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End of the Curse

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"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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End of the Curse is the first episode of the second season of The Golden Girls and the twenty-sixth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Susan Harris, it premiered on NBC-TV on September 27th, 1986. It is the Season 2 premiere.

Summary[]

Blanche drops a bombshell on the girls, revealing that she is pregnant after taking a home pregnancy test. After this shock, she visits her local doctor who tells her she is not pregnant but entering menopause. Blanche, unlike the other girls, is not thrilled at all of her new change in life.

Plot[]

Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia plan to breed minks for fur but Blanche is in bed depressed for an unknown reason. When she appears, clearly upset, she tells the girls the truth she's pregnant and she is unsure if she could have the baby or who the father is. The following days the minks are uninterested in mating, which means the girls will end up broke. Blanche returns and while the girls convince they will help her with the baby, she reveals the doctor tells her that it's menopause and she is depressed. The girls bring Blanche to a psychiatrist's office to deal with her depression, she reveals that she is scared it's the end of her sexual attractiveness and she fears she will become her mother which is her worst nightmare. The next day Blanche is still depressed and the girls try to cheer her up by talking about their own period stories and why menopause means nothing in the end. Blanche is still depressed but when the vet appears, Blanche starts to perk up, the vet tells the girls the minks are too old for breeding and unlike humans, they lose the sexual appeal which cheers Blanche up and she chats him up. After Blanche's date, she tells the girls she's over the depression and she glad they were there as well as they let her know menopause wasn't the end she believed it to be. However, the mink is still there and while Dorothy called the animal center, Rose points out that while the minks aren't useful any more it doesn't mean they should be sent away, Blanche declares they can stay. Just then they begin mating but Dorothy tells them that the two minks mating are the males.[1]

Tall Tales[]

Tales from the Old South[]

To be added.

Back in St. Olaf...[]

Rose mentions that they had a female pig on the farm that all the male pigs loved. One year, the pig got pregnant and the Lindstroms were never able to figure out who the father was.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Stars[]

  • Philip Sterling as Dr. Barensfeld
  • Vince Cannon as Dr. Parks

Notes[]

  • The building shown from the window in Dr. Barnsfeld's office is actually part of the TRW (now known as Northrop Grumman) Space Park in Redondo Beach, CA.
  • Philip Sterling, who plays psychiatrist Dr. Barensfeld, and Vince Cannon, who plays veterinarian Dr. Parks, both died within four months of each other in 1998: Sterling from myelofibrosis, a bone marrow disease, and Cannon from lung cancer.

Production[]

  • Rue McClanahan won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 39th Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance in this episode.
  • None of the actresses were thrilled with this script as it involved the ladies raising minks for profit, as all the actresses were animal rights activists.

Cultural references[]

  • Sophia mentions that she looked like Arafat after she went through menopause. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004.
  • Dorothy mentions the titular character of the classic detective series Columbo.

Goofs[]

  • In the episode, Rose asks Dorothy if Stan ever bought her a mink stole, and Sophia replies that "Stan wouldn't buy (Dorothy) popcorn at the movies!" However, "The Engagement" shows Dorothy lending her mink stole to Blanche for her date with Harry,[2] and in "Break-In" reveals that Stan indeed bought her the stole.[3]
  • When Blanche stands up, walking around the doctor's office nervously, she straightens the framed art on the wall, but when the camera comes backs to her seconds later, the frame is crooked again.
  • Dr. Parks referred to mink as rodents. Mink are weasels, not rodents.

