"Three weeks before graduation, I was asked to be in the kissing booth at the founder's day fair. Unfortunately, the first boy I kissed had a nasty case of mono. That afternoon, I passed it along to 50 young men. . . and one very confused female P.E. teacher who smelled of Old Spice. I slept day and night for the next six months, and when I finally woke up I had missed my graduation and the integration of major-league baseball." - Rose (Betty White) on why she never received her high school diploma
The Golden Girls: The Complete Fourth Season DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
By the time The Golden Girls: The Complete Fourth Season returned to NBC's Saturday night schedule on October 8, 1988, it was obvious that the sitcom about a group of older friends who live together in a beautiful Miami home to pool their late-life resources was destined to be unique only in its portrayal of mature women, usually a TV no-no. Blanche Devereaux (Mama's Family's Rue McClanahan), is a widow for whom the Dade County phonebook serves as a little black book. Rose Nylund (The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Betty White) is a perky widow whose naïveté and rambling stories about life in her hometown of St. Olaf would test the patience of a coma victim. Dorothy Zbornak (Maude's Bea Arthur) is a sharp-tongued substitute teacher who is bitter about the end of her thirty-eight year marriage. Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), is a stroke victim who has lost the ability to censor her acid-tongued thoughts.
Many of the plotlines - Rose thinks she sees a UFO, Sophia gets beaned by a baseball and exaggerates her injuries in order to sue the team, the gang tries to get Bob Hope to serve as emcee of a charity event - are so familiar that not only does it feel as if we've seen them before on other shows, it feels as if we've seen them before on The Golden Girls. And yet the show is so hysterically funny (while simultaneously serving as a tender look at friendship and aging), that its occasional familiarity doesn't matter.
Each of the individual women is given the chance to shine in at least one episode. In "The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo," Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy spend a dull, rainy day trying to decide on something constructive to occupy their time. They also lament the fact that Sophia never does anything except taking the bus to the grocery store to buy her daily tangerine. What the three don't realize is that while they are sitting around the kitchen eating ice cream, Sophia's day is actually filled with activity. Not only does she raise money for charity by organizing an all-female jazz band, but she also volunteers at a local hospital as a Sunshine Lady. In the two-part "Sophia's Wedding," she begins an affair with her husband's former business partner when they are reunited at his wife's funeral. There seems to be three or four episodes in each season where one of the roommates decides to get married, but this one is a standout thanks to a terrific performance by guest star Jack Gilford as Sophia's new beau.
Blanche faces her self-esteem issues in "Blind Date." Stood up once again by the lout she's been dating, Blanche finds a sympathetic ear in fellow restaurant patron John (Edward Winter, Soap), who has also been stood up. She accepts his offer of a date and is surprised to learn when he comes to pick her up the next day that John is blind. They go out several times and Blanche has a great time, so her roommates are shocked when they discover that she has broken up with John in favor of the cad who treated her so badly. It turns out that she is uncomfortable dating a blind man because she has depended on her looks for so long. If John can't see her, why would he like her? With the help of her roommates, Blanche discovers the courage to reconnect with John.
Rose gets her turn in the spotlight in "High Anxiety." After Sophia accidentally drops Rose's painkillers down the sink, Rose's strange behavior leads the roommates to believe that she is addicted to the pills. This episode ventures too closely to "Very Special Episode" territory, but it has its moments. "Little Sister" shows us Rose's jealous side. Is her visiting sister, Holly (Inga Swenson, Benson), really out to get Rose, or is Rose simply angry that the other roommates seem to like Holly more than they like Rose? When Rose finally decides to stand up for herself and confront her sister, fans are likely to cheer.
Dorothy is the group's most no-nonsense member, but she gives in to her emotional side in "Stan Takes a Wife." When ex-husband Stan (Herb Edelman) announces that he's about to remarry.again.Dorothy couldn't care less. Her feelings change when Stan proves to be extremely caring and supportive after Sophia winds up in the ICU with pneumonia. To the horror of her roommates, Dorothy mulls over whether she should proclaim her love for Stan and stop his latest marriage.
Another standout episode is "Sophia's Choice." Sophia's friend ends up in Miami's worst nursing home, leading Sophia to bust her out with Rose's help. Sophia and the roommates soon realize that the woman is too senile for them to handle. They debate whether to return her to the nursing home, try to find another one, or somehow keep her out of a nursing home altogether. The episode takes a surprisingly tender turn when the gang realizes that they, too, will be in the same predicament in a few years. Will anyone care enough to protect them from bad nursing homes?
The Golden Girls often features gay characters and themes, but its attitude seems to vary from episode to episode. In "Scared Straight," Blanche's beloved brother finally admits to her that he is gay. He has wanted to tell her for years - especially so that the string of blind dates she sets him up with can finally come to an end - but has been afraid that she would react badly. She does, but soon realizes that his revelation doesn't change who her brother is. In "Valentine's Day," Blanche visits the restaurant in which her husband proposed to her years ago. She befriends a young man who is nervously awaiting the arrival of his date so that he, too, can propose. In a touching monologue, Blanche discusses how wonderful life was with her husband, convincing the man to go through with the proposal. She is nonplused when the man's date finally arrives and is revealed to be another man. This scene is especially sweet because we finally see and hear man-crazy Blanche talk about love rather than sex. Comparing her happy marriage to a relationship between two men is a bold social commentary for a TV series in 1989. Other episodes take several steps back, however. In "Sophia's Wedding," it isn't enough that the caterer is a mincing stereotype straight out of a classroom scare film about avoiding perverts - the other characters also have to treat him like a leper, berating and making fun of him.
Guest stars in season four include Henry Darrow (Harry O), Ellen Albertini Dow (The Wedding Singer), Richard Mulligan (Empty Nest), Sid Melton (Green Acres), Quentin Tarantino, Monte Markham (Baywatch), Elinor Donahue (The Andy Griffith Show), John Fiedler (The Bob Newhart Show), Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana, Julio Iglesias, Bob Hope, Freddie Jackson, the del Rubio Triplets, Anne Francis (Honey West), Jay Thomas (Mork and Mindy), Jerry Hardin (The X-Files), Lloyd Bochner (Dynasty), and Vito Scotti (The Flying Nun).
The twenty-six episodes that make up season four are divided onto three discs. Each of the three emerald green discs are decorated with portraits of the gang - Blanche on disc one, Dorothy and Sophia on disc two, and Rose on disc three. The discs are housed in an emerald green foldout case decorated with publicity and production stills. The three discs attach to two panels - one of the panels holds two discs (one on top of the other) in a figure eight pattern. One panel of the foldout case lists the title of each episode. As with the other Golden Girls releases, no plot synopses are included, making it somewhat difficult for viewers to choose individual episodes. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve.
The DVD menus - which feature full-motion clips from the series in small windows while an instrumental version of the theme song plays in a loop - are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes do include chapter stops this time around.
