Article: The Golden Girls: our reality in a humorous context

You can view the page at http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/content.php?308-The-Golden-Girls-our-reality

 

the arrogance of doctors, treating people as numbers, friends who supposedly know how you feel, ... but also GOOD people

 

Wow. Started out humerous, pretty powerful at the end

 

WOW, I love this!

 

I'd heard of it - never seen it - very powerful.....Thanks for digging it up

 

Funniest line. I'm paraphrasing, probably:

"It's a real disease. You can check with the CDC..."

 

yes, that line was funny! great job posting this. i had not seen this clip, but had long heard it existed.

 

What makes me sad that it was year 1989, and now, 21 years later, people are reliving it over and over again.
The illness is very well described (I remember myself how hard it was to wash the hair), so good work for the screenwriters, who have consulted someone ill with me/cfs.

 

Lucy, that was exactly my feelings. I thought it was beautifully done, but it made me so sad, because Dorothy's experience continues...it was so similar to my fairly recent (3.5 years) diagnosis. How can so little progress have happened - even progress in belief and understanding (never mind treatment options)?

 

Thanks so much Frank for posting the video. I never knew Golden Girls did a storyline on CFS. It really is very sad that it was 1989 and progress has been so mininal. Pathetic.

I especially appreciate it today because I have had a frustrating week of people telling me I should be able to cure myself with:

1. Mind over matter-"All healing comes from within"
2. Fasting
3. Strutured Water
4. Wheat Grass

So to have a validation of my experience was really nice.
Thanks again!

 

very nice! (the only error was that people do die from this disease)

It made me literally laugh out loud

 

Thanks for posting. I may watch it over and over today. :In bed:

 

Wow - ty for posting this.

 

Thanks for posting this Frank it's delightful. Only too recognisable. Marvellous script and much laughter here.

 

Thanks for posting this Frank it's delightful. Only too recognisable. Marvellous script and much laughter here.

It very well would be funny if I weren't literally dying from it. Somehow I just can't get in the spirit of laughing when I know how sick many people are, and how little our Public Health System has done... to the point that WE ARE DYING .

 

No I agree - it will not be humerous for those still severely ill. It reflected my own beginnings 11 years ago (not humerous then) but slowly as one regains some more functioning some humour returns.

 

No I agree - it will not be humerous for those still severely ill. It reflected my own beginnings 11 years ago (not humerous then) but slowly as one regains some more functioning some humour returns.

sorry, i didn't mean for this to go down a negative road, or devolve into a horrid kind of debate that sometimes happens. The Golden Girls is a humorous program, and I have enjoyed it a lot over the years. It's my understanding that one of their foremost writers had ME/CFS and so the story lines occasionally went in that direction ; Still maintained humor around it all, because it's a comedy program...that's what they did.

i am very happy that you have somewhat of a functioning life, "regained" as you said. very fortunate indeed, as most often people go into a steady decline as the disease progresses. many become severely impacted ,as you probably know, by participating here on the forum. and we are dying, from the failures and complications that come with having this disease. the lack of help from our trusted Federal health overseers has turned me into a cynic who doesn't laugh a whole lot anymore, due to what i see going on all around me while the CDC roadblocks everything for some mysterious reasons. It's just that my own ability to laugh has been beaten down by over 25 years of pain.

however, it's wonderful that others can still see the humor. genuinely, i do mean that.

 

Susan Harris, who was the creator and head writer of "The Golden Girls" among several other hit TV shows in the 80s, has chronic fatigue syndrome; the CFS storyline was based directly on her own experiences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Harris

 

Many thanks to Susan Harris for turning on the humour. Wish I had Dorothy's Mum when visiting my own Doctors/Specialists - Spot on !

 

5150-please don't apologise. ME is getting there now and any anger at the past/often present ignorance is totally understandable. Hope you are receiving the very best for your pain from Doctors - Gabapentin for me - and spend time on your own pleasures.