Tuesday, July 16, 2024

The Golden Girls: A Little Romance

THE GOLDEN GIRLS: A LITTLE ROMANCE

Written by: Mort Nathan and Barry Fanaro

Directed by: Terry Hughes

Airdate: December 14, 1985

In today's world, the term "midget" is taken as a slur comparable to "the N word" for African Americans or "wetbacks" for Hispanics. In 1985, not only was it seen a a mere descriptive word but something one could find humor in. A Little Romance won its writers an Emmy Award and I think it is well-deserved. I think A Little Romance is the funniest Golden Girl Season One episode yet, outrageous and hilarious.

Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) is not looking forward to spending time with her son Phil and his wife, a welder, or their ten kids. She is leaving to see her grandson's graduation from animal grooming school, so she is unaware of Rose Nylund's (Betty White) newest beau. He is Dr. Jonathan Newman (Brent Collins), a psychiatrist at the grief center Rose works at. Rose is reluctant to talk about Dr. Newman or their relationship. She keeps delaying introducing Dr. Newman to her housemates Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) and Blanche Deveraux (Rue McClanahan). Blanche takes the opportunity to invite Dr. Newman to dinner when he calls.

It soon becomes clear why Rose was reluctant to have them meet Dr. Newman. He is a dwarf, leading to Blanche and occasionally Dorothy making inadvertently offensive puns. They are charmed by Dr. Newman, but then alarmed when Rose insists that Dr. Newman is going to propose marriage. Rose does not know what to do until the answer comes in a dream. With visits from a miniaturized version of Rose's father (Billy Barty) and "famed psychic Jeanne Dixon" (Dixon cameoing as herself), Rose decides to accept Dr. Newman's proposal. Rose, however, is in for a rude shock when she finds that Dr. Newman is not going to propose.

Despite not being a major part of the episode, we learn quite a bit about Sophia from A Little Romance. We learn that she is the grandmother of ten from Phil alone. Counting Dorothy's two children and at least one if not more from Gloria, she has at least thirteen grandkids. Phil, from these accounts, is not a MENSA member. I think the best description for Philip Petrillo would be "white trash". He married a welder whose father is in prison and who just kept having children after children: six boys, four girls. The grandson Sophia is going to see is 22 years old, meaning he was born in 1963. Why is that important? Well, it means that Phil more than likely met the same fate that Dorothy did, only in reverse. My guess would be that Philip would have had his own shotgun wedding. Moreover, as whether Philip or Gloria is the baby of the family flips back and forth, it is hard to know how old Phil was when he got married.

There is a surprising amount that is cut from A Little Romance on reruns, mostly around the dinner for Dr. Newman. There is Dr. Newman's initial reaction to Blanche's uncomfortableness with his stature. There is Dorothy and Blanche discussing Dr. Newman's merits. There is Dorothy's reaction to Blanche's story about her dating Benjamin, causing a scandal in her Southern community. There are cuts to both Blanche and Dorothy comforting Rose as she struggles with her decision. Most surprisingly is Rose's dream, which goes on much longer than it does on reruns. 

A Little Romance has two great highlights: the dinner with Dr. Newman and Rose's dream sequence. The dinner is hilarious thanks to McClanahan's performance. Blanche's total discomfort at the situation, where she constantly stumbles over her efforts to not offend, will have you laughing. No matter what Blanche tries to say or do, she keeps tripping over herself. Whether offering Dr. Newman shrimp or suggesting that it was a small world, McClanahan has us like Blanche because she obviously means no harm but keeps making a fool out of herself. 

McClanahan has a separate, brilliant moment separate from the events of A Little Romance when recounting her romance with a young man named Benjamin. The Blanche/Benjamin romance should be forbidden by the mores of the times, but ultimately Blanche rose to the occasion and went to Prom with Benjamin. Only Blanche Deveraux would make this story not only into an epic, but also lead us to think it was an interracial romance when the real scandal was that Benjamin was from New Jersey. As Blanche recounts with horror, she went to Prom with a Yankee!

The dream sequence is also brilliant because it allows almost everyone to ham it up and exaggerate to an almost unhinged manner. As it is clearly a dream, we accept the cartoonish manner that McClanahan and Arthur put into the performances. Even Collins is exaggerated in his performance when wooing a reluctant Rose. Billy Barty as Rose's father is not as over-the-top, but still within the spirt of the scene. Curiously, Barty is billed as "Edgar Lindstrom", but I do not remember the name being used. Interestingly, Getty is the only one who is not broad in her performance. She is mostly within her usual Sophia, but like Barty she too gets into the spirit of things. Still, seeing Sophia dressed as a traditional Catholic priest is impossible to resist.

A Little Romance has the first cameo in the series with Jeanne Dixon playing herself. I imagine that most people nowadays do not know or remember Dixon was. At the time of the episode, she was a well-known psychic who was alleged to have predicted the assassination of President Kennedy. I think she is a major flaw in A Little Romance for a variety of reasons. First, she dates the episode, for Dixon is pretty much a forgotten figure now. Second, her oddball predictions such as how Brooke Shields and "Lady Di" would star in a Broadway musical comedy or Jackie O will tie the knot again were not funny. Third, when she is announced as one of Rose and Jonathan's wedding guests, you got the sense that the cast had to pump up the audience's interest by leading the applause.

It is curious that while Dixon is the weak part of A Little Romance, the episode itself is hilarious from top to bottom. The situation itself, the characters' reaction to it, the side story of Blanche and Benjamin, and the twists within it all make it a great source of laughter. We get the twist ending of why Dr. Newman and Rose cannot be together. However, we get another twist when Sophia returns unexpectedly in time to meet Dr. Newman. Everyone handles things so well that it elevates the comedy. 

Everything in A Little Romance works, making it hilarious without being mean-spirited. Big things, it appears, do come in small packages. 

I imagine that Coco would have had more sense to serve shrimp and short ribs for dinner.

10/10

Next Episode: That Was No Lady

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