The Triangle (Season 1, Episode 5)
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Hi Jennifer Simard. Hi Patrick, hi. Hi Cheesecakes. Hi Cheesecakes. Welcome to the Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast. Welcome. Patrick, I wore a nice little cowl neck.

for you today. Oh my God, you look stunning. Well, this is in honor of the devastation that is coming up with Dorothy's clothes this week. I'm going to be texting you images in real time for us to speak about. There's a lot going on with the wardrobes this week. Oh my goodness. Cheesecakes, before we do anything else, I got to tell you, I don't usually do this, but I have this time. I've been reading the Apple podcast and Spotify reviews. Girl, have you been reading them? No, I do not read reviews. Okay, well, I'm telling you,

I think you should read these because they're so good. They're so nice. They're so kind. I read every single one of them. They make me cry because they're so sweet and nice. And I just want to say thank you, Cheesecakes. And please keep those coming because it really helps other people find our show. It bumps us up in the algorithm. But also when people are sort of cruising and they're like, should I check this out? The first thing they do is read the reviews. And if you read a review that's like, we love the show. We love the deep dives. We think they're really fun and funny. I think people are more likely to listen. So thank you so much.

Watch for that cheesecake. Keep those Apple podcasts and Spotify reviews coming. Well, thank you. And even though I'm not a reader, I'm a lover. I love you. Thank you. I love you.

And one more thing, Cheesecakes. Join us in our Facebook group. It's the Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast Discussion Group. We have almost a thousand people in there already sharing the Golden Girls memes, talking about the episodes, making new friends. We did like a sound off roll call about where people live and people can get together in their own communities and whatever. Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast Discussion Group. Come and join us. And, you know, for those of you who don't know, for those of you who do know, this will be like a review of your homework. But just so you know what the podcast is,

is about. So we do hilarious recaps of the Golden Girls episode by episode starting at the beginning. We're really excited about it. Yeah. But we also add this amazing deep dive at the end of each episode. We have a full-time researcher and then we ourselves are our own researchers. We do little deep dives sprinkled throughout the whole thing and it's so fun, right, Patrick, in the discussion group to hear people say, I didn't know this, I didn't

Yeah, and it seems to be something that the people are really responding to, that it's not just a typical recap show. Like, we really are giving you all the trivia, all the hot gossip, all of the stories. You're doing the deep dive at the end of the episode today. What is it? I am our queen, Rue McClanahan. Yes! Rue McClanahan!

You know, I really wanted to do that one. So thank you. Of course. Are you ready to talk about Golden Girls episode five, The Triangle? I was born ready. So this episode originally aired October 19th, 1985, written by Winifred Hervey. Can't wait to do my deep dive on her. I love Winnie. Me too. Do we know anything about her? Not yet, but we will. One of us will. And one of us will tell the other. Directed by Jim Drake. There's a little bit of trivia and then some like world events stuff for this episode.

All right. So Bea Arthur got her first Emmy nomination for playing Dorothy's born act for this episode. Lost to Betty White. How do you think that went? Well, when I read that, I thought to myself, well, there's your trigger right there. Right.

We're going to do a whole deep dive on them, like, not really getting along on set. Also, I wanted to point out the nonfiction bestselling book of the week that week was Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley. Priscilla Presley gets mentioned in this episode. That's right. You know, upon my second watch, I made note of that. So world events going on, you know, around this time. This was the beginning of the AIDS crisis. And

That is playing a big factor in a lot of the deep dives that we're doing. Like, obviously, being a member of the LGBTQ plus community, you know, being raised by a gay mother, I have a lot of, like, history with the AIDS crisis. And it means, you know, learning about it means a lot to me. So the front page headline of The New York Times on this day, which was October 19th, 1985, was a Saturday. Military services will be screened for AIDS evidence. Pentagon, citing perils, says any with disease will be honorably discharged.

So they're going to start testing military service members for HIV. And I looked it up. The first blood-based AIDS tests were approved on March 2nd, 1985. So just seven months before this. So many of the episodes are around the sociopolitical climate of the time. Yes. Here we are, right smack dab in the middle of the 80s and lots of...

political things with Russia coming up. But yes, the AIDS crisis was front and center in a lot of these. And so many of these actresses were, I was just today doing my research on Maia Stelgeti, Deep Dive, and she was very involved in raising funds. She had family members and friends that died of AIDS. So lots to get to on that front. ♪

So, episode proper of Triangle, we open on Sophia sneakily running in to the living room from the bedroom hallway. She literally, she looks to see if the coast is clear, right? Only to have Dorothy enter from the kitchen wearing a maternity top. It is, okay, hang on. This is the moment one. I'm texting you a picture of this top. Get your phone. I don't see it yet. I just texted. There it is. Okay, yep. There she is. Now, this is clearly she's in her second trimester.

And honestly, it's like, and she can grow into it. It could double as a papoose. It's true. She could put the baby right in that left sleeve quadrant. She can just rip that flap down for a nice breastfeed. I mean...

Let me explain this to the cheesecakes. It's this pink pleated. It's like pleated all the way across. Like Bea Arthur looks like she's got a slamming bod. I don't know why they are always putting her in these ill-fitting, like this white collar that sort of, it's accentuated to sort of draw one's eye to the left breast. Yeah. I mean, years later, we'll get there. They finally figured out she can be in loose wear, but it was like so Eileen Fisher gorgeous. But here...

What in the actual Ross Dress for Less? What is happening? I know. My apologies to Ross Dress for Less. I shopped there many times when I was in Los Angeles. The dress barn. I know, for sure. It doesn't make any sense. It's the ugliest thing. And we are just getting started with Dorothy's outfits. We're just getting started. But she comes in and she sees her mother and says, wait a minute, where do you think you're going? Yes. So Sophia, who's wearing a cameo brooch, I noticed, by the way,

Because that's what old people wear. Of course. She's always in like five layers. She's always got like a blouse and undershirt and like a cardigan sweater. It's Miami. It's 98 degrees. Wait a minute. Now, just where do you think you're going? Over to Mildred's to watch the adult movie channel. She has a widescreen TV. You are not going anywhere. Dr. Clayton is coming. Dr. Silvano is my doctor. Dr. Silvano is dead. Trust me, I'm in better shape than he is. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Now, Sophia is always watching porn. Remember, like they get a VCR eventually and they all come home and Sophia's watching dirty movies. Sophia is so horny that she is jogging through the house to get to Mildred's to watch porn with her girlfriends. What you do? I guess that's what you do in a full cardigan in Miami. Oh my God. I can't. But Dorothy says she can't go because Dr. Clayton is coming over to make a house call. That's right. Her former doctor, Dr. Silvano, has died. Right.

And Dorothy tells her, look, you have to. Your blood pressure's up. You're tired. You have no color in your face, to which Sophia says. Are we allowed to say this? No, let's not. Yeah. We're not even a minute and a half into the episode, people, and we have a racist joke.

Yeah. It's terrible. It's a joke that would never fly today. So Rose now enters with chicken soup. I love that whenever they've cooked, they're wearing an apron. Like they really take the protecting of the clothes very seriously. Absolutely. And it's a seafoam green apron. And, you know, in the 80s, this was a very popular costume.

color. Is that right? Oh, yes. Bedrooms were designed in seafoam green and peach and white. Oh, wow. It was very popular. I love this. Well, she has made Sophia, who clearly doesn't feel well, the same chicken soup she used to make for her husband every time he wasn't feeling well. And Sophia has a great joke. Thank you, Winnie. She says, did you make it for him the last time he wasn't feeling well?

Good joke. Blanche enters. Okay, I'm texting you one more time. Okay. Blanche enters. They are really experimenting with the smoky eye in this episode. Both Blanche has the smoky eye and Rose. And Rose's lashes are their own character in this episode. They are. Especially later when she's like, you can't sleep. Yes. Full lash. Totally. Take a look at Blanche's full smoky eye and then scroll to Rose. There we go. Okay.

Like they're both like full Tammy Faye Baker. They are in very much the same palette. The makeup artist that week liked a bluey lavender and a nice plum. Yeah. I feel like they hired Divine, the drag queen, to come do makeup that week. What if they did? They might have. But Blanche, she says she just happened to find the most Divine dress sale. And then like one of my favorite jokes of all time. I know. I just happened upon the most Divine dress sale. I would have called you girls, but all they had left were petite.

So what did you buy? Shoes? Don't you love how she says petite so petite-ly? She's like, all they had left were petites.

Remember, like, she couldn't be a kidney match for her sister, Virginia, because her blood vessels were too petite. The fact that Blanche loves being this petite little woman in this room full of, like, beached whales is my favorite thing about her. And I'm not saying that's how I feel. I'm saying, like, Blanche just thinks she's the tiniest and they are all monsters. I love how Blanche just gives an unbothered, laugh-it-off reaction. Ha ha ha!

Well, because she's going to run off to try on her new dress to show the girls because it's going to set her up. And that's right. To look fabulous in a few minutes. Sophia protests too much, says she's petite and she should get over there to buy a black dress for Dr. Silvano's funeral.

Just to be reminded that they, in fact, went there. And yeah, to your point, Blanche is like, no, no, stay right here. You know, and she's off to the races to change. Off to the races. She cannot wait. So Dorothy is saying something that I was thinking, which is like how lucky they are to find a doctor who makes house calls. That's not really a thing. But why isn't that a thing? Don't you wish that were a thing? I know. But anyway, Rose says growing up in Minnesota, the doctor made house calls all the time for them and for the livestock.

Dorothy says, you and the animals had the same doctor? Yeah, Rose said it worked out fine until the doctor started drinking hog liniment and tried to neuter the Swenson brothers. And just in time, the doorbell saves the day. Yes. From another long Rose story. So clearly it's going to be the doctor. And Sophia says, If that's the doctor, tell him I have no insurance and no money. If he still wants to come in, he just wants to see me naked.

