All Episodes Talk: Picture It. PTer. Today.

[link417]

18 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

I’m sorry-it may be legal to keep the bonds. But it’s unethical, and a really really crappy way to treat someone you claim is one of your best friends.  Blanche certainly wouldn’t have been ok with Rose keeping it if the roles were reversed. Of course Blanche didn’t have a problem with giving any Rose’s Fernando.  The way these best friends treated each other - who needed enemies

I would agree that it was unethical if Rose hadn’t gone and said no take-backs. If it was just a simple transaction, then yes, I would agree that a split would be fair between friends, but Rose just had to add that caveat. That makes it on her, in my opinion.

Though maybe I would feel differently if it were *my* $25k in savings bonds, LOL.

[Mabinogia]

I think that Rose did give up all claim to the bonds however, I also think, as friends, Blanche should have split the money. It was clear Rose didn't know it was there and didn't mean to give it away and she's your friend. But then these "friends" were often pretty shitty to one another so I wouldn't expect Blanche to do the honorable thing. 

[chessiegal]

I just saw the series finale for the first time today. I had no idea how it ended.

[Ria]

Why was Dorothy a substitute teacher for apparently most (or all) of her career? She loved teaching and was happiest with long term assignments. She complained when all she had to do for a day is set up traffic cones or babysit a class for a day. So why did she never apply for a full time position? In my state substitute teachers are usually unemployed moms or retired people looking to make a few dollars. They aren’t real teachers. 

She was actually the only one not to advance in her career during the series. Rose ended up an associate producer (a stretch IMO, Mary Tyler Moore she was not) and even Blanche went from giving directions at the museum to be the assistant to the Director and planning exhibits. 

[mythoughtis]

2 hours ago, Ria said:

Why was Dorothy a substitute teacher for apparently most (or all) of her career? She loved teaching and was happiest with long term assignments. She complained when all she had to do for a day is set up traffic cones or babysit a class for a day. So why did she never apply for a full time position? In my state substitute teachers are usually unemployed moms or retired people looking to make a few dollars. They aren’t real teachers. 

She was actually the only one not to advance in her career during the series. Rose ended up an associate producer (a stretch IMO, Mary Tyler Moore she was not) and even Blanche went from giving directions at the museum to be the assistant to the Director and planning exhibits. 

Possibly these things: 

She was her mother’s ‘caregiver’.  When the show started, Sophia was in a nursing home after a stroke.  There may have been periods of time that Dorothy needed to have a flexible schedule for Sophias’ needs, appointments, etc. even after Sophia ‘recovered’. 

Then Dorothy got chronic fatigue syndrome. A substitute teaching schedule might work better for that. 

I can’t  remember the teaching job market from back then. I’m a younger baby boomer and graduated high school in the 70s. Fewer teachers might have been needed at that point in time due to fewer students. 

Edited November 4, 2018 by mythoughtis

[Snow Apple]

It sounds like she was always a substitute teacher though, even when she was younger and married to Stan. In the episode where she met a former student who became a video game mogul, she mentioned that she was able to teach his class for an entire semester (I think).

With Stan's spotty work history and her love for teaching, why didn't she apply for a full time position once her kids were old enough for school? She didn't need to take care of Sophia back then.

[scarynikki12]

It was inconsistent.  Sometimes it seemed like she'd been a sub only since she moved to Miami while other times it seemed like she'd always been a sub.  If she was meant to have been a sub her entire career it could be explained best by Katherine just before she married Stan when she repeated his description of Dorothy: "cooked, cleaned, raised two kids, has never looked better, and now she has a career".  If Dorothy did spend most of her married life focusing on cooking, cleaning, and raising the kids then she probably didn't have any time to do any full-time teaching.  Personally, I hate that scenario since we knew Dorothy had wanted to be a teacher since she was young and managed to go to college despite getting pregnant in high school so I'd hate for her not to be able to actually do it regularly.  I just tell myself that Dorothy had a career teaching high school English in Brooklyn and she switched to subbing when she moved to Miami.  I leave it there so I don't drive myself crazy.

[Josette]

But Dorothy was teaching when she bet against Michael's Little League team.  She knew the star player had detention, since she gave it to him.

