The Golden Girls S6Ep11 – Stand By Your Man

Blanche is dateless. Dorothy suggests a trip to the library. Blanche goes with her. Dorothy checks out books and Blanche checks out men. She meets one and makes a date. She didn't realize he was differently abled.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
You're listening to I Love this TV show The Golden Girls.
The Golden Girls Season six, episode eleven, stand By Your Man,
Original air date December first, nineteen ninety. In this episode,
Dreyfus has brought the puppies over to visit. They love

(00:39):
Rose because she will play with them. Blanche is upset
because it's Saturday and she doesn't have a date. Dorothy
suggests she read a book. Blanche goes with Dorothy to
the library and she tells Dorothy about the book Burdenings
that she witnessed as a child. They get there and
instead of checking out books, Blanche checks out a man.

(01:02):
Dorothy gets a Stephen King book for Sophia and hopes
it doesn't give her ideas. The librarian manages to offend her.
Blanche and the man make a date, but she didn't
realize he was in a wheelchair. Later that night, she
freaks out and thinks about canceling the date. She has
never gone out with someone disabled before. Blanche decides to

(01:26):
take a chaperone Sophia. She tried for Dorothy first, but
Dorothy refused. Rose wants one of Dreyfus's puppies, but Blanche
says no. Blanche goes on her date with Ted. He's
surprised that she has brought Sophia as a chaperone. Sophia
tells some colorful stories about Blanche. Ted picks up on

(01:49):
her discomfort about the wheelchair. Sophia checks out his apartment
and likes what she sees. Blanche and Ted decided to
send Sophia off in the limousine. Blanche spends the night
back at the house. Rose has kept the puppy, but
it's tearing the house up. Blanche finally returns home. She

(02:11):
had a very nice evening with Ted. Blanche discovers one
of her shoes has been chewed on. Rose says she
did it. They discuss pets and Dorothy talks about a
pony she wanted, but Sophia gave her a paper bird
instead and then lies to her that it will turn
into a real bird. Later, Blanche is a bit nervous.

(02:35):
Ted is coming back to town and wants to see
Blanche again. She thought it was a one and done,
but it's not. Ted wants to continue seeing Blanche. They
tell her to see it through and see what happens.
Ted is coming over and Blanche wants the dog to
stop making a mess. Blanche points out that there isn't

(02:55):
any one at home to properly care for the dog. Rose.
It's time to find a more suitable home for Bingo.
She takes him to an organization and they find a
good match for him. Blanche goes to Ted's place. He
informs her that he has a wife. He wants to
keep seeing her, but Blanche is not interested. Now she

(03:19):
exits everything in regards to ted favorite quotes, Dorothy, my
mother talked me into getting her the new Stephen King Librarian.
Well we do have the one that came out last Tuesday, Dorothy.

(03:43):
As long as it's not about some little creature who
finds new and inventive ways of terrorizing a household, it's
for my mother. I don't want to give her any ideas, Blanche.
Now do I have to call in all the favors
you owe me, Sophia, I don't know you money favors, Blanche.
Oh really, but Officer, the little little lady was with me.

(04:07):
She couldn't possibly have put that banana in your tailpipe, Sophia.
It'll be an honor to serve Rose. That's not fair.
Last week you got to keep the box boy who
follows you home. Blanche. There you see you don't need
a dog if you're lonely. Get yourself a man, Sophia.

(04:29):
Oh great, we gotta live with a sad eyed, hyperactive
and nuisance with the intelligence of a squeaky toy. And
now she's got a dog. Ted. Well, I suppose it's
been nice having someone look after you since you were young, Sophia.
I had to when she was fifteen. I caught her
under a pile of hillbillies. Picture it me with a crowbar,

(04:52):
prying cousins off left and right, Dorothy. So you can
imagine my heart break when one morning I find it dead, Blanche.
How does a paper bird die, Dorothy? Good question. Someone
used it to restart the pilot light, Blanche. Rose. Ted's

(05:14):
coming over later, and I don't want that dog making
a big mess. He's already been into my personal things. Rose.
Maybe we should get him some rubber toys, Blanche. They
do seem to be his preference, Sophia. She said, say
nolave bingo. I told you that's the attack Command, Blanche.

