Search - The Golden Girls - The Complete Fifth Season on DVD

Episodes

!! Ravenova Majere !! | Zombie Nation | 02/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am overjoyed to see that this wonderful series has finally come to DVD. I have watched it for many years on television and recorded all their episodes (thirty tapes worth). After all these years, it is still one of my all time favorite shows due to its atmosphere of camaraderie, coziness, and interesting story lines. The main characters were so well acted that I feel as though they were members of my own family. However, the secondary actors generally did a very poor job.

For those of you who are devoted fans you might be interested in this list of episodes and summaries that I have compiled :

1. Sick and Tired Part 1 :
Dorothy begins to feel rather sick for no apparent reason. She visits numerous doctors who treat her as though she is crazy since they are unable to diagnose her malady. Simultaneously, Blanche begins to write a romance novel.

2. Sick and Tired Part 2 :
Finally, Dorothy is able to locate a doctor who is sympathetic to her problem. He explains to her that she does, in actuality have a malady entitled Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, that has just been discovered. Later, when the girls are at a restaurant, Dorothy encounters one of her previous doctors and embarrasses him in front of the entire restaurant when she delivers her sermon against the conceit and unwillingness of some doctors to believe their patients when they are truly ill.

3. The Accurate Conception :
Blanche disapproves when her unmarried daughter, Rebecca, decides to get artificially inseminated.

4. Rose Fights Back :
When Charlie's old company goes bankrupt, they send Rose a letter telling her that they can no longer send her the pension she had been receiving. Unable to afford to live on her own, she begins her search for a new job with dire consequences. She is refused at every job due to her age. Meanwhile, Sophia acquires a membership at a Shopper's Warehouse and begins to order massive quantities of utterly useless groceries including five cartons of sardines.

5. That Old Feeling

Blanche falls in love with her late husband`s brother. However, he refuses to marry her saying that she is in love with the memory of her dead husband, not in love with him as an individual. Meanwhile, Sophia is stealing the car to go on a blind date.

6. Love Under the Big Top

Dorothy's lawyer boyfriend decides that he would rather take a job as a circus clown. Blanche and Rose participate in a demonstration against killing sea creatures (such as dolphins and tuna.)

7. Not Another Monday

Sophia's friend, Martha, decides that she cannot bear "to die in inches," and thus decides to commit suicide. She then begs Sophia to be with her as she dies. While Sophia continues to debate the morals of this issue, Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy take care of an infant over the weekend that becomes dreadfully ill.

8. Dancing In The Dark

Rose's new boyfriend, Miles Webber, causes her to feel stupid due to his superior intellect. However, they eventually come to realize that they love each other despite their differences.

9. All That Jazz

Michael, Dorothy's son, returns home to tell her that he has quit touring with his band and has separated from his wife. It appears that he has turned away from his responsibilities and intends to reside with his parents in a state of permanent childhood. Meanwhile, Rose demands an assistant at work.

10. Ebbtide

Blanche's eccentric father dies and she is unsure how she will ever be able to live with his absence and her refusal to come and see him. Meanwhile, Rose and Sophia let the house against Blanche's specific instructions.

11. Comedy of Errors

Dorothy decides to pursue one of her lifelong dreams and become a stand up comic. Meanwhile, Rose tries to become friends with one of her co-workers and Blanche gets audited.

12. Clinton Avenue Memories

Sophia is loosing her memory and tries to reclaim it by visiting her old home. This is a very poignant episode, especially the ending where her long dead, and much loved, husband talks to her and tries to encourage her to return to the more spirited personality of her youth.

13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Dorothy reluctantly helps Stan after he looses most of his money and the girls realize that they should consider others on Christmas.

14. Great Expectations

Blanche avoids commitment when her new boyfriend is hospitalized after a heart attack. As she debates the issues surrounding this controversy in her life, Rose forces her friends to attend a positive think group that gets Dorothy thinking about her general outlook on life.

15. Mary Had A Little Lamb

The girls sixteen year old neighbor comes to their house, begging for help. It appears that she has become pregnant and her father has thrown her out of the house. As the girls try to reunite Mary and her father, Blanche becomes terrified when the convict she was exchanging letters with is let out of jail and wishes to visit her.