[MoistestCake]

Rose hadn't travelled much, she has been to St Gustav and Tyler's Landing (I think) and she and Charlie splashed out on a trip to Chicago on their anniversary. She'd not even been to NYC until she went with Dorothy. So I can't believe she has been to Spain, and specifically Valencia, which she claims in the episode where they raise the minks. It's not impossible. But it doesn't fit. 

[Gothish520]

On 11/4/2018 at 2:56 PM, Snow Apple said:

It sounds like she was always a substitute teacher though, even when she was younger and married to Stan. In the episode where she met a former student who became a video game mogul, she mentioned that she was able to teach his class for an entire semester (I think).

With Stan's spotty work history and her love for teaching, why didn't she apply for a full time position once her kids were old enough for school? She didn't need to take care of Sophia back then.

On 11/4/2018 at 3:16 PM, scarynikki12 said:

It was inconsistent.  Sometimes it seemed like she'd been a sub only since she moved to Miami while other times it seemed like she'd always been a sub.  If she was meant to have been a sub her entire career it could be explained best by Katherine just before she married Stan when she repeated his description of Dorothy: "cooked, cleaned, raised two kids, has never looked better, and now she has a career".  If Dorothy did spend most of her married life focusing on cooking, cleaning, and raising the kids then she probably didn't have any time to do any full-time teaching.  Personally, I hate that scenario since we knew Dorothy had wanted to be a teacher since she was young and managed to go to college despite getting pregnant in high school so I'd hate for her not to be able to actually do it regularly.  I just tell myself that Dorothy had a career teaching high school English in Brooklyn and she switched to subbing when she moved to Miami.  I leave it there so I don't drive myself crazy.

On 11/10/2018 at 11:19 AM, Josette said:

But Dorothy was teaching when she bet against Michael's Little League team.  She knew the star player had detention, since she gave it to him.

I think being a sub probably worked out great for Dorothy, once she got her degree while also raising two kids and dealing with Stan as her husband! She most likely had a few extended sub jobs. She did mention a few times that she had taught/was teaching the same class for an entire semester: two in the past that @Snow Apple and @Josette mentioned, and at least one current one, when she was going to fail the star football player. Not sure if that's the same class when Blanche said that she was only the sub and her job was just to make sure the kids didn't burn down the school (love that line, lol!). If that line is from a different episode, then that's at least two current semester-long jobs.

[Ria]

1 hour ago, Gothish520 said:

I think being a sub probably worked out great for Dorothy, once she got her degree while also raising two kids and dealing with Stan as her husband! She most likely had a few extended sub jobs. She did mention a few times that she had taught/was teaching the same class for an entire semester: two in the past that @Snow Apple and @Josette mentioned, and at least one current one, when she was going to fail the star football player. Not sure if that's the same class when Blanche said that she was only the sub and her job was just to make sure the kids didn't burn down the school (love that line, lol!). If that line is from a different episode, then that's at least two current semester-long jobs.

I thought she and Stan were often short of money? There’s a huge salary and benefit difference between subbing and being a full time teacher. I’m watching the episode now where she can’t even come up with $2,500 for the IRS and doesn’t even qualify for a loan, probably because of low and/or irregular income. It just makes no sense. Why would a woman with a degree and years of experience only sub for a few dollars an hour and stay broke her entire life? 

I just saw the Sven episode. How did Olga get to Miami so fast? Didn’t Rose just talked to her cousin in St. Olaf and explain the situation that morning? It took days for the girls to get to St. Olaf from Miami for Rose’s woman of the year award. 

[Miss Chevious]

1 hour ago, Ria said:

 

I just saw the Sven episode. How did Olga get to Miami so fast? Didn’t Rose just talked to her cousin in St. Olaf and explain the situation that morning? It took days for the girls to get to St. Olaf from Miami for Rose’s woman of the year award. 

Direct flights from Minneapolis to Miami take about 3 hours and 35 min, so Olga could’ve made it to their door by 10:30 or 11:00. Rose could’ve called her cousin at 5AM. Farmers get up early in the morning. 

Crazy but not outside the realm of possibility. 

