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Designing Women S5 E7 - Mary Jo and the Runaways

Updated: Nov 30, 2023

Our ladies get houseguests – and a glimpse into their future – when Mary Jo’s childhood teacher and her cantankerous friend run away from their slightly scary nursing home. Now: is this one pure shenanigans, or is the show giving us something truly deeper to consider?


Come back Thursday for an all-new “Extra Sugar” inspired by Olivia’s brief modeling career. (Big Hint: we’re talking about child models + Nikki surprises Salina with a Grits Blitz, so play along!)


Come on y’all, let’s get into it!


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Transcript

Salina: Hey, Nikki.

Nikki: Hey, Salina.

Salina: Hello, everyone.

Salina: I mean, y'all.

Salina: Hey, y'all.

Salina: Welcome to Sweet Tea & TV.

Salina: Yeah, that.

Salina: So we're back.

Nikki: We are.

Salina: Episode seven, season five.

Salina: But before we hop in, I feel like I owe you and maybe everyone else an update on a recent trip.

Salina: I did.

Nikki: You definitely owe me.

Nikki: I think the listeners will probably see some things on social media, but I want to hear about this trip because it's been a couple of weeks since we recorded.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So everyone who is following us will definitely see a couple of videos.

Salina: So it was Casey and my 11th anniversary.

Salina: So last weekend we decided to keep it local.

Salina: And we went to.

Salina: Well, sort of.

Salina: And we went to Tennessee.

Salina: So we went to the Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Dollywood.

Nikki: Best time of year for all of it.

Salina: So I can't speak highly enough to how gorgeous.

Salina: Going through the Smoky Mountain National park or whatever it is.

Salina: I mean, the leaves, the mist, the smoke, the mountain.

Salina: The mountains, like, the sky, the grass.

Salina: Yeah, just everything.

Salina: We saw an elk.

Nikki: Oh, I didn't even know those.

Salina: That's what I said.

Nikki: And I'm sure you weren't accidentally in Alaska, right?

Salina: And I was like, we kept it local.

Salina: We were on the North Pole.

Salina: It was a little snowier than we were mean.

Salina: It's the biggest antlers I've ever seen.

Salina: The only other thing I could think that it was, and everyone had pulled over.

Salina: That's how he is really good at spotting other people, spotting things.

Salina: It's how we found sloth when we were in Costa Rica, which are incredibly hard to spot in the wild because they move so slowly and they blend in.

Salina: Incidentally, Casey is quite sloth like anyways, but he moves that b*** when it comes to seeing a substantial animal.

Salina: So he, like, swerves off of the road when he see, he's like, nope, there's an animal.

Salina: Anyways, I've never seen antlers like this crazy in the South.

Salina: So I was like, is this thing lost?

Salina: It was out there, like, rubbing its antlers on a tree.

Salina: I guess they were getting itchy or something.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: There's something to that.

Salina: They were losing them, right?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I think they like, I'm a very.

Nikki: Bad biologist, but there's something to it.

Salina: And then they mate or something.

Nikki: I don't think that's right.

Salina: I'm not a zoologist.

Nikki: What do you want for me, elk aside?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So I will just real quickly, because we said we weren't going to do.

Nikki: This anymore, blah, blah.

Nikki: We're not usually, but I got to.

Salina: Hear this is very Southern, right?

Salina: We're staunchly in our Southern Ness right now.

Nikki: So I met a person recently from Illinois or Michigan, and we were talking.

Nikki: This is her first fall in the South.

Nikki: And so she was telling me that she's amazed at the leaf colors.

Nikki: She was like, gosh, I've just never seen anything like this.

Nikki: It's sort of like green and then nothing.

Nikki: I guess, where she is from, either Illinois or Michigan or possibly Alaska, I'm not sure.

Nikki: But she said it's just green or nothing.

Nikki: And so she was really excited.

Nikki: And I was like, man, you have to drive up to the great Smoky Mountains or at least like, a little bit further north and see the leaves.

Nikki: And I told her, I was like, you still have.

Nikki: This was like a week and a half ago or two weeks ago.

Nikki: I was like, you still have a couple weeks for it.

Nikki: It's not over yet.

Nikki: There's time.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And mean, it takes like, somewhere between three and 4 hours to drive up there.

Salina: And what I told.

Salina: I looked at Casey when we were on the road, and I was like, I would do this just for fun, like on a Sunday.

Salina: Just drive up here just to see this.

Nikki: Yeah, of course.

Salina: That worth it?

Nikki: Oh, that's amazing.

Salina: I don't really think being in the car is worth anything.

Salina: I hate being in the car so much, but the views are just unbelievable.

Salina: So I guess the other things I'll just say about pigeon Forge area severe.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: It is a weird place.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: There's just no getting around it.

Salina: It's weird.

Salina: It's like kitsch times twelve, but in the best way, where I'm like, I don't know why this is happening.

Salina: Because they have all this stuff for tourists.

Salina: Let me be very clear.

Salina: I don't know why it's happening.

Salina: And I love it because it's so weird.

Salina: I'm like, there's a pancake house on every corner.

Salina: I look up, they've got like a wax museum there, which we did go to.

Salina: I was like, we got to.

Salina: I got to go to this thing.

Salina: And as part of that little area, there's other things over there where they basically have some sort of King Kong representation where he's climbing up one of the buildings.

Salina: It's huge.

Salina: When you are driving in on the main road there, you see all that.

Salina: So King Kong with the Smoky Mountains in the background.

Salina: And underneath it is a cracker barrel sign.

Salina: And I'm like, this is just.

Salina: I can't ask for anything.

Nikki: Like, they have that house that's upside down because it's the Upside down museum.

Nikki: They have the Titanic Museum.

Salina: It's actually a really fantastic museum.

Nikki: They have all of those things in Panama City.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: All of those things in Myrtle Beach.

Nikki: All of those things in Pigeon Forge.

Nikki: So they're just like these big milestones of places where if you want to do any of those sightseeing things, go.

Salina: To those three Ripley owns now and Ripley's.

Salina: There is more in the Gatlinburg area, but we're talking, I don't know, 2 seconds later, I'm in Severeville, and then I'm in.

Salina: Don't.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: It's all very confusing.

Salina: Yeah, it's confusing for the outsiders like me.

Salina: But I also just have to say very quickly that all the food was really delicious.

Salina: I'm going to tear up.

Nikki: Oh, no.

Salina: I told you I had the best biscuit I've ever had while I was there.

Salina: It was like a dinner roll.

Salina: Met a biscuit and made me the happiest person alive.

Nikki: Now, you didn't tell me that you put it on Instagram.

Salina: I did.

Nikki: With a video.

Salina: Well, I needed you to see of it.

