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DVD The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season
Launched during the neon-lit 1980s, The Golden Girls shed light on a side of Miami ignored by Miami Vice. In other words, no drugs, no murder--just four women of "a certain age," spending their golden years in the sun. Like the theme, "Thank You for Being a Friend," the long-running sitcom was about friendship (not crime). As for the "girls," they were tart-tongued Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur), former farm girl Rose (Betty White), Southern belle Blanche (Rue McClanahan), and Dorothy's salty Sicilian mother Sophia (Estelle Getty). All were widows, with the exception of the divorced Dorothy. Created by Emmy-winning producer Susan Harris (Soap), The Golden Girls re-ignited the careers of 1970s TV veterans Arthur (All in the Family, Maude) and White (The Mary Tyler Moore Show). At the same time, it made stars of McClanahan (who co-starred on Maude), by playing a comic version of A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche Dubois, and the scene-stealing Getty, made to look older than her actual age (she and Arthur were born the same year).
Notable guests to lend their talents to the first season include Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo ("The Operation"), Alice's Polly Holliday ("Blind Ambitions"), and WKRP in Cincinnati's Gordon Jump ("Big Daddy"). In addition, Harold Gould (Rhoda), who appears in "Rose the Prude," would return as a (different) recurring character five years later.
The Golden Girls ran for seven seasons and spawned spin-off The Golden Palace (without Arthur) and a British version called The Brighton Belles. By the end of its run in 1992, it had garnered numerous awards, including two Emmys for best comedy series. In addition, each of the four actresses received a well-deserved Emmy for her efforts. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Review(s): DVD The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season
Golden Girls - First Season
This show is excellent, hilarious, and worth collecting all 7 seasons. Everyone involved was brilliant - from actresses to writers and producers. Each "Golden Girl" won an Emmy Award for her work on the show. Overall, this show won 11 Emmy and 4 Golden Globe awards.
SUCH A CLASSIC
THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD AS A GIFT TO A LOVED ONE OR FRIEND! ITS FUNNY NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE,RACE,RELIGION,WHETHER YOU ARE MALE/FEMALE ETC!!
SUCH A TIMELESS CLASSIC THAT IS FUN TO WATCH EVEN IN 2006!!
Fantastic, Emmy Award Winning Sitcom With Charming, Loveable Performances From The Four Stars
Oh how I really love this show! I was devastated when this programme finished (its sequel, The Golden Palace failed to live up to the dynamics of The Golden Girls and was scapped after just one season of 24 episodes)! Though it wound up production well over ten years ago, The Golden Girls (1985 - 1992) still firmly ranks as one of my all-time favourite sitcoms. The Golden Girls was a huge success throughout the duration of its run, collecting ten emmy awards including one for this first season for outstanding comedy series. In all, an impressive total of 180 fun-filled episodes were produced of The Golden Girls.
In 2005 Buena Vista Home Entertainment began releasing the early seasons of The Golden Girls (and not before time!). This 4-disc set of the first season is attractively packaged , containing all 25 episodes and also boasts a bonus feature which sees Joan and Melissa Rivers offering their own witty fashion critique to the now laughably dated and kitschy wardrobe of The Golden Girls.
The Golden Girls is set in the heart of Miami where four middle-aged to elderly women share a house and touchingly support one another, trade insults, eat a whole lot of cheese cake together and almost incessantly talk about sex.
Buxom, Southern-belle Blance Deveraux, a promiscuous widow (she even tried to date a man on the day of her husbands funeral) advertises for two room mates in her Miami Beach home, for companionship and above all else at the time, to apportion costs of the running of her home. A fiesty but well-meaning and very likeable character, Blanche thinks of little else but sex, sex, sex and is forever on the look-out for a man. She is also (slightly unhealthily) obsessed with her looks and age often fearing her beauty is fading as old age looms closer. Southern-belle Blance Deveraux is marvelously played by the charismatic Rue McClanahan who really excells in the role.
Dorothy Zbomak is a tall, elegant though earthy and gruff-voiced (which becomes the [...] of many a joke in the series) supply teacher. She had recently divorced from the adulterous Stan Zbomak after he had run off with an air hostess. This is how Dorothy came to be living with sultry, man eater Blance Deveraux after answering her advertisment for two room mates to share her Miami Beach home. Dorothy is beautifully played by the inimitable Bea Arthur. Bea Arthur's impeccable timing and witty delivery is one of the many reasons why The Golden Girls was such a unique and special comedy series.
The dizzy, scatter-brained Rose Nylund was the illegitimate daughter of a monk, was sadly orphaned at birth and is of Scandinavian lineage. Rose had married a man named Charlie Nylund but he died one night whilst making mad, passionate love to Rose. Rose had met Blanche Deveraux in the local supermarket when Blanche was about to pin up her advert for two room mates. Blanche was instantly taken with Rose's sweet though rather niaeve character and invited Rose to move in with her, an offer which Rose swiftly accepted. Despite not being quite all there, Rose worked as a grief councellor. Betty White's beautiful portrayal of Rose Nylund is a joy to watch. Though Rose often provides a foil for the other characters to make the focus of a joke, Betty White's sparkling performance ensures that she remains just as inadvertently witty and amusing as the other players.