I gotta tell you, like my deep dive on Estelle Getty, we'll get more into it in that deep dive, but she'd been doing acting all of her life, but like nothing professional. All of her acting experience, except for one major thing up to this moment, was like local theater in Queens. Yeah. She is so good. It's like John Mahoney is from

Frasier. Like he didn't start till he was like in his late 40s or something. I love stories like that. It's never too late, kids. It's never too late. And she's so good. She's such a natural. Like everyone just says when like the lights came on, she just like lit up the room and was like the funniest person. I have a lot of stats about how she like stacked up

up to the other women in terms of like what the world thought of her. It's wild. So Dorothy goes to answer the door and we meet Dr. Clayton. It's clear from the get-go that Dorothy finds him very attractive. The head of hair on this guy. It's a good head of hair. To get to that, sometimes they get the men on this show that like the older men that have like a full mop of hair. I am desperately jealous. He's handsome. And Dorothy says, I'm Dorothy, Sophia's daughter, and I usually look much better. To which Patrick, I thought, no, you don't. What?

When? When have we haven't seen it, honey? No, you're right. But at the same time, she doesn't look bad. Have you ever, maybe this has never happened to you, but this has been the story of my life, my whole life, when you are not a bad looking person, but you're just not the best looking one in your friend group. So then everybody by comparison, including myself, are just the ugly ones. That is what is going on with Blanche and Rosenthaler. Like Blanche is the hot one. So then by default, everyone else is ugly. And I'm like, but,

she's not ugly, but she does never look better than this. Up until now, in our season five chunk. Yes. I'm like, I've never, no, it's about synonymous. We're about even. Water finds its level. Right. You know, it's also about like expectation setting, Dorothy. Don't tell him it's going to get much better, girl. We're about to find out you have no clothing left. We'll get there. So,

So this actor, his name is Peter Hansen. I don't have a lot on him. He appeared in over 100 films, TV shows and made for TV movies. He played the role of lawyer Lee Baldwin on General Hospital for 23 years. I saw him. He was there for a long time. I only started watching it during the famous Luke and Laura years. Oh, yeah. Like 79. And he yeah, he was the father of Laura's husband, Scotty Baldwin. Let me ask you a question. Doing a soap opera for 23 years. Is that a dream job or is that like a hellscape?

In my opinion, it was a dream job for a lot of people. Would you do it like now? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She's available. Actually, not really. But she could be for the right number. So the doctor and Dorothy walk into the living room and they start doing that thing where they are basically talking about Sophia as though she's not there. She does not like that. No. And it's really credit to the director and the actors because I think it really enhances the comedic infantilization of Sophia that they're standing on.

on either side of her and towering above her. And to her credit, Estelle Getty is doing that great job of the ping pong head, you know, side to side, looking back and forth between them until she finally says, What am I, two years old? I don't know my own symptoms. I've lived in this body since I was born. If something goes wrong, I'm the first one to hear about it. I'm sorry, Sophia. What seems to be the problem? What am I, a doctor?

The doctor apologizes and sits down and takes out a thermometer to take Sophia's temperature. That is the sum total of all he's going to do. Her state of health is so poor. They needed a doctor to do a house call. And the only thing this guy does is take her temperature. Like they couldn't do that themselves. But also, let's just say how disgusting this was because he put his grubby little nubs halfway down that thing. Like literally the part that's going to be in her mouth. You're right. That's disgusting. You're disgusting.

I used to work at a restaurant where you could get fired. If you're dropping off a soda glass or a beer glass or whatever, you are only allowed to touch the glass from the 50% mark of the glass down. You cannot touch it any higher than that. Well, I don't know about the fired part, but I do respect that rule. Yeah, I think it's a good rule. Yeah. But now Dorothy is subtly trying or not so subtly. I had she's going in for the kill. Yeah.

This is like great comedy, like showing that she does not ask a lot of men out. She does not get asked out a lot. She is not subtle here at all. She's just trying to find out if he's single. She's asking if he's new to Miami and Rose is saying Miami is beautiful. I'm sure you'll love it. And then Dorothy, Dorothy,

Dorothy's, you know, sort of over the top says, I'm sure your wife, Mrs. Clayton, will love it too. And this is where we learn that Mr. and Mrs. Clayton are no longer together. And Dorothy makes that face that she sometimes make with like the tongue out to Rose, saying that like she's like so excited to find out that this doctor is single. Right. So she's, oh, I'm so sorry, tongue out. Audience loves it. And then this next part, Patrick, just bear with me because I love it so much. I rewound it like five times.

I'm just going to say the line first. She says, so tell me, have you had much of a chance to see much of the city? So tell me, have you had a chance to see much of the city? And the thing that I love about city is that it's like that 1950s to 1970s actress thing. Totally. Where they don't use their consonants. So you really can't tell what part of the country they're from. No, really, Patrick, is it Mid-Atlantic? I'm not quite sure. Yeah.

I come from money. I come from money, but I'm a mystery. Because you don't know. Because I don't really enunciate. It's just a very relaxed, rich sound. You are nailing it. Also, Dorothy is speaking in a tone. Because normally Dorothy has a very low voice. And she's trying, like poor Bea Arthur is trying to get up to any place remotely feminine. And she's really struggling. She's trying to go from bass baritone to at least tenor.

I have the reverse problem where I cannot get my voice below soprano, just ever. Well, we're both sopranos. It's a little challenging. It's a little challenging. But Dorothy, you know, he says he hasn't had much chance to see the city. And Dorothy says perhaps she could show him some of the highlights sometimes. I love that she just goes for it. You know what I mean? Like the clock is a ticking. You know what I mean? She's not wasting time. Dr. Clayton says it sounds great. He says he'd love it. To which Rose says, I'd love to go too.

And Dorothy promptly stomps on her foot. Now, I went back and watched it, and you can clearly see that Bea Arthur does not make contact with Betty White's foot. Sure, of course. But, like, Betty White feigns as though she has, and she's in actual pain. And I'm like, huh, it feels very theatrical, whereas, like, I feel like if they had shot that for TV today, they would have cut away in a way that you couldn't have actually seen her not make contact with the foot. Absolutely. It was not an actor problem, because it's...

If you look at how they're set to the studio audience, much like a theatrical production, that's a perfect stage bit. Exactly. But the camera, what's his name? Drake? Jim Drake? Yes. Sorry, Jim. Two demerits. Because yes, I noticed that too. Yeah. It's also funny how over-the-top Bea Arthur does it. Like if this were real, if Dorothy and Rose were real people in this real moment, she would have broken her foot. What have we been saying all along? Rosie. I know.

Rosie. Season one, we're in Rosie. Or just that, like, Dorothy has real anger management problems, as we're going to see throughout this episode. And then Sweet Rose gets the hint, and she says, comedies in threes, very brilliant. She's like, except I have to wash my hair every day for the rest of my life.

And they do a real, like, close zoom in on Rose where you see her implants are swapping makeup tips because she's also doing a very smoky eye this week. Yep, very smoky. So Dr. Clayton says, you know, what about dinner at 8 tomorrow night to Dorothy? Dorothy says, it's perfect. I'm happy for Dorothy. I am too. This really is working out. Yeah. Dorothy says they'll go to Jack's Crab House. And I also said dinner at 8 o'clock.

clock. Are you napping before that? Dinner at eight. And I had, in addition to that, Patrick, that she should wear the same top because it looks like it could really handle the crab splatter.

You're right. It's one of those where like the stains would get lost in the folds of that thing. Like whatever social media we're using when this episode goes up, go look at it because we're going to put a picture of it. Oh, I just thought of this, Patrick, too. And also her pants, the pleats, that tight pleat in the front. And I remember this catalog when we were kids and where you're from. I was like, that's a real Cape Cod coordinate she's got going on there. 100%.

Oh, my God. So now Blanche comes out of the bedroom wearing an absolutely stunning green dress. But may I make one observation? Yes. Remember the last episode where Virginia made her wear a green maid of honor dress and she said it made her look like a frog? Like green is not her color. She looks stunning in green. But it's a grand entrance. And she's like, well, girls, is this dress going to stop traffic or what? Yeah.

She poses in the hallway and Elliot does a- She looks like a million bucks. She does it, causing Elliot to do a classic double take. I mean, once again, to the back row. And of course, Blanche, oh, hello there, walking towards him with her hips swaying. Like strutting towards him. I don't believe we've been introduced. She offers her hand as though he can kiss it. Oh, hello there. I don't believe we've been introduced. My name is Blanche Devereaux. That's French for-

Blanche Devereux. That's French for Blanche Devereux. Now, we are all thinking it. You know what I mean? Poor Elliot agreed to a date a little too soon. Yep. You know what I mean? Yep. Because, like, once again, Dorothy is a lovely woman. If I had to date one of them, she's the one I would want to date. But, like, Elliot the doctor and Blanche the vixen, like...

He did a double take. I mean, he did a double take. For sure. I said, Dr. Clayton is literally speechless. So she's standing in front of him. She's having just introduced herself. I said, the way these two are undressing each other with their eyes. Oh, yeah. There's like actual chemistry. Yeah. She says, forgive me for staring. But I do declare. Yeah.

You're the most attractive man I've seen in Miami since Mr. John Forsythe performed Hamlet at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater. We have to break this down because, first of all, the idea of Hamlet at a dinner theater. I know. Thanks, Winnie. I know. We got to talk about these two things. So John Forsythe, real quick. I don't know who that is. Oh, yes, you do. So he was very popular at this time because he was the star of the biggest nighttime soap opera, Dynasty. Oh.

He was Blake Carrington. You know, he married to Linda Evans and Joan Collins. And Joan Collins. Yes. So he was huge. And not only that, in the original Charlie's Angels TV show, he was the voice of Charlie. Right. Yeah. So in 1985, he was extremely popular because of Dynasty.