Site Navigation[]

V - E - H
List of The Golden Girls episodes

Season 1 The Engagement • Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding • Rose the Prude • Transplant • The Triangle • On Golden Girls • The Competition • Break-In • Blanche and the Younger Man • The Heart Attack • The Return of Dorothy's Ex • The Custody Battle • A Little Romance • That Was No Lady • In a Bed of Rose's • The Truth Will Out • Nice and Easy • The Operation • Second Motherhood • Adult Education • The Flu • Job Hunting • Blind Ambitions • Big Daddy • The Way We Met
Season 2 End of the Curse • Ladies of the Evening • Take Him, He's Mine • It's a Miserable Life • Isn't It Romantic • Big Daddy's Little Lady • Family Affair • Vacation • Joust Between Friends • Love, Rose • 'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas • The Sisters • The Stan Who Came to Dinner • The Actor • Before and After • And Then There Was One • Bedtime Story • Forgive Me, Father • Long Day's Journey into Marinara • Whose Face is This, Anyway? • Dorothy's Prized Pupil • Diamond in the Rough • Son-in-Law Dearest • To Catch a Neighbor • A Piece of Cake • Empty Nests
Season 3 Old Friends • One for the Money • Bringing Up Baby • The Housekeeper • Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself • Letter to Gorbachev • Strange Bedfellows • Brotherly Love • A Visit from Little Sven • The Audit • Three on a Couch • Charlie's Buddy • The Artist • Blanche's Little Girl • Dorothy's New Friend • Grab That Dough • My Brother, My Father • Golden Moments, Part 1 • Golden Moments, Part 2 • And Ma Makes Three • Larceny and Old Lace • Rose's Big Adventure • Mixed Blessings • Mister Terrific • Mother's Day
Season 4 Yes, We Have No Havanas • The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo • The One That Got Away • Yokel Hero • Bang the Drum, Stanley • Sophia's Wedding, Part 1 • Sophia's Wedding, Part 2 • Brother, Can You Spare That Jacket • Scared Straight • Stan Takes a Wife • The Auction • Blind Date • The Impotence of Being Ernest • Love Me Tender • Valentine's Day • Two Rode Together • You Gotta Have Hope • Fiddler On the Ropes • Till Death Do We Volley • High Anxiety • Little Sister • Sophia's Choice • Rites of Spring • Foreign Exchange • We're Outta Here, Part 1 • We're Outta Here, Part 2
Season 5 Sick and Tired, Part 1 • Sick and Tired, Part 2 • The Accurate Conception • Rose Fights Back • Love Under the Big Top • Dancing in the Dark • Not Another Monday • That Old Feeling • Comedy of Errors • All That Jazz • Ebb Tide • Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas • Mary Has a Little Lamb • Triple Play • Clinton Avenue Memoirs • Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-Tom • An Illegitimate Concern • 72 Hours • Twice In a Lifetime • Sisters and Other Strangers • Cheaters • The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present • All Bets Are Off • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 1 • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 2
Season 6 Blanche Delivers • Once, In St. Olaf • If At Last You Do Succeed • Snap Out Of It • Wham, Bam, Thank You Mammy • Feelings • Zborn Again • How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia? • Mrs. George Devereaux • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... Before They Die • Stand By Your Man • Ebbtide's Revenge • The Bloom Is Off the Rose • Sisters of the Bride • Miles to Go • There Goes the Bride, Part 1 •There Goes the Bride, Part 2 • Older and Wiser • Melodrama • Even Grandmas Get the Blues • Witness • What a Difference a Date Makes • Love for Sale • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 1 • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 2 • Henny Penny — Straight, No Chaser
Season 7 Hey, Look Me Over • The Case of the Libertine Belle • Beauty and the Beast • That's For Me to Know • Where's Charlie? • Mother Load • Dateline: Miami • The Monkey Show, Part 1 • The Monkey Show, Part 2 • Ro$e Love$ Mile$ • Room Seven • From Here to the Pharmacy • The Pope's Ring • Old Boyfriends • Goodbye, Mr. Gordon • The Commitments • Questions and Answers • Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan • Journey to the Center of Attention • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 1 • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 2 • Rose: Portrait of a Woman • Home Again, Rose, Part 1 • Home Again, Rose, Part 2 • One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 1 •One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 2

References[]

  1. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 1, "End of the Curse". Harris, Susan (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (September 27th, 1986)
  2. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 1, "The Engagement". Harris, Susan (writer) & Sandrich, Jay (director) (September 14th, 1985)
  3. ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 1, Episode 8, "Break-In". Berg, James and Zimmerman, Stan (writers) & Drake, Jim (director) (November 16th, 1985)
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