Yes it is true. And sad. Our favorite girl - Estelle, the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," is gone. She passed away when most of us got up this morning. That's only to confirm that life is short (tho God had given her 84 wonderful years and more than 20 of those years she had cleverly used to make us laugh and cry, be better people, more humane, more kinder and gentler to ourselves). My Boo Boo and I adored her. I still do. We watched her and the other funny ladies everynight for three years. The girls started on September 14, 1985 and had their last episode aired on September 14, 1992. Long time ago. But the series never left our TV screen. Night after night they have entertained us, made us laugh and made us shed a tear or two, and most of all they made us think -- what would it be like growing old and gray and staying true to your dear friends through good and bad times?
Four of them -- best friends. Their stories centered on their mature-ness and single-ness living together in Miami. We all want to stay friends till we are old and gray like them, living in the same house somewhere in South Beach.
And who would be Dorothy, the outspoken divorcee, a substitute teacher whose strong personality often seemed to overpower her housemates? Or be Rose was a flaky, naive, soft-spoken widow given to hilarious misinterpretations of almost everything that was said in her presence? (She worked, believe it or not, as a grief counselor, for God's sake). Friends think I am Blanche, who owned the house, was also a widow, but of a different stripe. She was lusty, man-hungry, and dripping with charm, a Southern bell that never aged, at least in her own mind. All in their 50s and 60s, the three were joined by Dorothy's elderly mother Sophia, who moved in when her retirement home, Shady Pines, burned to the ground. Sophia had the saltiest mouth in the house. She had had a stroke, it was said, that destroyed the "tact" cells in her brain. After Dorothy left, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia pooled their money and purchased a small Art Deco hotel in the trendy South Bay section of Miami Beach. The new series entitled Golden Palace lasted for one season on CBS. I didn't even see Golden Palace!
My dear sister, Andrew Lee, and I were watching the Girls in our apartment in Chelsea one evening. I was invited to review primetime TV shows for CBS's RewardTV and was asked to come up with 15 trivia questions and 15 correct answers. I remember the episode below. We had a good laugh. How can we queers not miss the Girls.
I love you Sophia...so much, I will always love you....and thank you for being a friend to me.
(Sophia enters the kitchen)
Sophia: Hi Pussycat. Cooking?
Dorothy: No Ma, I'm developing pictures from the Magellean Space Program.
Sophia: I've never told a lie... Well just once when I snuck out of class to go to the movies.
Dorothy: Ma, that's not much of a lie.
Sophia: That's what I thought. It turned out to be the day they taught everything!
Dorothy: The final piece of the puzzle.
Blanche: I am going to be a model. There I was sitting at the lunch counter and just like Ms. Lana Turner, I was discovered. Well, not exactly like Ms. Lana Turner.
Rose: You mean she was sipping a soda and you were scarfing down your usual lumberjack breakfast?
Sophia: Can you belive it? I'm beginning to think Blanche is hung up on her looks.
Dorothy: Boy, you don't need lightening to strike you.
Sophia: No thanks. Not again. Once was enough.
Dorothy: An extra pice of the puzzle.
Sophia: Do these glasses make me look stupid?
Blanche: Let's just say they don't hide it.
(Blanche and Rose enter the livingroom)
Blanche: You know what I hate about cleaning up after a big party?
Rose: Finding your underwear in the pile?
Rose: Can I ask a dumb question?
Dorothy: Like no one else.
Rose: We should put out a welcome mat.
Blanche: But we don't have a welcome mat.
Rose: What about the one Dorothy says is at the foot of your bed?
Rose: Once, I read your diary.
Blanche: You what?!
Rose: Well you left it open on the kitchen table. I was 20 pages in before I realized that it wasn't a Sidney Sheldon novel.
Dorothy: You know how uncomfortable I am in front of the camera. Besides, I always come out looking like Fess Parker.
Rose: Don't worry. This is a documentary. It's okay if you're not good-looking.
Rose: Sophia, is that Captain Jack's Seafood Shanty uniform you're wearing?
Sophia: No, Rose. I'm off to discover the Straits of Magellean.
Blanche: This is like the Twilight Zone--somehow we got on a train that ended up in Rose's mind!
Blanche (to Jackie and Marla): Well, just let me freshen my make-up. Girls, why don't you come with me and I'll show you how I transform myself ino a fresh-faced, innocent, young thing.
Rose: Could you skip the innocent part, Blanche? The show starts in two hours.
(Rose shoots a vase in the living room)
Rose: I heard a noise. I thought it was the robbers.
Sophia: I live 80, 81 years. I survived war, pneumonia, two operations. One night I'll belch and Stable Mable here will blow my head off!
Blanche (helping Rose make up an excuse to tell Miles): Well, just tell him you have a lot of work to do at home.
