Favorite Episodes: You Take The Good

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, psychoticstate said:

n the Monica-cancer episode she got the diagnosis and it was cancer.  She and Blair discussed, kind of, her options with Blair saying they were more playmates than friends or mother-daughter.  

Huh. How’d I miss that?

1 hour ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Jo was ok, but I love it when she had to grovel to Blair when she was wrong (which was quite a bit).  It's funny, but Jo's disdain for wealthy people was never really touched on except in one episode where Jo liked a guy that ended up being wealthy and she was a jerk about it.  

I don’t recall any time Jo had to grovel. Be thankful grudgingly and made to look ridiculous because of her pride, was not willing to accept the Warner scholarship in the season three finale.

And Blair was more often wrong, snobby, shallow than Jo was in the wrong.

The issue of Jo’s disdain for the wealthy came up in the fifth season when she was elected Regent and played hardball with the college administration regarding money for the school instead of the scoreboard.

Edited June 24, 2018 by GHScorpiosRule

[psychoticstate]

The only time I didn't really agree with Jo was when she took Blair's watch without asking and broke it.  She was absolutely in the wrong and that was out of character for her.

[psychoticstate]

I really love the "Magnificent Obsession" episode, where Blair is obsessed with stupid Chad.  It was refreshing, I guess, to see Blair actually nervous over a guy and second-guessing everything (because we've all pretty much been there at one time or another.)  

I like that it was Jo that got a makeover in order to keep Blair's mind off him (and of course it was big mouthed Tootie who had to slip up and say something that had to do with Chad.)  I loved that it was Jo that sat up with Blair ("You are sooooo suspicious!") and they both hugged when they realized that it was past 7 am and Chad would be gone on the ski trip.  ("Jo!  Wake up!  We can go to sleep now!")  The two laughing and their reactions when the phone rang was gold.  Nancy McKeon always did the laughing and then deadpan seriousness excellently.   I do wish that Blair had told Chad off though - - even if it was just a "turn blue!" insult. 

[CeeBeeGee]

On 6/24/2018 at 5:50 PM, psychoticstate said:

.I had forgotten that Natalie had a sister!  I always thought of her as the only, adopted child of the Greens.  I am grateful the writers chose Natalie's character to be the one to lose her father rather than Tootie.  What an unmitigated whinefest that would have been.

Oh my God. The blood, it runs cold.

 

On 7/3/2018 at 11:55 AM, psychoticstate said:

I really love the "Magnificent Obsession" episode, where Blair is obsessed with stupid Chad.  It was refreshing, I guess, to see Blair actually nervous over a guy and second-guessing everything (because we've all pretty much been there at one time or another.)  

I like that it was Jo that got a makeover in order to keep Blair's mind off him (and of course it was big mouthed Tootie who had to slip up and say something that had to do with Chad.)  I loved that it was Jo that sat up with Blair ("You are sooooo suspicious!") and they both hugged when they realized that it was past 7 am and Chad would be gone on the ski trip.  ("Jo!  Wake up!  We can go to sleep now!")  The two laughing and their reactions when the phone rang was gold.  Nancy McKeon always did the laughing and then deadpan seriousness excellently.   I do wish that Blair had told Chad off though - - even if it was just a "turn blue!" insult. 

One of my absolute favorite episodes! Brilliantly acted and directed, especially that last long sequence between Blair and Jo. "I keep thinking 'If only I had said this, if only I had just done that.' I never knew there was so much wrong with me before Chad." "Maybe there wasn't--before Chad." And that last GREAT conversation: "I want to go. But I don't want to want to go." *stiffens resolve* "I don't want to go." It's episodes like this, where you can explore the complexity of these two girls' relationships--that though they are "rivals," they know each other deep-down and have each other's backs--that justify the show. In the '80s you simply didn't have shows like this.

 

ETA: I also loved the writing in that script. Mrs. Garrett saying "That doesn't sound like love--love is supposed to make you feel good" stayed with me as a teenager. (And I loved Charlotte Rae's hilarious take in the background when Chad first compliments Blair's long blonde hair and then says "maybe you should chop it all off. Rae's jaw dropped open, it was very funny.)

Edited July 6, 2018 by CeeBeeGee

[psychoticstate]

On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 10:01 AM, CeeBeeGee said:

Oh my God. The blood, it runs cold.

 

One of my absolute favorite episodes! Brilliantly acted and directed, especially that last long sequence between Blair and Jo. "I keep thinking 'If only I had said this, if only I had just done that.' I never knew there was so much wrong with me before Chad." "Maybe there wasn't--before Chad." And that last GREAT conversation: "I want to go. But I don't want to want to go." *stiffens resolve* "I don't want to go." It's episodes like this, where you can explore the complexity of these two girls' relationships--that though they are "rivals," they know each other deep-down and have each other's backs--that justify the show. In the '80s you simply didn't have shows like this.

 

ETA: I also loved the writing in that script. Mrs. Garrett saying "That doesn't sound like love--love is supposed to make you feel good" stayed with me as a teenager. (And I loved Charlotte Rae's hilarious take in the background when Chad first compliments Blair's long blonde hair and then says "maybe you should chop it all off. Rae's jaw dropped open, it was very funny.)

I read somewhere that FOL was the first show that starred only women.  Quite an accomplishment.  

You are right, @CeeBeeGee - - we didn't have many shows in the 80s that focused on female relationships and in a positive way.  I don't recall any other shows of the time that centered around girls and women.  I think that while show itself was a sitcom and more often than not, played for humor, it took big chances (for the times) by the subject matter.  What other show addressed drug use, bongs, the death of a parent, rape, teenage parenthood, teen suicide, teen prostitution, an incarcerated parent, a parent with cancer, a cousin with CP, the economy (when it affected Mrs. Garrett), drunk driving, a teacher dying, and, of course, first love?  Those are just the items I could quickly think of.  I'm sure there are more.  

That's part of why I love this show so much.  It reminds me of my teen years, yes.  But in the end, all four girls were solid friends, despite being incredibly different, and stuck up for each other.  They went through normal, everyday things that the rest of us were also going through - - and the writers could make fantastic episodes of it.