Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and today we are talking about an episode of the Golden
Girls, yaay!
For this video I’ll be showcasing one of my favorites, The Case of the Libertine Belle,
spelled BELLE because it has a focus on Blanche and she’s from the south.
So not like Taco Bell, like Southern Belle.
See, it’s better when you EXPLAIN the joke.
That's the key to comedy.
I could gush about this show for years, and I probably will in the near future in a more
comprehensive video, but today I’d just like to get the ball rolling with this silly,
shenanigan based episode.
Quickly though; if you don’t know anything about this show, it ran from mid to early
90s, and focused on four older women who live together in Miami.
Will Smith: “Uh, Miami!”
It stars Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, deadpan sarcasm extraordinaire from Brooklyn and arguably
the wisest in the group, Betty White as Rose Nylund, a naive, goofy, and optimistic woman
from the fictional town of St. Olaf, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, an over confident, sexually
charged woman and owner of the house they live in, and last but certainly not least,
Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy’s 80 year old mother who came to live with them
after suffering a stroke.
She’s just savage.
Dorothy: “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Sophia: “I think I crossed that line when I got a date.”
The show had a pretty notable resurgence in pop culture over the years, which I attribute
to the the internet and the LGBTQ community - we love us some Golden Girls, trust and
believe.
Game show host: “Better late than…?”
Blanche: “Pregnant!”
Nina West: “Better late than pregnant I always say.”
Oh, and this clip you’ve probably seen a million times on Twitter?
The one people use when they're bein’ thirsty?
Yep, that’s from this show.
In fact, you can’t get AWAY from the thirsty moments in this show; they are in every episode
because do you think sexual desire goes away when you hit a certain age?
This show is KNOWN for destigmatizing sex, particularly between older people.
In fact, even this episode starts with Blanche talking about one of her lovers, Mel Bushman.
Blranche: “We ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere.”
Rose: “My goodness, what did you do?”
Blanche: “You name it.”
Something I’ve always liked about Blanche in particular is that even though the girls
give her shit for her promiscuity, she always embraces it; Dorothy, to Rose: “She is the
easiest woman in this room.”
Blanche: “Dororthy Zbornak, you take that back.”
In fact she gets offended if she is NOT the thirstiest woman in the room and this is the
first time I had seen a mature women usurp the word slut and wear her sexuality like
a badge of honor.
Blanche: “I’M the biggest slut.”
Blanche tells the girls that the Maltese Falcon club is sponsoring a murder mystery weekend
event for her workplace, and she wants to go to impress her boss, Kendall Nesbit, so
that she could potentially get a promotion.
She invites the three girls to go with so she can get a group rate at the hotel, and
it’s revealed that Dorothy is quite the murder mystery enthusiast.
Dorothy: “I have read every word that Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler ever wrote.”
Also, can I just say something about Dorothy’s hair?
The evolution of Dorothy Zbornak's hairstyle is a fascinating thing; it starts out pretty
average, then she starts rocking this longer style which I love, then it goes back to this
and I do not understand it.
It's rather porcupine like, isn't it?
Does anyone else see it?
I love you Bea Arthur but your porcupine hair confuses me.
Related: Bea Arthur’s best look was in the Star Wars holiday special.
Bea Arthur is a part of the Star Wars universe, it’s canon.
Deal with it.
They show up at the hotel for the event and holy ruffles what is Blanche WEARING?
You know, the fashion in this show has been considered iconic but I’m not so sure about
this floofy monstrosity.
Not sure about this outfit either.
Dorothy explains how the event will work to Rose, telling her to keep an eye on the actors
and actresses and question them for clues.
Rose: “Okay Dorothy...If that’s your real name.”
Rose is so cute.
She’s a character I grew to love because when I was young, I felt like she didn’t
shine as much as the others, but there is something to be said about a character who
perhaps isn’t the most book smart, but is joyful, caring and extremely likeable.
Rose: “How is that coffee?”
Woman: “Terrific!”
Rose: “Actor…”
As they sit down, Rose notices that Blanche is wearing a pair of her earrings; When Rose
had previously asked her where the earrings were, Blanche told her she didn’t know,
and yet, there they are.
Blanche: “Well Rose there could be two explanations: Either I was lying or I was wrong about the
number of explanations.”
And this my friends, is the setup for a joke that we’ll revisit later.
Nesbit comes over and Blanche flirts with him in her usual odd but charming way.
After this everyone gets to their seats and the show starts, and I can confirm that murder
mystery events really are this cheesy.
This one is obviously a little rushed due to the time constraint of a 23 minute sitcom,
but it’s pretty accurate.
I like that the detective's name is SPADE MARLOWE, a mishmash of fictional detectives
Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.
Sophia: “Does anybody but me think that hat’s a LITTLE precious?”
After a couple people try to solve the case with no success, Dorothy confidently stands
up and explains with gusto how it was all done.
I also really love the mother daughter bond between Sophia and Dorothy; it’s a little
on the brutal side as they are both very fiesty, quick witted women, but I’ve never seen
such candid banter like this.
Some people think Sophia is perhaps a little too mean, though from my perspective she just
reminds me of my gambling, swearing, and sometimes overly honest Grandma so for me it’s endearing.
Dorothy: “Ma, why are you always trying to aggravate everyone?”
Sophia: “To relax.”
So Dorothy figures out the entire scenario in about 2 minutes and the show is over.
Wait to go Dorothy, that was supposed to be at least two hours.
Blanche decides to throw Rose out of their room last minute so she can have some private
time with Nesbit.
Rose does not like this idea.
….So this guy is dead.
(sting!)
