All Episodes Talk: Picture It. PTer. Today.

[BigBingerBro]

Those childhood stories, exaggerated or not, really made pre-stoke Sophia out to be a horrible mother.  People often mention that the "I went to buy a nectarine" episode is a favorite, I actually hate it.  First Sophia nearly stages a riot in the supermarket over their return policy.  I would have called the cops.   Then she conducts the old lady charity band in the park.  She basically just bitchily encourages them to keep playing.  Then she volunteers at the hospital and gives away all the flowers for other patients to the one lonely lady.  The sweet part with her and the young boy is good, but that kid didn't seem overly sick nor scared to begin with.  Meanwhile, Dorothy apparently has no clue she's doing all of this.  Sure....

[MoistestCake]

2 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Meanwhile, Dorothy apparently has no clue she's doing all of this.  Sure....

Especially when she apparently does the same everyday. 

[Giuseppe]

3 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

 People often mention that the "I went to buy a nectarine" episode is a favorite, I actually hate it.  First Sophia nearly stages a riot in the supermarket over their return policy.  I would have called the cops.   Then she conducts the old lady charity band in the park.  She basically just bitchily encourages them to keep playing.  Then she volunteers at the hospital and gives away all the flowers for other patients to the one lonely lady.  The sweet part with her and the young boy is good, but that kid didn't seem overly sick nor scared to begin with.  Meanwhile, Dorothy apparently has no clue she's doing all of this.  Sure....

It also makes no sense that nobody questions why it takes all day for Sophia to buy a nectarine. Ok, maybe they don't take her literally as that being the only thing she does and its just understood that she's out being a busy-body, but it still kinda irks me.

And I dislike the old lady band part, too. So Sophia's job is just to be the conductor? With an umbrella? Makes no sense...the other women could play just fine without her. I wish they'd have had her playing an instrument or dancing an Italian jig or something.

[MoistestCake]

2 hours ago, Giuseppe said:

It also makes no sense that nobody questions why it takes all day for Sophia to buy a nectarine. Ok, maybe they don't take her literally as that being the only thing she does and its just understood that she's out being a busy-body, but it still kinda irks me.

Especially since they're talking about her being so inactive compared to her own mother. Even if they don't have the details surely being out all day makes her very active, it does in my book. 

[Madding crowd]

And since Sophia didn’t drive she must have taken buses or cabs for her all day activities. Dorothy questions her when she is up too late at night, I never believed she would let her mother be gone all day without knowing where she was.

[BigBingerBro]

I think Rose questions why Sophia isn't home yet at some point and Dorothy just blows her off.  

[Ria]

1 hour ago, Madding crowd said:

And since Sophia didn’t drive she must have taken buses or cabs for her all day activities. Dorothy questions her when she is up too late at night, I never believed she would let her mother be gone all day without knowing where she was.

Especially since at other times Sophia is depicted as forgetful about people and places, getting on wrong buses, buying a boxer at a bus station and trying to go to Temple on a Tuesday night. In the days before cell phones, it’s hard to believe Dorothy wouldn’t insist on knowing exactly where Sophia was going and when to expect her back. 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Ria

[ShadowSixx]

Especially since Dorothy doesn't allow Sophia to do much of anything. Didn't want Sophia to go back to Italy w/Augustine, didn't want her having a job at Seafood Shanty, didn't want her to get a driver's license, or sleep with Tony, and always questioning Sophia when she gets up late at night. 

Odd seeing as how Dorothy doesn't want Sophia to strain herself but in the episode with Nurse DeFarge Dorothy says she makes Sophia do things cause she wants her to remain active and vital and not settle into old age. More like she wants Sophia to do what she wants and not Sophia do what she wants, but I do understand not wanting Sophia to drive. 

Nectarine episode is boring but we seen Sophia can be active and not tire herself out to the point where she has to tone it down.

