The Golden Girls: Season 5
It's a good sign when a new year begins with Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show,Arrested Development) and ends with Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap,The Simpsons). Tambor shows up as Dorothy's doctor in theThe Golden Girlstwo-part fifth season premiere ("Sick and Tired"). Unfortunately, he isn't able to determine why she's feeling run down, so she pays a visit toEmpty Nest's Dr. Weston (Richard Mulligan, who returns a few episodes later). Blanche (Rue McClanahan), meanwhile, decides to become a romance novelist, despite the fact that she can't write. Dorothy (Bea Arthur) will eventually find out she has chronic fatigue syndrome (an affliction shared by writer/creator Susan Harris, who'll soon exit the show), while the flighty Blanche will retire from writing as suddenly as she took it up. Then she'll get the news that her daughter, Rebecca, has decided to become a single mother--via artificial insemination. Blanche is aghast. As for Rose, she'll get a new job as the assistant to a consumer affairs reporter and find second love with professor Miles Webber (Harold Gould). Other guests during the 1989-1990 season include Dick Van Dyke ("Love Under the Big Top"), Robert Culp ("Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-Tom"), and a pre-Law & OrderJerry Orbach ("Cheaters"). Then there's Shearer ("The President's Coming! The President's Coming!"), who provides the voice for the first George Bush. Also, Marc Cherry, the man behindDesperate Housewives, receives his first writing credit, while Mark Moses--now best known as the murderous Rex--appears as Blanche's stepson. Unlike previous sets, this collection includes commentary from Arthur, McClanahan, and White.--Kathleen C Fennessy