[Gothish520]

2 hours ago, Ria said:

I thought she and Stan were often short of money? There’s a huge salary and benefit difference between subbing and being a full time teacher. I’m watching the episode now where she can’t even come up with $2,500 for the IRS and doesn’t even qualify for a loan, probably because of low and/or irregular income. It just makes no sense. Why would a woman with a degree and years of experience only sub for a few dollars an hour and stay broke her entire life? 

Not for her entire life, no, but definitely while she was raising the kids, which would have been when, the 40s? 50s? 60s? We all know the timelines don't match up for the kids and their ages LOL,  but it was not as common to have two parents working full-time jobs. It could also be that for many years she just couldn't get full-time work.

[MoistestCake]

On 18/11/2018 at 9:23 PM, Miss Chevious said:

Direct flights from Minneapolis to Miami take about 3 hours and 35 min, so Olga could’ve made it to their door by 10:30 or 11:00. Rose could’ve called her cousin at 5AM. Farmers get up early in the morning. 

Crazy but not outside the realm of possibility. 

But from St Olaf to Minneapolis she'd need to take the horse drawn cart, the train via Zumbro Tunnel (where she could have vanished) and then a flight from St Gustav. That takes 2-3 days. 

[mythoughtis]

32 minutes ago, MoistestCake said:

But from St Olaf to Minneapolis she'd need to take the horse drawn cart, the train via Zumbro Tunnel (where she could have vanished) and then a flight from St Gustav. That takes 2-3 days. 

Definitely have a train ride. Remember Rose meeting the woman at the depot the day before Mother’s Day? The escapee from the nursing home. 

Edited November 22, 2018 by mythoughtis

[ShadowSixx]

On 7/7/2018 at 10:49 AM, Mabinogia said:

That ep was on last night and yeah, they hired her to clean their house and she used the time to study for law school (I'm pretty sure it was law school). Um, no, sorry, I didn't hire you study I hired you to clean my freaking house! Mammy was awful as well. I don't remember the boxer though. Maybe that's a good thing. lol

I don't know why they felt the need to hire a housekeeper. (Bugs me about sitcoms when they hire a housekeeper, the house is never messy. So why exactly you need one?) The only time the house was messy was the Empty Nest episode. Other than that episode the house was clean and never hired another housekeeper. It always seemed that Sophia would do a majority of the housework while the rest of them were at work. In other episodes you see them sporadically doing housework like dusting, laundry, and dishes.

I know we got onto Mammy Watkins for ruining image of Big Daddy but now that I look back on it, Big Daddy wasn't a good southern gentleman either. Blanche told a story about acceptance and how Cathy Lee slept with Big Daddy as revenge on Blanche and how Big Daddy brought her mom a Cadillac Eldorado as an apology gift and Blanche called her parents trash. Not only Big Daddy having an affair with Mammy but slept with Blanche's "friend".  Always wondered what happened to his young wife Margaret. I wonder if Blanche got a big settlement after Big Daddy died.

I didn't like how the show was inconsistent on how Sophia & Sal met, too many stories from Sophia on how she ended up with Sal.

Edited November 22, 2018 by ShadowSixx

[MoistestCake]

Not only was the house tidy all the time, they hardly went to work, Blanche once complained about working her fingers to the bone 12 hours a week at the museum. Dorothy is a substitute teacher who has to wait for the phone to ring to see if she is working that day. So basically there's no need nor budget for a housekeeper. 

[MoistestCake]

23 hours ago, ShadowSixx said:

didn't like how the show was inconsistent on how Sophia & Sal met, too many stories from Sophia on how she ended up with Sal.

I never understood why he was Salvador rather than the Italian Salvatore. 

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

1 hour ago, MoistestCake said:

I never understood why he was Salvador rather than the Italian Salvatore. 

It was and he changed it to assimilate? Pure conjecture on my part. 

[MoistestCake]

1 hour ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

It was and he changed it to assimilate? Pure conjecture on my part

Or he was named Salvador despite being Sicilian, I guess his parents could have named him whatever they wanted even if not Italian. 

