Thank You For Being A Friend Of Dorothy...Dorothy

[Primetimer]

The Golden Girls took on gay marriage 25 years ago, and it was astonishingly sweet, funny, and modern.

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[AndySmith]

The show may not have been as overly political as other shows of the era, but it did tackle many issues during it's seven year run. In addition to this, the show covered many topics like ageism, sexism, AIDS, homelessness, assisted suicide, single mothers, etc. Some episodes were done better than others, with this episode being a good example of when things were done well (the episode about homelessness, not so much). Granted, even without all the special topics addressed, the fact this was a show about four women of a certain age who still thought about their careers and still had active and healthy social and sex lives still makes it rather groundbreaking...especially since pop culture seems so obsessed with youth.

Quote

maybe Blanche couldn't bear to be around a man who wasn't attracted to her

Blanche couldn't bear to be around a woman who wasn't attracted to her. The show did an earlier episode where one of Dorothy's old friends, who is gay, comes to visit and develops a crush on Rose. And as a sign of how progressive the show was, none of the four women had any issues with Jean's (that was her name) sexuality. Yeah, Blanche gets jealous that someone, even a lebanese...er, sorry, lesbian, finds Rose more attractive, but none of the women judge Jean, they're all accepting of her.

And of course, it did give us this awesome scene:

[adam807]

Yes! I forgot about Jean!

Do you know how badly chopped the reruns on Hallmark or We or whatever are? I clearly need to set a season pass and do a full rewatch. If they're butchered I can buy them on Amazon or iTunes, but with 7 seasons that gets pricey!

[TeeVee329]

All I can say is that I can't remember what network it was, but one of my favorite exchanges was ruined by a reedit.  It's a later season episode where Rose is getting fed up with Miles being frugal.  She calls him "tight" and Blanche goes off on a horny revere about liking tight muscles on a man or something.  But when Rose corrects her, this happens:

Rose: I mean with money, he's cheap!

Blanche: Oh, tight with money, dump him.

She doesn't hesitate even a fraction of a second in telling Rose to drop him and Rue's delivery of the line is so fabulous.  But whatever network I was rewatching this episode on cut out that part of the exchange.  Boo!

[FormerMod-a1]

14 minutes ago, adam807 said:

Do you know how badly chopped the reruns on Hallmark or We or whatever are? I clearly need to set a season pass and do a full rewatch. If they're butchered I can buy them on Amazon or iTunes, but with 7 seasons that gets pricey!

They are very chopped, but each network chops them up differently.  Between TV Land, Hallmark and Logo (I feel like I'm missing a network that sometimes shows them) you might be able to see a full episode based on the different things they cut.  But then you'd be watching each ep 3 times, and with the different schedules on the networks that might be tough to coordinate.  :-D

[adam807]

Ha! Sounds like it might be worth the investment on Amazon then.

[greekmom]

One of the better episodes. Surprises me how much character change from season 1 episode 1.  At the beginning it was Blanche that seemed tolerate as she had a gay cook named Coco and had no issues with him.  Meanwhile Sophia was calling him the funny man or something of the sort.  Loved the way GG handled the tough issues.

[FormerMod-a1]

I agree.  There are only 2 instances where I don't like how they did it.  Brother, Can You Spare a Jacket - it was just so heavy handed, even for a VSE, and un-GG-like, I thought.  And Empty Nest, which was really a backdoor pilot, so it would be expected to not focus on the girls, but I still didn't like it.  Mary Had a Little Lamb comes in a close third, but it's mostly good.  

[AndySmith]

Yeah, but Coco never existed or something, so it doesn't really count ;)

To be fair, though, quite a few people who are progressive when it comes to things like gay people, interracial relationships, inter-religious relationships, etc, aren't always that progressive when it comes home...in some ways, Blanche's reaction could be seen as somewhat more realistic. 

Edited June 2, 2016 by AndySmith

[Bastet]

Quote

At the beginning it was Blanche that seemed tolerate as she had a gay cook named Coco and had no issues with him.  Meanwhile Sophia was calling him the funny man or something of the sort.

Fancy man.  Sophia's way of referring to him was part of the exposition that she'd had a stroke which destroyed the part of her brain that censors what she says:  Sophia asks if she can get something to eat, "or is the fancy man in the kitchen?" Rose exclaims, "The way she talks!" and Blanche explains about the stroke.

Sophia calls him "the fancy man" again later, but it's to explain she's going to the dog track with him so she didn't have a problem being around him.  She also says he's an "okay petunia" or something like that.

And, of course, that was the last we saw of Coco; he was only in the pilot.

[Temperance]

I've seen the show, but not this episode. It seems like today that yes there would be more points of view particularly from Rose and Sophia. I will look for the episode.
When talking about gay cops on tv, Will's longtime partner and eventual husband Vince was a cop on Will & Grace.

[legaleagle53]

20 hours ago, AndySmith said:

Yeah, but Coco never existed or something, so it doesn't really count ;)

To be fair, though, quite a few people who are progressive when it comes to things like gay people, interracial relationships, inter-religious relationships, etc, aren't always that progressive when it comes home...in some ways, Blanche's reaction could be seen as somewhat more realistic. 

Oh, he existed, but only in the pilot.  It was one of those common un-accounted for changes that so often take place between the pilot and the show after the pilot has been picked up.  Remember that continuity wasn't considered as big a deal back then as it is today (with this show in general being "Exhibit A").

As I recall, Coco was dropped because he was considered redundant, since four snarky, witty women already lived there and the focus of the show was supposed to be on them.

[AndySmith]

Oh I know all that, hence I made the joke about him never existing to begin with...

And, yes he was dropped for being redundant, as Sophia was only supposed to be a recurring character.

[Miss Chevious]

Plus the audience reaction to the character of Sophia was very favorable, so they made her more a part of the show, in effect casting out Coco.

[lightbeam]

The show may not have been as overly political as other shows of the era, but it did tackle many issues during it's seven year run. In addition to this, the show covered many topics like ageism, sexism, AIDS, homelessness, assisted suicide, single mothers, etc. Some episodes were done better than others, with this episode being a good example of when things were done well (the episode about homelessness, not so much). Granted, even without all the special topics addressed, the fact this was a show about four women of a certain age who still thought about their careers and still had active and healthy social and sex lives still makes it rather groundbreaking...especially since pop culture seems so obsessed with youth.

  Quote

maybe Blanche couldn't bear to be around a man who wasn't attracted to her

Blanche couldn't bear to be around a woman who wasn't attracted to her. The show did an earlier episode where one of Dorothy's old friends, who is gay, comes to visit and develops a crush on Rose. And as a sign of how progressive the show was, none of the four women had any issues with Jean's (that was her name) sexuality. Yeah, Blanche gets jealous that someone, even a lebanese...er, sorry, lesbian, finds Rose more attractive, but none of the women judge Jean, they're all accepting of her.

And of course, it did give us this awesome scene:

Haha, one of the best GG scenes ever.

[La Traviata]

This show was so far ahead of its time.  I'll never get tired of the reruns.