Dorothy's New Friend

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Dorothy's New Friend is the fifteenth episode of the third season of The Golden Girls and the sixty-sixth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Terry Grossman and Kathy Speer, the episode premiered on NBC-TV on January 16th, 1988.

Summary[]

Dorothy enjoys the intellectual stimulation of her friendship with new pal Barbara Thorndike, a novelist, but Barbara's superior air and snobby ways rub Blanche and Rose the wrong way.

Plot[]

Sophia cooks lasagna for a male friend at the senior center. Rose shows the costume she got for the masquerade ball. Dorothy comes in sounding disappointed and complains about how dull and boring her life is.

The girls are expecting company. As the doorbell rang, Dorothy's new friend, Barbara Thorndyke, who is an author, arrives. While Dorothy leaves to get coffee, Blanche and Rose talk to Barbara, but they found her to be snobbish and aloof. Rose and Blanche talk about the costumes they're gonna wear at the ball. They invited Dorothy out to the movies but declined as she already made plans with Barbara. They decided to invite Barbara over for dinner to give her another chance.

After dinner, Barbara and Dorothy get along. Trying to fit in, Blanche tells Barbara about the novel she picked up the other day. Barbara then asks if there's any problem with her book. Blanche said that she had a problem with those "waves." Sophia goes out on a date and shortly after, Barbara leaves. Before Barbara left, she invites Dorothy out for the writers' symposium on Friday. Rose reminds Dorothy that the masquerade ball is also on Friday and tells her how much it means to her.

Blanche and Rose are upset with Dorothy who assumes that the reason why they're acting that way is because they don't like Barbara. Blanche and Rose tell Dorothy that Barbara looks down on everyone, using her intelligence to make everybody else look stupid. Dorothy gets mad and storms out of the kitchen. Dorothy and Barbara go out to eat at Barbara's hangout. Dorothy talks Barbara about the tension between Blanche, Rose and herself. Blanche and Rose don't feel included enough in their hangouts, so trying to make everyone included, Barbara invites everyone to a restaurant called the Mortimer Club.

As the girls get ready go to the Mortimer Club, Sophia's date, Murray Guttman arrives, wearing a flashy tuxedo. Barbara takes Dorothy into the kitchen, and tells Dorothy that they have a little problem with Murray. Dorothy thinks it's about his tuxedo, but Barbara tells her that Murray can't come to the Mortimer Club, because he's Jewish, and the club is "restricted." Dorothy asks Barbara why she's a member of a club like that, and Barbara answers: "They serve a great breakfast and the parking is free." Barbara even tells Dorothy that she tolerates a lot of things, including Rose and Blanche because of her relationship with her, and she suggests that they'll just go to another restaurant. Dorothy realizes that Rose and Blanche were right about Barbara, and that she was not the kind of person she wants as a friend. Dorothy tells Barbara to go to the Mortimer Club by herself: "Let me spell it out for you. Go to Hell!" Barbara leaves, and Dorothy apologizes to Rose and Blanche, and they go to the Masquerade Ball.^[1]

Tall Tales[]

Back in St. Olaf...[]

To be added.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

• Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
• Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
• Betty White as Rose Nylund
• Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo

Guest Stars[]

• Bonnie Bartlett as Barbara Thorndike
• Monty Ash as Murray Guttman
• Brad Trumball as Maitre D'

Notes[]

• At one point in the episode, Dorothy accuses Blanche of regularly pretending to be Angie Dickinson. In the next episode, Blanche pretends to be Dickinson in order to get a hotel room.^[2]
• Despite being in the title of the episode, Dorothy has the least amount of screen time.

Production[]

• This episode is an almost-direct remake of the 1972 Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Some of My Best Friends Are Rhoda." In the episode, Mary gets chummy with a woman named Joanna, which annoys her friend Rhoda. At the end of the episode, Joanna looking for a fourth to play doubles tennis with at her exclusive country club and balks when Mary suggests they invite Rhoda. The club is revealed to be anti-Semitic, prompting Mary to end her relationship with Joanna.
• The restaurant Dorothy and Barbara eat lunch at has a menu that is styled as a novel that is broken up into chapters. Each meal on the menu is a play on words with different famous novels. Dishes include The Crepes of Wrath, The Old Man and the Seafood Salad, For Whom The Stuff Bell Peppers Toll, and a turkey sandwich on "Catcher in the Rye" bread with a side order of George Bernard Slaw (coleslaw).

Goofs[]

• Dorothy is grasping a glass carafe of presumably-hot coffee both by the handle as well as on the glass with her bare hand.

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[]