Rose: But I don't want to lie!
Blanche: Ok, then we'll make you clean out the garage later.
Rose: Oh thanks! I owe you big for this one!
Rose: I never had PMS but I have a BMW once.
Blanche: Becky conceives in a clinic and wants to deliver in a bedroom. She's got the whole thing backwards. Oh, this is all wrong. What kind of dope would want to have a baby here?
Rose (enters): This place makes me want to run out and get pregnant!
Blanche: I don't look right in American clothes. I have a more European physique.
Rose: In Europe do they all have big butts, too?
Dorothy: Blanche, are you sure you're pregnant?
Blanche: I just did a home pregnancy test--it's right here.
Rose: That looks like a perfume sample!
Dorothy: Put it behind your ears, Rose.
Dorothy: I hate seeing Ma like this.
Blanche: Dorothy, I hate seeing you like this.
Rose: I hate those FBI warnings at the beginning of movies.
Blanche: Come on, Rose.
Rose: But what about {I Love} Lucy?
Blanche: We'll watch it on the portable in the kitchen.
Rose: But that set's black and white!
Blanche: She's just a child. You can't expect a child to give back a toy. You do understand that, don't you?
Rose: Cut the crap and get back the damn bear!
Rose: Do the minks really have to be killed?
Sophia: No, Rose. Many women like coats that urinate.
Rose: What's the matter, Sophia? You couldn't sleep either?
Sophia: No, Rose. I was sleeping great. I just wanted to show off my pajamas.
Dorothy: It's not a fly, Rose.
Rose: Spanish fly is not a fly?
Dorothy: No.
Rose: What is it?
Dorothy: It's a beetle.
Rose: They call it a fly but it's really a beetle?
Dorothy: Yes.
Rose: How do they know it's Spanish?
Dorothy: Because it wears a little sombrero, Rose!
Dorothy: This is loaded with caffiene!
Rose: But we need caffiene. Especially women our age, or our bones will get brittle and we'll walk all stooped over.
Blanche: You know girls, we are going on a romantic cruise with Jeff, Rich and Randy, and this day in age it might not be a bad idea to bring... you know... protection.
Rose: What do you mean?
Dorothy: Two armed Pinkerton guards, Rose! No, Blanche was talking about what's over there. (Points to counter)
Rose: A Nestle Crunch?
Dorothy: Over one.
Rose: An enema bag?
Dorothy: To the left.
Rose: Dentu-Grip?!
Dorothy: CONDOMS, ROSE! CONDOMS, CONDOMS, CONDOMS!
Rose: Well you're not gonna believe this. I've just been talking on the phone for a half hour and guess what!
Blanche: You forgot to dial first?
Rose: No!
Dorothy: You held the receiver upside down.
Rose: Huh-uh.
Dorothy: It wasn't even the phone; it was the TV remote control.
Rose: No.
Blanche: A shoe?
Rose: Blanche, please, I'm not an idiot... The TV has a remote control?!
Blanche: I suppose we could prove Mr.Livingston was faking his injuries if we could trick him into performing certain acts of a sexual nature. All we'd need is a devastatingly beautiful woman with a flair for seduction.
Rose: How about Mrs.Hoofstad down the street? I mean, she's something of a dog but she'll do it with anybody!
Blanche: I was talking about me.
Rose: Oh yeah! You will too!
Blanche: Rose, I won't go all the way. I'll just get him in the bedroom and put him through the normal warm-up, and we'll have a certain Scandanavian nit-wit hiding in the closet with a camera!
Rose: Wouldn't it be better if I hid in the closet?
Blanche: I've had it with you! I'm going to my room and I may never come out!
Rose: Is it the weekend already?
Mrs. Weston: What are you seeing?
Blanche: Nightmare on Elmstreet 4.
Rose: Do you have to see 1, 2, and 3 to appreciate it?
Dorothy: No, Rose. It stands alone.
Rose. George is the only man to ever see me naked.
Blanche: Get outta here.
Rose: Well except for Charlie of course.
Blanche: Get outta here.
Rose: And the vet.
Dorothy: The vet?
Rose: Our prize hen, Henrietta, had some kind of a chicken disease. I don't know exactly what it was.
Dorothy: The chicken pox.
Rose: No, I don't think so. Anyway, I had an earache so he saw us both at the same time.
Dorothy: For that you got naked?!
Rose: I thought that was strange too!
Rose: I just got a special delivery letter from St. Olaf. Uh oh. It's from the department of water and coffee.
Dorothy: Coffee?
Rose: No thanks, it makes me jumpy.
Rose: Blanche, I don't think you realize how powerful sex is. Once, Charlie and I did it till the cows came home! Of course, I was wearing a bell.
Blanche: Rose, if you're gonna be my lump of clay, you're gonna have to be a little bit smarter.