Yokel Hero

 was the fourth episode of Season 4 of The Golden Girls, and the 80th overall episode of the series.

Summary
Rose is nominated for St. Olaf Woman of the Year, and with a little help from Blanche and Dorothy altering her list of qualifications on the entry form, she's a sure winner. Meanwhile, a heat wave strikes Miami and the girls' air conditioning goes out.

Plot
The girls return home after playing a charity softball game and complain of the heat, exacerbated by the fact their air conditioning is currently broken. Rose then discovers in the mail that she has been nominated for the "St. Olaf Woman of the Year" award from her hometown. Although initially ecstatic, Dorothy and Blanche finds Rose dejected the next day after listing her life accomplishments and believing she has not done anything worthy. Failing to cheer Rose up, Dorothy and Blanche devise a plan to fill out Rose's entry form for the award for her, and greatly exaggerate small feats Rose experienced in her life.

Some days later, three men from St. Olaf visit the girls' house in Miami. Ben, Sven, and Len are triplets, and are part of the committee to interview and decide on the candidates nominated to win the St. Olaf Woman of the Year award. Dorothy and Blanche, however, become nervous when their interview with Rose includes validating the accomplishments in her biography she had listed in her entry form, knowing what they had written on Rose's behalf. The triplets also inform the girls they would all be flown to St. Olaf if Rose wins, which would help them escape the heat wave in Miami. Spurred on by the trip, Dorothy and Blanche were able to help gloss over the details of their exaggerated claims about Rose, and the triplets declare Rose the winner of the award on the spot.

The girls begin their all-expenses paid trip to St. Olaf, and learn along the way the journey would take days to reach the remote town because of the various modes of transportation they would have to change to: commercial flight, to small aircraft, to train, and finally to wagon. Throughout the trip, Dorothy and Blanche gradually feel more guilty about dishonestly helping Rose win the award, and eventually admit what they have done. A despondent Rose immediately calls the trip off, not wanting to face her town and accepting the award with the knowledge of what they have done.

Back at home, Dorothy and Blanche beg for Rose's forgiveness, which she does after realizing Dorothy and Blanche did what they did out of love. Rose then discovers through the mail that she had won the St. Olaf Woman of the Year award after all, with the committee from St. Olaf explaining that they valued her honesty and willingness to tell the truth, and that her main competition that was set to win was found to have a figurative and literal "skeleton in the closet." Sophia then proposes a toast to celebrate Rose's victory.

Guest cast

 * Ben - Jim Doughan
 * Sven - Doug Cox
 * Len - John Moody
 * Fred - Valente Rodriguez
 * The Driver - James Lashly

Special Guest Appearance by

 * Dr. Harry Weston - Richard Mulligan

Trivia

 * Rose says the St. Olaf Woman of the Year is the town's highest honor. Yet in Ladies of the Evening, "Butter Queen" is said to be St. Olaf's highest honor.
 * In Season 3, Dorothy is terrified and on the verge of a heart attack at the thought of flying on a big jetliner, yet appears to be fine flying on a less safe plane on the journey to St. Olaf.
 * Rose's St. Olaf Woman of the Year trophy was a milk chocolate statue.
 * Richard Mulligan crosses over in his role as Dr. Harry Weston from the spin-off Empty Nest. Harry is the girls' neighbor, a widower pediatrician. This is also his first out of the three crossovers on the series.