[MoistestCake]

The episode where Blanche is having a hot tub installed and the city inspector says she needs a permit and to make improvements to the house of at least $10000 so the girls can rent rooms. The house is large, each girl has a big room with maybe individual bathrooms, a lanai, garage, and kitchen table with 3 chairs. What improvements they'd need I can't see. Oh and they have a hot tub. 

[Ria]

On 12/3/2018 at 4:21 PM, MoistestCake said:

The episode where Blanche is having a hot tub installed and the city inspector says she needs a permit and to make improvements to the house of at least $10000 so the girls can rent rooms. The house is large, each girl has a big room with maybe individual bathrooms, a lanai, garage, and kitchen table with 3 chairs. What improvements they'd need I can't see. Oh and they have a hot tub. 

I always think the same thing. Although it is true town ordinances generally prohibit renting rooms in a one family house to more than one or two renters, that has nothing to do with improvements. It’s zoning. Neighbors living in a community of one family homes do not expect the house next door to be turned into a boarding house. 

[Bastet]

A Little Romance was on last night, and I laughed throughout as I always do, but I also have to grumble at how when Jonathan asks if they can have dinner to discuss something important, Rose assumes he’s going to propose marriage.  I don’t know how long they’ve known each other at work, but they've only been dating not quite a month.  Hell, they haven’t even slept together yet, but she thinks their relationship is serious enough he’s thinking marriage?!

[BigBingerBro]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

A Little Romance was on last night, and I laughed throughout as I always do, but I also have to grumble at how when Jonathan asks if they can have dinner to discuss something important, Rose assumes he’s going to propose marriage.  I don’t know how long they’ve known each other at work, but they've only been dating not quite a month.  Hell, they haven’t even slept together yet, but she thinks their relationship is serious enough he’s thinking marriage?!

She's also confident enough to accept a marriage proposal yet has no idea that he has a very strict jewish family.  Also, they insinuate that they haven't slept together when the waiter asks "How's the shrimp?" and she says "I'll never know".   Rose seemed pretty comfortable sleeping with her other boyfriends such as Arnie, Miles, Al Beatty, etc.  It's odd she'd think he'd be proposing marriage.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

Didn’t they all at one point or another jump or consider jumping into marriage within the space of a few weeks? Blanche in the pilot, and again with the millionaire with young kids, and a third time with Jake the caterer. Rose with Jonathan, and with Charlie’s fake war buddy from Boston. Sophia with Max, and finally Dorothy with Jerry Orbach, and again with Lucas in the finale. There might even be some more that I haven’t thought of. 

[Bastet]

Yep, it happened a lot.  It was ridiculous.  And one can argue, "Well, they're old; they're not exactly going to be on the five-year plan," but a) it's common for women in long-term marriages that end in death or divorce to stay single and b) even if they all were interested in marrying again, there's a world of happy medium between five years and five weeks (or less) of dating before marriage.

This series was the very definition of a situational comedy, so it's a real testament to the actors that I love it so; they made the characters and their friendships feel real overall, despite the many instances in which they were written as kinda awful.  But credit to the writers, too, despite my various plot complaints; the humor was occasionally sophomoric but often quite sharp.  And just the fact that a group of women, particularly older women, were given a wide variety of interests and activities other than romantic relationships with men is cause for celebration (it shouldn't be, since that's, you know, reality, but on TV - yep, cheers!).

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

Interestingly, despite what pop culture tries to convince us of, statistically, married men’s mental and physical health is overall better than single men’s, and the reverse is true for women. So, it’s not surprising that widowed and divorced men tend to remarry rather quickly, while widowed and divorced women stay single. I liked that 75% of the women on this show were single by the end. 

[link417]

3 hours ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

Interestingly, despite what pop culture tries to convince us of, statistically, married men’s mental and physical health is overall better than single men’s, and the reverse is true for women. So, it’s not surprising that widowed and divorced men tend to remarry rather quickly, while widowed and divorced women stay single.

Plus, all the cute guys are either married or popes.

[MoistestCake]

In "The Stan who Came to Dinner" (2x13) Blanche arranges a double date for her and Dorothy with 2 twins named Rob and Bob. Rob and Bob are both short for Robert, so both twins have the same name? 

