The Golden Girls is one of the most popular and highly rated sitcoms of all time. With a fan base that spans across multiple generations, the Golden Girls is comedic, heart-warming, and relevant- even today! Beginning in 1985 and ending in 1992, the show centers around four older women who share a home together in Miami.
Each of the four characters have their own unique personality- Dorothy is strong-willed, intelligent and cynical, Rose is naive, silly, and kind-hearted, Blanche is confident, man-crazy, and sensual, and Sophia (Dorothy’s mom) is witty, maternal, and loyal. Even though each of the women are vastly different, their contrasting qualities make for a perfectly balanced, loving friendship between all of the them.
With a series that spanned 7 seasons and 180 episodes, it’s difficult to condense the amazing episodes into the best five, however, these episodes stand out and are memorable even to viewers today!
#5 – One For The Money (S3: E2)
In this episode, the girls reminisce on the various ways they’ve hustled to get money over the years. Because the girls are reminiscing, there are moments of flashbacks which make the episode fun and interesting.
The flashbacks include the ladies trying get rich quick schemes, such as catering and participating in a dance marathon. It also travels back to 1954, as a young Dorothy is trying to pick up a few extra hours at work to bring in more money and needs the help of Sophia to babysit her young kids.
#4 – 72 Hours (S5: E19)
Though one of the later episodes, 72 hours does not disappoint in delivering a great message at the conclusion of the episode. In this episode, Rose receives a letter from the hospital where she got her gall bladder removed that the blood transfusion she had may have contained HIV positive blood. Absolutely terrified, Rose doesn’t know how to handle this potential revelation and seeks the support of the girls to uplift her during this scary time.
The episode tackles a lot of the misconceptions that centered around HIV/AIDS at the time, which is particularly highlighted in a conversation between Rose and Blanche. Blanche also had a test done to see if she was HIV positive, and Rose believes that people like herself (innocent, older, heterosexual) shouldn’t get the disease. Blanche then replies, “AIDS is not a bad person’s disease, Rose. It is not God punishing people for their sins.”
#3 – Isn’t It Romantic? (S2: E5)
As mentioned before, one of the great elements about the Golden Girls is that it tackled sometimes hard to talk about topics of the time. In this episode, Dorothy’s friend Jean is visiting and shares how her partner, Pat recently passed away. What the ladies don’t know (minus Dorothy) is that Pat is a lesbian and her partner, Pat was actually a woman.
While visiting, Jean develops a crush on Rose, who she confesses her feelings to. Along with the whirlwind of fun that this episode gives, Sophia meanwhile rents pornographic movies to watch on the new VCR.
The introduction of a lesbian character on the show and how the ladies engage with her showed its general audience that being gay wasn’t something to be ashamed of or to hide.
#2 – The Way We Met (S1: E25)
One of the greatest elements of the Golden Girls is the flashback moments in some of the episodes, and this last episode in season one is full of awesome flashback moments.
In this episode, the ladies reminisce about the circumstances surrounding how they met and moved in together. Blanche, who owns the home the ladies live in, put an ad in the supermarket for roommates, where she meets Rose for the first time. At first, Blanche is put off by Rose’s attitude, but then considers her as a candidate to be a roommate. Dorothy also comes across the ad and decides to check out Blanche’s home, where she is accompanied by her mother, Sophia.
With Dorothy and Rose as new roommates, the ladies make a group trip to the supermarket where they argue about various items and who is buying each. This episode is great as it shows the origins of how the ladies came together and how their friendship has only grown stronger.
#1 – Ladies of the Evening (S2:E2)
In this hilarious episode, Blanche has three tickets to a post-premiere movie party that Burt Reynolds will be attending. As there are four of the ladies, the fact that there are only three tickets puts a bit of a strain between Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia- who ultimately gets left out because she’s an old lady.
With a plan on which of the ladies is going, they make a weekend trip out of the event and Blanche puts herself in charge of finding a hotel for them to stay at. She bases her choice of hotel over the amount of men in the lobby, which ends up getting the ladies into trouble when the hotel is busted for prostitution (and they’re mistaken as prostitutes)!
With a hilarious plot line and plenty of witty humor, this is an excellent episode to watch when you’re feeling down.
While it can seem like the plot of the show could get boring merely focusing on the fun and difficulties of being older women, there is never a dull moment.
Between Blanche’s outward lust for men or Sophia’s sharp and witty comments, you will always catch yourself laughing and smiling while watching the show. On top of being light-hearted and comedic, the show was also able to tackle some difficult topics of the time, such as HIV/AIDS and being openly gay, which made it easier for people at home to have conversations about ‘taboo’ topics.