Great Golden Girls episodes spoiled by a weak B-plot

That was a good b-plot you amoeba

All of them.

R1 it was Sophia being a jerk for no reason, and not even funny. Go take your face for a shite

R3 put your face where my ass is

R4 only if you're hot

"Journey to the Center of Attention" is my all-time favorite episode, but it has a shitty B-plot.

A-plot is: Blanche drags homebody Dorothy to the Rusty Anchor, where Dorothy's hidden singing skills make her very popular with the male bar regulars. Blanche gets jealous and, one night, gives a surprise performance of "I Want to Be Loved By You" that goes spectacularly awry (shoe flies off Blanche's foot, etc.).

B-plot: Of course, this involves Betty White, my least favorite GG character. Rose throws a "wake" for Sophia, who's still alive, so that people can show their love & appreciation b/f she's dead. Of course, Rose forgets to tell invitees that Sophia didn't die. Hilarity ensues ... NOT.

R6 good one, that ep would be perfect with a stronger B plot

What about when the B-plot is better than the A-plot? In "Where's Charle?" the A-plot involves Sophia pretending to be Charlie to scam Rose, ruining her relationship with Miles. In the B-plot Blanche is coaching a baseball player who becomes a crossdresser.

Yes R8 I tried to make the title all encompassing

Eat dirt

Did Sophia ever get to fuck that Japanese gardener?

Blanche & Dorothy falling out over working together at the museum had a good B plot with the stray dog Dorothy pretends not to like but it's undone by a stupid ending with Rose coming home with 4 rescue dogs from the shelter and the girls appearing delighted. Needless to say we never saw the 4 strays again. Stupid ending

R12 that b plot did suck

R11 Mr munoto was dickless

Notice that these bad plots always involve Rose, Sophia, or both Rose and Sophia.

R15 Rose and Sofia got the lion's share of bad material. Any idea writers came up with that lacked dignity went to them.

Remember when the Japanese gardener gave Sophia sushi and she hid it in her wicker purse? When it started to smell did the girls realise or just think it was her fanny?

Blame "animal activist" (but only for attention) Betty White for that stupid ending, R12. A lot of the sucky B-plots in the later seasons involve catering to BW and her wanting the show to be "THE BETTY WHITE SHOW 12... featuring the golden girls", most of them being the convoluted story of Rose being adopted, her many sisters and daughters, crazy shit about St. Olaf, not to mention her pointless relationship with Miles and the bullshit with "The Cheese Man". Thank God dvd players have a fast forward feature.

[quote]Did Sophia ever get to fuck that Japanese gardener?

She tried to, but the pixellated genitals confused her.

R18 is a rose hater. Boo! Boo!

Rue was smart to ask for the Blanche role, which was supposed to be Betty's role. Rue had played a dimwit in Mama's Family; Betty had played a horny older woman on the MTM Show.

Betty's St. Olaf stories were interminable. I think they could have had a dimwit character that was a little more interesting.

I never thought about Miles' & Rose's relationship being useless to the plot, but I guess it was. The only time it got somewhat interesting was when Miles revealed he was in the CIA or was a fugitive from justice or something like that.

When I think about some of the greatest romances of the 20th century, Rose & Charlie Nylund always come up.

It was a disgrace Rue didn't get nominated, Betty White was nominated for every season and her acting did not merit it

R23 If you're talking about an Emmy, Rue did win one for GG

The best plots involved them all fucking some guy (not knowing that the others were fucking him, too).

I think that happened twice: the community theater episode and the Laszlo the Hungarian sculptor episode.

Lazlo the Hungarian homo

Sorry R24 I meant Rue should have been nominated for the later seasons when she did some great work. Betty was good in her role too but she never did anything note worthy in the later seasons

The best episodes there was no B plot

I dont remember the A plot but the B plot was Rose and Sophia making potatoe bacon lettuce sandwiches and selling them. God thatwas a waste of air time.

When Rose & Blanche are arguing over pearls Vs chain did anyone ever notice Blanche says the chain draws attention to the spare tire and manly hips but actually the pearls hang much lower and draw the attention more.