Nikki: Yeah, while I was sitting at home with nothing.

Salina: I'm so sorry.

Nikki: But I also was in tears.

Nikki: Biscuitless tears.

Salina: Well, then I have to tell you that from that same place, I also had the best cinnamon roll.

Salina: I mean, good for you.

Salina: I know.

Nikki: Good.

Salina: Did you want to hear about this, or did you not want to hear about this?

Nikki: Yes and no.

Nikki: Can't it be both?

Nikki: So the best biscuit and the best cinnamon roll?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And that's from Five Oaks Farm kitchen, y'all.

Salina: So if you're up there and you're like, where do we eat?

Salina: I'm telling you Right now, you need to go to Five Oaks farm kitchen.

Nikki: What made the cinnamon roll special?

Salina: Okay, so you know how most have, like, a cream cheese icing on top?

Nikki: I do.

Salina: And I like cream cheese icing.

Salina: Don't get me wrong.

Nikki: Exactly.

Salina: It's not my favorite.

Salina: It gets to be too much.

Nikki: It's not.

Salina: That's not what the icing was.

Salina: It was kind of like the best whipped cream I've ever had, but more on the frosting side, but light.

Salina: It must have just been like a homemade whipped cream with, like, one more thing in it.

Salina: But it was.

Salina: Oh, my God.

Salina: It was also, incidentally, like, they're like, yeah, here's your cinnamon roll.

Salina: They bring the cinnamon roll out.

Salina: I looked at Casey, I said, you do realize that you and I are currently eating a pan of cinnamon rolls, just the two of us.

Salina: This is a pan of cinnamon rolls.

Nikki: And he said, yes.

Nikki: We're doing it as a team, like we have for eleven years of marriage.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: This is.

Salina: Marriage is about bills and biscuits.

Salina: Occasionally those bills are broken up with delicious biscuits.

Salina: And you take that biscuit with both hands, because, let me tell you, the bills don't stop.

Salina: And that is marriage.

Salina: Yeah, the biscuits might.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I hope not.

Salina: So anyway, so that was fantastic.

Salina: And then let me just get to want.

Salina: And I will say this in my video, too, because I think it's very important that we are honest, and I think both you and I feel very strongly about that.

Salina: Dollywood is pricey, so there's just no getting around it.

Salina: I'm talking about Disney World Pricey.

Nikki: We've looked at it and we're like, oh, there's Disney for this?

Salina: Let me tell you, it is like rustic Disney World.

Salina: Kind of.

Nikki: Is it?

Salina: I mean, I have to say that once, and this will be in my video, too, once you step inside, you know why you just paid so much.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: That's what I wanted to know.

Nikki: So, like, I love Six Flags.

Salina: Yes.

Nikki: Love Six Flags.

Nikki: I just paid $29 a person to have a season pass for a year for everyone in my family.

Salina: And you kind of know why, right?

Nikki: And I know why as soon as.

Salina: You step through the door.

Nikki: Exactly.

Nikki: It's great.

Nikki: I love all the rides.

Nikki: TherE's not a ton of.

Nikki: Except frightfest.

Nikki: There's not a ton of, like, whatever you just rides and nothing.

Nikki: Disney is immersive.

Nikki: It's like, you go and everything is top tier.

Nikki: So I'm really glad to hear you say that.

Nikki: Dollywood is the same.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I can put it at this.

Salina: I can't sit here and say that there's, like, an Epcot situation going on there.

Salina: And if you've been to Epcot, you know that you basically get like, well, it's like a lab created version of the world, but it's still really cool.

Salina: And probably nothing you'll ever see, except for maybe in Vegas, which is also.

Salina: Everything is created in a lab.

Salina: If you didn't know everything, every single thing, including all the drugs, that's exactly what I think.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And so what I will say is, okay, you walk in and you already know it's pristinely clean.

Salina: This also speaks to the fact that I'm 38, but it matters.

Salina: Everything is well kept when you go to Six Flags for interest, for example, I mean, this is no hit on them, but you look around, you're like.

Salina: It's like a little coat of paint, maybe some pressure washing.

Nikki: It's a little bit of a hit on them because there was wallpaper falling down in one of their new rides when we were there.

Nikki: That's just tacky.

Nikki: And then the bathrooms haven't been updated.

Nikki: There are at least two or three bathrooms that literally haven't been updated since the park was built in the 60s.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Oh, I'm glad you said that.

Salina: Bathrooms.

Salina: Clean.

Salina: Clean.

Salina: I mean, their bathrooms and bathrooms don't smell wonderfully.

Salina: They don't smell like Five Oaks farm.

Nikki: Kids favorite smell in the world, really.

Salina: But there was always someone there, like, aggressively cleaning.

Salina: That put me in the mind of, like, a situation.

Nikki: Ah.

Salina: All of the shops are like.

Salina: You are not talking about where you're walking in and getting Looney tunes gear.

Salina: I mean, there is, like, really nice stuff in these.

Salina: Gone.

Salina: I don't know how you're getting this stuff home.

Salina: That, for us, was, like, also, Casey was not having a shopping day at a theme park, but I could have legit gone around and gone shopping here.

Nikki: They have, like, cuckoo clocks and really nice dishes.

Nikki: I mean, heirloom thing.

Salina: It was like walking into a luxury boutique in some of the places, and then in other places, you go in, it was kind of like a country store.

Salina: So you go in, and there'd be, like, jellies and jams, and they're all Dollywood.

Salina: I don't know where they're made, and I didn't investigate that much.

Salina: But if you need apple butter, oh, you got some apple butter.

Salina: And if you need pumpkin butter, oh, we got pumpkin.

Salina: You got all the butters.

Salina: So all that stuff is available, too.

Salina: Of course.

Salina: The Dolly stuff is like, if you ever want to feel like maybe you have officially joined the cult of Dolly, it's definitely here, right?

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: I mean, it has her name on it.

Salina: The other thing I'll say is, the food is not your.

Salina: Again, I hate that I'm hitting on Six Flags here, but it's not like I've been to.

Salina: I haven't been to bush Garden, so I don't have a ton of theme parks to pull from here.

Salina: Disney also has elevated food, so we can't really.

Salina: There's hardly any comparison for Disney's food, to be honest.

Salina: Very expensive, but very good.

Salina: And I would say the same for here, incidentally, in my carb fest weekend, second best biscuit.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Pretzel.

Salina: This soft pretzel.

Nikki: Pretzel.

Salina: And beer.

Salina: Like this spicy beer.

Salina: Good.

Salina: They had Starbucks on site.

Salina: Again, not my favorite coffee place, but it will get you in a pinch.

Salina: I'm not saying that's not the upper echelons of coffee places, but that's dang nice to have in a theme park.