It's interesting because I've got a little mini deep dive on the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater because it's a real thing. It's like really a real thing and it was a really nice theater. So apparently it opened in 1979 with a focus on training young performers looking to enter show business and it was later renamed to the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theater. Burt Reynolds himself opened

oversaw the operations of the theater until 1989. Like, he was very involved. That's huge. He really cared. It's said to have been one of the most renowned cultural centers in Florida, for whatever that's worth. They say more celebrities performed on its stage than any other arts venue in Palm Beach County at that time, including such stars as Martin Sheen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julie Harris, and, wait for it, Judd Nelson. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Why is that so funny? I don't know. Jen Nelson is the one from like The Breakfast Club. Yeah, I just never, I guess I just don't see him as a theater actor. Maybe he did his Hamlet. Probably.

But after a few different owners in 2001, a group of citizens formed the nonprofit Palm Beach Playhouse Inc., purchased the building for $2.76 million. It's still in operation today, and it's called the Maltz Jupiter Theater. And I just look up their season. Like, it looks like a really cool, like, arts cultural center in Florida. Go check it out. I know. Support live theater. Yeah, totally.

So Dorothy is no dummy and she sees what's going on. She sees what it's about to happen. And so she says, Blanche, might I see you for a moment? This is my favorite thing because I thought she would pull Blanche into the kitchen. No, she pulls Blanche exactly six inches away from Dr. Clayton, has a full-on conversation that he can definitely hear. Yanks her away. Yeah.

And she's so angry. Like, we're back to baritone Dorothy. She's so mad. And Blanche is giving full Blanche. Okay. We gotta do it. You do Dorothy, I'll do Blanche. She says, keep your bloomers on, Scarlett. He's taking me out tomorrow night. But he wants me. I can feel it.

I saw him first. But we were meant for each other. I'm a woman, he's a man. And what am I, little Richard? I just love how Blanche is so lost in her sexuality. Oh, yeah. She's so lost in her own womanhood that she literally cannot see her way out of it. No, like, she's just swimming in endorphins in this moment. She wants to

climb him yeah but finally she says that i and i kind of love how she snaps out of it to say like oh all right fair is fair because she's looking at it very unblanched yes you know i totally agree and i think even blanche is like i'll let you have this one dot you know but she says if he has a friend who makes house calls i can be sick any night this week except thursday

So totally cute. Totally cute. So we're back to our patient and Rose asked the doctor how Sophia is. And he says her temperature appears to be normal. Which means everything is fine. I know. And he asked her if she's been taking her medication. She says almost every day if she remembers, right? And he's like, you got to take it every day. And Dorothy says, I'll see that she does. Dr. Clayton. And he says. Elliot. Which I was like, oh, they're on first. Didn't you go, ooh?

they're on the same basis you know like watching Blanche be all sexy with him was cool but like there's something about Dorothy she's the smart one he's a doctor yeah I bet he's ready and excited for some intellectually stimulating conversation at Elliot's Crab Shack or whatever it's called

Yeah, so he's, you know, and he makes a point of it. He says goodbye to all the other ladies, but he says, Dorothy, it's been especially nice meeting you. Yes, what a gentleman, you think. Yeah, right. So Dorothy sees him to the door. He leaves and she looks up to the heavens. Right, and as he's leaving, he does give Dorothy a goodbye wink. Yeah. And then Dorothy, of course, has her reaction. Yeah, she sees him out and she looks up at the heavens and goes, oh, thank you for being a kind and generous God.

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So it's several days later. It's nighttime. Blanche and Rose are reading in the living room and Dorothy enters. Now, before we get to Dorothy...

Blanche is devouring this book. Which, by the way, if you look closely, was in that shopping bag that she came home with. Oh, is that right? I just, like, I had my third viewing this morning. And I was like, oh, that's the orange book. Oh, interesting. I couldn't read it. I was trying to see the title. I always imagine every night of the week Blanche is going out. But she's staying in to, like, read in the living room with Rose tonight. I was like, okay, taking a night off.

Yeah. So Dorothy enters. Can you describe what she's wearing? I texted Patrick and I said, she's wearing a Bill Cosby sweater, basically. It's this ugly geometric shape, loud colored, 100% acetate nightmare. It's like orange, yellow, navy blue. Very ugly. Yeah. She asked the girls what they think. And Blanche says, Dorothy, you and Elliot have been out almost every night this week. He's obviously hooked. You don't have to look good anymore. What you have on is fine. Oh.

I'll change. And the audience, did you hear? They like, ooh. To which Dorothy says, I'll change. Yeah. So Dorothy goes to change. Rose says she'll help her find something. Dorothy says there's nothing left to try. The only thing I haven't tried on is the bedspread. And the doorbell rings. Blanche goes to the door and lets in Elliot. Yes. He, of course, asks if Dorothy's ready. She reads. Can I just say, Blanche reads her book all the way to the door. She's so engrossed.

She's engrossed. What is it? Failure is not not an option by Patrick Hines? It must be. It must be. No, but you said it several days later. She would have finished that in one night. One sitting. Torn right through and laughed the whole way. So anyway, yes, as we said, Blanche tells Elliot that Dorothy's going to be a little while and may she offer him a drink. Now, this is interesting because we never see them drinking. They want to eat cheesecake instead of having a cocktail. She's a fish this entire episode. I know.

Well, because we have this like phantom bar cart that shows up where the TV usually is. Which we all, it's so uncomfortable because we all know it's just a floating bar cart. Because we know there's no wall. No, I just want to know that this bar cart exists somewhere in the house and every night at five o'clock.

on the dot, they wheel the bar cart out to the living room where all four of them move the TV to the side so they can have their bar cart for the evening. It seems like that's something that normally would live in the Lanai space or at least the breezeway between the two living spaces, you know? But it is just, it is like a

pimple that you'd want no one to see in this episode right it's just there you're like there's our couch there's our easy chair but there's that black ice bucket but that's the thing you know like the bar cart is set up and ready to go there's a decanter full of some dark liquid we don't know what it is they have taken the time to fill the ice bucket yeah you know this is how i want to live when i'm their age i want a bar cart that comes out every night fully stocked at 5 p.m absolutely getting back after the bar cart she did say let she offers him a drink yeah

And he says... If you'll join me. And she says, don't mind if I do. What would you like? He says something smooth and sweet with a little kick to it. Now, we can all see where this is going. Oh, yeah. Blanche is not... Blanche is still engrossed in her book. She's not paying much attention. Right. Offers to make him a slow chin fizz. I was like, are you a thousand? I know. I didn't even know what that was until we started doing this because I always thought slow was S-L-O-W. Yeah. And...

It's spelled S-L-O-E. I can't remember exactly. I was a bartender for like 12 years. I was a good bartender. I make good cocktails and I did make slow gin fizzes, but I can't remember what's in it. Well, I did look it up that the slow, it's a British berry. Yes. Which had that reddish color. Yeah, but it's sweet, I think. They're good, but it was like nothing anybody from this century ordered.

But it's Blanche's go-to cocktail. I love it. So anyway, she says, hmm, how about a slow gin fizz? And he says... He says, you're talking about the drink. I'm talking about the bartender. And he's also standing uncomfortably close to her. Oh, this whole... This is Gropey McGroperstein coming up. Yes, he's totally in her space. It's like just the audacity. There's so much audacity coming from him right now. It's making me crazy. Right. He now makes the creepiest pass at her. Blanche, you feel all right? You feel a little flushed to me. I do? Yeah, let me check your pulse.

Ooh, it's racing. You know what? So is mine. I beg your pardon? You are a very attractive woman, Blanche. I know. Very attractive. Very attractive. Now, wait a minute. What are you... How dare you? What kind of a woman do you think I am? Come on, relax. Relax? Don't you tell me to relax.

He asks her if she's feeling all right and then tells her she's looking flush as he rubs her cheek. And then he says, let me feel your pulse and like takes her hand, says her pulse is racing. And then so is mine as he like puts her hand on his chest. Right. And I think what's so gross about it, too, is that he is a doctor. So he has this position that he's abusive.

Totally. And of course, she's wonderful. And I have to say, despite the grossness of this, she's so hilarious coming up. She says, I beg your pardon. He says. He says, you're a very attractive woman, Blanche. I know. I know. The way, the dismissive manner in which she says, I know, isn't like, why are you pointing out basic facts? You know what I mean? Yeah.

Then, of course, she starts to get riled up. She says, wait a minute. What are you doing? How dare you? What kind of woman do you think I am? Because he's pulling at her. He's got his hands around her waist. And then the misogyny continues because he tells her to what? To just relax. Yes. And she punches him. It's so brilliant. She's like, relax. Don't you tell me to relax. Punch.

like a good punch. Yes. It's one of those scenes that these days I feel like would require an intimacy coach. Oh, 100%. Because like he's all in her space. And if you remember in the other scene when they were having that very sexy moment, she was very consenting and was very in his space. But now it's like we know that Dorothy and him have been out many nights this week that's been established. Dorothy obviously is like really into this guy. It's very uncomfortable. It is and

And I have to say, I know that we're using a lot of her Southern manners in these next few lines, but I really love Blanche here when she's not accustomed to being manhandled. Yes. And it just goes to show, like, even in this ha-ha-ha sitcom, how important it is to consent, agency. Like, you know, yes, she likes to date, but she has agency in that and he's taking it away. Totally. And he's just...

all over her. It's very gross. Yeah. But then he has the gall to say, I thought you'd be flattered. I'm like, you did? Oh, just doubling down. Just, well, I'm not. Pardon my strong language, but you, sir, are no gentleman. And she's saying, like, Dorothy is my friend. Like, this man thinks so little of women or thinks so much of his own, like, sexual prowess or his own, like, whatever that he thinks that, like, anybody would be into him. Now, remember the episode where

Rose was describing all the men their age that she's been going out with and how all they want to do is talk about their gross problems and the hair on their nose and their like whatever. Maybe Elliot is the only, you know, 60 year old catch in Miami. So he's used to being able to like get whatever he wants, but it's all very disgusting. It is.

