We open this episode by paying tribute to our dearly departed Betty White, who entertained millions with her command of comedy and inspired just as many with her commitment to kindness. Thank you for being a friend, Betty <3. Moving onto the Stickman, Stan goes to his only friends, three women who kind of hate him, to help pick out a ring for his new bride at the start of this episode. Meanwhile, Sophia disobeys the doctor's orders and ends up in the hospital; Dorothy leans on Stan, who is ad...
Jan 09, 2022•38 min•Season 4Ep. 10
What the hell is this, The Waltons?! In the first Christmas episode of the series, the girls do quite a lot. Blanche tries to bong a mall Santa and gets caught, Rose offers counseling to her clients right in front of the waiting room, a would-be armed robber takes Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose hostage until Sophia saves the day, and after their flights are grounded, our favorite ladies spend Christmas Eve watching a diner, while the owner spends less than an hour with his family. Plus, the men of B...
Dec 26, 2021•21 min
We revisit Brother, Can You Spare that Jacket, in which each of the girls has their own personal reckoning with the state of things in America. After a brief bit of riding high on a winning lotto ticket, Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia, and Rose trounce all over Miami to find the ticket after it is mistakenly given away. There's a celebrity auction, a do-nothing councilman, and a mixup of Michael J. Fox and Michael Jackson, but all in all this is a pretty heavy episode that handles important subject ma...
Dec 12, 2021•40 min
Sophia's getting married, Rose and Blanche are establishing a Miami-based chapter of the Hunka Hunka Burnin Love Fanclub, Dorothy is smoking, and somehow the caterer is still the star! We talk about Sophia's Wedding Parts 1 & 2, which for us, represents a very specific era in The Golden Girls. This one has a ton of funny moments and reveals something deep about the addictive Petrillo genes. We also think when you're in your 80s, if you wanna get married or just find a long-distance hook-up b...
Dec 05, 2021•1 hr
Dorothy is battling Stan for Sophia's soul and Blanche & Rose are up all night howlin. In the nosebleed seats of a baseball game, Sophia gets whacked on the head with a ball. Stan comes up with a way for the two of them to join forces and scam some money out of the insurance company, though we think it's a few days too late to be believable. Meanwhile, Rose and Blanche are cast in Cats in the community theater and wholly immerse themselves in the character.
Nov 28, 2021•25 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Rose is up for St. Olaf's Woman of the Year! OOOFDAH! There's only one problem, Blanche and Dorothy are back to their Issac Q. Newton/rez-ume ways and they've stretched the truth a bit on her application. Mighty flood, etc. Meanwhile, the AC is out and the girls struggle to keep cool. All in all, this one is incredibly goofy, there's a bunch of funny lines, and it's a pretty revealing picture of Rose's naive all-American nature.
Nov 21, 2021•34 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Rose and Dorothy assume the roles of Mulder and Scully after seeing what appears to be a UFO. Meanwhile, Blanche attempts a conquest for Ham Lushbough, the one man--the one--who has ever rejected her advances. The UFO story is A++, especially considering Dorothy's natural skepticism and Rose's naive assumption that the extraterrestrials are here to help us earthlings. The Ham story is a little tough to get through and rife with body-shamey jokes, but the conclusion that his lousy night of sex de...
Nov 14, 2021•35 min•Season 4Ep. 3
The three younger girls sit around the kitchen table lamenting that Sophia is letting the last of her life slip away. Rose's puritanical work ethic, Blanche's overactive sex drive and Dorothy's grounding nature all abound as the rain comes down outside. Meanwhile, Sophia--ironically the only one to leave the house, has a full adventure of a day complete with grocery store advocacy, hospital volunteerism and conducting an old lady jazz band. For more on this episode and the show's relationship to...
Nov 07, 2021•33 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Season 4 starts with a bang! Fidel Santiago, a snappy dressing cigar heir and all-around charmer dates both Blanche and Sophia. His long teeth raise questions, particularly around his relationship with Blanche, but his life and death serve to prove that age is just a number. Meanwhile, we learn that Rose started a mono outbreak in St. Olaf that may have actually contributed to the Allied victory in WWII as she enrolls in Ms. Zbornak's history class. For more info and to contribute your contest s...
Oct 31, 2021•31 min
We've made it to the end of the third season! In this vignette/flashback Mother's Day episode, we see Dorothy play her own grandmother, Rose lie to the police for a friend, Stan's mom acknowledge his yutzdom, and learn Blanche's true age! It's touching, funny, and we have a lot to say about it--the perfect way to close out the season.
