The Golden Girls: Nice and Easy

 

THE GOLDEN GIRLS: NICE AND EASY

Written by: Stuart Silverman

Directed by: Terry Hughes

Airdate: February 1, 1986

There are some family traditions that perhaps should not be followed, such as promiscuity. Nice and Easy takes a character's familiar trait, amplifies it onto a new character, and gives us both funny moments and insight into the original character. 

Blanche Deveraux (Rue McClanahan) is excited to have her favorite niece Lucy (Hallie Todd) come to visit and perhaps transfer to a local university. When Lucy arrives, she tells Aunt Blanche that she met a gorgeous doctor on the plane and wants to go out with him. Blanche is thrilled that her unofficial protege is modeling herself on her. Her delight increases when Lucy tells her that she is flying to the Bahamas with Michael. That delight is short-lived, however, when her housemate Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) tells Blanche that Michael is not the doctor. He's her college interviewer, whom Lucy met hours ago. In the words of Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), "Girl's a slut". 

Blanche's shock turns to anger when Lucy comes to the house late at night to pick up some things before going with Ed Collins (Ken Stovitz), a Miami vice officer who arrested Michael for drug smuggling. As Blanche cooly says, Ed picking up Michael was Ed doing his job. Lucy picking up Ed was something entirely different. A defiant Lucy storms out with Ed to his place. Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia and Rose Nylund (Betty White) go to Ed's apartment, where Blanche explains to Lucy that there is a difference between enjoying men and letting men enjoy her. Reconciled, they all go back home.

In a subplot, Dorothy is appalled to find a rat in the house. Rose is adamant about not killing the rat, insisting that she could communicate with animals. It turns out that maybe Dorothy can too, delighting Rose and irritating Dorothy. Will Dorothy have the heart to kill a living thing and a fellow mammal?

We learn that Blanche has a niece, though how exactly Lucy connects to the Widow Deveraux we do not know. Judging from the dialogue, Lucy is either Charmaine or Virginia's daughter since Blanche asks Lucy if her "mother" would let her do something. I lean towards Lucy's mother being Charmaine because Blanche, after reciting some of her wild antics in her rebellious stage, says that she had her big sister Charmaine to pull her out of her excesses. We also learn about Tyler's Landing, the flashy, seedy town near Rose's hometown, still unnamed but presumably "Little Falls". 

I found three sections from Nice and Easy that are cut from reruns. There is a section where Rose expands on her ability to go all Doctor Doolittle. There is additional dialogue about Lucy's romp with both the doctor and Michael that is cut. The scene where Blanche is told about how promiscuous and wanton Lucy is gets removed too. It is a shame that these sections are not usually broadcast given that Arthur has one of the best lines here. As Rose goes on about her ability to talk to the animals, Arthur gives White a perfect deadpan look and says, "Rose, do you have any idea how weird you are?". 

Nice and Easy is hilarious and heartfelt. It is nice to see Blanche shocked by someone even more promiscuous than herself. Despite her own reputation as a woman of easy virtue, not even Blanche would go to bed with three different men in the course of forty-eight hours. She is appalled by this behavior, revealing another side to our Southern vixen. 

The episode gives insight into Blanche's worldview. As she tells Lucy, Blanche does enjoy the company of men and isn't ashamed of it; however, when Blanche submits to a man it is because she like him, not because she wants him to like her. Blanche pointedly tells Lucy that men do not find Lucy attractive but available. Blanche shows Lucy that their differences with men comes down to control: Blanche has it, Lucy does not. 

McClanahan plays this so very well, and Nice and Easy is a very good performance from her. Her scene with Todd is wonderful. She also has a great scene when countering Rose's story of when she went to meet up with a boy in Tyler's Landing which somehow evolved into her whole family becoming Lutherans. Her defiant recitation of her outrageous escapades from running off with an older man for a quickie marriage to performing as a Rockette under an assumed name is well acted.

White is also strong in Nice and Easy. She has a memorable moment when matching wits with Ed Collins, Miami Vice. One is surprised to learn that Rose Nylund adores the cop show Miami Vice, the mix of sweet, naive Rose delving into the criminal world of Miami a bit startling. The delight she has in answering Ed's allegedly difficult questions is wonderful. She also is great when doing her own oddball version of Our Town in her tale of the sordid love triangle Reverend McKenzie, Millie Beasley and her husband Emmett. 

Arthur has less to do, primarily relegated to the battle between Dorothy and the mouse. However, when she is talking to the rat, begging him to go so that she will not have to kill it, Arthur is extremely funny. Getty is able to rattle off some zingers in a strong way. There is when she declares Lucy a slut. After Dorothy tells Lucy that they loved having her, Sophia remarks, "So did half of Miami" in a somewhat audible way. 

Stovitz played the part of the himbo Ed very well, this young man so dumb that he modeled his life after the Sonny Crockett character without realizing it was all fantasy. His total idiocy outdid Rose, though to be fair Rose was merely naive and literal while Ed was just a moron. Todd did well, though I felt her Southern accent was a bit overdone. 

Nice and Easy is funny and moving, with the story moving well and with good performances. 

I wonder if Coco would have pointed out how so many men love Lucy. 

8/10

Next Episode: The Operation