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"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy." This article is incomplete. You can help the Golden Girls Wiki by expanding it. |
It's a Miserable Life is the fourth episode of the second season The Golden Girls and the twenty-ninth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Barry Fanaro, it premiered on NBC-TV on November 1st, 1986.
Summary[]
The girls work on saving a two-hundred year-old oak tree in their neighborhood and become frustrated when the grouchy neighbor on whose property the tree is located does not object to it being removed and actually encourages it. At a local council meeting, Rose reaches her limit and yells at the woman, who then dies of a heart attack, leaving Rose feeling guilty.
Plot[]
The girls are attempt to block a road extension that will destroy a two-hundred year-old oak tree. However, the tree is on the property of Frieda Claxton, an extremely mean and hateful neighbor who is refusing to save the tree. Despite her friends advising her against it, Rose decides to try and convince Mrs. Claxton to try and sign the petition, believing that all she needs is "a little bit of kindness." The day of the meeting at City Hall, Sophia suggests stapling twenty dollars to the petition, which Dorothy admonishes her for. Blanche, meanwhile, is extremely confident that their motion will pass, revealing that she slept with two of the chairmen the night earlier to gain an advantage. Rose is also confident, and reveals that Mrs. Claxton promised to help save the tree after she gave her some pastries.
Mrs. Claxton arrives at the courthouse and is hostile towards the ladies when they try to greet her, revealing that she's been watching Blanche and Dorothy through their bedroom windows and is looking into getting Blanche arrested for her sexual escapades. As Dorothy and Blanche react with fury, Rose tries to remain kind and positive. Mrs. Claxton then reveals she has no intention of helping to the tree, and she lied about doing so to get the pastries Rose had brought. Mrs. Claxton snidely explains that she has no need for trees nor people, especially ones that think that everyone needs "a little bit of kindness."
"And if you don't like it, well, then you can just drop dead!"
During the meeting, Mrs. Claxton gives full permission to "yank out that tree and start pouring cement", insulting her neighbors in the process. Rose asks Mrs. Claxton how she could hate a living thing, and she answers that she hates Rose. This causes Rose to snap and she screams at Mrs. Claxton about how much of a rude woman she is, ordering her to let them say their piece and to drop dead if she doesn't like it. Immediately afterward, however, Mrs. Claxton drops onto the floor of the courtroom, having suffered a heart attack from the shock of Rose's anger.
Rose doesn't sleep for the next two nights feeling guilty of yelling at Claxton, and Dorothy explains to her that the woman was eighty-three and she had a heart attack, but Blanche and Sophia comment that Rose killed her. At Rose's insistence, the ladies decide to have a funeral for Mrs. Claxton since she had no friends or relatives. The funeral home's director, Mr. Pfeiffer, at first assumes that Sophia is their mother, and they're planning ahead for her. They tell him the funeral is for Frieda Claxton, and he helps the girls with their plans for a cheap funeral by selling them a $200 pine box and a flower wreath. During the funeral, the girls are the only ones there, despite a notice in the newspaper. Much to their surprise, an elderly woman arrives to the funeral claiming to be a friend of the deceased. She gives an extremely-touching eulogy about the deceased, claiming to have been her friend for over sixty years, and that she was a generous saint who supported anonymously supported many charities. However, the woman turns out to be talking about Celia Rubenstein, whose funeral was down the hall. Blanche mentions that the funeral is for Frieda Claxton, and Mr. Pfeiffer tells the woman that the Rubenstein funeral is down the hall. The woman asks if she lived in the old house on Richmond Street. After the girls said yes, she turned around, kicked the pine box and walks out.
Rose is devastated after seeing that even in death that Frieda Claxton didn't matter to anyone, and leaves. Mr. Pfeiffer then walks in, holding an urn with Frieda Claxton's ashes, announcing that the high-schooler they hired had cremated Mrs. Claxton by mistake. The next day, Rose saves the tree by spreading Mrs. Claxton's ashes around the tree, saying a prayer, and telling City Hall that it wouldn't be a good idea to disturb a person's final resting place. At the end of the episode, a Great Dane comes along to "pay its respects" by peeing on her ashes.[1]
Tall Tales[]
Back in St. Olaf[]
Rose talks about Ernest T. Minky, St. Olaf's ill-tempered librarian-dentist. Ernest enjoyed causing pain to others, causing many to avoid his places of work, causing the townsfolk to go stupid and have bad teeth. One day, Rose checked out the latest Nancy Drew when Minky's tie got caught in the stamping machine. Rose saved his life by cutting this tie off with her Girl Scout knife, and Minky was so grateful that he allowed Rose to have the book for a week rather than the hour.
Picture It...[]
Sophia suggests stapling a dollar bill to the petition, which the girls explain is bribery. When Dorothy remarks about it being something Sophia did in Sicily to get things done, Sophia says it was the New York way of doing things -- in Sicily, it was putting horses' heads in someone's bed, like they did to garbage commissioner Fredo Lombardy when he went on strike.
Tales from the Old South[]
Blanche claims that there will be plenty of people at her funeral as she saw it when she was young. She explains to Dorothy and Rose how as a teen, she had hormones that made her go "crazy". When Blanche competed in the Miss Magnolia Blossom Pageant, she was named Miss Congeniality instead of the "rightful" winner. She then vowed revenge and faked her death in a riverboat accident, having a captain that she was seeing help her do the deed. Then during the service, as everyone was in tears, Blanche jumped up and revealed that she was alive. Her father had the captain whipped for what he'd done, and Blanche send to an all-girls school in Atlanta.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
- Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
- Betty White as Rose Nylund
- Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo
Guest List[]
- Nan Martin as Frieda Claxton
- Tom Sharp as Mr. Pfeiffer
- Johnny Haymer as The Commissioner
- Amzie Strickland as Lady at Funeral
Notes[]
- The background shot during the closing credits features the four ladies in the funeral home looking on at Mr. Pfeiffer, who's off-screen.
- Nan Martin would later appear again in the episode "Foreign Exchange" as Philomena Bosco.[2]
Production[]
- The outside of the mortuary sign is the same one used in the show Will and Grace, where Grace visits a dear friend who she thought was dead.
Cultural references[]
- Sophia mentioning the townspeople putting a horse head in the garbageman's bed is a reference to The Godfather.
Goofs[]
- When Sophia talks about cottage cheese expiration dates, her thumb touches her index finger. In the next shot, her thumb is spread out.
- When Blanche stands up to speak at the hearing, the boom mic briefly dips into the top of the frame when she leans down to speak to the girls.
- When Mr. Pfeiffer puts the pen back in its holder, it is at about a forty-five degree angle. In the next shot, it is almost vertical.
[]
References[]
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 4, “It’s A Miserable Life.” Gordon, Scott Spencer (writer) & Hughes, Terry (director) (November 1st, 1986)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 4, Episode 24, “Foreign Exchange”. Helberg, Harriet B. and Helberg, Sandy (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director). (May 6th, 1989)