He doesn't want Dorothy to be brought into this, of course. Of course. And Blanche is like, hmm, like, we'll see about that kind of exit to the next moment, which is Rose entering. Elliot runs to her to say hi, gives her a hug, kiss on the cheek, which again, he like grabs her, pulls her into a kiss. I'm like, people wouldn't do that. Any normal person would know better than to do that.

today. Right. I'd also like to point out he has more physical contact with either of them than we ever see him have with Dorothy. Oh my God, you're so right. To the point where like we see them at the end of a date and they basically shake hands. I have that down here in my notes. They don't even shake hands. It's like, don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. I know.

I know. Oh, gosh. Anyway. But Elliot is complimenting her on her scent, and she says it's fancy albacore tuna. She made a casserole, Patrick. But you know what? I was desperate for tuna casserole when she said that. She made it for dinner. My mom, not a good cook. She made a mean tuna casserole.

That woman. So Dorothy enters wearing a green cowl neck. It's like such a running joke that every time Dorothy leaves the room to change because everyone is saying how ugly the outfit is, she comes back wearing an equally or more ugly outfit. And over this green cowl neck, Patrick, she's wearing a shirt that can only be described as a parachute. Yes. With black triangle rip cords. Yeah.

It's just so funny. She loves a rolled up sleeve. In everything she wears, her sleeves are rolled up. It's just wild. But also, her clothes look expensive. Even though they're ugly, they look expensive. And it's like, where did Dorothy get the money for this? Where did the money go? Where did the money go? So they leave and Rose and Blanche head up to the swim up bar to discuss their feelings about Elliot. We're at the bar again, Patrick. We're back at the bar cart. Oh, God. Something about that man I don't trust. I don't trust him.

I can't put my finger on it. I can. He's a lech. No, that isn't it.

And Rose says, no, that's not it. It gets a big laugh. It got a big laugh for me. Blanche is pouring what looks like a dark brown liquid into a brandy glass, a sherry glass, and it's clearly Coca-Cola. Right? Totally. It's soda, for sure. I love that in this house, there's a decanter with a brown liquid. We don't know what it is. Probably whiskey. Yeah. There's a whiskey. These women come home from dates all the time. None of them are tipsy ever. No, they only drink at home alone, which is healthy. After five, when they wheel the bar cart in and move the TV...

Anyway, Blanche tells Rose that he made a pass at her. And Rose says what we're all thinking, like, Dorothy's going to be heartbreaking when you tell her that. And Blanche says, I am absolutely not going to tell her. And Rue McClanahan is so masterful here because she conveys in that one line that she's been dealing with this shit all of her life. I mean, pretty people problems. And I mean that sincerely. What would you do? Oh, brother. I think it would depend on the friend. It's Megan Hilty. Yeah.

What would you do if Megan Hilty's husband came on to you? It's hard for me to take that leap. Yeah. Because if you're married to Megan Hilty, why would you ever? All right, fine. You spend a couple weeks doing a show with Tina Fey's husband. He comes on to you.

That would never happen. You're trying to put me in the hot seat here. I'm getting in trouble. First of all, he never would. And second of all, I would not tell her. I would handle it with him and say, what the fuck was that? Yeah. She's my friend. Don't you ever do that again? Or I will. If it happens again, I'm going to say something. My husband comes on to you. I would laugh in his face. And I would tell you and laugh about it.

I would tell you and cackle. Yeah, okay, great. Yeah. Steve, you met your match. You met your match. Okay, this next bit is absolutely absurd. Winifred, what is going on? I don't love this next section. Okay, great. I have to say. You know exactly where this is going because Blanche says, the last time a friend's sweetheart made a pass at me, I lost my friend Andrew Bow. Now, right away, you know where this is going. Yeah, and Rose says, Andrew Bow? And Blanche says, that's right, Andrew Bow Johnson. The last time.

Last time a friend's sweetheart made a pass at me, I lost my friend, Anderbo. Anderbo? That's right, Anderbo Johnson. Clyde Whitehead, Anderbo's beau, decided he wanted to see my cheerleader sweater from the inside. So when I told Anderbo, she blamed the whole thing on me. And then Clyde would never speak to me again for telling. I lost Anderbo, Anderbo. Now you understand why I can't tell Dorothy?

I don't even understand who Ander Bobo is. Blanche was trying to tell the story that, like, when I tell a woman that their man hit on me, I always lose the friend. Right. To me, it was just kind of like, I could have used a sweet story here from Blanche about, like, how hard it is. I agree with you. I don't think it had a lot of mileage for the money on that joke, you know? No, because as soon as she said that her friend's name was Ander Bo, you're like, okay. Because you know it's not a real name. You know that. Right.

And then we have a more successful joke coming up from Rose that is set up for a callback later, basically. Can I just tell you a quick story? You can. My mother went to high school. This is real. I've seen the yearbook, the yearbook photo with the name with a woman. Her name was Nancy Ann and her last name was Ciencianus. And so her name was Nancy, Nancy, and Ciencianus. I swear to God. Yeah.

That poor woman. All I can think of is her on the phone trying to get anything done with anyone on the other end of the line. That's just mean. The look on your face as it washed over you was incredible. The problem. I did it when I went home. Her name was Nancy Ann Ciancianis. Nancy Ann Ciancianis. I...

Nancy, Nancy, and Sianis. Nancy, Nancy, and Sianis. I'm telling you. Ooh, that's good. It's a good one. The point is, for me here, Dorothy is very serious about this guy. And I feel like Blanche should tell her. You know what I mean? We all do. Because he's going to keep doing it. This guy, he's a dog, as they say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's early enough to, like, the things that you told me about, Patrick, these were long-term marriages that we're talking about. Like, if you're dating someone just a week, to answer your question again, like, I would tell my girlfriend. For sure. I mean, and you see the problem presented to Blanche, right? Which is that, like, she's the hot one of the friend group. And now, of course, exactly what you think is going to happen is what happens. Right. So it's later that night. Elliot drops Dorothy off after the date. They barely look at each other, let alone goodnight kiss. Platonic goodbye. No hug. No hug.

We opened the door in one of the episodes and Rose is hugging Arnie. Yeah, that's right. They're just holding each other. These two in dog years, they've been going out for, you know, seven years by this, you know, compared to, you know, nothing. No physical contact. Like you can't even imagine the two of them like walking, holding hands on the boardwalk. Oh no. They've never touched. Yeah.

They've never touched. But Blanche is waiting up. She says she tells Dorothy she has to talk to her. Blanche walks back over to the bar. She's making herself another drink. Back at the bar. But she was also what? Reading again. But like this again is another real moment of like getting real character development from Blanche because she's really trying hard to work up the courage to tell Dorothy this thing that she knows is going to make Dorothy miserable. Lord knows Dorothy is a loose, unpredictable cannon. I can see Dorothy turning tables over.

That's right. She's got that kind of vulnerable temper. Well, she already does at something innocuous where she's like, is something wrong? Is it ma? She says, no, she's fine. It's just you're so laid out on a school night. And Dorothy looks perplexed. But the way she says what? It's so like, she might as well say this. What? You stupid piece of shit. What? It's just that you're out so late on a school night. What? Jesus. Like, it's so impatient. I know. And like, it's.

It's so hostile. I know. Like, if you and I lived together and I was out on a date and I came home and I'm like, oh shit, the bar cart is still out and one of my favorite people is up to have a cup, I would be thrilled to like wind my night down with a glass of brandy with you. Dorothy is not happy to see her. It's true. It's true.

But anyway, the way she says the most in what? It's just so seething with resentment. It's true. And superiority. But here, oh, God bless Drew McLennan. She's so funny trying to spit this out. Dorothy, I have to tell you something. It's just so hard. I don't know how to tell you, except I guess just straight out. What? Well, Elliot made Elliot made. What? Elliot made it.

What? What did Elliot make? A ship in a bottle? What? Elliot made a... What did Elliot make? A ship in a bottle? What? Thank you, Winnie. Great joke.

So she says, Elliot made a pass at me. And Dorothy is just standing there incredulous. Now, we could read into this. You know, like if you look at Dorothy's face for a second, I don't know the kind of layers Bea Arthur is trying to infuse here. On some level, she expected this. She knew it was going to happen. It was all too good to be true. I got the layers. Like you see it cross her eyes like for a split second. Yeah. That's horrible news. And then she's like, oh, you mean he winked at you? He winked because we saw him wink earlier. He winks at everyone. He's a very big winker. He's a big winker.

And then, oh God, Rue McClanahan. No, it was mold and a wing. And she perches on the edge of the coffee table. This is so Winnie, the writer. This is genius writing. And with genius writing and genius performance, Rue, she puts her hands to her waist. He came up to me and he put his big masculine arms around my tiny little waist.

It is so good. The way that Blanche is constantly referring to just being so feminine and teeny weeny tiny. It is so funny. I hope it never goes away. Oh my God. But,

But Dorothy shoots right back, I don't believe you. And Blanche is like, can't believe that she doesn't believe her. And then Dorothy says, I don't believe that he put his big masculine arms around your alleged tiny little waist. Oh, God. And so, you know, Blanche is like, well, why wouldn't you believe me? And Dorothy's like, because you're jealous. You know, you get all the attention. You're used to that. And when someone comes along and wants me instead of you, you can't stand it and you're eating your guts out. Yeah. And here we start to get crazy. Right.

She sort of stands over Blanche and in her face yells, you could never be a real friend to a woman. And do you know why? Why? Because you're a slut. And the audience, the audience reaction. Big ass. Blanche is incredulous, following her around the room, repeating everything she's saying. Blanche is in shock. And then Dorothy says, you, Blanche, are an amoral, backstabbing, self-centered Jezebel.

And I am very glad that this happened because now I know really what kind of person you are. I have holy shit dot. It's like, I know it's like a friendship breaker. 100%. It's like the words she chose. Yeah. The violence with which she spoke them. I mean, it's emotionally violent. It is an it's an emotionally abusive tirade. Like, how do you think it would have gone if Jim Drake said to be out there? Let's do it one more time.