Nikki: They had one at Dollywood.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And they were serving, like, a pumpkiny cold brew kind of thing.

Nikki: That's nice.

Salina: All of the food was elevated, and it was all fall themed.

Salina: And then the other thing that I'll say, too, the displays.

Salina: Beautiful and so fun and just like.

Salina: And it's harvest fest or something like that.

Salina: Harvest night lights, illuminations.

Salina: I think it was probably better worded than that, but there must be 10,000 pumpkins there.

Nikki: Wow.

Salina: It's insane.

Salina: And it was just as fun and beautiful at night.

Salina: And the rides were good.

Nikki: Oh, good.

Salina: Some of the rides are actuaLly, because I told Casey before I got there, I said, I don't know what these rides are going to be like.

Salina: The truth is that they were on par with other theme parks, and then we were kind of looking it up in line, and some of them have been named in the top ten rides in the country.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: What I'm saying is, I don't know that a family of four could just do it on a regular basis, and I just want to be really honest about that.

Salina: But I also don't know what the season pass situation is, so I want to be honest.

Nikki: That's a good idea.

Salina: That.

Salina: So if you're in Tennessee, that might be a whole different thing.

Salina: There might be someone from Tennessee that's like, hold up.

Salina: You have no idea how easy this know, because there were a ton of people there, so obviously, people are making it happen.

Salina: So I don't want to step on those toes.

Salina: For me, as someone who is a penny pincher, I will say that I did not regret spending the money.

Nikki: That's good.

Nikki: That's good to hear.

Nikki: We've talked about Dollywood.

Nikki: We've talked about it, and every time we talk about it, we look at the prices and we're like, I don't know, man.

Nikki: Because I think I have Six Flags in my head.

Nikki: Love Six Flags.

Nikki: I have an obscene love for Six Flags.

Nikki: But I'm not trying to pay $600 for our family to go to Six Flags.

Nikki: It's not worth that.

Salina: Right?

Nikki: And it's in our backyard.

Nikki: So it's like, why would I do that?

Nikki: Disney.

Nikki: You're in, like, the thousands to go to Disney for just a couple of days.

Nikki: But it is an immersive experience it is.

Salina: There's no getting around the fact they do a good job.

Nikki: I have been to Dollywood as a.

Nikki: It's okay.

Salina: I didn't know that.

Nikki: It must not have been super expensive back then, is what I will say.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: My grandparents took us one time.

Nikki: My grandparents loved Severeville and Pigeon Forge.

Nikki: I think my grandma still would go there all the time if she could drive comfortably.

Salina: I also love it there.

Salina: I am just such a sucker for that area.

Salina: One of my favorite things in the world is, like, anywhere where I can see a stream with a lot of rocks in it.

Nikki: Oh, that's it.

Nikki: I thought you were going to stay with a cracker barrel next door.

Salina: Well, that would be great, but I'm just that easy.

Salina: It is my scene.

Nikki: I like the Severeville portion and the outer parts of Gatlinburg.

Nikki: I think the pigeon Forge downtown Gatlinburg stuff gets a little overwhelming for me, but the mountains and the rustic sort of stuff, I really like.

Nikki: Yeah, I have a feeling I would really like Dolly's place.

Nikki: Like her house.

Nikki: So if she ever wanted to invite.

Salina: Well, you know, she ever wanted to, I'm sure that'll be on her.

Salina: So, anyways, do you have any questions for me about it?

Salina: Anything I didn't cover that you've.

Nikki: I think we'll probably talk about it off air because I do have logistical questions, but I don't know that I'll bore everyone else.

Nikki: But I appreciate you sharing about that because I really wanted to hear.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So, y'all, if you're looking for something to do and Tennessee is accessible for, like, that is a really nice, long weekend situation.

Nikki: I was going to say Dollywood or not.

Nikki: It's worth going for a long.

Salina: Know.

Salina: I was getting squirrely about those prices.

Salina: I was.

Salina: Could I could spend that money somehow.

Salina: I wasn't going to save it.

Salina: I was just going to spend it on more biscuits.

Nikki: Right?

Salina: Sure.

Salina: And I was assured by Casey, like, you know, you want to go to Dollywood, let's just do it.

Salina: So I'm so glad, you know, like I said, we'll share those videos and then you can make a decision for yourself.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Well, there's no good transition.

Nikki: I could have transitioned a couple minutes ago by talking about my grandparents because they were old.

Nikki: Yeah, but I don't know.

Nikki: Here we are.

Nikki: This is designing women season five, episode seven Old Rebels and young models.

Nikki: Mary Jo harbors a favorite teacher from her childhood who has escaped from a nursing home while Charlene tries to make Olivia a child star.

Nikki: Air date November 5 19.

Nikki: Oh, my gosh.

Nikki: I am looking at this.

Nikki: Today is November 4.

Nikki: Salina.

Salina: Oh, look at that.

Nikki: Holy Moly.

Salina: So close.

Nikki: Air Date November 5, 1990 we're calling this one Mary Joe and the Runaways, and it was written by De La Duke and Mark Alton Brown and Directed by Iris Dugout.

Nikki: So we got a couple tidbits, tid bits from designing women online.

Nikki: Meg Wiley, who played Miss Crown in this episode, previously appeared as one of the ladies, fellow campers in the wilderness experience.

Nikki: And Donna Hardy, who played Miss Crown's annoying friend, will appear in a later episode.

Nikki: I'll see you in court as an acquaintance of Bernice.

Nikki: And then I have one more addition to this list.

Nikki: Lorna Scott, who played the nurse in the nursing home who was trying to put the hat on Miss Uley.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Miss Ratchet.

Nikki: Yes.

Nikki: She's been in all the things.

Nikki: Oh, she was in 17 again, playing a secretary.

Nikki: She was in Bad Santa.

Nikki: She was in true Blood.

Nikki: Most recently, she had a role in this is us.

Nikki: She had, like, a lot of character roles over the years.

Nikki: So you've probably seen her some.

Salina: Well, I've seen all those things you just named.

Nikki: 17 again is one of my favorite movies.

Nikki: I love that movie so much now.

Salina: I just got sad.

Nikki: I know.

Nikki: I'm sorry.

Salina: Yeah, we'll just get past it.

Salina: I mean, not sorry.

Salina: Rip Matthew Perry.

Nikki: I know.

Salina: It's sad.

Nikki: It's really sad.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: General reactions.

Salina: Not laughing at that.

Salina: Just laughing at the fact that sometimes.

Nikki: It just felt like you're in h***.

Salina: General reactions.

Nikki: General reactions.

Nikki: What you got?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So cars on the table.

Salina: I was kind of dreading prepping for this one because I thought this episode was a little bit of a throwaway on the first time, but I actually really enjoyed it on Rewatch.