Oct 17, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 25
In what is the opposite of a fan-favorite, Rose dates Mr. Terrific, Dorothy attempts to fix his show and is sexually harassed by a puppet, and Blanche gets a different bed than the one she ordered. We're here to dunk on the sub-par (for this show) writing, the strange deliveries of lines, and pretty much everything else.
Oct 10, 2021•24 min•Season 3Ep. 24
We give all of our thoughts on the controversial Mixed Blessings episode, as well as a lament at how bad this show handles issues of race in general. For a further scholarly take, check out Dr. Stephen Trasher's The Real Mud on the Golden Girls piece for Variety.
Oct 03, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Al, Rose's new boyfriend, just retired from a successful career as a deli owner. While he could be content just sleeping late and watching reruns of Moonlighting, Rose compels him to do something better with his time. So, rationally, he decides to purchase a yacht and sail around the world without ever bothering to test his sea legs--bad idea! Meanwhile, Sophia brings in a pervert from the senior center to remodel the Girls' garage into a guestroom.
Sep 26, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 23
In the ultimate role reversal, Sophia has a new boyfriend that Dorothy can't stand. Rocco, played by Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney, adores Sophia, but his disrespectful attitude, cigar habit, and shady past all give Dorothy pause. She tries to impose rules like leaving the bedroom door open, but it's hard to parent an 80-year-old. Meanwhile, Blanche and Dorothy break into Rose's 4-H Pig Diary (YOU KNOW A BETTER WAY TO GET A 4-H PIG DIARY BADGE?) massively invading her privacy.
Sep 19, 2021•29 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Sophia is feeling bummed as all of her friends her own age have either moved out of town, died, or assumed new identities as Pinky Lee. Dorothy, thinking only of her mother's happiness, starts bringing her along on dates with her boyfriend Raymond. Eventually, Raymond (understandably) grows tired of this, and Dorothy decides it's more important to preserve Sophia's happiness than have an awkward conversation. Meanwhile, Blanche and Rose run against each other for the prestigious position of Fash...
Sep 12, 2021•36 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Golden Girls Fashion Corner is the place on the web for the clothes of our beloved Golden Girls. The woman behind the blog, Claire Sewell, joins us to talk about what inspired her to start the site, the thought behind the wardrobe choices, and how sometimes fashion has a scholarly element to it, but sometimes it's just plain fun. Check out GoldenGirlsFashion.com for more insight and enjoy!
Sep 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Golden Moments Parts 1 and 2 aired on the same night, so audiences were treated to a full hour of clips they'd already seen before. Through flashbacks, this 2-parter revisits classic scenes, such as Sophia's arrival, Blanche's discovery that Danny Thomas was not a lesbian, and Rose nearly blowing poor Lestser's head off. In the meantime, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose work on convincing Sophia to stay in Miami as she considers a move to help Phil with his indistinct number of children.
Aug 29, 2021•36 min
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to tell a fib. Angelo, Sophia's priest brother, is visiting for the first time in 40 years and Sophia can't bear to tell him Dorothy and Stan are divorced. Using the power of pasta and cheese, she convinces the two to masquerade as though they're still married (spoiler: they're not that convincing). Meanwhile, Rose and Blanche are rehearsing for their roles as two nuns in the community theater production of The Sound of Music.
Aug 22, 2021•29 min•Season 3Ep. 17
In an absolute classic, the Girls head to Hollywood to appear on polyester and teeth-clad Guy Corbin's epic game show, Grab that Dough. This one features the return of the Horse Statue™, original hustler Nancy, soup, soup, and more soup AND happens to be the all-time favorite of another artist with an incredible body, the genius behind Oh Shut Up Rose and Golden Girls Posters!...
Aug 15, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Dorothy is in a rut. Between Blanche's celebrity rags and Rose's...well, Rose in general, the Brightest Kid in Brooklyn™ is feeling a little unstimulated, intellectually. At the behest of her friends and mother, Dorothy decides to get out and do something for herself, and so she attends a lecture by celebrated author and metaphor-user Barbara Thorndyke. The two become friends, and even though it's clear to Rose and Madge that Barbara totally sucks, it takes Dorothy some time to see it, but boy i...
