"The Golden Palace" Season 1, Episode 2. My Take

FYI: "The Golden Palace" is the magical unicorn that was born after Dorothy left the other three "Golden Girls." (But you already knew that). It's hard to believe that it only lasted one season, but maybe after changing nights and networks no one could find it. I found it. I remember it. Some of us will never forget.

Anyway, "Golden Palace" replaced Dorothy with Don Cheadle, Cheech Marin, and a kid with a New Yawk accent. Imagine if Jerry left and George, Elaine, and Kramer opened their own "Top of the Muffin To You!" franchise. Imagine if Dunder Mifflin's Jim, Dwight, Kevin, and Phyllis opened their own Kinko's style copy store. Imagine if Carrie and Big moved to Paris, leaving Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte, and Stanford to run an internet fashion blog. "The Golden Palace" is like that, but better- because it happened.

Episode 2 (of only 24) saw Blanche clashing with Don Cheadle over how to run the hotel. It also saw Bobcat Goldthwait guest-starring as a crazy killer who'd booked a room at the Palace. Meanwhile, Rose showed everyone that she may be from St. Olaf, but can still come up with hotel-saving ideas.

This episode also showed us that midnight talks in the kitchen still happen at the hotel.
But that's not all . . .

Also while Cheech was talking to Rose there was a marijuana-pot reference that took me so long to get. Then I was like, "Oh! Because it's CHEECH!" 

Finally, this episode taught us that the original Girls are still a family- and now that family includes a Mexican chef, a handsome young black man, and his foster child. 

It also begged the question: How many seasons would it have taken for Blanche to sleep with Don Cheadle? (If they didn't this season- I didn't want to ruin re-watching them on youtube by reading the wikipedia episode descriptions. But let's say they probably didn't do it in year one). 

Final Fun Fact: The crazy killer (Bobcat) turned out not to be a crazy killer after all, but a psychiatrist whom, while on TV, recommended The Golden Palace as a place to stay for weary murderers.