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The Golden Girls article
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'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas is the eleventh episode of the second season of The Golden Girls and the thirty-sixth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan, it premiered on NBC-TV on December 20th, 1986.
Summary[]
A series of mishaps almost ruins the girls' Christmas. They plan to fly home to visit their families but are taken hostage at Rose's office by a lonely man dressed as Santa Claus. Sophia defuses the situation but their flights are subsequently cancelled due to the weather, and they have to spend Christmas Eve in a roadside diner.
Plot[]
Blanche returns home early with a man dressed up in a Santa outfit, whom she was about to conquer when the other girls return home as well. Blanche's master plan to seduce the Santa man are destroyed, which leaves Blanche aggravated. Dorothy admits she is feeling a little blue as all Christmases seem to be about shopping and wasting money away. Rose suggests they should have a little celebration at home that Christmas Eve night by sharing home made gifts for one another before they depart to spend Christmas Day with their respective families. Evening is upon the four girls and the gift sharing turns to Blanche to distribute her gift to the girls. Blanche's gift is a homemade calendar called "The Men of Blanche's Boudoir", displaying the twelve men she had the best time with that year. The four girls laugh the night away after bearing witness to Blanche's outrageously ignominious acts of seduction.
The following day, Blanche and Dorothy are sitting and waiting at Rose's counselling center while Rose finishes up her shift with a few remaining clients. However, a man dressed as Santa unexpectedly holds Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and two other male clients at gunpoint. It turns out the Santa man is just a lonesome man who just wants a little cheer on Christmas Day. Blanche chimes in with Rose and Dorothy to plan on tackling the man and karate-chopping him.
However, Rose becomes upset at the Santa man for acting so selfishly and that maybe he should realize as to why he is alone. By the time Rose is finishing her moral explanation, Sophia enters the Grief Counseling Center after being left out in the car for a bit too long than she would like and then snatches the gun from the Santa man without him even realizing. Sophia reveals the gun is in fact a harmless toy gun. The three girls and the two male clients were relieved and freed instantaneously.
Subsequent the girls being held hostage by the Santa man, the four are seen running through the airport terminal to get to their departure gates just in time for boarding. However, due to inclement weather, their flights were cancelled. The girls are left grounded in Miami, Florida for Christmas Day. The four drag their feet to a nearby diner for coffee and cheesecake, completely sullen and dismayed they will not be seeing their families on Christmas Day. The four see a lone diner employee running the diner by himself, yet they think nothing of it. The diner employee begins to converse with the four girls, explaining he perceived the four were family being out at a diner on Christmas Day. To much of the girls' surprise, their moods improved significantly. They were family indeed. The four girls thank the diner employee's random act of kindness heartfeltly and allow for him to go and see his family for an hour or two while the girls run the diner.
The episode closes with the four girls looking out of the diner window, smiling and hugging one another in glee on a nearly perfect Christmas Day, together just like family.[1]
Tall Tales[]
Back in St. Olaf...[]
Rose attempts to tell the ladies about the time she and her family tried to launch a production of A Christmas Carol with an all-chicken cast.
Tales from the Old South[]
Blanche tells the ladies about the Christmas she met George. She was home from college on Christmas vacation when her best friend Lisa Jane Beeler fixed her up with Richard J. Wild. They pulled over five times on their way to the Christmas dance, and when Richard dropped her off, Blanche met Ernie Willis, who made Richard J. Wild look like a prepubescent choir boy. Before Blanche knew it, she and Ernie were at a bar dancing, where she was approached by Thomas Penville. Dorothy cuts in and asks when Blanche met George, and Blanche replies that she met George the Christmas after.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
- Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
- Betty White as Rose Nylund
- Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo
Guest Stars[]
- Terry Kiser as Santa Claus
- Craig Richard Nelson as Thurber
- Teddy Wilson as Albert
- Sam Anderson as Meyer
- Buddy Daniels as Airport Mendicant
Notes[]
- This is the final episode of The Golden Girls to air in 1986.
- Near the end of the episode, when the girls are seen in the diner, the exterior shot before the beginning of the scene is of "The Roadside Diner" (its real name) which has been in business for decades as of September 2012. It's in Wall Township, New Jersey, a few miles outside of Farmingdale, NJ, just west of the Collingwood Circle. This particular diner has been used as the location for scenes in several movies over the years.
Production[]
- Unbeknownst to the actresses, several members of the prop department took photos of themselves in exaggerated erotic nude or seminude poses and compiled them into the "Men of Blanche's Boudoir" calendar. Filming ground to a halt when the ladies saw the calendar for the first time on set and promptly fell into hysterical laughter. Afterwards, each actress received her own copy of the calendar, signed by the prop department. Rue McClanahan's copy was auctioned after her death, selling for over $4000.
Cultural references[]
- The title of this episode refers to Clement Clarke Moore's poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, otherwise more commonly known today as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
- Rose mentions the Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.
- When Blanche tries to convince the ladies to take the gun from the Santa, Dorothy references the American TV series Charlie's Angels.
Goofs[]
- Blanche insists she never goes to bed with men who wear wedding rings. Here, caught with Ed Kletner dressed as Santa, Dorothy alludes that Ed is married.
[]
References[]
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 11, “‘Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Fanaro, Barry and Nathan, Mort (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (December 20th, 1986)