[OpalNightstream]

Sophia moved from Italy when she was late teens/early 20s yet has no trace of an Italian accent.  Nor does her sister who I think was still in Italy. My mother came from Europe was she was younger than that and has an accent still. My neighbor came her when she was 18 from Sicily and def has an accent. 

[Bort]

16 hours ago, MoistestCake said:

In "The Stan who Came to Dinner" (2x13) Blanche arranges a double date for her and Dorothy with 2 twins named Rob and Bob. Rob and Bob are both short for Robert, so both twins have the same name? 

It’s not unheard of. George Foreman has five sons, all named George. There are two brothers who are baseball players, both named Rougned. Actually, I can think of another set of brothers in baseball, both named Victor.

[FormerMod-a1]

And sometimes people's legal names are the "short" names for longer names.  I know a Beth and Sue who have those as their actual names.  Their mom figured everyone will call them that anyway, so why give them longer names Elizabeth and Susan or Suzanne?  Their birth certificates have Beth and Sue.

[MoistestCake]

20 hours ago, kariyaki said:

It’s not unheard of. George Foreman has five sons, all named George. There are two brothers who are baseball players, both named Rougned. Actually, I can think of another set of brothers in baseball, both named Victor. 

At least one is Rob and one is Bob... 

[BookThief]

Can I just please complain about Hallmark? I'm so pissed that not only do they air Christmas movies for 3 months (displacing TGG) (and no offense to those who do like the movies) but this year they changed the time you can watch them to 12am so TGG never came back at all for me! They were always my show to watch while getting ready for bed. Now it's Home Improvement on LAFF (which isn't as hokey as I remembered it being, but it's NOT THE GOLDEN GIRLS, which is like my comfort food). So, screw you Hallmark! I assume they made this change knowing they'd get more viewers for their movies but it really sucks for those of us who were loyal to the previous schedule. /endrant

[chessiegal]

11 minutes ago, BookThief said:

Can I just please complain about Hallmark? I'm so pissed that not only do they air Christmas movies for 3 months (displacing TGG) (and no offense to those who do like the movies) but this year they changed the time you can watch them to 12am so TGG never came back at all for me! They were always my show to watch while getting ready for bed. Now it's Home Improvement on LAFF (which isn't as hokey as I remembered it being, but it's NOT THE GOLDEN GIRLS, which is like my comfort food). So, screw you Hallmark! I assume they made this change knowing they'd get more viewers for their movies but it really sucks for those of us who were loyal to the previous schedule. /endrant

I know you're talking about Hallmark. but I find GG on various channels just about every day - Logo, TVLand. I would record them and watch at bed time.

[BookThief]

9 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I know you're talking about Hallmark. but I find GG on various channels just about every day - Logo, TVLand. I would record them and watch at bed time.

I don't get LOGO, but more importantly, I can't watch recorded things on that TV. It was just nice to be able to turn on the TV and there they were. It's the end of an era.

[chessiegal]

9 hours ago, BookThief said:

I don't get LOGO, but more importantly, I can't watch recorded things on that TV. It was just nice to be able to turn on the TV and there they were. It's the end of an era.

That's a bummer. I'm still bitter about CBS in my market changing Decades to Start so I can't watch Newhart.

[Ria]

On 1/30/2019 at 7:44 AM, BookThief said:

I don't get LOGO, but more importantly, I can't watch recorded things on that TV. It was just nice to be able to turn on the TV and there they were. It's the end of an era.

 I can record them at least. But my bedtime routine was watching The Middle from 10:00-11:00 (I like the early seasons even if the last few years went downhill) and then TGG at 11:00 until I fell asleep. 12:00 is too late and The Middle is gone altogether. 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Ria

[link417]

Does anyone else think of The Two Merry Widows when they see this emoji, or is it just me? 👯‍♀️

[MoistestCake]

In the episode when uncle Angelo visits and Stan and Dorothy are pretending to still be married, how come Angelo didn't think it was odd that each nun, who was only there collecting for charity, has a room?

