Mixed Blessings

"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy." This article is incomplete. You can help the Golden Girls Wiki by expanding it.

Mixed Blessings is the twenty-third episode of the third season of The Golden Girls and the seventy-fourth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Christopher Lloyd, the episode premiered on NBC-TV on March 19th, 1988.

Summary[]

Dorothy's son Michael plans to wed his older African-American bandmate, Lorraine. Dorothy complains of the age difference; Lorraine's mother and aunts also disapprove, but mainly because Michael is white. Rose and Blanche try to beautify themselves for a romantic cruise with twin brothers.

Plot[]

Sophia leaves for a one day trip, Blanche and Rose are preparing for a cruise by getting fitter and have beauty treatments. Dorothy's son Michael arrives, he reveals that he is engaged to Lorraine who is a singer with his band and they plan to invite the family on Sunday he will bring Lorraine tomorrow, however he tells Dorothy that Lorraine is black and while still in shock Dorothy is happy to accept her.

The next day Dorothy meets Lorraine, but mistakes her as Lorraine's Mother, after Blanche and Rose takes her around the house Dorothy confronts Michael about the age difference unable to accept this Michael refuses to listen as he is too much in love. That night Dorothy chats to Lorraine about the age gap, however Lorraine tells her that when she was younger she was married before and wasn't happy with the union at all and Dorothy can relate but she still can't approve.

That next day Michael is arguing with Dorothy as Lorraine's mother doesn't mind the age differences but Dorothy still sticks to his guns. However just then Lorraine's mother Greta and her two aunts have come to visit, they mistake Dorothy for the maid, however Lorraine introduces the group before she shows her mother Michael and Greta disapproves because he's white. Dorothy protects her son explaining her disapproves because of the age differences, Sophia returns and straight away gives her word as well however Blanche and Rose try to help only for the mothers warned their that if they marry they will regret it.

That evening the girls get a visit from Greta and the 2 aunts they feel that they need to sort out the problem civil over cheesecake and they seem to be doing well. But then Rose reveals Michael and Lorraine have eloped to a night chapel. The group gets there before the service, Lorraine gives them permission not to be a part of the wedding, but Lorraine reveals she is pregnant and so Dorothy and Greta decide to accept it. As the service starts Lorraine is given Greta's blue scarf, Blanche's Grandmother's Earrings, Dorothy lets her borrow her watch and the baby is the new. As everyone enters the chapel Dorothy and Greta begin fighting over names.^[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[]

• Scott Jacoby as Michael Zbornak
• Rosalind Cash as Lorraine
• Virginia Capers as Greta
• Lynn Hamilton as Trudy
• Montrose Hagins as Libby
• Hartley Silver as Justice of the Peace

2020 controversy[]

On June 27th, 2020, the episode was removed from Hulu and other streaming platforms due to the mud facials scene and Rose exclaiming "This is mud on our faces, we're not really black!". At the time, racial tension in the United States was at an all-time high after a white police officer's use of excessive force killed a black man he was trying to apprehend. In response to the incident, Hollywood began removing and censoring content that could be deemed offensive towards African-Americans. In the end, the episode was restored to Hulu after a group of activists presented a survey that 95% of viewers were not bothered by the content of the episode.

Notes[]

• While Dorothy says that she has a grandson called Bobby, there is no reference if he's Michael and Lorraine child, as he might be the son of Kate and Dennis.

Cultural references[]

• When Sophia enters the house and sees the girls and Lorraine's family she reacts with the line "What is this, a revival of Raisin in the Sun?"  Virginia Capers starred in the musical version of Raisin in the Sun.
  • Also in connection to Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine's namesake could the play's writer, Lorraine Hansberry.

Goofs[]

• Michael is said to be twenty-three in this episode. In "Family Affair", he was said to be twenty-nine.^[2]

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[]