Salina: I just want to take you all through the emotional train that is my life.

Salina: I can share a little bit more on that if you want.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So I think there was some good lessons in this one, honestly.

Nikki: Oh, tell me more.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So this line really sat with me.

Salina: If you don't like where you are, then find a way to change it.

Salina: Only you know what you want, and only you will be unhappy if you don't get it.

Salina: And that is what Mary Jo parrots back to Miss Uley when she goes and visits her in the nursing home.

Salina: I thought this one also explored the idea of adults often putting down their passions because they start to consider them childish or they just run out of time.

Salina: It's all about the things that we have to do.

Salina: And now I say this as someone who is transparently struggling with the same thing all the time in my own personal life and almost on a daily basis, but I can also recognize that that's a lousy way to live your life.

Salina: So I think even though this is a sitcom, it's definitely one of those ones that was like I was having a lot of.

Salina: I don't know if they were personal breakthroughs or breakdowns, but it hit me in a certain way.

Salina: And just like that mentality has been passed down to us.

Salina: We didn't just come up with that out of thin air.

Salina: And I just want to say, like, we've all been sold a bag of goods.

Salina: That's all.

Nikki: I think we've talked about before, how thinking about our parents and how they're living life for the first time.

Nikki: So in some ways, you need to give them a bit of a pass.

Nikki: But I think Miss Ule sort of shows that.

Nikki: But there is some wisdom to be shared and there is life that they've lived and how when you get to that age, you can look back at life differently, I think, than we see it living in it.

Nikki: I also, though, have to say that that lesson that foster your passions and live your own life.

Nikki: Such a great idea.

Nikki: So this is wonderful, really is.

Nikki: But there's also guilt.

Nikki: Well, there's also guilt associated with that, because now what am I supposed to do?

Nikki: Feel guilty that I don't have time to paint?

Nikki: Feel guilty that I don't have time to pull out my violin and play it, or that I choose not to use this time?

Nikki: This time you can't see it listening, but this tiny little bit of time.

Salina: That I have to do that, I'm going to go ahead and tack on something that hit me when I was.

Salina: Because I rewatched all the episodes this morning to prep.

Salina: And one thing that hit me was, I don't think they were even doing this on purpose.

Salina: But all of these women are mothers, and I think it says something really important about motherhood through this.

Salina: Like, you see Charlene just, like, putting all her energy into Olivia and making it all about Olivia.

Salina: And I'm not saying there's Necessarily anything wrong with that, but that's where her passion lies.

Salina: Now then, Mary Jo has put down the sketchbook because her life is so busy and because she has children, and she does use that as the pinpoint.

Salina: Like, I haven't touched my sketchbook since what's her face was born.

Salina: I should remember her name, but it's just right out the door, not my child.

Salina: And then Claudia, Claudia, Claudia.

Salina: And then Miss Hulali has been shipped there by her own daughter.

Salina: So I just was thinking about it today, and I was like, I mean, moms just really have it tough.

Salina: I'm gonna look you right in the eyes when I say that.

Nikki: I think Mary Jo also, though, we haven't gotten to this episode yet, but I think she also has a little bit of a stick to itiveness problem.

Nikki: She talks about her garage being full of a bunch of half followed hobies.

Salina: You're ruining it.

Nikki: I think she uses her children as her excuse, but I don't think she follows through.

Nikki: But I do.

Nikki: I think that's important, and I think that's part of it.

Nikki: But I feel like it almost turns into this thing where we're not supposed to.

Nikki: You're not supposed to do anything, but we're made to feel a little bit guilty.

Salina: Oh, yeah, you're right.

Salina: It doesn't matter what you do.

Salina: If you are a woman, we are going to make you feel guilty.

Salina: Yeah, that's what you're saying.

Nikki: Life in general.

Salina: It is.

Nikki: And I do think that there's some lesson in there being seasons in life.

Nikki: So Charlene's dealing with a very specific season in parenting that's going to be a little bit different than Mary Jo's.

Nikki: Mary Jo's hit a crusting point almost with her kids where she's becoming like a get out.

Nikki: There's a term for it people are using.

Nikki: There's a term people are using for it now, and I can't remember it right off the top of my head, but it's this phase where you no longer have kids that need 100% of your energy or even, like, 80% of your energy.

Nikki: Like, even the youngest one, whose name I'm blanking on now, Clint, he's at an age now where he doesn't need as much from her.

Nikki: So she can now foster that sort of thing for herself, but she hasn't fully processed it yet, so it's really helpful to have Miss Ule come in at this point and give her that little.

Salina: I think.

Salina: So I'll just go ahead and say that.

Salina: Another thing that I thought about in this one, and I don't know if they were doing it on purpose.

Salina: I think there is some purpose to it in other ways.

Salina: I think maybe I was just doing, like, an unnecessarily deep read, because that's what I do.

Salina: But we do get, like you said, these different parts of life.

Salina: And it's very clear, like, I'm going to go from Olivia's angle here, right.

Salina: She's just a baby.

Salina: She's being carted around by Charlene to, I'm saying auditions.

Salina: But I guess there was really just know.

Salina: Charlene's pouring so much energy into something Olivia won't even remember.

Salina: I think this is pretty indicative of American culture because we really invest in put.

Salina: That's what we put on a pedestal.

Salina: That's where we kind of focus in on.

Salina: Like, maybe if you get them young, you can get them on the right path.

Salina: And I'm not saying that's good or bad.

Salina: I'm just saying it is where we are.

Salina: In my mind, on the opposite side, we have Miss Ulee and Miss Chesley, which is, I keep wanting to say Chelsea.

Salina: That is the hardest name for me to say.

Nikki: I just call her Miss Ulee's friend.

Salina: Miss Uley's friend.

Salina: But they're both trying to assert their own independence in what is likely their third act.

Salina: She said she's 85.

Salina: I think they're dealing with that phase of life where people begin treating you like a child because you're old, which honestly feels like my personal h***.

Salina: I think that actually scares me.

Salina: And then it had me thinking a lot in this one.

Nikki: But does it mean people take care of your tasks?

Nikki: Like, is somebody going to take care of my bills and my grocery shopping and feed me?

Salina: You're going to feed me?

Salina: Yeah, that's probably what that means.

Salina: Because I was thinking about how ghastly we treat old people in this country, and I'm literally terrified about getting old.

Salina: I'm, like, slowly squirreling away money so maybe I can live.

Salina: And then in the middle is kind of like our age.

Salina: I wouldn'T call it middle aged, but someone might.

Nikki: Someone who's desperately wrong.

Salina: Yeah, in theory, we're kind of at the perfect age, and so is Mary Jo.

Salina: We're still able bodied.

Salina: Our frontal lobes are fully developed.