We got you like a 30. Give it to us at like a six. I certainly have no evidence to this opinion of mine, but I would think she'd say, I'm going to do whatever I want.

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So it's the next morning and we're in the kitchen and everyone is mad at everyone except Sophia has no idea what's going on. She's just spreading jam on toast. I know.

Yes. And so Rose is in the kitchen. Blanche enters. She is furious with Rose. Blanche sits down. Rose offers her coffee. And Blanche starts parroting Rose, like basically saying that the advice that Rose gave her to tell Dorothy because she owes it to her because she's Dorothy's best friend was very bad advice. Yeah, that now she and Dorothy aren't talking. And so she's going to stop talking to Rose. Yeah.

But she does keep talking to Rose. And she says, and yes, I'll take that coffee. That's right. So Dorothy enters the kitchen and she and Blanche avoid looking at one another. Rose tries. She's like, morning, Dorothy. Blanche and I were just having some coffee. Would you care to join us? And Dorothy says, frankly, Rose, I would rather use Willie Nelson's hairbrush.

Blanche is, of course, very upset. Must you attack everything Southern? They continue to fight. Rose tries to play the mediator. I do want to point out a small detail I didn't notice. Yeah. But that Dorothy pours just a sip of orange juice to down a vitamin. Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, she had gone over to the cabinet and it's vitamin. They're always drinking orange juice, I guess because they're in Florida. Yeah. And, you know, Rose is trying to say, can we settle this like adults? Blanche says yes as soon as Dorothy stops acting like a child and then Dorothy loses her mind again. She does and thankfully the doorbell interrupts this terrible fight. Yes. So Dorothy says it's Elliot, she's got to go and Blanche chased

his Dorothy into the living room saying, how dare you leave in the middle of a fight? The audience thinks that's hilarious. They do. Before Dorothy can get to the door, Rose screams. I was gonna hold it right there and I'm not fooling around.

Rose is in charge. I love in charge Rose. We get her periodically and throughout the seasons. It's true. I do. It's true. But she tells Dorothy that she needs to confront Elliot with Blanche's accusation, to which I agree. And Dorothy says, absolutely not. She refuses. She opens the door. Elliot comes in and says, morning, Dorothy, ready to go. And she reconsiders. My thing is like, if you're Elliot,

you have some nerve coming back to that house, just assuming that Blanche is going to keep your secrets. Well, you know, he's a doctor. He's very, not that all doctors are like Dr. Elliot Clayton. Let me stipulate that. But I mean, just from the way he behaved, he's quite arrogant, I would say. And he does not think much of their friendship. He thinks

he believes that Blanche is not going to tell Dorothy. You know, it says a lot about him as a man, I guess. So, you know, Dorothy confronts him and, you know, and Elliot plays the dummy and denies it. And to do that in front of Blanche. Oh, yeah. You know, and she says he's lying. He knows he's lying. And she says it in a very funny way. Elliot, did you make a pass at Blanche or not? Absolutely not. He's lying. Look at him. He's twitching and blinking. He's lying and twitching and blinking.

He is blinking, Dorothy. He's lying and twitching and blinking. But Rose comes running. She sees the evidence. He is blinking, Dorothy. And remember, I think Rose is very happy this is coming out because she does not have a good feeling about him and Rose is never wrong. And then Elliot, he's like incredulous and angry. Maybe I had better wait for you in the car. Yeah.

Like, oh, I'm sorry. And he is lying. Yes. Like, the gall of it all. Yeah. And so Blanche says to Dorothy, you have to believe me. And Dorothy says, you know, it's not enough that you've had half the men in Dade County. You have to have everyone else's man too. It's pathetic. And like, why doesn't Dorothy believe her? I mean,

we'll learn later. She doesn't want to believe her. You know, a catch like this doesn't come along often for old dots. You know what? This is not the show we're covering, but to answer your question, in my opinion, it's that inner thing that we see in the episode about the rusty anchor. Uh-huh. She's like, Dorothy, are you ever jealous of me? She's like, every day of my life. Yes. You know, it is. It's envy. Yeah, and it's probably in the back of her mind. It's like, even if this is true, why did you have to tell me? You know what I mean? Just like, let me have this. Now, I have to say this though, Patrick. The way, again, the way she delivers...

You have to have everyone else's, man. It is pathetic. Jesus, Dot. I mean, it's just so, it's like murderous. It's murderous. I think that when she's saying the word pathetic, it's like, I think that Dorothy is very used to feeling less than to Blanche. And whether she actually doesn't believe Blanche or not, this is giving her an opportunity to feel better than her.

Yeah. In some way. She wins. She wins. I just keep thinking about Blanche as like the pretty one in the friend group. And it doesn't matter how smart you are if you're the smart one. You want to be the pretty one. Well, and she does say it later. We're not there yet. That she didn't want to believe it. In the art of the possible, she's obviously going to choose the one that's most beneficial to her and her heart. Totally. And this would not be it. Yes. And like Elliot's just denied it. She's going to take him at his word, I guess. Because she wants to believe it. Yeah. I mean, that's right. They've never touched. She's hoping for a hug someday. Right.

And to this next part, I said, amen, Blanche. I have just never felt so betrayed in all my life. All right, I haven't been a good friend to a lot of people, but I have been a very good friend to you, Dorothy. And you take some stranger's word over mine. I'm not going to stand for this. Not in my own house. I want you out of here. Blanche, you don't mean that. Dorothy, she doesn't mean it. I do so mean it. I'll be out as soon as I can find a place. Blanche, you can't just throw Dorothy out on the street.

You just watch me. And this is escalating very fast. Remember, the pilot was four episodes ago, and this, like, trio was so terrified of being broken up. And Blanche, on her wedding day in that episode, was sobbing because she was going to, like, be losing the two best friends she ever had. And now, all of a sudden, this has gotten so heightened that Blanche is going to kick Dorothy out. And then I'm thinking, what's going to happen to Sophia? I thought the same thing. If Dorothy gets thrown out, what's going to happen there? I will say this, though. You and I have said on almost every episode,

episode up until this point how abusive Dorothy is and why do they put up with her?

Like, why don't they even want her there? Like, this is not really a surprise to me. Yeah, totally. Totally. Do you ever wonder, too, like, who's paying Sophia's rent? You know what I mean? Like, where's that money coming from? Where is it coming from? I don't know. You know, again, Rose the mediator tries one last time. You just can't throw her out on the street. And Blanche says, you just watch me. And then Rose is left, you know, and God bless Betty White. She's just at a loss doing head turns, caught in the middle. I know. And she's doing these funny, like, uhs with it. She's like, uh. Uh. Uh.

left. Right? Yes. Yeah. It's very good. So it's the next scene and it's the middle of the night. Rose is in the kitchen eating Oreos and milk. Sophia enters. And Rose asks her, what's the matter, Sophia? You couldn't sleep either? She says, no, Rose, I was sleeping fine. I just wanted to show off my pajamas. Yes, the audience loved that. And Patrick, I have to take a moment here to discuss something I noticed right away. And it's

Rose's sapphire ring that she's wearing. She's wearing this huge sapphire ring with two layers of diamonds around it. Oh, my God. It was so big. I was like, that doesn't look like a ring Rose would wear to me. No. And I kept looking at it and I'm like, maybe it's Betty White's ring. Did she forget to take it off? Oh, not. Well, I cannot believe I did this, but I did research on the ring. And lo and behold, turns out this is Betty White's personal ring.

ring. It was a two-carat cushion-cut sapphire surrounded by 35 circular diamonds. She would wear it in both her personal and professional life, including appearances on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and

and the Golden Girls. Oh my God. The ring itself is not valued at very much. It's like between 800 and 1200 bucks. But because of its history, it's sold at an auction after 35 bids for $32,000. Oh my God. That's amazing. Who knew that this little ring that I was so suspicious of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you heard the fan theory? Because, you know, in the mid 1980s in Miami, it was like cocaine everywhere. Everyone was a drug dealer that like the Golden Girls were

actually drug dealers. Oh, maybe that FBI stink coming up should have been about them. Yeah, totally. But like me, like this is like Rose forgets to take off her drug kingpin ring. Oh, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah. You know? Oh, I love that. And it's kind of like unusual suspects where she's just, you know, Kaiser Soze. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. The whole naive thing has just been an act all along. Totally.

They've got hostages tied up in the garage. So this whole scene is like Rose and Sophia talking about, like, Rose wants to do something to bring Blanche and Dorothy back together. Sophia says stay out of it. And she's got a Sicily story to tie it all together. Yeah, it's one of these picture it Sicily moments. But she doesn't say it like that. No. She says, let me tell you a story. See,

Sicily, 1912, picture this. When does it become pictured, I wonder? Well, we'll have to make note of that when it happens. We'll clock it. Because it ended up being her signature. It's kind of like Stan, you know, hi, it's me, Stan. That's not how he started it. And it developed into that. So, yeah. So, Sophia starts telling Rose about this story of a fast-talking pepperoni salesman coming between two young girls who had started a pizza business together back in her homeland. In Sicily in 1923. Right, exactly. So...

Before you know it, the pizza suffers, the business suffers, the friendship suffers. The girls park company and head for America, never to see one another again. Rose, one of those girls was me. The other one you probably know as Mama Celeste.

The way she says it was such zeal. Oh, yeah. And Rose just says she can't stay out of it. She runs out of the kitchen. Yeah. Sophia gets up. She opens the freezer and yells, Abundanza! Which means abundance. Yeah. And it's also the brand slogan. For Mama Celeste. Yeah. Which is like a real frozen pizza brand. It is. I looked it up. It used to be called Mama Celeste. Now it's called Just Celeste.

And it was named after a real woman from Italy named Louise Lizio. And she and her husband moved to Chicago and opened a restaurant. Interesting. Yeah. Because Sofia also does that flick under the neck. The Italian flick, which is the equivalent of giving the finger. Yeah. I was like, they were allowed to do that on network television. They said it kind of means I don't care, get lost. But yeah. All right. So it's the next morning. Dorothy comes into the living room wearing a pale yellow and baby blue handsome golfing outfit.