Blanche turns away for literally 5 seconds and her boss is dead on her bed with a knife
plunged into his chest.
Understandably, everyone thinks it’s part of the act.
Dorothy holds a mirror under the victim’s nose to see if he’s breathing, and because
nobody thought to check his PULSE, they conclude that yep, he’s dead.
I have absolutely no idea why nobody checked for a pulse; if there was a lifeless lookin’
body in front of me my first thought would not be “Hey someone lemme borrow a makeup
compact I gotta see if the mirror fogs up.”
That’s how you prove death.
Blanche becomes the main suspect as the room was locked and she and the victim were the
only ones found in it.
Sophia encourages Dorothy to try and figure out what happened, seeing as though she was
so good solving the fictional case at dinner.
I mean, if you’re good at murder mystery events clearly the next logical step is becoming
a detective.
Dorothy: “That was a game, this is life.”
Sophia: “Ohh that’s right, you’ve never been good at life.”
No one can cast a LOOK like Bea Arthur.
Everyone meets later in the lobby of the hotel and we are greeted by a new detective, played
by Tony Plana.
Who is Tony Plana, you ask?
He played Manny Calavera in Grim Fandango, which also happens to be a noir mystery point-n-click
game.
Manny: “It’s my boss’s secretary, Eva.”
Eva: “It’s my boss’s whipping boy, Manny.”
He was also in an episode of Murder, She Wrote so that's enough for me to be a Tony Plana
Super fan.
Alvarez: “I’m lieutenant Alvarez, state county homicide, and here’s what I got.”
He's perfect in these roles, though when I see him all I can think about is him yelling
at pigeons as Manny.
Manny: “Run you pigeons!
It’s Robert Frost.”
Blanche makes a desperate attempt to prove her innocence by hitting on the detective.
Dorothy: “Blanche, not now!”
Blanche: “If not now, when??”
Followed by her coworker throwing out an accuration, claiming Blanche must have been jealous that
their boss was going to offer the promotion to her instead, and for that reason SHE KILLED
HIM.
It’s very Fatal Attraction.
She’s charged with Murder, but Dorothy is having none of that nonsense and attempts
to solve the mystery; it’s played out like a Murder, She Wrote recap.
I can just hear the BEAUTIFUL Jessica Fletcher firmly but eloquently explaining the scenario
with a recreated scene on the screen; as an aside I was always disappointed that there
wasn’t any overlap between these shows.
They ran at the same time, and Bea Arthur and Angela Lansbury were even very close friends
so it would have been great to see them guest on each other’s shows, but the most we got
was seeing Dorothy’s ex husband Stan as a recurring detective in Murder, She Wrote.
As in his actor, not actually Stan.
Anyway, Nesbit faked it, what a dick.
Nesbit: “I seem to have recovered from my death, ah hah hah!”
Yep, it was all part of the murder mystery weekend - what in the fuck this would be TRAUMATIZING;
Blanche thought she was going to prison and Blanche’s coworker, who WAS in on this extra
bit, took a shot at Dorothy; it clearly wasn't real, but this is the most unethical mystery
event I’ve ever seen!
I mean, I guess they got their money’s worth but damn; can you imagine believing your boss
got murdered and you’re the one accused?
Sophia: “What a load of fun!”
Rose was also involved; she was the one that sprayed defogger on the hand mirror; Blanche
is pretty annoyed and asks her why she’d go and do a thing like that.
Rose: “Well Blanche, there could be TWO explanations.”
That setup for the earrings that happened earlier on?
It came back, it spanned the WHOLE episode.
Rose: “Either I was getting back at you for taking my earrings, or… oh who are we
kidding, that’s why I did it!”
Rose is a lovely person, but you don’t fuck with her.
She’s got an intense side, let me tell you.
Rose: “Sometimes life just isn’t fair, kiddo!”
Final Thoughts!
I love this episode because it’s pretty much everything I enjoy about The Golden Girls
- the absurd but smart humor, the murder mystery aspect, Tony Plana, and Dorothy owning the
entire room.
Though the whole “Blanche is charged for murder I” thing is very bizarre and frankly
immoral, I am always impressed with how goofy this show really gets.
You don’t necessarily envision these characters in some of the situations they find themselves
in, especially if you’ve never seen an episode.
These are the kind of shenanigans that have traditionally been reserved for younger male
characters; in fact sometimes it reminds me of the Monkees, though the writing itself
is much smarter and more mature in The Golden Girls.
Peter: “Well, I.” Machine: “Correct letter is i, name is not not what, but nit
wit.”
Peter: “Oh brother.”
It also has many progressive moments and tackles some serious topics throughput the years,
but it balances that out with comedy, and it portrays older women in a way that you
don’t typically see: as active, funny, sexually confident people that have a life.
Though it’s hard to pick a favorite Golden Girl girl, I always lean towards Dorothy,
and she really shines in this episode, so I highly recommend checking it out.
If you are a fan of this show and the mystery genre in general, there’s also a Golden
Girls edition of Clue.
And if you’re a dork like me, you can even buy Golden Girls pencils.
This one is my favorite.
Eat dirt and die, trash!
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of The Case of the Libertine Belle, if you have a suggestion
for an episode you would love to see me discuss, please feel free to leave a comment, I do
take them into consideration.
And remember, when plowing through life’s obstacles starts to feel impossible and you
feel like you’re losing steam when the going gets tough, ask yourself: What would Dorothy
Zbornak do?
All right, cut to the theme song.
Music playing: “Thank you for being a friiiiiiend!”
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video on The Golden Girls - if you want to see more
retro Television content, then subscribe to my channel.
Hope you like Murder, She Wrote!
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As always, I’ll see you in the next one!