We continue our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at a the first Golden Girls Christmas episode, which had a LOT of plots.
The Golden Girls was a long-running sitcom about four retired women living as roommates in Miami. It was a critical and commercial smash, and has remained a cultural touchstone for the 1980s.
In its first Christmas episode, which came in the second season of the show, the four friends (Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Dorothy’s mother, Sophia) are in for a CRAZY holiday, as this Christmas episode packed a TON of plot into one episode.
First there’s a bit about the over-commercialization of Christmas (after we open with the revelation that Blanche has a thing for men dressed as Santa Claus). Rose suggests that they make gifts for each other, and Dorothy agrees, but obviously, the handmade presents are all bizarre.
Then, when everyone is getting ready to fly back to their respective hometowns for Christmas, Rose’s work is held hostage by a man dressed as Santa Claus.
When that is finally resolved, they are then trapped in Miami when storms keep planes from flying that night.
The four women end up in a diner, but then they realize that they haven’t been KEPT from their family for Christmas, as THEY are family.
Sweet stuff, but boy, what a scattershot episode!
Feel free to drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com if you have a 1980s Christmas episode you’d like me to write about!
