It's a Miserable Life was the fourth episode of Season 2 of The Golden Girls TV series, also the 29th overall series episode. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Barry Fanaro, it originally aired on NBC-TV on November 1, 1986.
Summary
The girls band together for a good cause to preserve a 200-year-old oak tree in the neighborhood to their local City Hall, but the owner of the tree, Frieda Claxton is extremely mean and hateful and wants the tree cut down despite the neighborhood wanting it saved. Rose tells her to drop dead, and she does! The girls decide to have a funeral for her, since she had no friends and relatives, but she got cremated instead!
Guest Cast
- Nan Martin as Frieda Claxton
- Thom Sharp as Mr. Pfeiffer
- Amzie Strickland as Lady at Funeral
- Johnny Haymer as Commissioner
Quotes
Rose: Mrs. Claxton, think about what you're doing. That beautiful old tree is 200 years old. How can you hate a living thing?
Mrs. Claxton: I hate you.
Rose: That's it! I have had all I'm gonna take from you! Now if you don't have the common decency to treat people like human beings, well then I'm sure as hell not gonna waste my time kissing your fanny! Now if you don't like it Mrs. Claxton, you just sit there and shut up while we have our say! And if you don't like it, just drop dead! Go on, Dorothy.
As Rose goes to return to her seat, Mrs Claxton keels over and falls to the floor.
Dorothy: What happened?
Sophia: You know when you told her to drop dead?
Rose: Yes.
Sophia: I think she did
Notes
- The outside of the Mortuary sign is the same one used in the show Will and Grace, where Grace visits a dear friend who she thought was dead.
- The background shot during the closing credits features the four ladies in the funeral home looking on at Mr. Pfeiffer, who's off-screen.
- Nan Martin would later appear again in Season Four's, 100th episode, Foreign Exchange as Philomena Bosco.
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