Salina: We probably have more disposable income than we did at, like, 20.

Salina: And yet we have to be on guard because aside from what you're saying about which you are very much accurate about this, that we make women feel guilty for absolutely everything at all times of the day, we're so good at it.

Salina: But this other thing that is, this is for anyone.

Salina: You get to this period in life and you're tired and you're just kind of like muscle memory, just trying to get through the day, and you're letting life run you instead of running your life.

Salina: And I do mean the general you.

Salina: I'm not looking at you.

Nikki: That's the alternative, though, man.

Salina: But it's like a cautionary tale is almost the way that I started to view this one.

Nikki: But like a cautionary tale, you can't avoid.

Salina: The car crash is happening.

Salina: I'm in it.

Salina: It's like, I'd rather not have the caution.

Salina: Yeah, I'm here.

Salina: I'm dropping the vase.

Salina: I see the vase going down.

Salina: I can't catch the vase.

Salina: I'm under it.

Salina: I'm running.

Salina: I'm sliding.

Salina: I somehow hurt myself.

Salina: The vase still drops.

Salina: It still breaks and shatters everywhere.

Salina: I didn't say I have a fix.

Salina: I said at the top.

Salina: Sometimes it feels like we're in h***.

Salina: I don't know what to do about that.

Salina: If anyone has any advice, please DM us.

Nikki: I think the advice is to sit in the good stuff.

Nikki: So, like, you being at Dollywood, you got to do that.

Salina: Absolutely.

Nikki: Because of the hamster wheel, you got to do that.

Salina: What they actually teach you now is we're learning more about the brain, and that's kind of where the idea of stand in the mirror and say good things to yourself kind of comes from.

Salina: But is this idea that our brains are sort of built, and maybe this has to do with the fact that we used to be trying to outrun lions or something, but our brains are sort of built around this idea of negative.

Salina: We tend to fly towards the negative.

Salina: So you almost have to crystallize for yourself and live in that moment and just let it sink in.

Salina: And you have to practice that.

Salina: You have to work that muscle the same way that you would work a muscle in exercise.

Salina: We solved it anyways.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: Those were all my general reactions.

Salina: I was all over the place.

Nikki: I think the only one I would add is just the general reaction of, like, why has it not registered for these women yet that when it comes to beauty pageants or beauty pageant like situations, just listen to Suzanne.

Nikki: The woman knows what she's talking about.

Salina: Let me tell you.

Salina: I am not lying when I say we need to do a.

Salina: Suzanne says, yeah, that's true.

Nikki: That's true.

Salina: And we could answer things.

Salina: We will put our Suzanne hats on our pageant crowns, if you will, and we can respond to when listeners need advice.

Nikki: Yeah, she's full of really good advice.

Nikki: And I will say, we have built this narrative around the character in the show that there's not a lot she knows a lot about, but pageants and pageant like situations are unequivocally, again, going just.

Nikki: And I'm not articulating this well, going just by what the show has told us about Suzanne, I think she's wise.

Nikki: I think she has wisdom.

Nikki: What the show wants us to believe, right.

Nikki: What the show wants us to believe is that pageants and men is all she knows.

Nikki: Just listen to her.

Nikki: Come on, Charlene.

Nikki: Do you want Olivia to win this thing or no?

Salina: It's applicative, right?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Those things are applicative to other parts of life.

Salina: And that's what we see Suzanne bring to, especially in these last couple of seasons.

Salina: It's just over and over and over again.

Salina: She is sitting at the end and saying, I told you so.

Salina: Now, is that because she's also having problems with the showrunner?

Salina: And they're like, we're going to stick you into the end saying, I told.

Nikki: You, I told you so.

Salina: Maybe.

Salina: Either way, she's still stealing every scene she's in.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: So are we ready to move to strays?

Salina: I think we were already there, but, yeah, let's do it.

Nikki: My first stray is a fashion note.

Salina: Oh, love it.

Nikki: It's about Charlene's, like, super 90s short suit at the bEginning.

Salina: God, I had that same thought this morning.

Nikki: It's like, kind of like a slate gray, maybe, with a light blue shirt under it.

Salina: It's a mullet for a business wear.

Nikki: Yes, that's right.

Nikki: There's a long blazer on top and shorts on the bottom.

Salina: Coming back into style, then back in style.

Nikki: So that's part of why I'm bringing it up, because it looks fresh, but it also, to me, looks 90s because this is something I am sure I saw in my lifetime, definitely.

Nikki: So she looks great.

Nikki: It didn't escape my attention.

Salina: She also wears in this one, this long.

Salina: Trying to watch this show not in HD reminds me I actually really do care about HD because sometimes it's really hard to see the details of the clothing.

Salina: But she comes in, I think it's after the audition, and it's either a long emerald colored coat or it might be more of like a teal color.

Salina: It's hard to tell, but it's long and beautiful.

Salina: And then she's wearing the similar color underneath.

Salina: And gosh, there was a lot of jewel tones in the last couple string of episodes.

Salina: And, man, just every single one of those ladies just wear those colors really well.

Nikki: Something about cresting into the.

Nikki: This may just be a testament to my age and my generation.

Nikki: They just are so elevated, so elevated.

Salina: Better man.

Nikki: I also found a couple of cut lines, but I really liked this one because it went into depth about who each character would be when they get old, and also gave a bit of a glimmer of hope for Miss Ulali.

Nikki: So this is the scene at the end after Miss Ulali went back to the nursing home.

Nikki: So Mary Jo says, yeah, you and Julia will probably just be two proper Southern sisters living together in the old family house.

Nikki: But they cut this part, and when you're 102, Suzanne will still think she's hot stuff because she'll only be 90.

Nikki: I think, Anthony, it must be, says, well, I'll probably be one of those dapper old gentlemen fighting off the voracious widow women.

Nikki: Or maybe I'll be married.

Nikki: One of those old guys standing around the mall holding my wife's purse.

Nikki: What do you think you'll be like, Mary Jo?

Nikki: I hope I'll be like Miss Uley.

Nikki: You know, she's teaching a painting class at the home now.

Nikki: They thought she was going to be doing little ladylike pictures of wildflowers.

Nikki: Of course, she's scandalizing them by painting a 25 foot mural of bloody childbirth.

Nikki: So I liked that cut line in particular.

Salina: Well, I can thread that because I.

Nikki: Was hoping you'd be able to.

Salina: It's funny because in my strays, I got that from the cut line.

Salina: I got a timeline issue, which is they're twelve years apart according to Mary story, Suzanne and Julia.

Salina: And another one, they've been 14.

Salina: In another episode, they've made them seem almost the exact same age.

Salina: And I'm not going to go through me sitting there on a chalkboard breakdown of this, but the timelines with Mary Jo and Miss Ulali don't exactly add up.