Their fighting to be Head of fashion at some school pageant was a dumb side plot to go with Dorothy dating a great guy but always bringing that old bat Sophia along cause she's lonely.

R29 Blanche goes out with Stan as a favour to Dorothy and they actually get along and go out again, making D mad. Not bad, well acted by Rue, Herb and Bea

This thread and others make me think that Datalounge is basically a secret underground civilization of people who have never seen the actual world above. The only clues they have to it are some ancient videotapes of the complete series of "I Love Lucy" and "The Golden Girls," and they watch these over and over again, obsessing about them, going over every last detail, and wondering just how life in the sunlit world above can possibly correspond to the details of what they're seeing on the holy videotapes.

R32 Or they're just having fun when online?

It amazes me that there can possibly be anything new to talk about re GG.

R32 You're on to something

R35 you do realise this old chestnut is posted at least once on every Golden Girls thread?

R34 and yet, here we are!

R32 Coming from the person browsing Cameo, I hardly think you have room to talk.

I loved Rose's St. Olaf stories. Her delivery was just as funny as the stories themselves.

Bea and Rue's reactions to Rose's stories were the funniest thing about them.

I loved Baby

Sofia renting out Blanche snd Dorothy’s bedrooms while they were at Big Daddy’s funeral

Rose's Scandinavian words.

R41 is that the one where they break her antique plate ?

Her limited edition citrus festival plate

Oh wait… I liked that b plot better than the main plot of big daddy dying

I’d love to go to a citrus festival sometime. Not necessarily in Florida. California or Texas will do.

The only good episode was the pilot.

I think the B-plots were suposed to be weak.

But R48 some of them were great!

How come Rose's bedroom was bigger than Blanche's?

R18 Rue saved “The Cheese Man”. It’s one of my favorite moments on the show when he has them at gunpoint and Blanche has to find a way out and the doorbell rings and she says “I’ll get it!”

I think Rue / Blanche was the strongest character upon reflection because she was the pretty / sexy one who had to be funny. Being the dumb one or the ugly one or the old one was easier.

The promise of a textile mill outside Gstaad.

r51 I've always thought Rue was the strongest dramatic actress of the four

R51 surely you jest

R52 that was just so funny and clever. FART! 💨

There was a great moment at the end of the episode where the girls look after the baby while the dad competes in a marathon. Blanche yearns for another chance to finally be a good mother. Anyway, the episode ends with Blanche on the phone to Janet basically begging to be allowed to come by and see her "I think we have a lot to talk about".

^^After writing that I found the clip on YouTube! Beautifully acted by Rue

Stop with your stupid assumption over Rue McClanahan being a dramatic actress on GG

Huh r57?

R56 Mary! I love that scene. Incredibly well acted.

R57 no one is saying she was "the" dramatic actress. They all had dramatic scenes, but Rue's were the most memorable:

Her getting hig George one last time

Her being "no one's little girl anymore" after Big Daddy died

Her apologising to gay Clay

Being made to feel "like a lady"

Telling heart attack guy she didn't come visit him in hospital as she's so afraid of losing another man she loves again

Plus lots more

Getting to hug *

R60 sounds like you enjoy sucking air up your ass to me.

What does that mean R62?

^^you’re suckin air up your ass!

r63 it means that she's an insufferable troll.

I've never heard that before. R62 piss off

Bea had her moments too

Yea Bea was decent in done dramatic moments too, mainly when she was telling off Stan or being concerned for Sophia

Blanche is my favorite, but Bea/Dorothy's "What'll I do" moment was the most touching of the show.

R69 and to think she was only weeks away from meeting the love of her life Lucas when she sang that

r70 MARY!!!

All those with Sophia B-plots. I loved Estelle in the younger-mother flashback episode scenes, and watching Estelle on TV guesting or speaking as herself, but her Sophia the Italian mother character annoyed me to no end. Especially when they started jumping the shark and she seemed to be "in" on every trendy, younger-generation pop culture saying, trend or news. Plus the Dorothy-Sophia mother/daughter and height differences thing -- never quite got it.

^^Sophia was unusually short

Dorothy was unusually tall

There….

r72 nothing about Estelle's Sophia read Italian grandmother.

