it has clinically been proven that lonely people take the most and longest hot showers.

[quote]Yale psychologist John Bargh, PhD, conducted many studies that showed lonely people take longer and hotter showers. Actually, according to his results, the lonelier the person, the longer the shower and the hotter their preferred temperature.

[quote]In a recent study published in the journal Emotion, researchers at Yale University discovered that people who take frequent long, hot showers or baths tend to be lonelier than people who spend less time bathing and like cooler water. Apparently, scientists have known for a little while that feelings of social warmth or coldness can be induced by experiences of physical warmth or coldness, and vice versa.

I agree with r134 that the "depressed lonely people take long hot showers" angle of this comedic line is reaching, as this is probably not well known amongst the general population, not to mention in the late 80s, and posting fluffy articles from third rate "health" zines only prove how desperately you reach.

R139 yeah, well, you have a big behind.

^ Very good then. You've redeemed yourself with that one.

When Blanche says something like, "Speaking as a former cheerleader and ex-bad girl in a health film..." What's the latter?

I'm with the poster who said that some of you are too stupid to live. Christ, even if you don't know the exact reference, it can still be figured out.. WTF do you think a health film is, R142?

R143 Well, that was just plain rude!

I'm sorry, I don't know what a health film is, but I'm going to guess it's film about how to eat/be healthy shown to teenagers? But then how does the ex-bad girl thing figure in?

"Health film" is kind of a euphemism for the instructional videos shows in health education classes -- in this case, I'm assuming it refers to ones that covered subjects like venereal diseases and the like. Also can refer to movies shown to servicemen.

Blanche isn't just a slut in real life, she played one in a movie too!

[quote]and posting fluffy articles from third rate "health" zines only prove how desperately you reach.

Designing Women actually did whole episodes centered around controversial newspaper and magazine articles of the time.

R147 missing the point as usual. R143 and others on here are right.

The OP doesn't "get" what happens to the world when you shut the drapes.

The one joke I remember having to look up was in the episode where Sophia tells Dorothy that she might be pregnant. I never understood Dorothy's response ("What happened? Did the rabbit die laughing?").

In my defense I am a gay man and have never needed to know about how women take pregnancy tests, so the reference was lost on me.