Hello everyone,

I am writing here to tell you something about the golden girls.
I love this show I have all 7 DVD's of all seasons.
I love the dialogs, the writing is amazing.
There is only one thing I don't understand.
It's about the jokes when they use a name of an american celebrity.
Of course when they compare someone with Jane Fonda or Mickael Jackson i get the point but most of the time (8 times on 10) I don't get it.
It's sometimes very frustrating because Im sure these jokes are amazing if i would get them.
So my questions is for the Americans, these comparaisons about celebrities are really funny. Do i miss a lot by not understand them ?
thanks for your answers :talk: :happyface

If you aren't familiar with the celebrities that the G.G.'s reference in an episode, I can imagine it would lead to confusion, and not finding the joke as funny as people who do know who they are.

But if it helps, most of the references were so silly and nonsensical anyway, your not knowing who they were probably doesn't mean all that much. :D

i.e.: Blanche's insistence on comparing herself to Susan Anton, (very tall and blonde actress) and Christie Brinkley, (tall, blonde supermodel) neither of whom she even remotely resembled. :lol:

I also remember when Blanche said that she was Mrs. Angie Dickinson….LOL

Sophia once made a joke about Buster Crabbe and I had to look him up, lol. And when I was younger I didn't get her Dick Cavet joke.

Wow! :eek:

If you're so young you even had to look up Dick Cavet, I can just imagine your not knowing who Buster Crabbe was. He was even before MY time, and I'm 65! :lol:

Sometimes we "oldsters" forget that lots of names don't immediately bring a face to mind with younger generations. I'm sure there are millions of teenagers who wouldn't recognize a photo of Paul Newman if they saw one. :(

Well I am not that Young as i was born in 1985 but I am french so I don't know all the celebrities they compare themselves sometimes in their jokes

fandu44,
Do you live in the U.S. now, or do you watch the Golden Girls in France?

By the way, either way, your English is awesome. :wave:

Thanks Bandonurse,

I live in France so I Watch the GG on DVD. I used to live in London 5 years that might explain why my level is better than the other frenchs (but their levels is so low that it's not so difficult to have a better one)

The sitcom with the most celebrity references I have ever seen is, believe it or not, Mama's Family (which started out with Betty and Rue). I had to look up names like "Zola Budd" and "F. Lee" to get many of those jokes! lol

The sitcom with the most celebrity references I have ever seen is, believe it or not, Mama's Family (which started out with Betty and Rue). I had to look up names like "Zola Budd" and "F. Lee" to get many of those jokes! lol
I'd guess that The Wayans Brothers would possibly have more.

Apparently a lot of viewers who only caught the show later in reruns didn't understand a lot of the topical names mentioned. Here's an entire article (http://mentalfloss.com/article/31896/11-golden-girls-references-explained-younger-viewers) that explains some of the references used on The Golden Girls.

Thank you Oriole Adams that helps a lot to understand the jokes !
Incredible, I love this show !
Does this show still rerun on TV in America in 2015 ?

Does this show still rerun on TV in America in 2015 ?

On at least two different channels, fandu :biglove:

Both TVLand and The Hallmark Channel show marathons of GG every week. Hallmark Channel shows two hours of them, every day, twice per day. That's how beloved our Golden Girls are here in America! LOL patriot:

I'd guess that The Wayans Brothers would possibly have more.

Oh I don't know, Mama's Family surprising has a LOT...many more than you would dare to think.

Apparently a lot of viewers who only caught the show later in reruns didn't understand a lot of the topical names mentioned. Here's an entire article that explains some of the references used on The Golden Girls.

Hey, I was with the show from day 1 in September 1985, and I still didn't understand a lot of the topical names; the thing is, I was only 7 years young. :)

Wow! :eek:

If you're so young you even had to look up Dick Cavet, I can just imagine your not knowing who Buster Crabbe was. He was even before MY time, and I'm 65! :lol:

Sometimes we "oldsters" forget that lots of names don't immediately bring a face to mind with younger generations. I'm sure there are millions of teenagers who wouldn't recognize a photo of Paul Newman if they saw one. :(
I sometimes goes the other way. Many people of the last 20 years I don't know.

