Customer Reviews

The Golden Girls - The Complete Third Season

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This is the third season of the 1980s-1990s hit show, "The Golden Girls." There are twenty-five episodes, with a total runtime of appx. 550 minutes (9 hours and 10 minutes). Below are summaries of the shows written by myself:

1. "Old Friends"
Sophia befriends an old man on the boardwalk whom she becomes quick friends with, but his actions seem a little strange. Also, Blanche accidentally gives away Rose's favorite teddy bear at a garage sale.
2. "One for The Money"
The girls reminisce about times they've tried to quickly make money after Sophia attempts a get-rich-quick plot.
3. "Bringing Up Baby"
Rose's dead uncle leaves a pig with her and the girls. The only thing keeping the girls from killing Rose is the money they get when Baby dies.
4. "The Housekeeper"
The girls hire, then fire a housekeeper who may have magical powers, when it seems as though the girls may be cursed.
5. "Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself"
Rose has to conquer her biggest fear: Public speaking. This prompts Dorothy and Blanche to reminisce about their greatest fears.
6. "Letter to Gorbachev"
When Rose writes a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev about nuclear war, she becomes stunned when she finds out Gorbachev wants to personally speak to her.
7. "Strange Bedfellows"
The girls partake in a campaign to help a local man get elected to office. However, Blanche's sexual desires seem to have a way to mess that up.
8. "Brotherly Love"
Blanche attempts to go for the stereotypical rich doctor. Sadly for her, the only one he's interested in is Dorothy.
9. "A Visit From Little Sven"
Before his marriage, Rose's cousin pays her a visit. But, when Sven goes ga-ga for Blanche, will the marriage hold up?
10. "The Audit"
When Dorothy gets a visit from Stan, it's never pleasant. This time, when taxes are involved, it becomes a lot worse.
11. "Three on a Couch"
During a visit with a therapist, the four reminisce about times they've argued and bickered.
12. "Charlie's Buddy"
An old friend of Rose's husband stops by for a visit. But, is it more than just that?
13. "The Artist"
The girls pose nude for an artist who will unveil his sculpture at a gathering.
14. "Blanche's Little Girl"
When Blanche's overweight daughter comes to visit, she notices something a little off about her daughter's soon-to-be-husband.
15. "Dorothy's New Friend"
Dorothy befriends an author who really displeases the other girls.
16. "Grab That Dough"
The girls go on a game show together. But, after the events before that, they'll need all the luck in the world.
17. "My Brother, My Father"
Sophia's religious brother pays a visit. However, he has no knowledge that Dorothy and Stan are seperated.
18. "Golden Moments, Part One"
Sophia plans on moving in with Phil. This makes the girls reminisce about all the times they've shared.
19. "Golden Moments, Part Two"
The girls continue reminiscing as Sophia is contemplating on where to go.
20. "And Ma Makes Three"
When Dorothy feels sorry for Sophia, she lets her tag along on one of her dates. Now, that's all she ever does.
21. "Larceny and Old Lace"
The girls become suspicious of Sophia's new boyfriend, claiming he's a thief.
22. "Rose's Big Adventure"
When Rose's boyfriend retires, he turns into a couch potato when she wants to do a lot more than lie around.
23. "Mixed Blessing"
When Dorothy's son comes to town to announce his engagement, it's not so bad until two bombshells are dropped.
24. "Mr. Terrific"
Rose begins to date, of all things, a local kid's show host.
25. "Mother's Day"
The girls wait for phone calls wishing them a good Mother's Day. While waiting, they remember past Mother's Days.

The extras for this set are:

- Golden Moments: a montage of humorous moments from Season Three
- The Golden Girls Scrapbook: a collection of hilarious clips from each Golden Girl

Altogether, this a wonderful show. And, if the first two sets are any indication, this season should be a wonderful set.

It seems like here of late that many television shows put out on dvd contain the syndicated episodes, but not The Golden Girls. We should all commend Buena Vista for doing an excellent job of putting out a dvd set that contains the COMPLETE and UNCUT episodes of The Golden Girls. If you have ever watched the reruns on Lifetime, you know that the parts they cut out for syndication can add up to a lot of missing material. In one instance, a whole scene from an episode of season 2 was cut out because of syndication.

While it wouldn't hurt for this set to have more in the way of extras, I will gladly take no extras, if it meant getting the complete episode.

Needless to say I will "not" be pre-ordering the Golden Girls Season 3 because I've got to have this baby in my hands the minute the stores open on November 22nd!!!! Season One and Two were great, but the Golden Girls third Season was truly outstanding!!! Each Golden Girl should have recieved Emmy's for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series if it were possible, because this was one of their best seasons and each Golden Girl shined their brightest with such memorable episodes like when the girls take care of a pig for money, Blanche's "little girl", Dorothy dating Stans brother(truly funny, but a major scene was cut out for syndication),their attempts at making fast money ( the dance contest was priceless!!!), and many more!!! Well, I'll be at the Best Buy as soon as the doors open to purchase this long awaited dvd set!!!!!

