The Engagement

Episode aired Sep 14, 1985
TV-PG
30m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, and Betty White in The Golden Girls (1985)

Comedy Drama

Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche are three women who share a house in Miami, Florida. Dorothy's elderly mother, Sophia, unexpectedly moves in after her retirement home burns down, and Blanche acce... Read allDorothy, Rose, and Blanche are three women who share a house in Miami, Florida. Dorothy's elderly mother, Sophia, unexpectedly moves in after her retirement home burns down, and Blanche accepts a proposal of marriage.Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche are three women who share a house in Miami, Florida. Dorothy's elderly mother, Sophia, unexpectedly moves in after her retirement home burns down, and Blanche accepts a proposal of marriage.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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9:57

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The character Sophia Petrillo was originally supposed to be a recurring guest character, but test audiences loved the character so much that after the pilot was filmed and aired, the decision was made to write out Charles Levin (Coco) and to make room for Sophia as the fourth main character.

Goofs
When Blanche is introducing Harry to the ladies, she tells him that Sophia's home had just burned down. However, after Blanche enters the room and sees Sophia, the fire isn't mentioned. Blanche wouldn't have known about the fire to tell Harry.

Quotes
Blanche: [as she introduces her latest lover to the others] And this is Sophia.
Harry: Well - you must be Blanche's sister.
Sophia: You must be blind.
Blanche: [Long pause] Sophia's home just burnt down.
Harry: That's terrible!
Sophia: Not to me. It was a retirement home - and you know what? They set off the drill in a retirement home - who can rush? Half the people have walkers, the other half can't get out of their chairs. But they got bells going off like crazy. You know what that does to hearts that only beat a few times a week?... Its not pretty.

Connections
Edited into Forever Golden! A Celebration of the Golden Girls (2021)

Soundtracks
Thank You For Being A Friend
Written by Andrew Gold
Sung by Cynthia Fee

User reviews13

Featured review

8/10

Plenty of good zingers in this endearing pilot.

Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Rose (Betty White), and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) are three seniors who share a house in Miami. The main through line of this pilot is that Blanche has been proposed to by a man (Frank Aletter) who has only known her for a week. Rose has a negative gut feeling about the guy, but Dorothy doesn't want her to spoil Blanches' happiness. Meanwhile, Dorothy's mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) comes to stay after her retirement home burns down.

Four very talented ladies make the most of this script by Susan Harris that does a superb job of balancing some hilarious comedy with some poignancy. Indeed, there's something to be said here about the need to appreciate friends & family, as well as the need to remember all the good things in life. At her age, Blanche is worried that she won't have many more chances to be truly happy. But, as the theme song for this series so succinctly puts it, true friends will always be there for us, through the ups and the downs.

The dynamic between the characters is so well set up here, with Getty especially funny as the feisty 80 year old Sophia. Both she and Arthur have a real flair for delivering one-liners. In fact, Getty proved to be so popular with test audiences that she was quickly graduated from recurring guest star to full-fledged co-star, with the cook character Coco (Charles Levin) dropped from the series.

Good fun for classic sitcom fans, with a brief appearance from Meshach Taylor (as a cop), who subsequently went on to fame on the sitcom 'Designing Women'.

Eight out of 10.