Salina: They're somewhere between five and ten years off, I think.

Salina: But you know what?

Salina: That doesn't really matter.

Salina: But this is stray observations, and I couldn't help myself.

Nikki: Between Mary Jo and Miss Ulali.

Salina: Well, really just about Mary Jo, the way that she frames it, she would have to be more like in her early to mid.

Salina: You go on.

Salina: If you kind of piece together the timelines over the.

Salina: She kind of tells her relationship to Miss Uley and she drops some timeline hints.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: But she's really more like our age, Mary Jo.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Which is not early to mid 40s.

Salina: That's correct.

Salina: We are not there yet.

Salina: We will be early 30s, basically excited about it, but we will be there.

Salina: And then my other stray observation was just.

Salina: It's more of an idea that I kind of think it would be amazing to see this episode from Miss Ule and Miss Chesley's perspective.

Salina: Because I think, know, we're seeing our gals perspectives, but what if it's our gals that are so.

Salina: You know, I see it as they have this harrowing adventure, barely escaping the nursing home, only to have to first deal with the incredibly angry and mean Suzanne.

Salina: And then as they split off, what we don't see is, like, because when I'm listening to Julia's story, when she drops her off at the end, the lady cleaned her bathroom.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: She Said her mop stink, but she cleaned her bathroom.

Salina: And so I just think you could really play a lot with what we hear from reception and turn it around.

Salina: Also, Miss Ule got an offer to stay at Mary Joe's and chose nurse Ratchet.

Salina: So I think Quint was terrorizing her, and we never saw it.

Nikki: That's a great point.

Nikki: As someone who's had their bathroom cleaned by a family member, though, not the best.

Nikki: It doesn't feel good.

Nikki: It doesn't feel good.

Salina: Does it not feel good?

Salina: Or was the job not up to feel?

Nikki: That one didn't feel good.

Nikki: That one hurt because it was the bathroom we never used.

Nikki: And I was young.

Nikki: It just hadn't been cleaned in a while, and I felt like I got.

Salina: Oh, they just kind of came in and did it for you.

Nikki: I feel like I got a little put in my place in my own home.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I mean, I think that your adults, who will always be your adults, even when we're so very firmly an adult, have a way of coming in and being like, paint in the corner.

Nikki: I hate that so much.

Salina: Yeah, well, my mom used to inspect houses.

Salina: You know me.

Salina: I want you to intensify that I do have the ability to look at something and be like, that's wrong.

Nikki: I'm starting to get to the age where I'll walk into my parents house and point things out because payback and.

Salina: How it's fair play or something.

Salina: Did you have any other strays?

Salina: How about things that you liked?

Nikki: Oh, boy.

Nikki: Almost all of the things that I liked are favorite.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I just feel like there were so many good things in here.

Nikki: So one, the baby wig subplot, just like in general, was so freaking.

Nikki: Was just so funny.

Nikki: When Suzanne pulled it out of the bag and Charlene said, is that one of Consuela's shrunken heads?

Nikki: I laughed out loud at that line every single time.

Salina: Oh, that's funny.

Salina: Yeah, I think I missed that.

Nikki: Oh, I laughed every time.

Nikki: Anthony's story about terrifying his teacher with Elijah's double jointedness.

Nikki: But then, especially the part at the end where he's like, of course, I did not hear the beginning of this discussion.

Nikki: It's entirely possible that story does not fit with what we were talking about.

Salina: Well, also, if anyone deserves to come in and say some random things, it's Anthony.

Nikki: Missy Leylie, it's your birthday.

Nikki: Why didn't you tell us?

Nikki: And she said, I've had 85 of them.

Nikki: Believe me, the thrill is gone.

Nikki: And then the last one that I'll say is Suzanne's line, well, excuse me.

Nikki: This is a place of business, not a pit stop on the over the hill Underground Railroad.

Salina: It's hilarious.

Salina: So I also like Suzanne.

Salina: She chimes in on the conversation where they're all talking about their favorite teachers and who influenced them, and she gives a shout out to the lady who taught her how to line her lips.

Nikki: Very important skill is important.

Nikki: As someone who doesn't know how to line my lips, very important skill.

Salina: Oh, no.

Salina: That was one.

Salina: That was a lesson in my household.

Nikki: I don't wear lipstick.

Salina: That was a lesson.

Nikki: I never do matter.

Nikki: I never wear it.

Salina: Yeah, I don't either anymore.

Nikki: Well, I don't think my mom really wore.

Nikki: I mean, she might put a lip on every now and then, but I don't know that she was a huge lipstick person.

Nikki: My mom had other makeup things that she was really firm about, but lipstick was just a conversation we never had.

Salina: Oh, yeah, actually.

Salina: So my mom would go into Meryl Norman.

Salina: This is Southern, so it's related.

Salina: Meryl Norman is the quintessential Southern Makeup company in my mind, until someone tells me that came out of North California.

Nikki: I think of Mary Kay because my grandmother was a Mary Kay lady, and my grandmother's just all Southern all the way through.

Nikki: But I do think Meryl Norman is Southern, for sure.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And they used to have their own storefront, like at Southlake Mall, where we used to go all the.

Salina: My.

Salina: This is crazy.

Salina: And it's the same thing for one of my good friends, Kelly, too.

Salina: Her mom and my grandma and mom all had the same makeup lady at Meryl Norman.

Salina: I crap you not.

Salina: It's generational.

Salina: So her name was Jean.

Salina: And first my grandma went to her, Kelly's mom, my mom, and then me.

Salina: And I would never do this, but my mom was sitting there and talked to her for hours when she went to buy makeup.

Salina: This was a very cruel thing to do to a child.

Salina: And I taught myself how to line my lips one day.

Salina: Just sitting there out of pure boredom.

Salina: And I remember that it was one of the nicest things that.

Salina: My mom said a lot of nice things to me.

Salina: But at nine years old, when my mom said, good job, you did an excellent job lining your lips, I said, thank you.

Salina: So what I'm saying is I can.

Nikki: Relate with Suzanne because you were the makeup lady who taught yourself.

Salina: Are we back in straits?

Nikki: I don't know where we are.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: We're just.

Salina: I had some other lines that really stood out for me.

Salina: I loved it when Julia stood up to Nurse Ratchet.

Nikki: Oh, yeah.

Salina: And called herself the birthday fairy.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I thought that was really great.

Salina: She needed that.

Salina: She needed to hear that.

Salina: And that lady was scary.

Salina: She snapped the elastic.

Nikki: She did.

Nikki: She knew what she was doing.

Salina: I didn't like that.

Salina: The other one that I really liked was everything with Miss Chelsea Chesley.

Salina: I knew it was going to happen.

