The Golden Girls: The Complete Seventh and Final Season
The seventh season wasn't just the last for NBC'sGolden Girls: It was the best. As it begins, the four remain single after Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur) calls off her second wedding to Stan (Herb Edelman) in the previous season. It's no catastrophe, however, as the roommates still enjoy each other's company as much as ever, despite the occasional quarrel. Rose (Betty White), for instance, is none too happy when she find what she thinks is evidence of an affair between Blanche (Rue McLanahan) and her late husband, Charlie ("Hey, Look Me Over"). On the bright side, Rose continues to see lovable cheapskate Miles (Harold Gould). Highlights include "Where's Charlie," a spoof ofBull Durham--or "Dances With Bulls," as Sophia dubs it--in which Blanche teaches a baseball player (Tim Thomerson) to embrace his feminine side, and "Dateline: Miami," in which she tries to deflower a former priest (Fred Willard). As with Blanche's other best laid plans, the results aren’t quite as expected. Other seventh season guests include Tony Plana ("The Case of the Libertine Belle"), Peter Graves ("Mother Load"), Ken Howard ("The Commitments"), Merv Griffin and Alex Trebek ("Questions and Answers"), and Leslie Nielsen ("One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest"), who steals Dorothy's heart.In the final season, Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) was promoted from story editor to producer. (It can't be completely coincidental that the man who helped make 40 the new 30 first helped make 60 the new 40.) As with most other sets, however, there are no cast or crew commentaries. Fortunately, the wonders of syndication and DVD technology allow fans to relive all seven years of Sophia's "Picture this..." stories about Sicily, Rose's loopy recollections about St. Olaf, Blanche's over-the-top sexual exploits, and Dorothy's delightfully deadpan expressions. Now, who's for another slice of cheesecake?--Kathleen C. Fennessy