Last but certainly not least is Sophia Petrillo. Sophia is Dorothy's widowed, 80 year old and loveably eccentric mother. Sophia is of Sicillian descent and possesses a notably razor-sharp tongue. After a fire at the retirement home she was living in, Sophia moves in with Dorothy, Rose and Blanche. The then little known Estelle Getty, who put in a charming performance as acid-tongued Sophia Petrillo, was in actual fact, two months younger than her screen daughter, Bea Arthur. This was down to a fantastic, top-notch make up job which effectively "aged her up". The oldest member of the cast was infact the lovely Betty White, who played loveable dumb-blonde, Rose Nylund.
Created by Susan Harris (previously famous for the late 70's/early 80's sitcom, Soap), The Golden Girls boasts fast, furious scripts that crackles with sharp, intelligent wit and four dynamic characters that spark off one another highly effectively. The chemistry of Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Estelle Getty is magical, really shining through and becoming one of the sole ingredients to its knockout, phenemenal success.
I'd be here forever if I did a detailed break down of each episode on this first season collection but some of my personal favourites include the series pilot when Blanche is about to wed a two-timing cheat, the one where they all compete in a bowling pin championshp - Betty White in particular causes the most significant amusement in that episode , another one where they arrive home one night after seeing Madonna in concert (who 80 year old Sophia laughably describes as "a [...]" - tact is not one of Sophias strong points!) and find their home has been ramsacked and an episode which flashes back to how Dorothy, Rose and Blanche very first met. Throughout the other episodes it touches on their family relationships, their often complex affairs with men, shared stories and reminisces bewteen the four characters. At times the comedy can turn poignantly into drama, other times merely depicting their fondness for each other (without shrinking to being saccharine or schmaltzy).
I don't know why but when I think of The Golden Girls, I always picture Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia seated around the kitchen dining table, delicately tucking into cheese cake (Bea Arthur actually detested cheese cake in real life), indulging in what seems like a verbal tennis match, exchanging stories about love, life and men whilst in Rose's case she'd usually come out with some pointless story "back in St Olaph" or Sophia prattling on about Siccerly usually beginning with "picture it...Siccerly, 1953" etc.
The contrast of these four loveable characters from the sharp, witty Dorothy to fiery, vein Blanche, to dizzy, niaeve Rose to the sharp-tongued Sophia is what made The Golden Girls such a huge International success story. It is an important landmark in American television history. ESSENTIAL to any serious comedy collection! Wonderful!
(Incidentally i'd LOVE to see a reunion special of the Golden Girls!)
Ian Phillips
August 2006
Related DVD's The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season
As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and the second season of The Golden Girls picks up where the first ended. The same classic quartet--Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, and Sophia--is back, along with their snappy retorts, shoulder pads, and cheesecake. Well, there was one change. In the season premiere, "End of the Curse," Blanche (Rue McClanahan) goes through menopause.
Highlights of the 26 episodes include "Ladies of the Evening," featuring a cameo from Burt Reynolds, just a few years prior to his own network sitcom, Evening Shade. As Blanche exclaims, "Mr. Burt Reynolds is one of our finest living actors...I mean, you put Sir Laurence Olivier in Cannonball Run--see what he can do." Then there's "Isn't It Romantic?" with Lois Nettleton (In... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Long before reality-show staples "Big Brother" and "The Real World" tapped into the drama and high-hilarity of cohabitation, the long-running "Golden Girls" paved the way into that prime-time show format. Only difference is that "Golden Girls" was pure fiction. Season Four stays true to the format that earned the series three Emmys and a Golden Globe Award: Three widowed/divorced friends in their '50s and one octogenarian mother and grandmother all share a home and their retirement in Miami, Florida. In a season that includes a UFO sighting and government cover up; the implications of drug addiction; a late-in-life wedding; the ridiculous '80s aerobics craze--spandex, headbands, leg warmers and all; a nightmarish nursing home; lesbianism; an intergenerational love triangle; and a trip to... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 14 February 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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While it might seem like something out of another dimension given the world we're living in now, this prime-time show that aired from 1985 to 1992 about the hilarious exploits of four single women of a certain age living out their semi-retirement in Miami still stands up. The plots are mostly predictable, and the set never changes, but this ensemble cast really comes into its own in the third season--one that earned them three Emmys and a Golden Globe. Blanche is just as man-crazy as ever, Sophia works her brutal honesty and "picture Sicily stories" to perfection, Dorothy remains the eternal stalwart straight man without compare, and Rose's dull-witted reveries always make for a great gag. Standout episodes in this season include "A Letter to Gorbachev," where Rose pens a letter urging... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 November 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's a good sign when a new year begins with Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show, Arrested Development) and ends with Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap, The Simpsons). Tambor shows up as Dorothy's doctor in the The Golden Girls two-part fifth season premiere ("Sick and Tired"). Unfortunately, he isn't able to determine why she's feeling run down, so she pays a visit to Empty Nest's Dr. Weston (Richard Mulligan, who returns a few episodes later). Blanche (Rue McClanahan), meanwhile, decides to become a romance novelist, despite the fact that she can't write. Dorothy (Bea Arthur) will eventually find out she has chronic fatigue syndrome (an affliction shared by writer/creator Susan Harris, who'll soon exit the show), while the flighty Blanche will retire... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 09 May 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Of all the Golden Girls profiles aired, these are by far the most thorough and accurate tellings of each of the actresses' stories. And included here is perhaps one of the last (if not the last) interviews of Estelle Getty. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Beatrice Arthur DVD Release Date: 15 November 2005
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