Golden Girls Wiki

Synopsis
Transcript
Gallery
"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.

The Way We Met is the twenty-fifth episode of the first season of The Golden Girls and the twenty-fifth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Kathy Speer, Terry Grossman, Winifred Hervey, Mort Nathan and Barry Fanaro, it premiered on NBC-TV on May 10th, 1986.

It is the Season 1 finale.

Summary[]

After watching the movie Psycho, the girls reminisce about how they came to live together. Rose met Blanche in the supermarket as she put up an advertisement about her rooms for rent. Initially turned off by Rose's tame personality, she ultimately gave in after seeing Rose giving away a stray cat she had kept to a little boy who happened to lose his pet cat the week before. Responding to the ad, Dorothy visited the house with Sophia, with the former agreeing to move in. The day after Dorothy's move, they had a dispute at the supermarket, but reconciled at the dining table with the help of Rose's St. Olaf story.

Plot[]

After watching Psycho, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose come into the kitchen, spooked. As they eat cheesecake, Rose comments on how they aren't alone. This leads to a series of flashbacks about how they all came to live with each other. The first flashback starts off with Blanche meeting Rose in the supermarket by the want-ads board. Rose had been evicted from her apartment because her landlord didn't allow pets and Rose couldn't part ways with her cat. At first, Blanche finds Rose's goody-two-shoes attitude annoying and decides to keep looking for a roommate but when she sees Rose give away her cat to a boy; whose own cat had recently died, Blanche considers showing Rose the room. The next flashback starts with Dorothy arriving at the house for an interview with Sophia tagging along. After Sophia's comments about the house, Dorothy was sure she made a bad first impression but still got the room. The next day, a trip to the supermarket brings out their differences. They decide to do their own shopping from that point on. After an argument about where they should store the Raisin Bran, the girls begin to think that they weren't meant to live together. This leads to Rose telling one of her St. Olaf stories, which causes Blanche and Dorothy to laugh hysterically. Noticing Rose with a cheesecake, they soon realize perhaps they can get along. Back in the present day, after finishing most of a cheesecake, the girls decide to go back to bed when Sophia scares the girls with a knife mimicking Norman Bates.[1]

Tall Tales[]

Back in St. Olaf...[]

Rose tells the ladies the story of The Great Herring War, a conflict between the Lindstroms and the Johannsens in Norway.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest List[]

  • Shirley Prestia as Madame Zelda
  • Edan Gross as Little Boy
  • Dom Irrera as Produce Clerk

Notes[]

  • Rose's story about "The Great Herring War" went viral on Twitter following the death of Betty White in 2021. A rumor emerged that White was improvising the story, hence Dorothy and Blanche's hysterical reactions. This was disproved when the shooting script for the episode was shared online, showing that the scene was scripted, and a script supervisor on the show later explained that there was rarely any improvisation on The Golden Girls.[2] Whether Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan were actually breaking character, however, is unclear.
  • Blanche and Dorothy compare Rose to television or film characters twice in this episode. Dorothy calls her Mrs. Rogers, referring to the show Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood and Rose's preschool tv show level of happy and friendly personality. Blanche later calls Rose Mary Poppins.

Production[]

  • Rue McClanahan was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in this episode.

Goofs[]

  • When Rose is first seen holding the cat, her left hand is under his head. In the next shot and all subsequent ones, her left hand is on top of the cat's neck.
  • The kitchen island counter is the same in both the current scene and the flashbacks. However, the counter was different in the pilot.