I'm so glad we are stopping to talk about the... She's wearing this cardigan sweater. I just wrote Dorothy's golf outfit. The 3XL blue cardigan sweater she's wearing over this, like...

yellow polo shirt. It is absolutely ridiculous. And it looks for a minute like the 3XL cardigan is tucked into her pants. It's not. It's not. It's just that it's so big that she's like rolled it underneath. It's blousy with a Z. Can we get a 3XL for Ms. Arthur?

Oh, God. Anyway, she asks Rose, who is inexplicably polishing a rubber tree plant, if she can borrow her golfing gloves. I love that Rose is like, on Saturday mornings, I polish. Plants. I polish the plants. And she hasn't slept all night, by the way. But she has the energy for this, which I love. Anyway, she says that she can, but only if she promises not to move out. And Dorothy says, no, she can't promise that. No, she doesn't. She screams it. Ha ha ha ha!

Rose, I cannot promise that. And then Rose defiantly says, then putt with bare hands. And the doorbell. There's a lot of doorbells in this episode. It's a straight up farce, this one. So Elliot's at the door. Finally, Rose says, fine, Dorothy can borrow her gloves. They're in the bottom drawer under my clarinet. Now, so random, but it's so funny because everyone takes a second to be like, did she just

I would say under her claret, but then it's never addressed. Exactly. It's so good. So, you know, Dorothy runs off to look for the gloves. And I love, as I'm sure you do, both Betty White slash Rose in this scene. Yes. Because for one second, she's uncomfortable to be alone with Elliot because she knows what happened. Right. And she believes it. But as she's shutting the door, you can see the idea come to her. Yeah.

And she shuts the door and then she just leans against it alluringly. And the studio audience, like us, gets it immediately. And she just says to him, Has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Jerry Vale? No. They should. He's the only man in the world that can make the hair on my arms stand up. Can I fix you a drink? No, thanks. Is something wrong with your leg? Nothing you can't fix.

Doctor Man. Now she's doing the sexy leg thing. I'm going to do it. Okay. We saw this in the pilot. Yes. She just can't not be with a man. She offers Elliot a drink and he says, no thanks. And then because he's a doctor. Because it's like 10 in the morning. It's so funny. I feel like they never rolled the bar card away. It's still out from the night before. We don't see it, but you know, it's there. Elliot, the doctor asks her if there's something wrong with her leg. And she says, nothing you can't fix. Doctor Man.

Doctor Man. Oh my God. Elliot is very confused. And this is when, oh my God, this gets so dirty. Rose says, I know I look square. Square jawbone Betty. Yeah, that's right.

Take it away. She says, but I'm like my father's tractor. I take a while to warm up, but once I get going, I can turn your topsoil till the cows come home. Elliot is begging her to stop. Rose, please. Yeah. And then Rose says, hands down the dirtiest thing on this inside. This is so dirty. She says, want to see some Polaroids of me and my tennis skirt? That's

so dirty. It is. And I don't think anybody wants to see that, honestly. Absolutely not. It's so, so dirty. Yeah. And so Elliot still protests and he says, look, Rose, I'm flattered and please, no offense, but you're just not my type. Yes. And Dorothy is going to enter and overhear this next part. Rose says,

But Blanche was. He says that never happened. She made it up. And this is where we see Dorothy enter in the background. And Rose is like, ah, she told me everything. Still in her sexy voice. And it's where Elliot comes clean. And he says, look, nothing came of it. And I apologize to her. And then Dorothy says. A perfectly timed. And you lied to me. And then like this scene is well acted. It's well shot. Dorothy's across the room. Elliot like is surprised. He turns and runs to her. Calls her sweetheart. I think this is the first time they make physical contact.

He gets down on his knees and like puts his hand on her knee or something. And he says, please understand it was no big deal. To which I just said, like, once again, it's like in the pilot where Blanche, it's only when Rose says what's going to happen to me and Dorothy that she first thinks of like, oh my God, like this is going to affect your lives. I just thought of this now, Patrick, too. In addition to that,

She is just out of control angry the whole episode, but extremely understanding. Like, just calm. Like, probably when the rage would be the strongest. Yeah, they said they thought it would ruin her life. She seems fine. Yeah. Well, you know what? Maybe she's thinking is like, oh, thank God. Now I don't have to find another place to live. You know what I mean?

This like actually solves a problem for her maybe. She's like, we were never going to have sex anyway. We haven't even touched yet. But just the way he says it's no big deal. Like, cause she just says, you think so? I probably lost one of my best friends because of you. Like it is a big deal. It is a big deal. You know? And then Elliot, now he's getting defensive. And says, I take it we're not playing golf. And she says, we're not playing anything anymore. To which I thought, play what? This is the most sexless relationship. Yeah.

Like, where do they have sex? At his house, I guess? Like, we don't see it. They said goodnight without touching. That's right. But playing anything would lead you to believe that there's some nookie going on. Maybe she's literally talking about shuffleboard and pinochle. They love playing games at that relationship. You know what I mean? And like cracking crabs. That's their love language.

And then this MF-er, so patronizing. I'll call you in a few days when you've cooled down. And she just says, don't bother. I really have nothing to say to you. You're right. She is unbelievably calm. So calm. You know what I mean? And Patrick, I feel like from now on, whenever we have a disagreement, you should tell me, Jen, I'll call you in a few days when you've cooled down. Can you imagine? Yeah.

Can you imagine somebody saying that? Oh, my God. No, it's terrible. So he leaves. Rose apologizes. Dorothy says, no, I have to go talk to Blanche. I've been a real idiot through this whole thing. She exits. Rose thinks that Dorothy is gone. And she says, darn right you have. And then 3X large comes out.

Dorothy overhears and glares at her. And they do that thing where they just linger on her face for five seconds. So now we're in Blanche's bedroom where she uses no less than 13 sprays of perfume from her various atomizers. I counted. I know she's just been sitting there spraying herself with perfume all day long. Couple things on that. There were nine from the blue atomizer, four sprays from the purple, and then she's

And a little deep dive on atomizers because I happen to love them. But anyway, the first atomizer was invented by Dr. Alan DeVilbiss and produced commercially in 1887. Real quick, the device was originally used in the medical field, makes sense, to spray medicine into patients' throats. Oh.

Now, Thomas, who's the doctor's son, saw the opportunity to use the technology in the perfume industry. So before that, you would just dab perfume on yourself, but now you would put it into this contraption where you can squirt it on yourself? Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Anyway, there's a knock at the door. Blanche doesn't come in. It's Dorothy. And she says, oh, it's you. Dorothy said, look.

Blanche, we have to talk. You know, Blanche doesn't want to talk. And then Dorothy says, fine, I'll do the talking. And she says that Elliot came over and told me what happened. And I'm like, you don't want to tell the story about how Rose cleverly got him in a lie? Parenthetically, I wrote, how about giving Rose some credit, Dot? I know. I feel like it would, like, the way this would really go would be like, I just saw Rose do the weirdest thing. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You know our friend Rose? Right. Like, I feel like that is a story worth telling, but I guess another time. I also wanted to say that in this entire section, I counted again, Blanche puts no less than 75 strokes of blush on her cheeks. 75. Her already fully beat face. 75 times. Oh, my God. But Blanche just says, I hate to say it, I told you so, but I told you so. And then, of course, Dorothy says, honey, I'm sorry for not believing you. There's no excuse for my behavior.

Blanche agrees. I will never get enough Blanche-isms because Blanche says no one ever believes me when I'm telling the truth. I guess that's the curse of being a devastatingly beautiful woman. And we're back. Oh, please. Like, Dorothy's just so...

Because this is the crux of the issue. The crux of the issue is that Blanche is the pretty one in the friend group. That's right. Well, here's the referral you were talking about earlier. Yes. That the only other woman who could possibly understand is... Priscilla Presley. And then she says, and Susan Anton. No, not Susan Anton. Who is Susan Anton? Well, she was an actress, is an actress, but she did a lot of, if I remember her from like different TV movies and the love boat. And I also remember because I loved Sylvester Stallone back then that they dated for a

period of time. Oh, wow. So that's just alone who would go on and make the movie stop or my mom will shoot with Estelle Getty. That's right.

Maybe this is how they met. Right. But I love that she thinks that she's pretty enough. And then she says, no, she's not pretty enough. She doesn't count. She's canceled. Yeah. You know, Blanche says, even my husband didn't believe me on my wedding night when I told him he was my first. And Dorothy says, but George wasn't your first. And Blanche says, well, he didn't know that. The point is, he didn't believe me. And, you know, Dorothy says, look, Blanche, I'm sorry. Do you think you can ever forgive me? And Blanche rightly so says, I don't know. I have to think about it. I love this. Blanche, I'm sorry. Do

Now, do you think you can ever forgive me? I don't know. I have to think about it. I understand. Okay, I thought about it. I forgive you. Blanche, Blanche, thank you. Oh, what the heck? That's what friendship's all about.

Blanche, Dorothy. Oh, I'm so glad you made up. I knew you couldn't stay mad for long. Of course we couldn't. Oh, it takes a big woman to forgive somebody calling her a slut. I think Blanche is so generous here. Like, honestly, the level of them fighting words, I might have said, I might need more time. I know.

Yeah. If Megan Hilty got in your face and told you that you couldn't be ever a good friend to a woman because you're a slut. And a Jezebel. Yeah, totally. Wait, for what charity event are you and Megan Hilty going to act out that scene? I don't know.

It'll be a doozy. So Rose comes running in. Rose is so happy. As if she's been listening at the door, by the way. She totally has been. Rose has got a great moment here because Rose is so happy that all is forgiven. And Rose says, you know, this is so wonderful. It takes a big woman to forgive someone for calling her a slut. Yeah.