"The Golden Girls" was back in full comic form for Season Three and it did not disappoint. And while it's just a tad notch down from Season Two, it's on par with Season One with its quality of great acting, terrific writing, and top-notch directing by Terry Hughes (who directed every episode of Season Three).

SEASON THREE (1987-88)
"The Golden Girls" continued to dominate in the laughs department with Season Three. Some of the memorable episodes include: Sophia befriending an old black man who turns out to have Alzheimer's disease; the girls agreeing to let an old pig live in the house so that they can inherit a fortune; the girls hiring a housekeeper who seems to have mystical powers; the girls conquering their fears when they have to go to a funeral for Rose's aunt; Rose writing a letter to Russian President Gorbachev about the concerns of nuclear war; Dorothy and Stan being audited and having to come up with a huge amount of money to pay off their taxes; the girls posing nude for a Hungarian artist; the girls flying to Hollywood to appear on the game show "Grab That Dough"; Sophia's Sicilian priest brother Angelo paying a visit, and making Dorothy and Stan pretending that they're still married so that her brother won't be upset; Dorothy's son preparing to marry a woman who's black and twice his age; and the girls flashing back to memorable Mother's Day experiences.

For the third season in a row, "The Golden Girls" won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series. And even though it failed to three peat in this category at the Emmy Awards, it did win 3 more well-deserved Emmys. Most notably: Beatrice Arthur winning the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her brilliant role as Dorothy, and Estelle Getty winning the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her outstanding scene stealing role as Sophia. After the Emmys were handed out in 1988, all four actresses on "The Golden Girls" had won an Emmy for their roles on the show. It became only the second show in television history (after "All in the Family") where all the regular cast members of a TV show won Emmys for their work. That's not an easy task to accomplish. Since then, only one other show has been able to do this ("Will & Grace").

Memorable guest appearences during Season Three of "The Golden Girls" include: Paula Kelly (from Season One of "Night Court") as the strange woman the girls hire to be their housekeeper in the episode titled appropriately enough "The Housekeeper"; McLean Stevenson (from "M*A*S*H") as Stan's brother who begins a relationship with Dorothy in the episode "Brotherly Love"; Joe Regalbuto (from "Murphy Brown") as the verbally abusive fiance to Blanche's daughter in the episode "Blanche's Little Girl"; Bonnie Bartlett (from "St. Elsewhere") as Dorothy's new friend who Rose and Blanche can't stand in the episode "Dorothy's New Friend"; Mickey Rooney as Sophia's con artist boyfriend in the episode "Larceny and Old Lace"; Alice Ghostly ("Designing Women") and Geraldine Fitzgerald ("Wuthering Heights") in separate segments of the episode "Mother's Day" as Stan's mother and an old woman Rose meets at a bus stop, respectively.

"The Golden Girls": The Complete Third Season is an absolute treasure. I'm sure big time "Golden Girls" fans (like myself) own this DVD of the third season, as well as DVD's to Season One and Season Two. TV shows never got better than this!

I enjoyed every minute of this DVD. The ladies in the cast are of my generation and I can relate to the situations that they experience. If you're down-in-the-dumps and want to shake off the blues, laugh yourself back to happiness with this Golden Girl DVD.

I love love love this show. I used to record the episodes on VHS, but now I am so happy to be able to buy the DVDs! I grew up watching this show and these women have such great talent. Even when I've seen an episode 50 times, I still laugh like it was the first time. My favorite character is Dorothy, but I've laughed at them all, especially Sophia. I miss the 80's and wish they were all young again and able to keep on making this show forever. Sadly there will never be another show like Golden Girls!

I have been a Golden Girls fan since before the show went into sindication and I will FOREVER be! It doesn't matter how many times you see the episodes, they are just as funny EVERY single time you watch them. I have never laughed so much watching comedy situation sitcoms and I don't think I ever will. Sophia and Dorothy are the most HILARIOUS characters on the show, but Blanche and Rose have a few zingers of their own. If you want to LAUGH until your sides hurt, you've GOT to get this DVD series! I would recommend this DVD and any in this series to anyone who loves to laugh!

Television Series, in particular, classic television series, need to be aired for a season or two before they really find their niche. Look at how much better 'Friends', 'The Simpsons', 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty' are when they begin their third seasons - characters are more fixed, situations more familiar and therefore more prone to expansion, and most importantly, we, the audience, have developed a bond with the characters that all but the poorest of television can't shatter.

