Worst of Golden Girls: Your Least Favorite Moments

[babyhouseman]

5 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

Right? There were:

Al the cop.

The lawyer played by Dick Van Dyke

The married guy. 

The guy in the episode where Sophia went with them on all their dates because she was lonely.

The Beatles guy who's only flaw was lack of talent.

The Rusty Anchor bar guys loved her singing.

And Blanche dreamed that Dorothy was awesome enough to get both Sonny Bono and Lyle Wagner 😄

I know there's more but can't remember off the top of my head.

Eddie the Love Machine

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

They'd have been hypocrites to hold Sophia accountable, since they made terrible remarks, too.  Well, at least Rose did; I think Dorothy may have refrained from stooping to that level.

Dorothy was the only one who treated Becky with respect throughout that episode, and she had to be restrained from going after the jerk fiancé when he made one too many cracks about her weight. She acted more like Becky’s mother than Blanche did. 

[Not4Me]

9 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

I always hate the fat jokes too. They keep making fun of Blanche for being overweight when she's the same size as the others. I also hate the ugly jokes aimed at Dorothy as the reason she can't get a man.  The thing is she can get men interested in her and most of them are good men too.

8 hours ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

Dorothy dated the foxiest of the silver foxes throughout the show’s run, and was the only Girl to remarry, suck it haters (whoever in the writer’s room decided “Dorothy is ugly” jokes were funny). 

6 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Yeah but quite a few of the “Dorothy is Not Attractive” jokes were actually funny.

3 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Sophia was pretty cruel to Ham Lushbaughm as well.

It’s funny because it’s not like I haven’t enjoyed a good joke where Dorothy or Sophia calls Blanche “fat” or someone makes a “Dorothy looks like a man joke” (and Bea sometimes would ham it up by exaggerating her masculine energy, for fun). I look at those instances more as bitchy humor, throwing one liner take downs at another, which kinda reminds me of the fun spirit of drag humor. 

That said I don’t feel comedy should be censored, everything is up for poking fun at. I think it all comes down to the nuance and delivery of the joke. Joan Rivers was insulting yet I loved her humor.

I think there was something about Sophia’s insults on Rebecca’s weight that didn’t sit well with me. They insults were unprovoked towards what seemed to be a sweet character whose only flaw was a really bad picker. The jokes felt base and just mean for me, almost like she was punching down.  But that was sitcom writing back then I guess.
 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

4 hours ago, Not4Me said:

I think there was something about Sophia’s insults on Rebecca’s weight that didn’t sit well with me. They insults were unprovoked towards what seemed to be a sweet character whose only flaw was a really bad picker. The jokes felt base and just mean for me, almost like she was punching down.  But that was sitcom writing back then I guess.

Probably because Rebecca wasn't really that fat, just overweight. You'd think from the way everybody reacted that she was the fattest person they'd ever seen, and Blanche likely contributed to it unwittingly by talking up how her daughter was a successful model who lived in New York.

[Bastet]

Open disgust of overweight people engaged in/treated casually by TV characters presented as good and admirable has lessened, but not abated, and in the '80s it was utterly disgusting.  I saw worse back then in terms of referring to a very typically overweight person as instead some sort of creature so large virtually no one can help but comment on their body fat (Designing Women's treatment of Mason was particularly egregious), but that first Becky episode is a horrible look for pretty much everyone but Dorothy.

Frank Fontana Jeremy is the worst, with Sophia (who does have the "no filter after her stroke" excuse for what she says, but what she thinks in the first place is still disgusting) close behind, but Becky's own mother responds to her saying she's happy by saying "Look at yourself; how could you be happy?"  No wonder Becky thinks she's not "a catch" so Jeremy is her last chance at having a husband and kids.  While Blanche is by the end totally disgusted by Jeremy and telling Becky she deserves better, she still ends by denying Becky cheesecake. 

[Not4Me]

And in the end it’s all for nothing, as Becky #1 magically disappears only to be recast several years later with Becky #2 with zero reference to her full-figured former self. Though I’m convinced the writers weren’t bothering to keep track of the number of the kids they had, much less their names.

[andromeda331]

Yeah, I hate that episode for those reasons. We're suppose to think Jeremy's the worse but everyone else except Dorothy was no better. They made just as many terrible jokes about Becky's weight. It's no surprised she ended with Jeremy if she hadn't been treated much better especially by Blanche. It's not really a surprise that Dorothy is the only one who didn't given all the insults she's endured about being ugly by her friends and especially her mother. She knows how that feels. Dorothy does call her mother when she learns Sophia sent her date away and left Dorothy to think she was stood up which did a number on her self confidence which lead her straight to Stan. Dorothy of course later takes it back because Sophia had good intentions but is it really any surprise Dorothy had self-confidence issues being raised by Sophia? Or a lifetime of putting up with Sophia she doesn't have much decades later? 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, Not4Me said:

And in the end it’s all for nothing, as Becky #1 magically disappears only to be recast several years later with Becky #2 with zero reference to her full-figured former self. Though I’m convinced the writers weren’t bothering to keep track of the number of the kids they had, much less their names.