And then they both say, oh, you, and they group hug. Yes. Now, Sophia enters carrying two pizzas. Which I'm looking at that and I'm starving. I know. And she says, the fight over? Good. Here, taste these. She has a pizza challenge and she wants them each to try pizza A and pizza B because she thinks this might be her chance to make millions. Because she made one of them and the other one is the Mama Celeste pizza. That she knew from Sicily. Her former business partner. Yeah.

Where a man became between them in 1923. That's right. She says, my face could be in every freezer in America. They all pick A. Without a doubt, A. Sophia says, you can't pick men and you can't pick pizza.

Oh, that's the end of the episode. I like that episode. It's a good one. I like it when they get the chance to really flex their acting chops, which I think they get in just about every episode. And I think all three of them had some fun material on this one. Well, it's funny that they all submit for Emmys for their dramatic moments. Like, Rose submitted for the one with Arnie where it was very dramatic. Hold me.

And then Dorothy submits for this one because she's got like real acting scenes where she gets to say things like slut and Jezebel. But like we said before, I know we love Beatrice Arthur. It didn't surprise me that Rose won the Emmy for this over her. Totally. Wait, this is basically Bea doing Maude. You know what I mean? We've seen this before. Correct.

All right, cheesecake. After we come back from the break, Jennifer, you're doing the deep dive this week. Tell them what it is. Oh, my gosh. It's my queen, my one and only, Rue McClanahan. Yes. Get out of here, Patrick. I'm in my Blanche era. You're so kind to give me the Rue. Yes. And as you soon find out, Eddie Rue. We've said it before. It's true. It's true. Let's do this. I'm so excited. All right.

Oh, I'm so excited for this one. Me too. I really don't know much about old Ruma Clannigan. I was fascinated to learn more and I love this lady. Yeah. And especially because I think I have graduated to being most, I most identify with her right now. Can you give me a quick get out of here? Get out of here.

It's so good. Oh, it's so good. So you ready? Yeah. Okay, here we go. Rue was born Eddie Rue McClanahan in a small town in Oklahoma on February 21st, 1934. Wow. So her first name was a contraction of her parents' middle names, and she dropped the Eddie when, mistaken for a man, she was drafted into military service after high school. What? Is that real? Yes. Did you know that? No, but it's perfect. It's perfect. It's perfect.

All three of our heroines. Oh, my God. So her name is Eddie Rue. How did you spell that? E-D-D-I hyphen R-U-E. Oh, my. The other two volunteered. She was mother effing drafted. You're dying. You're dying. She was drafted.

She was drafted. I'm just impressed she could get out of it, you know? I know. All right. You know Blanche would have gone. You know what I mean? Oh, all the men? Are you kidding? Blanche absolutely would have gone. So she was raised Methodist and was of Irish and Choctaw ancestry. Oh. Now, you know who else, Patrick, is from Oklahoma and of Choctaw ancestry? Who? Christian Chenoweth. No way. Yeah. Is that an indigenous tribe? Yes. Okay. And I have to say, it got my, like, creative mind going. Christian Chenoweth was adopted, and I...

I kept thinking to myself, what if Rue McClanahan was Christian Chenoweth's birth mother? They look alike. I see it, see it. That's my point. Oh my God. I know. So I'm like, let's start. How dare we start this rumor here? You heard it here, Cheesecakes. We've identified Christian Chenoweth's birth mother. Oh no. Yeah.

But, you know, they're both from Oklahoma. Wow. They look alike. Yeah. I interviewed Kristen for the podcast I used to do. And she told us that when she did her, you know. Her DNA. Her DNA, that she has Choctaw. Wow. In her heritage. Yeah. That's amazing. Anyway, Rue obtained her love of entertaining from her mother, who brought her to dance class when she was a young child. And she made her stage debut at age four in a local production of

The three little kittens. I would love to see her do that baby Rue. I want to see Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose do that at the local community theater. Absolutely. They do that episode when they're dressed as cats. Henny Penny. Oh, when they do cats. Yes. They dress as cats.

So in high school, Rue became one of the most popular students in school. Of course. Because they really respected her. She was running her own business. What? Yes, here we go. Her dance instructor decided to move out of town and asked her if she would take over his studio. Wow. So by her final year in high school, senior year, she was running it by herself. Of course she was.

That's amazing. And she had her own car, which was really unusual in these days. And hence, her peers voted her most likely to succeed. Nailed it, peers. Right? Because they're all like, I don't know. I know. I'm just going to go to the football game and eat some. Anyway, she studied drama at Tulsa University, where she graduated cum laude with a double major in German and theater arts and a minor in French. What a smarty pants. I know. Wow. Devereux. Get out of here. Get out of here. Yeah.

So after college, she moves to New York City. This is in 1957. With two weeks only worth of money in her pocket, she hustled her way into a class with the legendary Unahoggan. Oh, my God. And began working her way up in the acting school. And Unahoggan's book, Respect for Acting, is my favorite acting book. What does it teach you? Well, there's many things it teaches you. But one of the things it teaches you is sense memory and like how do you access

tears on stage pain on stage and using what's inside of you but not like method not becoming that but just using these triggers that are from your personal life to help inform the character even if the character is doing something different you

You know, so it's kind of marrying things. And she also stresses to keep those items that you find to yourself. Because if you share them, they cease to become safe. Yep. Every time we see her doing the acting in the episodes, I'm going to see her calling on her sense memory. Well, that mean old dance teacher made me run that studio all by myself. It was the best years of my life.

Down the drain. Oh, my God. Anyway, she made her professional stage debut at Pennsylvania's Erie Playhouse in 1957 in Inherit the Wind. Wow. That show no one's heard of. All right. So while she was there, when she was in Erie, she met her first husband. This was a fellow actor named Tom Bish. And within the first year of their meeting, they were wed. But this

This marriage didn't go well. He panicked, essentially. She said that he just got cold feet after the fact. Post-wedding cold feet, if you can get that. And he was a real shitbird when she got pregnant. A real shitbird, you say? A real shitbird, I say, regarding their marital problems. Wow. Yeah, Ruth says that, you know, she went through the last four months of her pregnancy in great trauma and misery because he just, he kept saying, just don't talk to me about it, meaning our marital problems, till the baby comes. Then we'll see. What? What?

What? Uh-huh. How about then we'll see before you stuck it in me, you a-hole. Anyway, so...

Oh, my God. She's about to deliver the baby. She's all by herself. Uh-huh. She's stressed and exhausted. She's cried for 36 hours. Oh, my God. And she's got herself so riled up that she's putting her health and the baby's health at risk. Yeah. So the doctor calls shitbird Tom and tells him that if he wants to contribute to the health and possibly the lives of his wife and his child, he better get up here to the hospital and convince Rue that he loves her. Oh, my goodness. That's a little bit of an overstep. I...

Well, you know, he's a doctor. He took that Hippocratic oath. That's true. He was going to do anything to honor his oath, unlike shitbird Tom, who clearly has no interest in honoring his vow. Wow. Am I angry? I love it. I'm really angry for her. Very Dorothy season one. She's giving birth.

Am I swearing aloud on our podcast? Oh, my God. I'm just, oh, you know, I drive a truck with my sisters here. I'm a truck driver, too. Did you know I was a truck driver, Patrick? No, but it's perfect. So this is in Rue's own words here, OK? Quote, he came running into the hospital and did a very good performance. He was a good actor, threw himself across my bed and said, I've been so silly. How could I have been so stupid?

I love you. Huh. I thought everything was fine. You know, like in the movies. I thought, ah, good. Happy ending. The next morning, he left and I didn't see him anymore after that. Ever again? No, he abandoned his wife and newborn child. Oh my, he is a shit bird. He's a shit bird. What's his name? Tom the shit bird. Tom the shit bird. Wow. So now she needs to stay in Oklahoma.

Yeah. You know, this was not the plan. And she met another man. His name was Norman Hartwig. She married him and divorced him. Quickly? Yeah. They soon realized they weren't actually in love. They're just very good friends. And you can see how that could happen because she just thought, I need to stay in Oklahoma. I need a husband for my baby. My baby needs to have a father. Yeah. So she kind of arranged the marriage, but there was no love. Yeah. And they realized that was a mistake. So they parted amicably. Yeah.

So she goes back to New York City, actually, and she takes her son in tow. Wow. Single mom in New York? Yeah, this is in the mid-60s. Whoa. Early to mid-60s. So here she did a lot of B movies in theater. In 1964, Rue landed a role in the theatrical production of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, where she became acquainted with Peter DeMaio, who was a fellow actor.

So, you know, life was going well. She's a working actress and she met this guy, Peter, that she was really crazy about. Uh-huh. So her hectic schedule, though, left, you know, didn't leave a lot of time for her boy who was seven years old at this time. Her son's name was Mark, by the way, if I didn't tell you. And, um...

Her mother back home was pressuring her to like, you should maybe send Mark back to live in Oklahoma because you just don't have the time for him. And you know what? She does. You know, I'm OK with all of that. You are? OK. Yeah. I mean, who am I to judge anybody else's decision? It was temporary, by the way. Yeah. Who cares if I'm OK with it? But you know what? Because I'm thinking as a single parent, she's setting herself up to be able to take care of him. Right. Rather than going back to Oklahoma herself and becoming miserable. And nobody wants that.

Right. Yeah. Anyway, she wanted to marry this fella, Peter, and she wanted to bring her son back from Oklahoma to live with them, which once they got married, they did. But this marriage also was unsteady. And she just tried everything to make it work because she did not want a third divorce. She thought that was a really stigmatized. After two, who's counting, Rue? You know what I mean? Who's counting? Well, she did everything like it lasted another seven years because she was like, we've got to make this work. But it didn't. So in 1971, they divorced.

