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Fiddler On the Ropes is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of The Golden Girls and the ninety-fourth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman, it premiered on NBC TV on March 4th, 1989.
Summary[]
Sophia is given money that is intended to be put into a Certificate of Deposit, but she buys a Cuban prizefighter instead.
Plot[]
Dorothy, Blanche and Rose sit down for dinner and start to talk about money matters. Rose, who was supposed to take $3000 the girls saved up to the bank to buy a Certificate of Deposit, passed the errand to Sophia. Dorothy fears that Sophia will irresponsibly spend their money, and her fears are justified as Sophia returns home to announce that she had spent their $3000 on a prizefighter named "Kid Pepe". She promises that Pepe is scheduled for a fight in a week, where there is a guaranteed purse of $10,000 as long as Pepe shows up to fight, and he gets 20% of the earnings while the ladies pocket the rest. The girls reluctantly agree to let Pepe stay at the house until the fight, as the fight seems to be the only way to get their money back.
The next day, Dorothy is surprised after making a phone call to confirm Pepe's contract and fight are legitimate. Sophia helps Pepe to train and the girls begin to have second thoughts about the arrangement until Sophia reveals that Pepe would double their earnings if he wins his fight. Later in the evening, Dorothy voices her concerns to Sophia. As Sophia tries to relieve Dorothy of her anxiety, Blanche and Rose enters their room to tell them Pepe has gone missing. Fearing that Pepe has run away, the girls set out to find him. The girls find their way into an unfamiliar building based on the only address they could find from Pepe's belongings. Just as they decide to leave, they hear a violin solo playing behind one of the doors. Curious, they go inside to find Pepe as the violinist playing expertly while accompanied by a man on the piano.
Once discovered, Pepe reveals that he could speak English perfectly and explains that he did not run away from the fight, but he visits his music teachers' home to practice for an audition into the Julliard School of Music. He further explains he needs to enter the fight for the money to pay for Julliard in case he is admitted, and needed the ladies' initial money to cover an entrance fee that Sophia failed to mention. When Dorothy asks why he pretended to not understand English, Pepe says that he needed to look the part of a stereotypical Hispanic fighter, and points out that the ladies all bought into the image. He then launches into a soliloquy about equality despite the stereotypes and ends by mentioning he thought about auditioning via acting as well. Pepe's music teacher is upset to hear about Pepe's upcoming fight and begs the girls to not let Pepe go through with it for fear of Pepe damaging his hands and ruining his talent. Sophia merely tells him "fat chance" before leaving for home.
Back at home, the girls stay up late worrying about Pepe's situation. Sophia tries her best to convince the girls to let the fight happen and mentions that the contract only needs Pepe to step in the ring to claim the guaranteed purse. The girls then realize they simply need to convince Pepe to "take a dive" to help save his hands while winning their money back. The next evening at the fight, the girls convince a hesitant Pepe at ringside to throw his fight. Pepe is then knocked out in one punch by his opponent. The girls attend Pepe's Julliard audition the next day, but are shocked to find that Pepe is unable to play the violin due to the concussion he suffered from the fight. The judges also refuse to accept moving the date of the audition. Dorothy hints to Pepe that the judges are being unfair because he is Cuban, which Pepe picks up on and recites the same soliloquy he gave her before about equality. When he is finished, the judges are impressed by his acting skills and welcome him to Julliard via the acting school. Sophia remarks that given Pepe's ethnicity, his career in acting would only result in stereotyped roles. When Dorothy chides her for not seeing the brighter side, Sophia agrees but says she can also act by putting on a fake smile, which she does while congratulating Pepe.[1]
Tall Tales[]
Picture It...[]
Sophia tells a story about two young girls leaving their tiny village to seek fame, fortune, and a meal cooked without oregano. They eventually made it to a seaside town where there was a ship to America, but the steerage price was ₺900,000 -- or approximately $1.25 -- which turns out to be the exact amount of each girl's life savings. One girl chose to spend her money and take a chance in America, and the other chooses to book a ferry to Sardinia and save the rest of her money for a rainy day. In a twist of fate, Sophia was the girl who played it safe, and the other girl who chose adventure was Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. When Dorothy insists that Sophia never met Golda Meir, Sophia insists that she almost married her husband, Oscar Meyer.
Tales from the Old South[]
Blanche tells the ladies about a relationship with the star quarterback at her high school, whom all the major colleges were vying for. Blanche worried that him going to Notre Dame would affect their relationship with "all those priests skulking around campus", but her boyfriend revealed that he was going to go to a small college about five miles away. When Blanche asked him why, he proposed to her and slipped a ring on her finger. However, Blanche rejected him -- not because she didn't want to stand in the way of his potential football career, but because the ring was a cheap piece of glass. The quarterback was so crushed by her rejection that he gave up football and turned gay. When Dorothy remarks that it isn't possible for someone to be "turned" gay, Blanche says that if he was gay while they dated, he would've had better taste in jewelry.
Cast[]
- Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
- Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
- Betty White as Rose Nylund
- Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo
Guest Stars[]
- Chick Vennera as Pepe
- Alfred Dennis as Charley
- Pamela Kosh as Woman
- Victor Contreras as Gonzales
Notes[]
Production[]
- The loft where Pepe practices violin with Charley is the same set used in "Bedtime Story" where the ladies try to catch a train back to Miami but end up meeting a group of clowns. The major difference is that the loft is basically the train station set without all the props except for a piano.[2]
- Chick Vennera would later return to the series in "Rose Fights Back" as Enrique Mas.[3]
- While Sophia helps Pepe train for the fight, she turns up the volume of a recording of what later turns out to be Pepe playing the violin.
- Sophia says that Pepe's acting career will be nothing but playing characters getting arrested on cop shows. For Chick Vennera, who plays Pepe, this is only partially true. Before appearing on The Golden Girls, Vennera appeared as characters on Baretta, The Blue Knight, Vega$, T.J. Hooker, and once as a mugger on Night Court. After his guest appearances on The Golden Girls, he appeared as a one-time character on L.A. Heat. However, contrary to Sophia's prediction about Pepe, Vennera's thirty-five-year career is a diverse portfolio of film, television, and video game roles.
Cultural references[]
- The title is taken from the 1964 Broadway play Fiddler on the Roof. Incidentally, Bea Arthur was in the original cast of Fiddler.
Goofs[]
- When the girls discuss the CD at dinner, the bread basket disappears from Rose's hands between shots.
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References[]
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 4, Episode 18, “Fiddler on the Ropes”. Speer, Kathy and Grossman, Terry (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (March 4th, 1989)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 17, “Bedtime Story”. Fanaro, Barry; Grossman, Terry; Nathan, Mort and Speer, Kathy (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (February 7th, 1987)
- ↑ The Golden Girls, Season 5, Episode 5, “Love Under The Big Top”. Vaczy, Richard and Gamble, Tracy (writers) & Hughes, Terry (director) (October 28th, 1989)