16. An Illegitimate Concern

Blanche discovers that her husband was unfaithful to her and that he even had an illegitimate child that has now shown up and wishes to talk to Blanche about the father he never knew. While Blanche is trying to deal with this crushing blow, Dorothy and Sophia enter a mother/daughter contest as Sonny and Cher.

17. Triple Play

Miles introduces Rose to his daughter Caroline. Blanche decides that a good way to attract men is to pretend to be selling a car, one that she rented. Unfortunately, he scheme instantly goes awry when the men become more interested in buying the car than in going out with her.

18. Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-Tom
Blanche it distraught when the doctors tells her that she needs a pacemaker and vows never to go out on another date. Meanwhile Rose tests weight loss products for her job and ends up gaining four pounds.

19. 72 hours

Rose is informed by the hospital that during her surgery to remove her gall bladder she might have come in contact with blood containing the HIV virus. Terrified, she rushes to the hospital to have the test and is told that she must wait three days to hear the result. Simultaneously, Dorothy becomes involved in the Save the Wetlands organization.

20. Twice In A Lifetime

Sophia moves out when Dorothy refuses to let her stay out late at night with her new wild friends. While this drama is progressing, Rose is reunited with Buzz Mueller, her first love. Now she must decide between Buzz and Miles.

21. Sisters and Other Strangers

Blanche's sister arrives in town with good news. Her new romance novel is being published and she and Blanche decided to put away the conflicts of their childhood and become close friends, until Blanche deduces that her sister's sleazy novel is about Blanche's life! While Blanche plots her revenge, Dororthy entertains one of Stan's relatives from Czechoslovakia that has nothing but bad things to say about democracy.

22. Cheaters

Dorothy falls in love with a recently divorced man. However, after he proposes to her she begins to wonder if he is really ready for marriage. Meanwhile, Blanche and Sophia loose their money to a con-artist in the mall.

23. "The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present"

Dorothy borrows one of Blanche's men when she needs a date for her goddaughter's wedding. As can be expected, this engenders a massive fight. Meanwhile, Sophia proceeds to put an old Sicilian curse on the grandfather of the groom who deserted her on their wedding day, seventy years earlier. Rose leaves the reception and boards a plane to be reunited with Miles.

24. All Bets Off

Dorothy returns to her addiction to gambling, something she thought she had conquered fifteen years earlier. Meanwhile, Blanche decides to date her co-worker and Rose takes up painting.

25-26. The Presidents Coming! The Presidents Coming! Parts 1&2

The President is coming to Miami to dedicate the new Senior Citizens building and decides that he would like to meet Dororthy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. As the girls anticipate his arrival, they begin to discuss their past which mostly concerns clips from previous episodes.

This is an excellent show, and I highly recommend it. The characters are so wonderful that you will share their joys and sorrows as though they were your own."

Missing scenes!!!!!

S. Rink | Detroit, MI | 05/18/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Big failing in this DVD set!!!! There are several episodes that are edited. Some drastically! That angers me because what's the point of having them on DVD without uncut episodes! Buena Vista better learn from this because I won't be purchasing the other two sets unless they are complete! Grrrrr."

Golden Girls: Season Five

Joseph Haggard Jr. | 02/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Golden Girls" continued to pour on the laughs as it went into Season Five. For this season the show had something new. The original writing team that wrote many of the episodes of "The Golden Girls" during its first four seasons decided to leave and pursue other projects. So a new staff of writers came on to write the episodes, and for the most part did a very good job. However, Season Five was slightly weaker than the previous four seasons. While most the episodes for the fifth season did have its share of big laughs, there were a few episodes that seemed to lack the comedy that all the episodes from the first four seasons had, and this seemed obvious with a new writing team. On the bright side, director Terry Hughes was back to direct the episodes, but Season Five would eventually be his final season at the helm of "The Golden Girls". His directing of the episodes in Season Five kept this show on top. After he left, the show started to lose a little of its greatness and comic edge in its final two seasons.

