"THE GOLDEN GIRLS: SEASON SIX"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Beatrice Arthur as DOROTHY Rue McClanahan as BLANCHE Betty White as ROSE Estelle Getty as SOPHIA Rated TV-PG Studio: ABC Created by: Susan Harris Back to DVD Review Home |  |
You want to try something funny? Go to eBay, and search for “The Golden Girls.” You will be stunned. These DVDs are some of the highest priced resale TV shows on the market. It’s a high demand show, even twenty years down the line. Why? I have no idea. I’m not part of this crowd, but I respect the hell out of them. They’re the classic TV version of Clay Aiken devotees.
In some ways, “The Golden Girls” is timeless television. Maybe this brings truth to the idea that old people generally don’t change from generation to generation. But I rather believe that comedy doesn’t change. What is funny in the 1980s is usually always going to be funny. That’s why the “Golden Girls” audience transcends generations.
If you don’t believe, just start asking people. I happen to know two people that are completely outside of the target demographic, yet love the show. One is my sister-in-law, who is ten years my junior. The other is (believe it or not) a 23-year-old exotic dancer I ran into at a gentleman’s club once. (Don’t even ask how we got on the subject.)
In the special features from “The Golden Girls: Season Six” DVD set, Betty White and Rue McClanahan talk about how their audience always transcended generations. After my sister-in-law and the aforementioned stripper, I am inclined to believe them.
Still, I am not in the category of the “Golden Girls” fans. I respect the show – probably now more than ever, after plodding through six whole seasons – but even now the show wears on me.
The sixth season sees the show almost over, with only one more season to go. Sure, I’m keeping score on this, but I’ve ended up watching more than 60 hours of “The Golden Girls’ over the past few years, so I deserve to vent a little.
By the sixth season, things had become very route. The stock storylines crop up here and there, with girls threatening to get married, move away or die at some point. There’s also the standard episode where a relative or old friend will come and visit, but fortunately the writers were at least trying some new things at times.
Season six saw some chances being taken with the show, like making Stan Zbornak a suddenly rich entrepreneur. In one episode, Blanche is shocked to run into her husband, whom she thought was dead. Of course, the writers break every rule of decent storytelling by making this all a dream. At the very least, it was something different, if not something good.
Another chance that was taken, which ended up falling on its face, was when Dorothy sucked the other girls into a stage play about Henny Penny (a derivative of Chicken Little). Half of the episode was devoted to them worrying about stage fright, while the other half treated us to a community-theater-level of production as we watched a terrible “Henny Penny” musical. (This was the season finale, too, which I felt was a particularly gutsy move.)
Still, there were episodes that were funny, and the show still had its moments. “The Golden Girls: Season Six” wasn’t torture, but maybe that was because I’ve just gone numb.
Probably the best thing about this DVD set was a videotaped recording from the Museum of Television & Radio which featured Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Susan Harris talking about the show. “Desperate Housewives” hack Marc Cherry also joins the bunch because he was the producer and writer on this season. What everyone has to say about the show and the resulting viewer phenomenon was actually more interesting to me than the shows themselves.
Specifications: Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Full frame (1.33:1). English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
