The Golden Girls: Season 2 (1986 - 1987)

Season two of The Golden Girls gets under way as an apprehensive Blanche (Rue McClanahan) takes a pregnancy test which comes up positive. Can it be that our fiftysomething heroine is going to have a baby? No, it so happens that Blanche is in the first stages of menopause -- and she's mighty miserable when she finds out. Meanwhile, Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Rose (Betty White), and Sophia (Estelle Getty) try to raise extra cash by breeding minks; unfortunately, the little devils steadfastly refuse to procreate. Amazingly, it turns out that the episode's two subplots have a great deal in common!

While their house is being fumigated, the girls set up camp at a low-cost Miami Beach hotel, where Blanche looks forward to cashing in on the tickets she has won to a Burt Reynolds movie premiere and party. Alas, a case of mistaken identity results in our heroines being arrested as prostitutes. It is up to Sophia (Estelle Getty) to bail the girls out of jail -- if she feels like it, that is. Beyond the not-so-surprising "surprise cameo" at episode's end, this installment of The Golden Girls offers several cute references to The Match Game, where series regular Betty White frequently appeared as a panelist.

Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan (Herb Edelman), shows up at the girls' doorstep, depressed over having just lost his business. Since she is about to embark upon a date, Dorothy (Bea Arthur) suggests that Stan cry on the shoulder of her housemate Blanche (Rue McClanahan) -- only to become furious when Blanche and Stan hit it off big-time. Elsewhere, Sophia (Estelle Getty) and Rose (Betty White) clash with a gent known as "Johnny No Thumbs" when they go into the sandwich-vending business.

The city wants to widen Richmond Street, meaning that a 200-year-old oak tree will have to be cut down. The girls petition to save the tree, only to run afoul of the neighborhood's most hated resident: Frieda Claxton (Nan Martin), who owns the property on which the oak resides. Out of frustration, Rose (Betty White) tells the "miserable, vile, scum-sucking" Frieda to drop dead -- whereupon the old woman promptly obliges. Consumed by guilt, Rose arranges the old battle-ax's funeral...with ironic results.

In this Emmy-winning episode, Dorothy (Bea Arthur) is reluctant to tell her roommates that her old college friend Jean (Lois Nettleton) is a lesbian. As a result, wide-eyed Rose (Betty White) is totally unprepared for Jean's overenthusiastic display of affection when the two ladies become better acquainted. In other developments, the purchase of a VCR leads Dorothy's mom, Sophia (Estelle Getty), to begin renting X-rated films without tipping off her daughter.

In the first-season episode "Big Daddy," the title character was played by Murray Hamilton. In this episode, the role of Blanche's flamboyant father, Big Daddy Hollingsworth, is essayed by David Wayne. At first, Blanche is thrilled to learn that Big Daddy is about to marry the "Widow Spencer" (Sondra Currie). But she is less than thrilled when she finds out that the widow is a very beautiful -- and very, very young -- redhead. Meanwhile, Dorothy (Bea Arthur) and Rose (Betty White) are exposed to the cruel underside of showbiz when they enter a songwriting contest held by the city of Miami.

The girls are none too comfortable when Dorothy's jazz-musician son, Michael (Scott Jacoby), and Rose's (Betty White) college-student daughter, Bridget (Marilyn Jones), pay a visit at the same time. Things get really sticky when the worldly Michael and the sheltered Bridget hit it off -- culminating in a nocturnal rendezvous. Elsewhere, Blanche (Rue McClanahan) wrenches her back in aerobics class, but not for the reasons that one might assume.

Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Rose (Betty White), and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) find out the hard way that they were bamboozled by crooked travel agents after embarking on their Caribbean "dream" vacation. Not only is their "luxury hotel" a fleabag, but the girls must share certain facilities with a trio of loudmouthed jerks. And back at home, Sophia (Estelle Getty) inaugurates a romance with Japanese gardener Mr. Mitsumo (played by the inimitable Keye Luke).

During a sabbatical from school, Dorothy (Bea Arthur) seeks out a part-time job. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) persuades the museum where she works to take on Dorothy temporarily -- only to regret her generosity when Dorothy, and not Blanche, is assigned to organize an important banquet. Meanwhile, Rose (Betty White) picks up a stray dog at the supermarket, leading to a variety of negative reactions from her housemates -- and an effort to spike the mutt's water dish with sherry.