[MoistestCake]

And that nectarine episode has the gem about Dorothy being 6 when her grandma was 94, and Sophia was about 36 at the time, meaning granny gave birth to Sophia when she was 60ish. She should have got the national enquirer to pay for it. 

[Josette]

On 3/9/2019 at 8:40 AM, BigBingerBro said:

 People often mention that the "I went to buy a nectarine" episode is a favorite, I actually hate it. ...

The sweet part with her and the young boy is good, but that kid didn't seem overly sick nor scared to begin with.  Meanwhile, Dorothy apparently has no clue she's doing all of this.  Sure....

 I only like the parts with the other ladies wasting the whole day.

Regarding the little boy:  The character was HIV-positive which was pretty much a death sentence at the time.

[BigBingerBro]

5 hours ago, Josette said:

 I only like the parts with the other ladies wasting the whole day.

Regarding the little boy:  The character was HIV-positive which was pretty much a death sentence at the time.

Huh?  I don't recall anything being said about him being HIV+??!!?

[Bastet]

When Sophia tells him he has to eat, he says it doesn't matter.  "Once they goofed up my blood with that transfusion, there wasn't anything anyone could do.  No one's ever beat it, Sophia."

(And she says, "But someday they will, and it could be tomorrow, and it could be you.  I believe that and you're gonna believe that, because right now, today, that's all we've got - hope.)

[CousinOliver]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

When Sophia tells him he has to eat, he says it doesn't matter.  "Once they goofed up my blood with that transfusion, there wasn't anything anyone could do.  No one's ever beat it, Sophia."

(And she says, "But someday they will, and it could be tomorrow, and it could be you.  I believe that and you're gonna believe that, because right now, today, that's all we've got - hope.)

I’ve complained about this before, but this scene is often edited out.  It’s kind of crucial to the whole point of her buying the nectarine.  

[MoistestCake]

4 hours ago, BigBingerBro said:

Huh?  I don't recall anything being said about him being HIV+??!!?

I'm sure there are a number of other diseases that can be transfused and didn't or still don't have useful treatment or a cure. But I too thought hiv in this scene. 

[BigBingerBro]

I've seen that episode dozens of time and it must be one one the scenes cut.  Now that you explain the dialog that refers to a blood transfusion, I totally get it.

[MoistestCake]

In the episode when Rose is stressed about work, she's testing 2 light bulbs and she closes her eyes for a few seconds and both bulbs 💡 💡 go out within seconds of each other and when Rose opens her eyes they're both out and she doesn't know which went out first. She's upset, but surely she realises they essentially went out at the same time and are both of the same quality for the consumers. 

[MoistestCake]

In the episode where Blanche hires a Mercedes to attract men, one of the guys is actually going to take Dorothy out *later* that evening, and pick her up at 8. Blanche offers her the Mercedes as a gesture, and then calls the police to report it stolen. But - he's picking Dorothy up and driving his car and Dorothy is still at home for hours still, so Blanche reported her to the police much too early for her revenge scheme. 

[Snow Apple]

In the episode where Sophia dates Tony(?), she got upset with him when she told him that she loves him and he didn't say it back. She told the girls that if he calls, to tell him she fainted. The audience gets hysterical. Did I keep missing an earlier joke that set up such a reaction for that line, or did they cut out something in syndication?

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

She told the girls that if he calls, to tell him she fainted. The audience gets hysterical. Did I keep missing an earlier joke that set up such a reaction for that line, or did they cut out something in syndication?

She said to tell him she faked it, not that she fainted.

[Snow Apple]

13 minutes ago, Bastet said:

She said to tell him she faked it, not that she fainted.

Thanks. That makes more sense. How weird that I heard "fainted" for all these years.

[Ria]

On 3/17/2019 at 3:25 PM, MoistestCake said:

In the episode when Rose is stressed about work, she's testing 2 light bulbs and she closes her eyes for a few seconds and both bulbs 💡 💡 go out within seconds of each other and when Rose opens her eyes they're both out and she doesn't know which went out first. She's upset, but surely she realises they essentially went out at the same time and are both of the same quality for the consumers. 