Didn't they recast all of the adult children? I know that there were two actresses who played Becky, but Dorothy's daughter, the one who got married at the house, was also recast when she returned after her husband had an affair. I can't remember if they replaced any of Rose's kids or not, if the first rude one complaining about how there wasn't much money left was the same as the second rude one insulting the girls at the hospital when Rose had her health scare. Why were all their children so terrible?

[Snow Apple]

I think Dorothy's son was the only one played by the same actor throughout, but they sure didn't write his personality consistently.

[Bastet]

On 10/5/2022 at 9:45 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

I can't remember if they replaced any of Rose's kids or not, if the first rude one complaining about how there wasn't much money left was the same as the second rude one insulting the girls at the hospital when Rose had her health scare.

Yes, that was Kirsten both times, but different actors.  I'm too lazy to look up who played her in season one (the episode where Rose told her she'd frittered away most of the money Charlie left her) but when she came to the hospital in season seven, she was played by the fantastic Lee Garlington.

As noted, of the kids who appeared more than once* -- Dorothy's two kids, Blanche's daughter Becky, and Rose's daughter Kirsten -- only Michael Zbornak was played by the same actor each time.  (*Blanche's daughter Janet technically appeared twice, but that was in a two-part episode, so not the same as the others where the character appeared in an early season and then turned up again later.)

[One Tough Cookie]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:29 AM, Hiyo said:

faking his death

Don't you mean stained his desk?😂

[Cloud9Shopper]

Been watching on Hulu during the day since I’m unfortunately laid off right now and this is a good pick me up. I feel like seasons two and four have the most notable weak spots right now. S4 has “Brother Can You Spare a Jacket?” and the bad two parter with Max and Sophia getting married. (I never liked their very brief marriage…that whole decision made no sense.) S2 had the Empty Nest episode. I was only a kid when The Golden Girls were originally on anyway (I first saw it on Lifetime in the 2000s) so I just have no connection to or interest in Empty Nest. 

[WendyCR72]

On 12/28/2022 at 10:58 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

Been watching on Hulu during the day since I’m unfortunately laid off right now and this is a good pick me up. I feel like seasons two and four have the most notable weak spots right now. S4 has “Brother Can You Spare a Jacket?” and the bad two parter with Max and Sophia getting married. (I never liked their very brief marriage…that whole decision made no sense.) S2 had the Empty Nest episode. I was only a kid when The Golden Girls were originally on anyway (I first saw it on Lifetime in the 2000s) so I just have no connection to or interest in Empty Nest. 

The Empty Nest episode on this show seemed like a backdoor pilot. But the actual Empty Nest series had zip to do with George and Renee and evolved into a pediatrician, his two daughters (well, 3, but daughter #3 did not show up 'til the show was on its last gasp!), his co-workers, neighbor, and lovable dog (hey, I liked Dreyfuss!).

May still not be to your taste, which...cool! Just pointing out the Empty Nest episode in S2 had NOTHING to do with the actual series that happened minus the name.

[Bastet]

Yeah, the Empty Nest spin-off series was fun.  Nowhere near as memorable as GG, but a good entry in the typical sitcom genre.

Ugh, the two-parter with that stupid Sophia and Max storyline.  Thankfully, the very best part of the whole thing comes early in part one, so I can just stay for that and then peace out:

- Maybe you ought to join an organization that is a little less fanatical in its devotion [than the Elvis fan club Dorothy was kicked out of for making a joke about his eating habits].
- Like what, Blanche, the PLO?

[mmecorday]

It's also a treat to see pre-stardom Quentin Terantino as one of the Elvises (Elvi?) in that episode. 

[Mrs. Hanson]

On 10/5/2022 at 11:17 PM, Bastet said:

(Designing Women's treatment of Mason was particularly egregious)

Thank you - first off I liked Mason and he wasn't that big!

 

On 12/30/2022 at 1:42 PM, Bastet said:

Ugh, the two-parter with that stupid Sophia and Max storyline.

You are not alone in that opinion.  Max was a rude houseguest, too.

He said making love as that is his favorite, you know.

[Eri]

On 4/10/2023 at 12:27 PM, Mrs. Hanson said:

He said making love as that is his favorite, you know.

I think you are confusing Max with Eddie the Love Machine (even Sophia jumped him 😂)

[Not4Me]

On 12/30/2022 at 2:42 PM, Bastet said:

Ugh, the two-parter with that stupid Sophia and Max storyline.  Thankfully, the very best part of the whole thing comes early in part one, so I can just stay for that and then peace out:

Also agree, such a dip in quality from a single episode. I ignore part two and pretend part one was just a fever dream.

[truthaboutluv]

On 12/30/2022 at 3:37 AM, WendyCR72 said:

The Empty Nest episode on this show seemed like a backdoor pilot. But the actual Empty Nest series had zip to do with George and Renee and evolved into a pediatrician, his two daughters (well, 3, but daughter #3 did not show up 'til the show was on its last gasp!), his co-workers, neighbor, and lovable dog (hey, I liked Dreyfuss!).

May still not be to your taste, which...cool! Just pointing out the Empty Nest episode in S2 had NOTHING to do with the actual series that happened minus the name.

And what’s funny is that we never saw or heard of Renee and George again but saw and heard about Harry and Dreyfus multiple times throughout the seasons.