Golden Girls Complete Series Set Coming

Coming November 9th.

As happy as I am to see the show be acknowledged for the debut of its 25th anniversary, and complete sets are great for people who haven’t yet bought a certain show on DVD yet, I know I’m not the only one who can’t stand the idea of these weird style DVD storage cases that these companies put out for complete series sets. I mean, couldn’t they come up with something that will fit nicely on the shelf and not be flimsy, like say, the Friends complete set? The “handle” of that “purse” looks like it’d snap off at some point.

I guess it could be worse. It could be like the What’s Happening!! complete set, which is set on a spindle. In which all the discs would be touching each other.

Though personally, I’m still hoping for The Golden Palace or Empty Nest to come out on DVD myself.

Online Pick of the Week (6/4): The Golden Girls

There are so many memorable Blanche-centered episodes of The Golden Girls. “Adult Education,” “End of the Curse,” “Scared Straight” … I can go on and on. But one that stands out for me the most is this episode from the final season, “Room 7.”

In it, Sophia sees her late husband Sal in heaven in an out of life experience while choking on a piece of candy. Also Blanche is devastated that her grandmother’s plantation in Atlanta is being torn down. She and the girls go with her to Atlanta to visit it. But when they arrive, she chains herself to the radiator.

This episode is really one of the most heartfelt and touching ones out of the whole series. I love how Blanche has such a soft spot for her hometown, and her family, and especially here, her grandmother. It's very hard for her to let go.

The Golden Girls; season 7, episode 11: "Room 7." My online pick of the week!

Remembering Rue McClanahan

I was so incredibly heartbroken when I found out yesterday that the legendary actress Rue McClanahan had passed away due to a massive stroke. She was 76.

Of course, Rue was best known for her role as Southern and man crazy Blanche Hollingsworth Deveraux on the long running NBC hit The Golden Girls. One of my favorite things about The Golden Girls was that it showed very well that just because you reach a certain age that it does not mean you can still live a very full and engaging life. Blanche’s character was one of the biggest examples of this in my opinion.

Rue was also talented in all of her other acting jobs as well. I’ve recently gotten into Maude after sampling episodes on YouTube and getting the first season on DVD, and she did so well as Vivian, who was Maude’s absentminded but lovable neighbor and friend. Mama’s Family had another good role for her during the NBC years of the series, as Aunt Fran.

Can’t believe that we only have one surviving Golden Girl. It just hurts my heart.

A Betty White Weekend

What a great weekend showcase for Betty White! Not only will fans of the legendary actress see her host Saturday Night Live for the first time ever, but there will be at least two marathons honoring her.

I was waiting to post this until we knew for sure what exact episodes would be, but since that’s apparently not happening, I am still excited to see that GSN will be having a Match Game marathon featuring Betty. The episodes are from 1974-77. Judging from the promo that's been airing, it looks to be her best episodes from the prime years of the series. From 9 am - 4 pm.

WEtv is also having a marathon of their own Saturday evening, with The Golden Girls from 6 pm - 1 am. The episodes themselves are naturally mostly Rose Nylund-centric:

6:00 pm: “Rose The Prude”
6:30 pm: “In a Bed of Rose’s"
7:00 pm: “Isn’t it Romantic?”
7:30 pm: “Love, Rose”
8:00 pm: “Letter to Gorbachev”
8:30 pm: “Rose’s Big Adventure”
9:00 pm: “Yokel Hero”
9:30 pm: “Rose Fights Back”
10:00 pm: “Dancing in the Dark”
10:30 pm: “Once, In St. Olaf”
11:00 pm: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun… Before they Die”
11:30 pm: “The Bloom is Off the Rose”
12:00 am: “Ro$e Love$ Mile$”
12:30 am: “Rose: Portrait of a Woman”

I say “mostly” because with the episode “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…”, Sophia seems to have the biggest focus of the episode, but Rose is still involved with Miles a good deal and it’s still a goodie. I’m a little surprised they’d air episodes the same time as SNL, but it still looks to be a lot of fun to have stuff like this to look forward to as a countdown to the big night.

Remembering Bea Arthur

I was totally not expecting to go online yesterday afternoon to hear about this. And like every other fan, I had no idea that she had cancer.

I have not seen much of Maude, but what I have seen I’ve enjoyed a lot; and I can’t imagine anyone else playing her. It was great that her potential was seen on All in the Family for her own show. To make us laugh. To tackle the serious issues. To make an impact.

As I’ve mentioned before, The Golden Girls is one of those shows that I can watch many times and enjoy seeing it as much now as the first time. Bea’s portrayal of Dorothy was one of the biggest reasons why, and she was my favorite character. So full of razor-sharp wit. So full of stamina. I loved her sarcasm. I remember her saying on the Lifetime reunion special a few years back that she considered not doing another sitcom after Maude. I’m so glad she changed her mind.

There’s something else regarding her that really caught my attention. In 1985, she appeared on the Today show for an interview back when The Golden Girls was brand-new. And considering how demo-obsessed television is today, one of the things she said really stuck out. When the subject came up, this is one of the things she said: “I think the success of the show is simply due to the fact that it’s funny and bright and witty and wonderful and I don’t think the age group matters at all. I think we could be babies or we could be where we are now.” That will always stick with me.

Golden Girls on Hallmark Channel

As of the past couple weeks, The Golden Girls has since left its 12-year home on Lifetime and has now moved to Hallmark Channel.

So far I’m pretty much enjoying how the network is handling the series. There seem to be added commercial breaks, which is the case with shows in syndication these days, but the episodes make sense and are easy to follow, and are not chopped up like, say, ION repeats which could cut out really important plot elements.

Compared to Lifetime, Hallmark actually airs the correct version of the opening credits. And contrary to what Lifetime has shown us, the girls actually changed over the course of the seven year run. Also, the theme is no longer butchered to a mere twenty seconds. The closing credits are the original credits from the episodes, unlike Lifetime’s squeezed fake credits that went by at the speed of light. However Hallmark shrinks them to an illegible size.

Of course, nothing beats DVDs, but this is pretty nice. Maybe I’m a bit biased, but this is one of those shows that I think always deserves a home someplace. The show airs from 12 am-2 am, 9 am-10 am, and 4 pm-5 pm eastern, weekdays.