Show: The Golden Girls
Season: 3 Episode: 6
Title: Letter to Gorbachev
Original Air Date: October 31, 1987
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Favorite Quotes:
* Dorothy: Ma, Stanely gave me that watch when we got married.Sophia: Well, the marriage never worked why should the watch?
* Sophia: Blanche what you are talented at isn’t generally done on a stage.
* Rose: The point I’m trying to make is: kids should enjoy being kids. They should be looking forward to their future not worrying about the end of the world.
* Blanche: Oh my God, they’re back!
Dorothy: Now I know how the family in Poltergeist felt.
*Blanche: Because they will use it as a propaganda ploy to convince the whole world that all Americans are as dumb as Rose.
* Rose: I guess there’s been some kind of misunderstanding, but a Sunshine Cadet never lies.
* Rose: I made a total fool out of myself in front of the press. I’m the laughingstock of the entire country. What am I going to tell my mother?
* Rose: I’m just stupid.
I’m a dimwitted, dumb, simpleminded, grade-A, Minnesota chucklehead.
Blanche: But, the important thing is you’re our chucklehead, and we wouldn’t trade you in for any other chucklehead in the whole wide world.
Synopsis:
Sophia is in the kitchen reading a magic book. Dorothy comes in and asks about the book. Sophia asks to borrow her watch. She puts it a bag and does several tricks in one. But Dorothy’s watch winds up broken. Blanche wants to be in the talent show but Sophia points out that her talent isn’t stage appropriate. Dorothy tells Sophia to stop thinking about the talent show. Rose comes back from her girl scouts meeting, and she is upset about nuclear war. It turns out that her Sunshine Cadet group is afraid of nuclear war and drew pictures of after the bombs are dropped. She speaks about how her worries were so much different and much less scary. Sophia comes in the kitchen with a sock puppet. She tries a ventriloquist act, but her lips are moving. Rose decides to write to both President Reagan and to Gorbachev. It’s now the night of the Sunshine Cadet campout. Rose tells a scary story but one girl ruins it. The girls want to watch tv. The campout had to be inside because of rain. Rose decides to take the troop for pizza. Blanche and Dorothy are exhausted from the short camp out. The doorbell rings and Blanche is worried they are back. It’s a man from the Russian Embassy to see Rose. He tells them that Premier Gorbachev read Rose’s letter and wants to meet with her. He wants her and her family to come to discuss world peace. Rose comes back in and the girls tell her about the response. She’s not impressed. She asks if the president responded. She then grabs a headdress and heads back out. Later she falls asleep on the couch. She dreams she is in Moscow giving a speech. She then lets Dorothy talk and Blanche. Blanche sings to the Premier. Blanche and Dorothy find her having a bad dream and wake her. She’s nervous about the press conference the next day. Dorothy is still surprised that Gorbachev wants to meet her. Sophia comes out with a tape player. She sings a song she’s written for the talent show. No one likes it. It’s now the day of the press conference. The man from the embassy announces he wants to start the press conference. Dorothy tells him Rose went to pick up her cadet troop. But Blanche and Dorothy get worried when he comments that she wants to share this moment with friends her own age. He thinks that Rose is their daughter. He thinks Rose 9 or 10. The two then rush into the kitchen. They don’t want Rose to be humiliated. Blanche goes on about how the Russians will use to it make the world think Americans are as dumb as Rose. She continues on about how it will lead to the topping of the government. Rose comes back with her troop. She’s excited. Dorothy finally tells Rose that the Russians think the letter was written by a 9-year-old. The man from the embassy asks which little girl is Rose. One of the troop members stands in for Rose. But Rose can’t be dishonest. She tells the truth. The man from the embassy cancels the press conference and makes a run for it. In the kitchen, Rose has a meltdown. The girls try to comfort her. Dorothy reminds her that her words moved a country’s leader. Blanche reads the letter that Rose wrote.
“Dear Mr. Gorbachev,
My name is Rose Nylund. I’m writing to you because I’m worried about nuclear war. I hear there are enough bombs to blow up the world 100 times and it scares me. It scares the girls in my cadet troop, too. They talk about what they want to be if they grow up, not when they grow up. That’s why I’m asking you to please unplug your bombs. I’ll bet my bottom dollar, or in your case, your bottom ruble, that if you called President Reagan, he’d do the same thing. It’s just someone has to be first.
Thank you.
Your friend, Rose Nylund.
P.S. [Laughs.] Don’t call the president in the afternoon. That’s when he takes naps.”
Both agree that it is really a wonderful letter. The phone rings and it’s for Rose. She tells them it’s the president. He tells her he loved her letter. Sophia comes in the kitchen as Rose leaves. She informs them it was her.
Categories: The Golden Girls
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