So here we are in the 1970s, and she had a lot of career breakthroughs. All right. She had her Broadway debut. She was a prostitute in a show called Jimmy Shine, which starred Dustin Hoffman. Wow. As an unsuccessful abstract painter. I did not know that. Okay. She lands a role on the soap opera Another World. Amazing. And it's in that soap opera that she caught the attention of Norman Lear. And that's what landed her the role in All in the Family. Yes. So he was so impressed by...

by her work on All in the Family that by 1973, he decided to cast her in his series Maud as

as Vivian, starring Bea Arthur, from 1972 to 1978. Wow, that is amazing. I want to tell you, these are some nice things. Something Bea Arthur said about Rue. She said, I'd never heard of Rue McClanahan, which is an odd name to begin with, but I was doing the series mod and Norman Lear told me that he was bringing in Rue McClanahan to play my next-door neighbor, my best friend. I mean, it was just such fun working with her. We really ended up like, you know, Lucy and Ethel Mertz of the 70s. Aww!

Isn't that nice? That's amazing. And then I loved this. Her Vivian character, it pushed the boundaries of censorship. She used to say, like, Vivian became this sort of innocent, wide-eyed, yet oversexed little doctor's wife. And Norman Lear commented on this. He loved the scene in which Vivian answers the door in saran wrap. Uh-huh. And he said that it was really boundary pushing. And the scene itself received probably the longest laugh in television history. Yeah.

Wow. So you gotta go back and watch it. You can find it. Yeah. Oh, amazing. So it's around this time that she meets husband number four, Gus Fisher. But that marriage ends after three years. Rue! Maybe it's not him. It's Rue. I mean, maybe. It's not me. It's Rue.

I knew I'd land on the punchline eventually. That's a good merch shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not me, it's Rue. Oh, that's good. That is a good merch shirt, yes. All right, so post-mod, she did various things, including being offered a role in the comedy series Mama's Family. Yes. However, she was unhappy with the way her character was being written, and she only appeared in the show until 1985 when her character was killed off. Killed off. That seems like a lot for a funny character from a sketch from the Carol Burnett show. Yeah, exactly. So funny. But going back to...

two years she did because we know 1985 is going to be a good year for her. But she had a health scare in 1983. I did not know this. While in her dressing room on the set of Mama's Family, she experienced a sharp pain under her right rib. And, you know, like you do, she was taken to the emergency room. She had a severe gallbladder attack. But when she woke up from the operation, she wasn't able to breathe. Whoa. She had developed apparently adult respiratory distress syndrome, which is a disease of the lungs.

that can onset after surgery. And guess what? It's almost always fatal. Oh, my God. I know. She spent three weeks in the hospital, including five days in the ICU with a questionable chance to survive. But she did and she got to go home to recover. Wild. But she nearly died. That's crazy. So this was in 1983. And in about 1984, she got reacquainted with and married her high school sweetheart. Wait, we're in marriage number five now? Yeah. Marriage number five. Oh, my God.

This is, his name is Tom Keel. Again, high school sweetheart. You're thinking, this might work. Yeah. They divorced after a year. She said, she said herself, she's like, yeah, the funny thing is, every time I got married, I thought, this is it. This is it. This is forever. Yeah. I think. It's not me, it's Rue. No, it's not.

And her Golden Girls co-stars commented on it, and I have to read them to you. Oh, God. Bea Arthur said, she's the total romantic, the total romantic. But then comes the light of day, and she thinks, oh, God, what have I done here? You know, and that's the end. It's very quick, and it's very clean, but she loves playing the bride. What do you think she says to the men as she's forcing them out of the house? Get out of here. Yeah.

Get out of here. So Betty White said of her love life, Rue's love life has always been very important to her and consequently it's a source of great entertainment for her friends. And Estelle Getty said, more people fell in love with her than you could possibly imagine. Your walking mattress.

All right. So all of this brings us to what? The Golden Girls. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Now, the creative team thought initially that she would be best for the role of Rose and that Betty White would be best for the role of Blanche. So the casting team zeroed in on her, realizing that even though the role was not as deeply written, Rue was someone who had always worked well in great ensembles. You know, she was always able to carve out a really unique territory for herself. I thought this would work.

Now, Betty White, of course, the reason why they cast her as the man hungry Blanche, because it was similar to the role she had on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Yeah.

And, you know, Rue McClanahan was definitely more the naive Rose because they saw her as the naive Vivian. Yeah. You know. Yeah. But even before she started reading the script, she said of the show itself, she knew it was a winner and she called her agent. She said, listen, I'm perfect for the role of Blanche, to which she said they want you to read for Rose. They want Betty White for the role of Blanche. And, you know, she ultimately decided that it was still worth auditioning for the role of Rose. I just cannot see it. I know. I cannot.

not imagine it. I agree. But after reading for Jay Sandrich, the director of the pilot episode, Here to Force Just Name Jay, Jay asked her to read for Blanche. He said, I'm going to do something unorthodox. Would you mind reading Blanche for me? Rimmer remembers. And she said, if you insist. She goes, get out of here. He really liked her reading for Blanche because about her rose, he did say, you're really wonderful, but I don't for one second believe you're innocent. And

It's a little sexual harassing. It is. It is. So, you know, this part, like most people, most actors would tell you that roles affect them, you know, and this did affect her personally. She has said, you know, it was a gift from the gods. And this I love. She said Blanche was so self-confident, you know, and that

she thought so highly of herself. She, you know, she was so attractive and sexy and she really believed it. And, you know, Rue herself felt pretty shy and she said that it helped her overcome her shyness because she just thought to herself, it sort of hit her one day, like, you know, this woman with Blanche looks just like me. Uh-huh. So I can act just like her. Oh. Isn't that sweet? I love that. You're going to love this. So she wrote a book and she had a pat answer when, when

when she was asked if she was like Blanche, she says, well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern belle from Atlanta. And I'm not from Atlanta. Oh, I love it. Yeah. And this part I love the most. She says she was inundated with the gratitude of women all over the country for showing them that women over 50 can still be sexy. This makes sense to me, too. Did you know that a lot of critics have been cited as saying that this show was a real predecessor to shows like

Sex and the City. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know? Like, without the Golden Girls, there wouldn't be a Sex and the City. Absolutely. Just some random fun facts. Rue was the youngest of our cast members by at least 10 years. Wow. Which also is another reason why I think it's good she played Blanche. Yeah, for sure. You know, in 1987, she was recognized by her peers for her work in the Golden Girls with an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

series. After the Golden Girls, you know, she appeared in the spinoff The Golden Palace, like we've mentioned a few times. She had roles in movies like Out to Sea, which was a comedy, yeah, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. I remember seeing that.

Since the end of the show, she performed in a lot of theatrical productions. I remember seeing her in Broadway. She was in the Broadway revival of The Women. Oh, right. With Kristen Johnson, Jennifer Tilly, Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Coolidge. Yes. Oh, my God. Right. And in the spring of 2003, she starred opposite Mark Hamill in six dance lessons in six weeks. Mark Hamill as in like Luke Skywalker? What? Really bringing back that dance school teacher training. Oh, my God.

Was that on Broadway? Yeah. Wow. I didn't see it. I didn't see it. I didn't even hear of it. But this, in May of 2005, I remember this for a reason that you'll become clear in a minute. She took over the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked on Broadway. Yeah. And the New York Times wrote of her performance, Rue McClanahan, dressed in flamboyant kimono-like costumes, is doing marvelous things with vowel sounds as Madame Morrible. She steals scenes with a flip of a hand. Oh.

And the reason why I said I remember this is I was doing Forbidden Broadway at that time. And we had a spoof of Wicked that I had originated and she came to see it. Oh, wow. And I have a photo of us together after the show. Oh, we'll have to put it up. Cheesecakes. We'll put it up on the social media. So in her personal life, in late May of 1997, while she was performing in a play in New York City, Rue met Edward Morrow Wilson.

He was a friend of the play's producers. He was also an actor and producer himself. Now, he assisted her in learning her lines. But their relationship, it became intimate when Rue discovered that she had a lump under her right arm. Oh, no. Yeah. So just like a month later, on June 6, 1997, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And this was also the day that Morrow first told Rue that he loved her. Oh. Yeah. On June 10th, just three days later, he proposed. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. And they were wed on Christmas Day that year. The wedding was held at the Waldorf Astoria, one of New York City's most luxurious hotels, with 180 guests. She was also, like every other woman in this series, an activist. And I didn't realize how much overlap there was with Betty White, but she was a lifelong animal rights activist. Oh, wow. She was a lifelong vegetarian. She was one of the first celebrities to support PETA. Yeah. And how about this? In 2003, she wrote...

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry a letter that stated that his pheasant hunting had cost him her vote. Wow. She's not messing around. She vote for Nader or whatever? I have no idea. But don't hunt pheasants if you want her vote.

And now, of course, the inevitable. Rue McClanahan died on June 3rd, 2010 at age 76 at New York Presbyterian Hospital after she suffered a brain hemorrhage. Oh. She was a three-time Golden Globe nominee, a four-time Emmy Award nominee, and a one-time Emmy Award winner. And Patrick, it does appear that her sixth marriage was the charm taken too soon. And he was with her till the end? I think so. Wow. I didn't read otherwise, but I, you know. You did it, Rue. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, Cheesecakes, we love you so much. Thank you for hanging out with us. What a good one this week. So good. And it's also good that I love them more than you do and they know it. You think you love them more than... Daisy, my daughter, does that to me now. She's like, Daddy, I love you more than you love me. And I'm like, no, you don't.

you don't. Right, and then it's a fight. I know. But what a good thing to fight over, fighting over the cheesecake. It's true. Cheesecakes, before you go, just remember, if you give us an Apple podcast review, just click on that thing that says write a review, write one sentence about what you love about the show. It helps people find us. Same thing on Spotify. And join our Facebook group. It's the Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast Discussion Group. You're in there every day, Jennifer. I am. I'm making new friends. I need them. And what is your phrase that you've coined that I've edited? Like, then

thanks for being a friend by telling a friend. Thanks for being a friend. About our podcast. And go find, like, it just never, on the Golden Girls podcast discussion. It never rolls off the tongue. I said, thank you for being a friend by telling a friend about our podcast. That's the best way to spread the word. It's word of mouth, right? Right, right. All right, Cheesecakes, we love you. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.