Yes, that drives me crazy. Of course Rose is dumb enough to not realize the test would be concerned with hours of bulb life, not seconds. 

[mmecorday]

The Barbara Thorndike episode really drives me up the wall. That pretentious windbag really brings out the worst in Dorothy. It also bothers me that there were restricted clubs that late in the 20th century.

[Ria]

I hate the Gil the lying politician episode. It has not aged well at all. Dorothy and Rose were horrible in this ep. I don’t know how Blanche forgave them. The whole premise is offensive. Her best friends don’t believe her because if she sleeps around a bit, she must also be a liar. She’s blamed for ruining a man’s campaign by seducing him (?!) as if he had no say in the matter. There’s no wife mentioned so I’m not sure what the issue was to begin with. And it ends with Blanche blaming herself because since she enjoys sex it’s all her fault. Throw in some dumb lines about Blanche’s earrings being visible in a photo shot from behind at a distance, Dorothy’s stupid amazement that Sophia must have guessed about Gil’s sex change just because she felt he was hiding something and Rose snottily telling Blanche they couldn’t even believe her now when she said they were best friends and this episode ranks as one of my least favorites. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Ria

[ShadowSixx]

On 3/29/2019 at 11:36 AM, mmecorday said:

The Barbara Thorndike episode really drives me up the wall. That pretentious windbag really brings out the worst in Dorothy. It also bothers me that there were restricted clubs that late in the 20th century.

I just don't like when the girls have a new friend or invite someone in their life they change for the worse. I wouldn't say Dorothy was bad as she tried to mend fences between Barbara, Blanche, & Rose. She understood that sometimes all your friends won't mesh well together. She found out that Barbara tolerates ignorance and kicked her out of her life.

Dorothy is at her worse when Stan comes into her life. Rose & Dorothy were horrible during Gil Kessler. Blanche & Dorothy were horrible during Holly episode. Blanche was just an idiot when she was dating that verbally abusive man forgot his name. Dorothy was horrible while dating Elliott. 

Sophia just sounded like a horrible mother to Dorothy with the way Dorothy tells stories of her childhood. I absolutely detested Sophia in the Monkey Show episode and the episode where she pretended to be Rose's husband Charlie and laughed about it. When Rose told her off Sophia looked like she couldn't be bothered and her apology was kind of half ass.

[MoistestCake]

Gil's wife was out of town. At the beginning the other girls seem to believe Blanche's version but when Gil the liar says it's true, they turn against her, and so nastily it's hard to watch. First of all it takes 2 to tango and the *married* man should be held accountable. If my best friend slept with a politician or celebrity I'd want to know the details and gossip, not turn on him. The fact that Gil's popularity grows after sleeping with Blanche also contradicts the girls' anger as they blamed Blanche of costing him the election cos she can't help herself. But she would have won him the election, so what's their problem?! 

[ShadowSixx]

Not to mention Blanche would have been arrested for false arrest. Why Blanche would do that to her friend? Blanche can get basically any man she want so why go the deceptive route. It seems so odd for her.

[Blakeston]

I've always wondered why the media is so obsessed with this local race that the newspapers are all over it when a woman who's actively involved in a candidate's campaign is at his home one evening.

Maybe if he was running for governor, and there were already rumors about him cheating on his wife, it would be something that newspapers would bother covering.

[MoistestCake]

@Blakeston exactly, too much interest in a local City Councillor candidate. Not to mention that she was a part of his campaign. 

[MoistestCake]

We're watching the episode where Blanche rear-ends guys in fancy cars to make their acquaintance, but damages Rose's car. She will really stab her friends in the back for a date. 

[ShadowSixx]

On 4/2/2019 at 3:43 PM, MoistestCake said:

We're watching the episode where Blanche rear-ends guys in fancy cars to make their acquaintance, but damages Rose's car. She will really stab her friends in the back for a date. 