SEASON FIVE (1989-90)
The new writing team of "The Golden Girls" tried to do some new things to keep this show at the top of its game, and throughout Season Five came up with some good ideas and a new ongoing storyline. That storyline was Rose meeting a charming guy who would become her new boyfriend. That charming guy was Miles, who was wonderfully played by Harold Gould. Gould, who guest starred in the third episode of "The Golden Girls" way back in its first season, was terrific in this role and turned up in a couple of episodes in Season Five. This storyline with Rose and Miles was a winner. It was a little change of pace that the show needed. Episodes involving Rose and Miles included: when they start going out for the first time and Rose thinks she's too stupid for his taste, and when Miles introduces Rose to his daughter and his daughter tells Rose to stay away from him because he hasn't gotten over the loss of his wife. Other good episodes in Season Five included: Dorothy becoming very ill and going to several different doctors who can't find out what's wrong with her; Blanche's daughter coming to visit and telling her mother that she's going to have a baby via artificial insemination; Dorothy begins to date a lawyer who also has a gig as a circus clown; Blanche dealing with the death of her father; Dorothy helping out a pregnant teenage girl and trying to get the girls' father (who's thrown her out) to step in and help her out too; Rose getting tested for the HIV virus; Dorothy hosting Stan's Communist cousin who comes to Miami for a visit; Dorothy becoming addicted to gambling; and the girls preparing to meet the President of the United States.

"The Golden Girls" domination at the Emmy Awards ended after being shut out for its fourth season, but the nominations didn't stop. For Season Five, the show got 8 nominations, including another nod for Best Comedy Series. This was also the first time that Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, and Rue McClanahan were all not nominated together for Best Actress in a Comedy Series like they were for the first four seasons. This time, only White was nominated, while Arthur and McClanahan were passed over. Estelle Getty was nominated again for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and deservedly so. She should have won three or four Emmys for her role as Sophia. Also recognized again was director Terry Hughes, who received directing nominations for all five seasons of "The Golden Girls", winning on his second nomination for Season Two. His last "Golden Girls" directing nomination was for the Season Five episode titled "Triple Play", which was one of the best directed episodes that I've ever seen. This episode deals with three totally different storylines that tie up neatly at the end: Rose meeting Miles' daughter; Blanche's backfired attempt at meeting men by renting a used car and pretending that its for sale, and all the men become more interested in the car than in going out with her; and Dorothy dealing with Sophia, who has stolen government money.

Some of the guest stars from Season Five of "The Golden Girls" include: Dick Van Dyke as Dorothy's lawyer boyfriend who also does double duty as a circus clown in the episode "Love Under the Big Top"; Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development") as one of the doctors who can't find the illness that Dorothy comes down with in part 1 of the episode "Sick and Tired"; Geraldine Fitzgerald (who guest starred on an episode of "The Golden Girls" in Season Three) as Sophia's friend who plans to commit suicide in the episode "Not Another Monday"; Robert Mandan ("Soap") as Blanche's new beau who suffers a heart attack in the episode "Great Expectations"; Mark Moses ("Desperate Housewives") as a young man who claims to be the illegitimate son of Blanche's late husband in the episode "An Illegitimate Concern"; Eddie Bracken as Rose's first love in the episode "Twice in a Lifetime"; Barbara Babcock ("Hill Street Blues") as Blanche's sister who comes to Miami as the newest author of a book that seems to be about Blanche's life, and Marian Mercer ("It's a Living") as Stan's Communist cousin who complains about everything in America (except 7-Eleven Slurpees) in the episode "Sisters and Other Strangers"; Jerry Orbach ("Law & Order") as a guy Dorothy dated from the past in the episode "Cheaters" (this same character was featured in an episode of Season One and was played then by Alex Rocco); and Timothy Stack ("Night Stand") as a government agent trying to get information on the girls before the arrival of the U.S. President in the episode ("The President's Coming! The President's Coming!")

I have rated "The Golden Girls": The Complete Fifth Season 5 stars. But if Amazon.com have 1/2 star ratings to rate from, I would have rated Season Five 4 1/2 stars, because to me the fifth season of my favorite show of all time wasn't quite up there with Seasons One through Four. But that doesn't mean that Season Five is bad. No way! There's lots to like in Season Five, and (of course) I highly recommend it to the show's biggest fans.

Now I'm anxiously awaiting Season Six."

EPISODES ARE NOT COMPLETE NETWORK AIRINGS

R. Dubrow | Philadelphia | 05/31/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I love the Golden Girls, and have watched them since the shows network debut in 1985. I was saddened and disappointed that for this fifth season release, (unlike the first four season releases) many of the episodes in this collection are edited from the original network airings. Although still much longer than the current Lifetime airings, these are nonetheless not complete, and in some cases have left out important dialogue. The show is as wonderful as ever, but more care should be taken so this does not happen again"