The Golden Girls slumber party with Jodi was a delightfully decadent evening of home-cooked snacks, sodium-infused munchies, cheesecake, pomegranate cosmos (poured with my trademark heavy hand) and our four favorite senior citizens from Miami.
As promised, here are the ten episodes I selected for our viewing. Choosing only ten Golden Girls episodes was like asking Star Jones to just pick ten M&M's out of the bowl - it's near impossible. But I prevailed. Then episodes I selected aren't all necessarily what I think are some of the absolute best of the Golden Girls, but I feel a few of them are required viewing simply for the breakthroughs they made in television...or in some cases, for one tiny scene that is just sheer perfection.
Here are the episodes, listed in chronological air date:
1. "Pilot" - Season One - The very first episode. Not the best - hello, Coco the gay cook/houseboy? - but certainly required viewing. These girls had the chemistry from the start.
2. "Little Romance" - Season One - Rose is afraid for the roomies to meet her new boyfriend...who is a dwarf. Sheer. Comic. Genius.
3. "Isn't It Romantic" - Season Two - Dorothy's female pal falls in love with Rose and Blanche learns that Danny Thomas isn't a lesbian. Riotously funny, extraordinarily touching, and brave television-making for the mid-80s.
4. "Forgive Me Father" - Season Two - Dorothy falls for a fellow teacher only to find out that he's actually a priest. The scene where Rose and Blanche meet him is perhaps my all-time favorite scene in all seven years of the show.
5. "To Catch A Neighbor" - Season Two - The cops use the girls' house to run a stakeout on the neighbors. Noteworthy for the guest appearance by a young and surprisingly fuckable talented George Clooney.
6. "Scared Straight" - Season Four - Another thematically bold episode as Blanche finds out her brother is gay.
7. "Mrs. George Devereaux" - Season Six - Blanche's husband returns from the dead. An uneven episode, but the ending makes me cry every time thus making it a favorite.
8. "Henny Penny" - Season Six - The girls put on a musical for grade schoolers. 'Nuff said.
9 & 10 - "One Flew Out The Cuckoo's Nest" - Season Seven - The two-part series finale. Absolute required viewing.
We did an episode commentary for "Henny Penny" but I haven't determined it's "listenability" yet. We'll see if it is exciting - or comprehensible - enough to post. Jodi has already requested a repeat slumber party to check out the next ten episodes on my list. Fortunately I've already selected them so that I don't have to go through the agony of choosing again!
Posted by mak at May 13, 2008 8:09 PM | TrackBackHas she really never seen the Golden Girls? How is that possible?
Posted by: Jenn at May 14, 2008 8:33 AMThe next time Plus One and I are in NYC, we should totally have a Golden Girls slumber party, you know.
Posted by: Jeffre at May 14, 2008 9:51 AMI enjoy all the episodes with Aunt Angela. Makes me long for Bounty towels ...
Posted by: Zack at May 14, 2008 3:26 PMOh, I've seen the show before, but nowhere near as many episodes (1,286,834) as Matt has. I must confess that I got really "misty" (a la Fonzie) during the last scene of the finale!
Posted by: Jodi at May 14, 2008 3:39 PMP.S. I *love* the title of this post!
Posted by: Jodi at May 15, 2008 10:04 PM