Edited February 21, 2019 by MoistestCake

[Ria]

2 hours ago, MoistestCake said:

In the episode when uncle Angelo visits and Stan and Dorothy are pretending to still be married, how come Angelo didn't think it was odd that each nun, who was only there collecting for charity, has a room?

I can’t remember if they mentioned having rooms. I thought it was an unnecessarily complicated lie though. Just say you’re friends who were in a Sound of Music rehearsal and got caught in the storm. No real nuns were outfits like that anymore. 

[scarynikki12]

Stan came into the kitchen and said that he heard on the radio that everyone in Miami was advised to stay where they were due to the hurricane.  Angelo probably either assumed that Sister Rose and Sister Blanche were given guest rooms or that's what Sophia told him off screen. 

[MoistestCake]

12 hours ago, Ria said:

I can’t remember if they mentioned having rooms. I thought it was an unnecessarily complicated lie though. Just say you’re friends who were in a Sound of Music rehearsal and got caught in the storm. No real nuns were outfits like that anymore. 

I don't think they discuss sleeping arrangements, but they were clearly not supposed to be living there, and they each have a room. Obviously the sleeping arrangements could have been discussed and the nuns shown their rooms off camera. 

There is another weird line, when Rose says she's never been thru a hurricane, Blanche says she has, and adds, do you remember sister Rose? But sister Rose wasn't there because she just said she's not experienced a storm. Of course she could reminding Rose of a story Blanche told her once about the storm. 

Over analysing? 

12 hours ago, Ria said:

Edited February 22, 2019 by MoistestCake

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

22 hours ago, link417 said:

Does anyone else think of The Two Merry Widows when they see this emoji, or is it just me? 👯‍♀️

I do now. 

[MoistestCake]

When they are at the museum for the De Kimmel (leaking roof episode) Rose mistakes 2 guys carrying glass thru the exhibition for being mimes. First of all the borders of the glass were clearly visible, and secondly why would they be doing that during the exhibition? Have they not heard of health and safety? 

And why does each girl have an auction sign? 1 between them would be much more logical, avoiding bidding against each other. But it was funny. 

Edited March 2, 2019 by MoistestCake

[BigBingerBro]

17 hours ago, MoistestCake said:

And why does each girl have an auction sign? 1 between them would be much more logical, avoiding bidding against each other. But it was funny. 

I'm sure it was done completely for the scene/joke,.  I've never been to one of those auctions, maybe everyone in the room is required to be registered with a number?   The other odd part was that the auctioneer seemed to know they were there as a group which made him question why they were bidding against each other.

[chessiegal]

I tuned into Logo to watch GG this afternoon and everyone looked so young and thin. Turns out the episodes are early Season 1.

[Ria]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

I tuned into Logo to watch GG this afternoon and everyone looked so young and thin. Turns out the episodes are early Season 1.

I actually think they looked better after the first season. They had way too much makeup on at first and Dorothy and Blanche both had very short old lady hair. Roses’s hair never changed (and I never cared for it much) but as the show went on Dorothy and Blanche had much more stylish hair and the makeup artist eased up on the heavy blush and eyeshadow.  

Edited March 5, 2019 by Ria

[MoistestCake]

On 3/3/2019 at 3:10 PM, BigBingerBro said:

I'm sure it was done completely for the scene/joke

And it's 1 of our all time favourites, but it's funnier than it is realistic. 

[ShadowSixx]

On 3/4/2019 at 6:20 PM, Ria said:

I actually think they looked better after the first season. They had way too much makeup on at first and Dorothy and Blanche both had very short old lady hair. Roses’s hair never changed (and I never cared for it much) but as the show went on Dorothy and Blanche had much more stylish hair and the makeup artist eased up on the heavy blush and eyeshadow.  

Yes especially Blanche in that horrible purple eyeshadow. It didn't look good on her at all. I appreciate the fact that Dorothy's clothes weren't scary in the 1st season. She dressed casual but wasn't distracting.

In the episode Sisters and Other Strangers, I love when Dorothy tells the Mrs. Doolittle story. I laugh all the time when she said Gloria made her doll look like a morphine addict because I keep picturing what that doll must look like.

Dorothy and the paper bird story was funny. Bea just knew how to sell it and love the way she said dead.