(05:37):
I was actually starting to feel love for you, all right, Ted,
I thought you were noble. Never dawned on me, you
could be a jerk in a wheelchair, Blanche. Oh, as
God is my witness, I will never pick up another
man in a library on a Saturday, unless he's cute

(05:57):
and drives a nice car. Amen. The main storyline in
this episode is Blanche dating a disabled guy. Now, I
guess she put a halo on his head at some
point and thought he could do no wrong. Everyone is imperfect,

(06:21):
whether you walk normal, whether you look weird, whether you're disabled.
We're all human. We all make mistakes, and we all
do things we shouldn't do. And I don't know, picking
up someone in the library is like the wisest thing
to do. That just gave me like high school flashbacks

(06:42):
studying in the library to past finals, or maybe even
college flashbacks for some people studying in the library at college.
But honestly, I mean, Blanche, fine guys in the most
weird places. I don't know if I mean library is
not what I would consider a place to go to
pick somebody up. I'm gonna go there to look at books.

(07:05):
I'm going there to do research, but I'm not going
there with the thought process of, oh, let's pick somebody up.
But you know, at the same time, I think pretty
much anywhere and everywhere Blanche goes, she picks up a guy.
She just has a natural talent for that. For lack
of a better way to describe it, I mean, that's

(07:27):
really just kind of how it seems to go. Blanche
likes the men, the men like Blanche, but oh my gosh,
Sophia being tricked and blackmailed into being her chaperone because
the wheelchair did actually make Blanche nervous, which is kind

(07:48):
of surprising because she doesn't get nervous a lot. There's
only I think two episodes in the whole show where
she has a nervous issue where Rose is dating the
psychiatrist who is short of stature and in this episode,
So yeah, and that those two. I mean, they're funny
for that factor. But it's just always, you know, Blanche

(08:11):
is always comfortable in her own skin that it always
surprises me when something else makes her feel uncomfortable and
just kind of freaks her out. And in both of
these cases, it's I guess you would call it differently abled,
but I mean, I guess that can be understandable because

(08:32):
it's something you would need to talk about understand what
they can do, what they can't do. You know, Doctor
Jonathan Newman was perfectly fine and capable. He was just
considerably smaller than your average adult and I was a
little person. I think that is the correct terminology now,
and I apologize if it is not. And in this one,

(08:55):
the guy in the wheelchair ted. Although it winds up,
she's far more offended by the fact that he's married
and did not tell her. So maybe had he been
honest from the start, she might not have cared, but
the fact that he hid it from her, that's what
really upsets her now. Also in this episode we get

(09:16):
Dreyfus and some puppies. Now, I'm assuming there was a
concurrent storyline and empty nest, and I'm not going to
go google that episode, But Dreyfus has puppies, and Rose
is the animal lover, and she wants one, and she
does get one for a time, and she names it Bingo.
It seems to quite enjoy Balanche's rubber shoe toys, well

(09:39):
her rubber toys that it turns into a shoe toy,
and the puppies are absolutely adorable. If you're a dog person,
a puppy person. It's a great episode for the puppies,
but ultimately it is pointed out that there isn't anyone
to properly care for the dog on a regular basis
because of their work schedules, and does decide that the

(10:01):
best thing to do is to go and find the
puppy up atter home. So we only get to see
Bingo for this one episode. Oh but now Blanche's conversation
with Dorothy about the pets, where we learn about Dorothy's
paper bird. Sophia seriously lied to her and told her

(10:22):
that if she was good, the paperbird would turn into
a real bird. Now, Dorothy supposed to be the smart
one in the show, even as a kid. I mean,
if she was sixish, she might understand that concept. But
maybe not, maybe it was just beyond her years at
that point. But that Sophia would play that kind of
trick on her and lead her to believe that this

(10:44):
paper bird is going to turn into a real bird
and then insult to injury used it to relight the
pilot light. You know, that's now a charred paper bird.
If there's anything of it even left, maybe it's just
an ash, But it's not a phoenix, so it's not
going to rise from the ashes, it's just burnt to
a crispin. He's done. Oh don't think it quite an

(11:08):
interesting childhood with Sophia. And so it's like we do
get to hear every once in a while some childhood stories,
but there's not as many as I think would be
much more fun to hear because there's just like wow.
I bet sal and Sophia were quite interesting because the
flashbacks we see there's always these huge fights and it's like,

(11:29):
holy Moly, day wow. It's a little mind blowing sometimes,
but ultimately in those flashbacks they always make up and
get back together. But yeah, this was quite the episode
for Planche. I guess she felt a little tricked and
deceived and used. It's understandable.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
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