"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy."
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And Then There Was One is the sixteenth episode of the second season of The Golden Girls and the forty-first episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes, and written by Russell Marcus, the episode premiered on NBC-TV on January 31st, 1987.
The girls volunteer to babysit the children of participants in a local marathon, in which Sophia participates, and become concerned when a baby girl's parents don't come to pick her up after the race. It turns out the girl's mother went into labor and Sophia forgot to give the girls the message.
Plot[]
Sophia is preparing for a the charity Walk-A-Thon by eating Pasta, Rose reveals that she volunteered the house to babysit competitors children, despite Blanche's objections Dorothy talks her around. The day of the Walk comes Sophia leaves for the over 80's, Rose has prepared things for the children and Blanche has tidied away anything breakable. The babysitting goes okay with Rose being in charge even the brattiest kid plays in.
However at the end of the day one baby named Emily is still there, they tried calling her home and the events with no results. To stop Emily crying they put her in Blanche's arms, she’s calmed which surprises the non-maternal Blanche. Sophia returns claiming she did so well she might be in the papers, she remarks that Emily's parents might have abandoned her, not helped when the people at the event return call to reveal everyone has gone and so they call the police, they can wait 2 days for the child services or send her to the police. They decide on waiting and getting a few things for the days ahead.
After returning, the girls talk about their own children when they were babies, Blanche sadly admits that she was too vain, hiring a Nanny and realizing she ruined her relationship with them as adults. The next day as the girls prepare breakfast, Sophia reveals people had been calling her all night from the event saying she's a celebrity, just then Emily's father returns. confronted, he admits he did call and Sophia answered bragging about her achievements. He reminds her of what he said, he couldn't pick up Emily because his wife had triplets, Sophia misheard him and so didn't tell anyone. With that problem solved, Emily is taken home but it's clear Blanche hoped she could prove herself, Dorothy comforts her saying that her children do need her but she doesn't agree.
However Blanche calls Janet asking her if she can visit her but she keeps making excuses, until she hears the emotional honesty in Blanche's voice and they set the date to meet up.[1]
Nat Bernstein, Emily's father in this episode, also appeared in the preceding episode, "Before and After" as Rose's doctor.[2]
Ray Combs, who played the part of Bob Henderson, was the "warm-up" comedian for the series and the sitcom Amen. He was best known as the host of the second revival of the game show Family Feud from 1988-1994.
Production[]
This episode ranked #10 in the Nielsen Ratings for that particular week in which it was first aired.
