"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy."
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Clinton Avenue Memoirs is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of The Golden Girls and the one-hundred and eighteenth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Tracy Gamble and Richard Vaczy, it premiered on NBC-TV on February 3rd, 1990.
Sophia is suffering from memory problems, so she decides to make a trip back to her old Brooklyn home in the hope of rekindling her fading past. Meanwhile, Blanche works for Rose.
Plot[]
Sophia starts to have memory troubles which becomes more notable when she forgets her Wedding Anniversary and the tradition that Dorothy has her do every year since Sal's death.
Thankfully once Sophia confronts the truth after realizing she can't remember if Sal carved a Love heart in their apartment's kitchen as Dorothy doesn't know of it, she sees a doctor it turns out her problem is diet related and so is treatable. To try and help Sophia's memory, Dorothy takes Sophia to their old apartment in Brooklyn, they go and the tenant gives them a little time there, the place is untouched which gives Sophia hope that Sal's carving is still there in the kitchen cupboard but it isn’t, yet the children's height measurements are still there and Dorothy helps Sophia remember the day they brought Phil home. Sophia then goes upstairs to the bedroom, she takes a photograph of Sal out of her purse and Sal's ghost appears and Sophia tells him that she is upset that she might be losing every memory but Sal reminds her she is a strong person and she will fight it before he leaves. Dorothy then tells Sophia they will have to leave but as the tenant opens the closet there is the carving Sal did, Sophia remembers that Sal hung Salami in there and with this luck Sophia hopes to recover everything from the past.[1]
In this episode, Blanche hints to the fact that she slept with former President John F. Kennedy. Nineteen years later, Rue McClanahan would play a woman who hints to having slept with JFK in the Law & Order episode "Illegitimate".
Production[]
This is the only time Sal and Sophia Petrillo are played by someone other than Sid Melton and Estelle Getty.
The set for the kitchen in this episode is the same kitchen that was used for Rose's kitchen in "A Piece of Cake".[2]
The set used for the Petrillos' Brooklyn apartment was originally used on the Witt/Thomas/Harris series It's a Living. It was first used on The Golden Girls for Season 2's "Vacation" where the set was redressed in a tropical island theme as the lobby of a rundown hotel the ladies find themselves staying in.[3]
Goofs[]
The episode title "Clinton Avenue Memories" infers that the Petrillos lived along Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn. Clinton Avenue runs through the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. However, in past episodes Sophia claimed that the Petrillos lived in Canarsie, a neighborhood where Clinton Avenue runs nowhere near.
↑The Golden Girls, Season 5, Episode 16, "Clinton Avenue Memoirs". Gamble, Tracy and Vaczy, Richard (writers) & Drake, Jim (director) (February 3rd, 1990)
↑The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 25, “A Piece of Cake”. Fanaro, Barry; Grossman, Terry; Nathan, Mort and Speer, Kathy (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (May 9th, 1987)
↑The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 8, “Vacation”. Hervey, Winifred (writer) & Hughes, Terry (director) (November 29th, 1986)