'The Golden Girls', that truly timeless comedy series, is no exception. Sure, Seasons One and Two were good - full of laughs and gags, and some quite brilliant comic performances by four hugely gifted actresses - but Season Three is the real deal. It takes the quartet of already-established women and deepens them to a level where we appreciate their situations all the more. Blanche's tender, human side is revealed in her vignette during the 'Mother's Day' episode. Rose gets a couple of truly classic moments of inspired genius, most notably where she retrieves her teddy bear in 'Old Friends'. The casting of Bea Arthur to play her own grandmother in 'Mother's Day' is truly inspired, and Dorothy's more human and vulnerable side is displayed nicely at the end of 'The Audit'. Sophia is still Sophia, and sadly this season lacks the sisterly foil of Aunt Angela, but when the character is portrayed as well as Estelle Getty does it, then you can be certain that we see more of the same brilliant comic timing and character immersion that made Getty's scenes so brilliant in the previous two seasons.

There are far more zeitgeisty pop-culture references in this season than before, and some of these are lost on younger and (particularly) non-US viewers, but this is a minor complaint that doesn't detract from the show in the slightest.

All in all, this certainly is the best Golden Girls season to be released on DVD to date. Treat yourself to this, and wait patiently for Season Four!

Recommended.

GG Season 3 is the epitomy of excellence...I have seen some of the crap that is shown on tv these days, and they just don't make 'em like this anymore. First timers, check out "Old Friends", "Grab That Dough" & "Mother's Day"...it doesn't get any better than this...

Making its debut in the fall of 1985, The Golden Girls quickly established itself as a fixture of Saturday night prime time television. Following the lives of four older women living together as roommates in Miami, the show displayed a raw wit and a biting humor. The women live in the house of Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), a Southern belle who loves men of every kind and has dated every eligible bachelor in the Miami area. Her roommates are former high school teacher Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) and St. Olaff housewife and widower Rose Nylund (Betty White). Rose loves to tell stories about her former hometown, much to the chagrin of the other girls. The three are joined by Dorothy's mother, firebrand Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), a spunky Italian immigrant who always speaks her mind. In her early-eighties, Sophia may walk at a measured pace, but the velocity of her sarcasm only increases with age.

Overall, this is a charming situation comedy with likeable characters who have certainly developed their own unique identities. Although some parts of the show tend to be used over and over again (such as the St. Olaff stories and Dorothy's reaction to them), The Golden Girls never seems to grow tiresome. With powerful performances from each of the cast members, viewers will find that Sophia's wit steals the show...

The Golden Girls (Season 3) DVD offers a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere "Old Friends" in which Blanche accidentally gives away Rose's favorite teddy bear at a garage sale. When Rose asks for it back, a neighborhood girl holds it for ransom. Meanwhile, Sophia befriends another retiree, but her love for him transforms to concern when his erratic behavior signals the onset of Alzheimer's disease... Other notable episodes include "The Housekeeper" in which the girls hire a housekeeper who they later fire. When they're plagued by a series of bad events, they grow to believe the housekeeper placed a curse on them. And "Charlie's Buddy" in which Rose befriends an old Army buddy of her late husband Charlie only to later learn that his "out-of-the-blue" visit wasn't entirely sincere...

Below is a list of episodes included on The Golden Girls (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 52 (Old Friends) Air Date: 09-19-1987
Episode 53 (One for the Money) Air Date: 09-26-1987
Episode 54 (Bringing Up Baby) Air Date: 10-03-1987
Episode 55 (The Housekeeper) Air Date: 10-17-1987
Episode 56 (Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself) Air Date: 10-24-1987
Episode 57 (Letter to Gorbachev) Air Date: 10-31-1987
Episode 58 (Strange Bedfellows) Air Date: 11-07-1987
Episode 59 (Brotherly Love) Air Date: 11-14-1987
Episode 60 (A Visit from Little Sven) Air Date: 11-21-1987
Episode 61 (The Audit) Air Date: 11-28-1987
Episode 62 (Three on a Couch) Air Date: 12-05-1987
Episode 63 (Charlie's Buddy) Air Date: 12-12-1987
Episode 64 (The Artist) Air Date: 12-19-1987
Episode 65 (Blanche's Little Girl) Air Date: 01-09-1988
Episode 66 (Dorothy's New Friend) Air Date: 01-16-1988
Episode 67 (Grab That Dough) Air Date: 01-23-1988
Episode 68 (My Brother, My Father) Air Date: 02-06-1988
Episode 69 (Golden Moments: Part 1) Air Date: 02-13-1988
Episode 70 (Golden Moments: Part 2) Air Date: 02-13-1988
Episode 71 (And Ma Makes Three) Air Date: 02-20-1988
Episode 72 (Larceny and Old Lace) Air Date: 02-27-1988
Episode 73 (Rose's Big Adventure) Air Date: 03-12-1988
Episode 74 (Mixed Blessing) Air Date: 03-19-1988
Episode 75 (Mr. Terrific) Air Date: 04-30-1988
Episode 76 (Mother's Day) Air Date: 05-07-1988