And the fact that she didn't care that she wrecked Rose's car and even wanted to borrow her car again so she can wreck it again in hopes of rear-ending an attorney for Rose. She did redeem herself by proving the guy was faking his injuries.

The way Blanche took Doug from Dorothy when Blanche couldn't get a date at the wedding.

Using her granddaughter to land herself a man.

[Ria]

I think making Rose’s mother, sisters and daughters so normal, if not necessarily nice, makes Rose seem somewhat psychotic with her St. Olaf stories. Either she happened to be adopted into one of the few normal families and most of the town is as she describes (there’s some evidence of that), or she’s living in a make believe world of kooky and idiotic St. Olafians. But it would have been so much funnier if her family lived up to her stories. Instead of kooky, we mostly got bitchy (except for her mom who could as easily been Blanche’s mom). 

[BigBingerBro]

8 hours ago, Ria said:

I think making Rose’s mother, sisters and daughters so normal, if not necessarily nice, makes Rose seem somewhat psychotic with her St. Olaf stories. Either she happened to be adopted into one of the few normal families and most of the town is as she describes (there’s some evidence of that), or she’s living in a make believe world of kooky and idiotic St. Olafians. But it would have been so much funnier if her family lived up to her stories. Instead of kooky, we mostly got bitchy (except for her mom who could as easily been Blanche’s mom). 

Cousin Sven pretty much lived up the her stories, but her immediate family, not so much.  Lily wasn't too bitchy after she got the service dog.

[Woopwoopkitty]

The GG theme song.....the first time I heard it, I thought they said “and the heart attack” when it really is “and the card attached”.  And now I can’t hear it any other way.

[Ria]

15 hours ago, Woopwoopkitty said:

The GG theme song.....the first time I heard it, I thought they said “and the heart attack” when it really is “and the card attached”.  And now I can’t hear it any other way.

There are episodes where the girls are being so nasty to each other it almost would fit to say with sarcasm  “the heart attack says thank you for being a friend”. 😏

[MoistestCake]

On 4/7/2019 at 4:08 PM, Ria said:

I think making Rose’s mother, sisters and daughters so normal, if not necessarily nice, makes Rose seem somewhat psychotic with her St. Olaf stories. Either she happened to be adopted into one of the few normal families and most of the town is as she describes (there’s some evidence of that), or she’s living in a make believe world of kooky and idiotic St. Olafians. But it would have been so much funnier if her family lived up to her stories. Instead of kooky, we mostly got bitchy (except for her mom who could as easily been Blanche’s mom). 

This has always puzzled me, and somewhat irritated me. Not only does it make Rose just look insane it's a missed trick. Her daughter was going to Oxford? Really? I don't buy that. Well I choose not to. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by MoistestCake

[Ria]

On 4/10/2019 at 4:57 PM, MoistestCake said:

This has always puzzled me, and somewhat irritated me. Not only does it make Rose just look insane it's a missed trick. Her daughter was going to Oxford? Really? I don't buy that. Well I choose not to. 

No, I don’t buy Rose has a daughter going to Oxford. Anymore than I buy the sensible woman we saw Rose introduce as her visiting mom is the same person who Rose claims spent her elderly years trying to fit a cow into the front basket of her bicycle. 

[Blakeston]

Or that her sisters 

On 4/14/2019 at 8:39 PM, Ria said:

No, I don’t buy Rose has a daughter going to Oxford. Anymore than I buy the sensible woman we saw Rose introduce as her visiting mom is the same person who Rose claims spent her elderly years trying to fit a cow into the front basket of her bicycle. 

Or that her sisters Lily and Holly believed in Santa within the past ten years!

