Thursday, April 30, 2009
TV Bea Arthur: Like Sarah Jessica Parker But Not Awful
Posted by Mike Conklin on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 9:31 AM
I’m still not completely into the swing of this whole TV blogging thing, which is why I failed to realize it was even my job to write about Golden Girl Bea Arthur’s passing over the weekend. There’s an excellent piece by Troy Patterson over at Slate today, examining Arthur’s role in a show that has seen its popularity resurge in recent years. One paragraph sums it up nicely:
Which brings us to Dorothy Zbornak, who, despite having been raised by Sophia, speaks in the Catskills cracks and vaudeville cadences of Jewish humor. Either Dorothy is intended as a generically ethnic New Yorker or else she picked this up during her decades of marriage to ex-husband Stanley. Significantly, while the other three girls are widows, Dorothy is a divorcee. Her lines are the most bitter and world-weary. She exudes the strongest scent of desperation about dying alone.
Or, basically, she was just like everyone else in this city, no matter their age. And just like all the people in towns across the country who always had a hunch they'd be better off here.
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