THE GIRL FROM ST. OLAF: 3 ESSENTIAL ROSE NYLUND (BETTY WHITE) EPISODES

By Taylor Zaccario 

Lets be honest: I’m a 30 year old straight guy. I have a beard and a shaved head. I look like someone who'd beat up an old lady like Betty White. 

But appearances aside, I am a Golden Girls fanatic. Not only is it my favorite television show, I consider it to be the very best ever. I worship The Sopranos, but Tony, Sil, Christopher, and Paulie Walnuts are no match for Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. The Golden Girls is, in my extremely biased opinion, the best acted and best written series ever broadcast on network, cable, or streaming TV. The show deals with mature themes and adult topics but in a way that never stops the belly-laughs. 

Superficially, the series is about the lives of four older women living in Miami. But on a deeper level, the series taps into the universal concerns that plague all of us: love, family, heartbreak, sickness, laughter, and most of all, friendship. The Golden Girls is really a show about four friends; they happen to be older women. And they were so damn hilarious. 

Like millions, I’m mourning loss of the last Golden Girl, Betty White, who played the naive and scatterbrained Rose Nylund, from St. Olaf, Minnesota. I thought it would be a fitting tribute to highlight 3 essential Rose Nylund episodes that show off Ms. White’s incredible talent and range.

In a Bed of Rose’s (Season 1, Episode 15) 

Rose brings home a man named Al (Richard Roat). They spend the night making sweet, sweet nookie. The next morning, Al is found dead in Rose’s bed from a heart attack. When she attempts to notify his family about his untimely (and awkward) demise, Rose discovers that Al was married. 

An episode that hilariously, but tastefully, blends sex and death. The script dips a toe into the dramatic while keeping both feet firmly planted in the comedic. White won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She deserved it. Her shock and confusion at Al’s death, and her subsequent mourning and guilt, are pure character driven comedy. Betty White bats simultaneously for laughs and tears. She knocks both out of the park.

Isn’t It Romantic (season 2, Episode 5) 

Dorothy’s friend, Jean (Lois Nettleton), comes to stay with the girls after the death of her partner. Jean becomes very close to Rose, who is unaware that Jean is a lesbian. Jean decides to cut her stay short when she starts falling in love with Rose. 

One of the best episodes of the series and one of the most forward-thinking. This episode aired in 1986. That’s 11 years before Ellen DeGeneres came out as gay on her sitcom and 12 years before Will & Grace. LGBT+ characters of the time (and before) were relegated to caricatures and punchlines. They were shock value. Here, Jean is treated with respect, not as an aberration. She’s a human being, dealing with that relatable feeling of grief. Betty White’s performance is tonally spot-on, both in the scene where Jean reveals her feelings for Rose, and in the subsequent one where Rose rebuffs the sentiment. She achieves the laughs without coming across as homophobic or dismissive.  

But the biggest laugh of the episode (and perhaps the series) goes to Blanche (Rue McClanahan). Dorothy has just told self-absorbed Blanche that Jean is in love with Rose:

BLANCHE: I don’t believe it! I do not believe it! 

DOROTHY: I was pretty surprised myself. 

BLANCHE Well, I’ll bet. To think Jean would prefer Rose over ME! That’s ridiculous! 

A Piece of Cake (Season 2, Episode 25) 

I’m not a fan of flashback episodes, in general. A Piece of Cake is the exception. The women sit around the kitchen, telling stories about memorable birthdays. Rose tells of the first birthday she spent after her husband, Charlie, died. She baked a cake and cooked a surprise birthday breakfast, just as Charlie did for her when he was alive. Rose “spoke” to Charlie about her decision to leave St. Olaf for Miami. 

White plays the scene alone (called a “one-hander”), speaking only to Charlie’s empty chair. Again, White demonstrates the ease in which she can make you smile and wrench out a few tears. Rose’s husband, Charlie, was the only spouse of the Girls who never appeared on the show. Allen Ludden, White’s real life husband, died six years earlier in 1981. Betty White never remarried. It’s conceivable that she injected her real sorrow into this sweet and heartbreaking performance. 

BONUS ESSENTIAL 

The Accurate Conception (Season 5, Episode 3) 

My all-time favorite episode of the series. While Rose doesn’t get a major storyline, she is part of  some of the most clever and adult exchanges. The episode revolves around Blanche’s daughter, Rebecca (Debra Engle), wanting to get artificially inseminated. The sperm joke count is very fertile in this episode. It’s a never ending barrage of witty and intelligent double entendres and innuendoes.

Take for example my favorite exchange:

ROSE: I was reading that you can buy the sperm of Nobel Prize winners. (Pause). Or was it "Star Search" winners? 

BLANCHE: Buy? Well, sperm use to be free. It was all over the place. 

C’mon. What gets better than that? 

This episode epitomizes the tonal balance beam the show so dexterously maneuvered across; a perfect marriage between clever, thoughtful writing and the unique talents of four wonderful actresses.