[dotdot]

This may have been brought up before, but the episode where Dorothy is going to remarry Stan was on last night, and during Dorothy's bridal shower. A policeman comes and says he was "called by Rose Nyland" and Blanche mistakes him for the stripper that was coming. Then the actual stripper shows up. Does it ever explain why Rose called the real policeman? I can see if they made it where she was doing something dumb and mistakenly called the police dept. for the stripper, but the real stripper shows up, so she must've called him.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, dotdot said:

Does it ever explain why Rose called the real policeman?

Because that woman was threatening her - the ex-wife of Miles's friend who Rose took to some event because Miles was out of town.

[dotdot]

3 hours ago, Bastet said:

Because that woman was threatening her - the ex-wife of Miles's friend who Rose took to some event because Miles was out of town.

OMG! This has baffled me for years! LOL Thank you! Now it makes perfect sense!!!

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, dotdot said:

OMG! This has baffled me for years! LOL Thank you! Now it makes perfect sense!!!

Heh; glad I could help.  Rose deciding to call the police about the ex-wife happens in part one, and the cop and stripper showing up happens in part two, so that's probably why by the time the cop arrives to see Rose, you've forgotten why.

[MoistestCake]

On 4/19/2019 at 3:51 AM, Bastet said:

Rose deciding to call the police about the ex-wife happens in part one, and the cop and stripper showing up happens in part two

Isn't that a long time to wait for the police? 

[Ria]

I’ve always liked the scene in the Mel Bushman episode where Rose is practice interviewing Dorothy and asks “Isn’t it true you have a drawer full of retirement brochures and you’re just waiting for the first sign if dribble on your mother’s chin to lock her away forever?” Followed by the look on Sophia’s face and Dorothy’s response “Those times when Ma makes me crazy, I go into my room and have some pretend time”. This show had so many great scenes and lines. 

[Woopwoopkitty]

I didn’t follow GG when it originally aired, but my channel is often turned to Hallmark so I catch episodes here and there.  I just watched early episodes for the first time, episodes 1-4.  First of all, Coco the gay cook from episode 1, I’m glad he disappeared because really, how bad can you screw up a stereotypical Miami gay character?

I am confused about Rose’s first boyfriend after 15 years.  His name is Arnie and is played by Harold Gould.  Years later he is Rose’s boyfriend Miles.  Same character with a different name? Evil twin? Just one of those things?

[chessiegal]

29 minutes ago, Woopwoopkitty said:

I am confused about Rose’s first boyfriend after 15 years.  His name is Arnie and is played by Harold Gould.  Years later he is Rose’s boyfriend Miles.  Same character with a different name? Evil twin? Just one of those things?

Just one of those things. Season 1 is a test bed. The writers/producers are trying out storylines and characters while they flesh out the show.

[mmecorday]

Speaking of beds, I saw the one where Blanche's promiscuous niece visits the other day. She says that men started to notice her when she "shot up and shot out." First of all, she's not particularly tall and second, she's not all that busty, either. But then again it's hard to tell because she wears that gauzy yellow big shirt for most of the episode. That shirt was ugly even by 80s standards. It looks like something Denise Huxtable stitched together under duress.

[MoistestCake]

In the episode when they go on the morning show as lesbians of Miami, after the show Blanche gets 20 calls. But how did the know her number? 

[BookThief]

33 minutes ago, MoistestCake said:

In the episode when they go on the morning show as lesbians of Miami, after the show Blanche gets 20 calls. But how did the know her number? 

The phone book? And all the men Blanche knew were watching. And she's a legend of the area so word probably got out who she was and so some men called her based on that. And back in the day people probably could have called the studio to ask who the panelists were.

[Ria]

1 hour ago, MoistestCake said:

In the episode when they go on the morning show as lesbians of Miami, after the show Blanche gets 20 calls. But how did the know her number? 

In one episode a man asks Blanche if she is in the book and she replies “in bold print”. 

[mmecorday]

Quote

In the episode when they go on the morning show as lesbians of Miami, after the show Blanche gets 20 calls. But how did the know her number? 

The men's bathroom wall at Amoco.