Salina: Every single thing.

Salina: She's so grumpy.

Salina: I love it.

Salina: I really like grumpy people because I feel like I'm grumpy.

Salina: I try to shine it up a little bit with some humor so that people don't want me to evaporate into thin air.

Salina: They probably still do, but I try, but I really enjoy a grump.

Salina: And she was like, prime grumpy people.

Salina: Her and Suzanne fighting over that seat on the couch.

Salina: Charlene's facial reaction, which I literally think I've done before, when uncomfortable things are happening around me.

Salina: Like, you put your hand on your face and you're like, oh, my God.

Nikki: Can't even look at it.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Asking if Charlene is on medication after she goes on.

Salina: That's what we're all thinking.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I love Charlene, but we're all like, what is happening?

Salina: So your Prozac is good.

Salina: Asking if Olivia's baby wig is a dead rodent.

Salina: And then her evening with Julia, retold by Julia.

Salina: I will share that one, which she says Mary Jo asked her if something went wrong, and she said many things happened.

Salina: During the course of the evening, Mrs.

Salina: Chesley consumed a full bottle of wine, whereupon she spat obscenities at the cast of Jake and the Fat Man.

Salina: Then she insisted my bathroom was not clean enough, proceeded to do something about it, and told me my mop smelled.

Salina: What?

Salina: She said my floor mop stank, and she wouldn't stand for it.

Salina: So I decided one of us had to go.

Salina: My name's on the mortgage.

Salina: There wasn't much choice.

Nikki: Many things happened.

Nikki: That was one of my favorites.

Salina: Wonderful.

Salina: That was my last.

Nikki: Like, yeah, I think you touched on my last one, which was just the physical humor between Suzanne and Miss Chesley on the sofa is top notch.

Nikki: It was just top notch.

Nikki: So in terms of things we didn't like, I will say the only thing I would maybe change about this episode was actually the pairing of this baby wig thing and the Charlene thing with the plot about the older ladies.

Nikki: I get the whole something old, something new pairing, but I just feel it was too on the nose.

Nikki: A little bit of a confusing mashup, actually.

Nikki: And I really felt like the Olivia modeling thing probably could have been its own thing, given how in it Charlene was.

Nikki: I feel like maybe that could have been a whole other episode.

Nikki: That was my only dislike.

Salina: I had none.

Nikki: Oh, do we have a five out of five coming up?

Salina: Well, you might think so.

Salina: Are you ready to rate this sucker?

Nikki: I am.

Salina: What you got?

Nikki: My rating scale was requisite.

Nikki: Baby wigs.

Nikki: Love it.

Nikki: I gave it a four out of five.

Nikki: I really liked watching this episode.

Nikki: I really liked the pieces about the baby modeling.

Nikki: But like I said, that pairing of the two plots was a sticking point for me, so I couldn't give it quite a five.

Nikki: Sure.

Nikki: But it was a four.

Nikki: It was a solid rewatch, which is, I think, how I'm starting to rate these things.

Salina: Well, fair enough.

Salina: So I went with 4.5 out of five pit stops on the over the hill Underground Railroad.

Salina: I like that line, too.

Salina: I thought this one felt different.

Salina: It was like a nice blend of shenanigans with the runaway plot, but it also had heart lessons for all ages.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: It was weirdly a thinker for me, and I know I don't have any dislikes.

Salina: I actually just bumped it up to a 4.5 before you said, we have five coming before that.

Salina: I couldn't in good conscience rate that a five when I didn't think it was as good as some of the fives I've already rated.

Salina: So it's a little bit of a nuanced rating this time, but it's all subjective.

Nikki: It's subjective to our own personal experience.

Salina: Well, Miss Chesley is a five out of five for.

Nikki: Such a crouch.

Salina: Just a grumpy, grump person.

Nikki: At least we know where she stands.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: There's no confusion.

Salina: There's no confusion.

Salina: And that is a little refreshing.

Salina: I'm not saying I want her to come stay at the house.

Nikki: Sure.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: I'm just saying if I'm watching her on TV, we're good.

Salina: Want to talk about some 90s things?

Nikki: Sure.

Nikki: So there were two pop culture references from Charlene, Connie Chung and Maury Povich, which just feel very ninety s to me.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Are they married?

Salina: Why did I do that now?

Salina: I meant to look it up and I forgot.

Salina: I really went ham into some of these references, but that wasn't one I looked up.

Salina: While Nikki is low key trying to Google that over there, I also have both of them on my list.

Salina: But Jake and the fat man being a rerun on TV feels very of the 90s.

Nikki: Yes, they're married.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: And then Miss Chesley says something that really kind of stuck with me, which is like a TV with a remote, as if that was like a special thing.

Nikki: It was.

Salina: You can have as many remotes as you like now.

Salina: You can have 25 remotes if you want.

Salina: She would love it now.

Nikki: She'd love it on Jake and the Fat Man.

Nikki: I just wanted to say that was a CBS show as well.

Nikki: Little plug and plug diagnosis Murder, which is another show.

Nikki: I've never seen either of these shows, but diagnosis murder is one.

Nikki: I remember, and it was a spinoff of Jake and the Fat Man.

Salina: Oh, I didn't know that.

Salina: I mean, I know D*** Van D*** was on it.

Salina: It was on for a really long time.

Salina: I watched it.

Nikki: Mildly related, but do you think we would ever have a TV show with this name?

Nikki: I thought this murder or Jake and the Fat Man.

Salina: I think that's very unlikely.

Nikki: I've heard of this show before.

Nikki: I think they might have.

Nikki: I feel like maybe we've even had a reference on designing women before, but I might be wrong, but I've never looked into it because I kind of thought it was like a throwaway reference or something.

Nikki: This is a legit show.

Nikki: It was on the air for Five seasons.

Salina: Yeah, I think I've seen it.

Nikki: And it's a crime drama sort of thing.

Salina: I don't remember it, but I don't remember individual episodes.

Salina: But the show was a big deal.

Nikki: I saw a picture of the Fat man, the main character, the guy who played him.

Nikki: And I know that guy.

Nikki: So I must have seen an episode at some point.

Nikki: But that is not at all what I would have.

Nikki: I would not have told you a show called Jake and the Fat man was going to be an American crime drama show.

Salina: That's fair.

Salina: It wasn't like a nick at night thing, you know what I'm saying?

Salina: So I think it was harder to catch reruns.

Salina: And that is how I got, like.

Salina: That's how I went through my I Love Lucy Phase and D*** Van D***.

Salina: And that's how I got all of those older shows kind of in my repertoire.

Nikki: Well, Jake and the Fat man ran at the same time.

Nikki: Designing women did.

Nikki: So at the time, we would have been able to really absorb any of that.