It was mostly in year 3 when the original writers wrote current events into the dialogue. I believe it started in the 2nd half of year 2.

Somewhere I read that Bea Arthur didn't like that because viewers in the future won't understand the references.

Did you know that when Rose wrote a letter to someone in Russia, it was out of the headlines?
I think the Gary Hart/Donna Rice scandal was mentioned in year 3.
Also some evangelist - maybe Jimmy Swaggert?
The Jacksons, especially Michael were mentioned a lot.

By year 4, the current events dialogue was gone.

Howie Mandel and Thirtysomething got a fair amount of mentions, but those were all insults.
I don't mind the references. It's like a quick throwback to that time.

By year 4, the current events dialogue was gone.

I don't know about that, it seems then-current references to pop culture and politics were always sprinkled in throughout the series.

Howie Mandel and Thirtysomething got a fair amount of
mentions, but those were all insults.

A "fair amount"? I can think of maybe one each, unless someone can think of more.

Golden Girls is a great show, but some of the humor is dated for the times, which were the mid 1980's, so some of the people they talked about are now obscure people.

Much like older 1950's shows when they talk about people "before my time" like Walter Winchell or Bishop Sheen for example. All in the Family was a lot about political humor and debate of the 1970's, Nixon, Agnew, Watergate, McGovern, etc., if you are unfamilar with these people (Nixon is famous but the others) if you do not know who they are.

I am 48, almost 49 years old, I do not know what is popular with the "youngins", which is why I dont get into Two Broke Girls. But the womder of history and these reruns is hearing a name that got a laugh 40 years ago (like Bebe Rebezo) and the person might be interested in seeing who thst person was. TV shows are a history lesson.

Just thought of a very ironic one: :(

In the "Mr. Pfeiffer" dialog at the funeral home, the GG's refuse to do Mrs. Claxton's funeral on a Thursday night, implying they wouldn't want to miss The Cosby Show. :rolleyes:

Today, any "fond" reference to him turns my stomach. But how could they possibly have known? :confused: If only they could have seen into the future, huh? :mad:

There was no implication about it ... it was flat out stated that "The Cosby Show" took precedence.
I think it's humorous no matter what we've learned since then. Like I said in my earlier post, it's a throwback to those times, and I see nothing wrong with it.

Never said I thought there was something "wrong with" the show making that reference back then. I specifically used the word "ironic", didn't I? I also pointed out the obvious....that they couldn't have possibly known what would come to light decades later. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

It was mostly in year 3 when the original writers wrote current events into the dialogue. I believe it started in the 2nd half of year 2.

Somewhere I read that Bea Arthur didn't like that because viewers in the future won't understand the references.

By year 4, the current events dialogue was gone.

This is untrue. The Golden Girls always had pop culture/current event references in it, all throughout the series. Just this weekend I finished watching season 4 and these sorts of references were sprinkled all throughout the season.

"God's very busy these days....most of his time is spent talking to Pat Robertson"

Even *I* don't remember who Pat Robertson was. A televangelist, perhaps? :confused:

Yep. He was a famous Televangelist in that era.
Other jokes some wouldn't get would be the Danny Thomas joke, Lebanese or lesbian lol.
Blanche says shes still in her Childbearing years. Dorothy says sure blanche you and Emma Jean Coco.

Tv shows can be a history show of sorts. I always get a kick out of Lucy Richardo and Ethel Mertz talking about "How Bess and Harry Truman got the last seats at nightclub" in one of the episodes as Lucy was making bonus reservations. I like the time frame lingo. Probably in the future a show will talk about a singer from this time frame, who I won't know about.

I remember Dorothy referencing someone I didn't know. I went and looked it up, but still didn't fully understand the reference. I want to say it was how she looked like someone, or something like that.