Aug 08, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Dr. Wendy Burns-Ardolino joins us for a very special episode in which we discuss her book, TV Female Foursomes and Their Fans . We talk about the devotion surrounding The Golden Girls and other shows like Designing Women that relied on an all-women ensemble cast to move society forward and make us laugh. This is one for you fan-scholars!
Aug 08, 2021•1 hr 7 min
In what is perhaps the worst episode of the entire Golden Girls series as it relates to body-shaming and fat-phobia, we meet Rebecca, Blanche's formerly estranged daughter, and her douchebag boyfriend, Jeremy. Jeremy-- who ranked #2 on our list of Golden Girls villains- - is verbally abusive to Becky and every other line from all the characters except for Dorothy (the hero we need) seems to be a crack about Rebecca's body. It is not good. The B-story, however, has Sophia essentially unionizing P...
Aug 01, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Hold onto your chisels, Laszlo's in town! The Hungarian Hunk initially plans to use Blanche as a nude model for his sculpture, but eventually, he asks Rose and Dorothy as well, seeing that they each bring a different set of qualities that he wishes to capture. This creates a rift in the household because all three women are interested in helping Laszlo buff his marble, if you catch our drift, but his heart (and marble) belong to someone else. Meanwhile, Sophia gets into practical jokes but for s...
Jul 25, 2021•25 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Buddy Rourke, an alleged friend of Charlie's is in town and he (like Jean) has the hots for Rose. The two strike up what seems like a relatively mild romance, but then all of a sudden Rose is packing up and moving to Boston with him! Obviously, that doesn't happen, but the Girls decide to let Rose have the sweet little memory, even if it's a lie. Meanwhile, Blanche and Dorothy agonize over what to wear to the museum banquet--we've all been there!
Jul 18, 2021•25 min•Season 3Ep. 12
The Girls have been living together for five years and they have HAD it. From Blanche's Designing Women accent to Rose's seemingly incessant need to sprinkle everyday conversation with Norwegian words, to Dorothy's holier-than-thou attitude, they need a headshrinker STAT! This one is a little weak in the writing of the main story, but there are a couple of real gems in the vignettes ($8/an hour).
Jul 11, 2021•21 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Babe, I'm afraid we're being audited. Stan's back and this time he's bringing Dorothy down financially. He reveals he's being audited, and because Uncle Sam is going back so many years, that means Aunt Dorothy is too. Meanwhile, Rose and Blanche take a Spanish class down at the local community college, and in their typical fashions, Blanche promises to sleep with the teacher for the answers while Rose refuses to habla ingles (that means speak English). A lot of laughs, a couple of really, really...
Jul 04, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Friends, welcome to the VERY FIRST in-person recording of Enough Wicker. Yes, Lauren and Sarah sit together in the same space to talk about the perils of Little Sven (not to be confused with Big Sven or Big Sven 2). Blanche tries to get back at Floyd by cozying up to Rose's nordic cousin, who mistakes it for love--that is until he sees the dime piece he's been promised to. Meanwhile, Sophia begs Dorothy to let her drive again & the two try to navigate road safety for an 80+-year-old.
Jun 27, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 9
What better way to close out Pride Month than with the author of some of the most dynamic, queer-focused Golden Girls content out there! Dr. Thomas J. West III, TJ to his pals and confidantes, wrote a paper called “ Thank You for Being a Friend:” The Politics, History, and Fandom of The Golden Girls and Its Feminist Message for the Coming Decade ," and has since written extensively about The Golden Girls, television, politics, and more. He is the co-host of the Queens of the B's podcast and was ...
Jun 20, 2021•57 min
Stan's brother is in town and spoiler: he really sucks! Initially, he goes out with Blanche but he's not into it, and the next thing we know he and Dorothy are aggressively hugging on the front step in the morning. Turns out he's impotent and wanted a babysitter, unrelated to each other, but important. Meanwhile, Rose is downing caffeinated tea, which she thinks is making her bones strong but is actually keeping her up all hours of the night and Sophia wonders where Ted was her to waltz her down...
Jun 13, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 8
What is there to say about Gil Kessler that hasn't already been said? This episode hits on a plethora of big issues including sensationalized politics, trans representation, why it's so hard to believe women, toxic masculinity, and of course the challenges of picking out the perfect tie/sock/hanky combo. We talk about what works here, what doesn't, and speculate as to why this one isn't as celebrated in the Golden Girls queer canon as some others. PS. Run, don't walk, to watch Disclosure : Trans...
Jun 06, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 7