Site Navigation[]

V - E - H
List of The Golden Girls episodes

Season 1 The EngagementGuess Who's Coming to the WeddingRose the PrudeTransplantThe TriangleOn Golden GirlsThe CompetitionBreak-InBlanche and the Younger ManThe Heart AttackThe Return of Dorothy's ExThe Custody BattleA Little RomanceThat Was No LadyIn a Bed of Rose'sThe Truth Will OutNice and EasyThe OperationSecond MotherhoodAdult EducationThe FluJob HuntingBlind AmbitionsBig DaddyThe Way We Met
Season 2 End of the CurseLadies of the EveningTake Him, He's MineIt's a Miserable LifeIsn't It RomanticBig Daddy's Little LadyFamily AffairVacationJoust Between FriendsLove, Rose'Twas The Nightmare Before ChristmasThe SistersThe Stan Who Came to DinnerThe ActorBefore and AfterAnd Then There Was OneBedtime StoryForgive Me, FatherLong Day's Journey into MarinaraWhose Face is This, Anyway?Dorothy's Prized PupilDiamond in the RoughSon-in-Law DearestTo Catch a NeighborA Piece of CakeEmpty Nests
Season 3 Old FriendsOne for the MoneyBringing Up BabyThe HousekeeperNothing to Fear But Fear ItselfLetter to GorbachevStrange BedfellowsBrotherly LoveA Visit from Little SvenThe AuditThree on a CouchCharlie's BuddyThe ArtistBlanche's Little GirlDorothy's New FriendGrab That DoughMy Brother, My FatherGolden Moments, Part 1Golden Moments, Part 2And Ma Makes ThreeLarceny and Old LaceRose's Big AdventureMixed BlessingsMister TerrificMother's Day
Season 4 Yes, We Have No HavanasThe Days and Nights of Sophia PetrilloThe One That Got AwayYokel HeroBang the Drum, StanleySophia's Wedding, Part 1Sophia's Wedding, Part 2Brother, Can You Spare That JacketScared StraightStan Takes a WifeThe AuctionBlind DateThe Impotence of Being ErnestLove Me TenderValentine's DayTwo Rode TogetherYou Gotta Have HopeFiddler On the RopesTill Death Do We VolleyHigh AnxietyLittle SisterSophia's ChoiceRites of SpringForeign ExchangeWe're Outta Here, Part 1We're Outta Here, Part 2
Season 5 Sick and Tired, Part 1Sick and Tired, Part 2The Accurate ConceptionRose Fights BackLove Under the Big TopDancing in the DarkNot Another MondayThat Old FeelingComedy of ErrorsAll That JazzEbb TideHave Yourself a Very Little ChristmasMary Has a Little LambTriple PlayClinton Avenue MemoirsLike the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-TomAn Illegitimate Concern72 HoursTwice In a LifetimeSisters and Other StrangersCheatersThe Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding PresentAll Bets Are OffThe President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 1The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 2
Season 6 Blanche DeliversOnce, In St. OlafIf At Last You Do SucceedSnap Out Of ItWham, Bam, Thank You MammyFeelingsZborn AgainHow Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia?Mrs. George DevereauxGirls Just Wanna Have Fun... Before They DieStand By Your ManEbbtide's RevengeThe Bloom Is Off the RoseSisters of the BrideMiles to GoThere Goes the Bride, Part 1There Goes the Bride, Part 2Older and WiserMelodramaEven Grandmas Get the BluesWitnessWhat a Difference a Date MakesLove for SaleNever Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 1Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 2Henny Penny — Straight, No Chaser
Season 7 Hey, Look Me OverThe Case of the Libertine BelleBeauty and the BeastThat's For Me to KnowWhere's Charlie?Mother LoadDateline: MiamiThe Monkey Show, Part 1The Monkey Show, Part 2Ro$e Love$ Mile$Room SevenFrom Here to the PharmacyThe Pope's RingOld BoyfriendsGoodbye, Mr. GordonThe CommitmentsQuestions and AnswersEbbtide VI: The Wrath of StanJourney to the Center of AttentionA Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 1A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 2Rose: Portrait of a WomanHome Again, Rose, Part 1Home Again, Rose, Part 2One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 1One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 2

References[]

  1. The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 25, "The Way We Met". Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (May 10th, 1986)
  2. Showbiz Cheatsheet, ‘The Golden Girls’: Did Betty White Really Improvise the ‘Great Herring War’ Scene?" https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-golden-girls-did-betty-white-really-improvise-the-great-herring-war-scene.html/