R74 not even her marinara sauce and meatballs?

When Blanche and Sophia were fighting over Fidel Santiago, I hated the b plot of rose going to night school and Dorothy teaching her.

In the pretty good episode about Stan & Dorothy being audited we have the nonsense storyline of Rose needing to learn Spanish to get a promotion at the grief centre so she and Blanche enrol. Seems to serve no other purpose than to have Rose inadvertently threaten the pawn shop owner and for Blanche to mix bilingual with bisexual.

Plus it undoes the great storyline from S1 where Blanche refuses to sleep with her Professor for a passing grade. Here she sleeps with the teacher for the answers to the exam. In the end Rose makes some throwaway comment about them not bothering with it anymore

The cousin magda B plot of the Charmaine’s book episode was pretty funny because of Marian Mercer.

Bea Arthur was one year older than Estelle Getty.

Some of the best episodes are when there is no B plot, or when it's just the three girls and Sophia makes a cameo appearance at the beginning or end

Some of Sophia's comeback lines were hysterical.

At some point, Estelle Getty got a face lift.

R78 I always considered the Magda story as the A story.

I thought all four were great at comedy, but the Very Special Episode dramatics were so schmaltzy that no one could salvage those.

Having a brash, outspoken Italian grandmother (still living at 96), I would attest that Estelle reads just fine as an Italian grandmother. I think Estelle has some good moments in the first few seasons, but the last few seasons she's just overtly cruel to Dorothy and it doesn't read true at all. In fact, I find it cringe-inducing at times, and I think that's because the first few seasons Sophia and Dorothy do feel like they have an authentic mother/daughter relationship and the cruelty of the later seasons just feels like abuse. I always used to think Sophia was the weakest of the four, and I used to attribute that to Estelle, but she's actually brilliant with her timing and delivery and the uneveness comes from how the character is written and not the actress.

I would back what others have said about Rue being the strongest dramatic actress of the group. Rue is a very strong tecnician and always very clear in her beat changes and authentic in her emotional reactions. Her poignant moments (especially the one on the phone to her daughter upthread) are always effective and moving. Bea's good with accessing anger rooted in hurt, but she really struggles to authentically convey strong positive emotions without appearing contrived (see her 'excitement' when getting the Burt Reynolds tickets). Betty is much more detailed than you'd expect in her approach (and her being a 'tv' actress, as opposed to having the theater background of her three colleagues) to acting, she only reads false in the sense that she always tends to make the same choice when evoking something painful from her past.

And yes, I've watched this show way too much! Fun fact: the extra who is seated next to Blanche during her audition at the community theater with Patrick Vaughn, is also the cashier at the diner in many episodes of Seinfeld (as well as being an extra on multiple other episodes of TGG)

My favorite episode -- and I think the best written one -- is the episode when Blanche rented the Mercedes to take men on test drives, Miles's daughter came to lunch, and Sophia mistakenly received extra checks from the Social Security. All three plots converged beautifully, and the punchline -- "I'd like to report a stolen Mercedes" -- was perfect.

The Muzak that was invariably piped in whenever things got Serious made me reach for the remote.

R85 great post. I am surprised Betty got Emmy nominations over Bea and Rue for s5-7.

Does the Empty Nest episode with Rita Morena count as a B-plot or is it just horrific in and of itself.

Estelle wanted her character to be Jewish, but no dice.

Where’s Sophia? Uh, she’s in church.

[quote][R78] I always considered the Magda story as the A story.

But the episode begins and ends with a scene between sisters Blanche and Charmaine.

[quote]What about when the B-plot is better than the A-plot? In "Where's Charle?" the A-plot involves Sophia pretending to be Charlie to scam Rose, ruining her relationship with Miles. In the B-plot Blanche is coaching a baseball player who becomes a crossdresser.

Didn't I see this movie? A woman helps a handsome ballplayer and he goes off to live with the Indians? What was it called? "Dances with Bulls"?

I'm so glad they changed AWAY WE GO! to OKLAHOMA! when they musicalized the play.

Sorry. Wrong thread.