Blind Ambitions (S1E23)

Synopsis: Rose's blind sister Lily comes to visit, almost burns the house down, and asks Rose to move in with her; the girls decide to have a garage sale.

80s Flashback

Rose: “Would you be interested in going to an outdoor concert tonight?”

Lily: “Oh, you couldn't drag me out of this house tonight. St. Elsewhere's on. That's my favorite program. I never miss it.”

Crazy Continuity

Mr. Longfellow is Rose's loving childhood teddy bear, but in Season Two, Mr. Longfellow seems to be replaced by Fernando as her childhood family heirloom.

Zbornak Zingers

Rose: “I forgot to kiss you two goodbye.”

Blanche: “Goodbye.”

Dorothy: “Come on now, come on now. Get out of here. You come back more times than Shirley MacLaine.”

Insult Watch

Blanche: “Let's have a garage sale.”

Rose: Well, can we get in trouble having a garage sale? I mean we're not actually selling a garage.”

Sophia: “If it's a choice between the two of them, let the blind one make change.”

Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Stanley

Dorothy: "What's the use of having a garage sale, if we can't part with anything."

Young man: "How much for this hockey stick?"

Dorothy: "Eleven hundred dollars."

Blanche: "Dorothy!"

Dorothy: "This isnt an ordinary hockey stick. Bobby Hull used this. This is a piece of history."

Tales from the Old South

Blanche: “Oh, I just love barbecues. We used to have the most wonderful ones back home. I can remember sitting out under a big old tree with the Darcy triplets: Hank, Beau and Dove. Eating and talking and laughing. And then along towards the end of the meal, why, the boys always got into a fight over who was going to get to lick the barbecue sauce from my fingertips and kiss away the little droplet of butter that always drizzled down my chin…. Has it gotten awful hot out here??”

And later Blanche tells a story about “guilt;” she worked as a riveter during the Korean war and possibly had an affair with Andrew Beandorf while George was fighting in the war.

Product Placement

Garage sale customer, bargaining with Sophia: “I'll give you a dollar fifty.”

Sophia: “What does this look like, Baghdad? Get the hell out of here!”

Dorothy: “Ma, that's no way to sell things! Hey, go to Neiman Marcus sometime, see if they treat you any better.”

Man: "I'll give you a dollar for these Elvis Presley salt and pepper shakers."

Blanche: "A dollar?? I will have you know the day I bought these salt and pepper shakers at the Graceland gift shop, I thought I saw the King himself walk by, eating a giant chili cheeseburger and drinking a 36-ounce Dr. Pepper. Turned out it was an impersonator, but these are still very special mementos. And parting with them is an extremely painful sacrifice on my part."

Man: "A dollar and a quarter."

Blanche: "A dollar and a quarter!? Sir if that is the kind of respect you have for genuine Elvis memorabilia then I kindly suggest you hand these over and remove yourself from my property!"

Sassy Sophia

Rose: “Gee, those steaks smell good.”

Sophia: “What do you know, Rose? You thought you could go out in the ocean and catch fish sticks.”

Rose: “Oh, Sophia, I want to explain about last night. When I was a little girl, one summer we had a terrible thunderstorm...”  

Sophia: “Excuse me, Rose, have I given you any indication at all that I care??”

Back in St. Olaf

Lily: “During the summer, our father would take the whole family on camping trips into the wilderness.

Of course, it wasn't really the wilderness. He'd drive in circles for about twenty minutes and then end up in the woods just beyond the barn. It was years before all the kids caught on to Dad's trick.”

Rose: “What do you mean, 'just beyond the barn?'”

Best of B.E.D.

Rose: “Did you know that my sister Lily still holds the record at our high school for the 100-yard dash? She served three terms on the city council, and she was the first woman in St. Olaf's to ever have a pilot's license.”

Blanche: “Oh, really? Well, we have something in common, Lily. I was the first woman in my hometown ever to have a pilot!”

Reel References

Rose: “You went to Woodstock?”

Blanche: “Well, actually it was the movie, but afterwards we did go home and make love in the mud!”
Dorothy: “I guess the 60s were a confusing time for all of us, Blanche.”

Golden Quotes

Dorothy: “Listen, Mom, we cannot afford a new TV. We're using the household money to repair the roof and repave the driveway.”

Sophia: “Great, and what am I supposed to do while every other old lady on the block is watching Cosby?”

Dorothy: “You can sit in the new driveway and hope that an amusing black family drops by.”

Critique: Does anyone else find it disturbing when Dorothy calls Sophia “Mom” and not "Ma?" Boy these early episodes really mess with my head. At least St. Olaf is finally a thing. Everyone has their opinions about certain members of the girls' family. Lily is the first time we meet one of Rose's siblings and even though she's blind she's not one of the most well-liked of relatives we've met. There's a lot of overly dramatic moments here that seem to fill out the first season of the show. Though there are some decent moments and good lines of dialogue. If Lily looks familiar, she was the lady who gets thrown out the window in “Gremlins” and had a bit part in “Mrs. Doubtfire” as well. GRADE: B