Nikki: It would have been like a four to five, five to 06:00 p.m..

Nikki: Rerun.

Nikki: Like before all the 08:00 p.m.

Nikki: Shows started.

Nikki: I was never watching TV from four to five, five to six.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: And I certainly wasn't watching CBS.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: No offense, CBS.

Salina: Always skewed a little.

Nikki: Not 13 year old.

Salina: Let's see.

Salina: Did I have anything else?

Salina: 90s things.

Nikki: Anything else?

Nikki: No more on ninety S.

Nikki: Like, where am I?

Nikki: Who am I?

Salina: I had scrolled down and got confused.

Salina: Southern things.

Nikki: Just Mary Jo getting letters from her mom with the town news in it.

Nikki: I couldn't decide 90s, aka dated or southern.

Nikki: But since it was chock full of both, bad news that she probably ought to have delivered by phone and also a healthy dose of guilt.

Nikki: It felt Southern to me.

Nikki: And then Suzanne said, that's a fine how do you do.

Nikki: She says that a lot, but it's Southern.

Salina: Yes, I caught that one this morning.

Salina: Julia says, miss Ulee is a pistol.

Salina: Just calling someone a gun, just.

Nikki: AK 47.

Salina: That's a real pistol.

Salina: It's not a pistol.

Salina: It's not a pistol.

Salina: I know that Much about guns.

Salina: The phrase through a hissy fit also came from Suzanne, which feels Southern to me.

Salina: That was my last one.

Salina: How about references that we need to talk about?

Nikki: Well, since you said you went ham on some of these, I'm going to guess I missed some.

Nikki: But I would say Glenn Ford was one.

Nikki: So that's who Suzanne said she told the lady in line at the store her baby looked like.

Nikki: Right.

Nikki: I had no idea who Glenn Ford was.

Salina: An attractive man.

Nikki: I didn't get it.

Nikki: His Wikipedia said that he was a Canadian American actor who lived from 1916 to 2006.

Nikki: When I have a thought about what you just said, it registered a second late.

Nikki: Wikipedia says he often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances.

Nikki: He was most prominent during Hollywood's golden age as one of the biggest box office draws during the career lasted more than 50 years to what you just said.

Nikki: He could have been the most handsome man in the world.

Nikki: But I'm not sure anybody wants their baby to be compared to someone who lived through the Hollywood's golden age.

Salina: And they might have been like a little girl.

Nikki: That's correct.

Nikki: I assumed it was a little girl.

Nikki: I assumed it probably was a princess who just got compared to a man who was most popular during the 40s.

Salina: Well, you know who else was popular during the 40s?

Salina: Vivian Lee.

Salina: And if someone told me that I look like Vivian Lee, I would be very happy with that.

Salina: I'm just saying.

Salina: I'll just tack on.

Salina: I thought it was funny that he was referenced in an episode that also references Superman because he played Pa Kent.

Salina: That's like his adopted parents in the 1978 movie.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: I just wonder if they did that on purpose or not.

Salina: It's just weird.

Salina: Other references for you.

Salina: Did you.

Nikki: No more.

Salina: Okay, so Tahiti.

Salina: And just.

Salina: I just have to share this.

Salina: So Gogan's an artist.

Salina: He was on a self imposed exile in Tahiti.

Salina: Oh, how brave.

Salina: How brave of you.

Salina: That's all.

Salina: I'm not going to go into Gogan.

Nikki: It is brave if you're very close with your family.

Nikki: And he's French, right?

Salina: Yeah, it was a different time.

Nikki: Tahiti probably during that time was largely undeveloped.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: Probably lived in undeveloped paradise.

Salina: Poor guy.

Nikki: Poor guy.

Nikki: Hope he made it through a lot of coconut milk.

Nikki: A lot of tummy aches.

Salina: Well, for some of us.

Salina: So we get a few different Marlon Brando references.

Salina: One is about his island in French Polynesia.

Salina: So I just needed to know.

Salina: That is true.

Salina: He bought Teddy Aro.

Salina: Teddyaro.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I can't say it.

Salina: Anyways, he bought an island, and in French Polynesian, it means to stand apart.

Salina: And he bought it in 1966 for $270,000.

Nikki: Oh, my gosh.

Nikki: A whole island?

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I thought you were trying to say Teddy Roosevelt.

Salina: Teddy had an island.

Salina: Teddy Aroa.

Salina: Teddy Aroa.

Salina: You would see it and be like, oh, yeah.

Nikki: I'm sure I wouldn't.

Salina: No, because it's like, okay.

Salina: But anyway, so he purchased this island, I guess, after he fell in love with his co star in a movie he did called Mutiny the Bounty or something.

Salina: And she was born on Bora Bora, so I don't really quite understand the connection, unless he was just trying to get an island nearby.

Salina: But that happened, and then it sounds like his family maintained some kind of relationship with the island, and they even set up, like, a nonprofit to protect the area.

Salina: We'll link to an article if you want to learn more, because I understand it.

Salina: It sounds like this is a place that celebrities and people with deep pockets can continue to go today, I'm sure.

Salina: How much did Marlon Brando make on Superman?

Salina: So I needed to know that, too.

Salina: It sounds like this was a big deal at the time.

Salina: So in the 70s, when Variety first reported on it, it was just an unprecedented salary and no one really knew.

Salina: Eventually it comes out that he was paid 3.7 million and what is apparently an amazing back end of eleven point 75% for 13 days work and less than 20 minutes on screen.

Salina: I will say when you look at that time period, that's when you're like, oh, that's a lot of money because we live in the era of people.

Nikki: Big stallion.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: $20 million.

Salina: So you're like, 3 million, 4 million.

Salina: That's not even that much.

Salina: But for that amount of screen time, it is.

Salina: And again, we are in the Mid to late 70s when this.

Nikki: If you didn't have to hustle so much to build a career, to make yourself influential enough that you can demand $3 million, that'd be a pretty sweet side hustle.

Nikki: Acting and showing up for a $3 million paycheck.

Nikki: It's all the work before it.

Nikki: I guess that's the catch.

Salina: I can't think of the numbers right now, but I've seen before just how much people to be in background actors get paid, and I'm like, I wish I'd been able to do that in school or something.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I also watched his interview with Connie Chung because I just needed to know.

Salina: I was like, is it really that bad?

Salina: I say cautiously, because Connie Chung is a real human, but I can see how viewers thought that she came off as a little flighty during the, you know, just thinking about Brando.

Salina: I mean, we are talking like, he is arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, actors that we've ever had.

Salina: So he's well known, you know what I'm saying?

Salina: There's not a lot of mystery to him.

Salina: As I understand it.

Salina: He is both someone who was very passionate when they were alive, but also very difficult.

Salina: So that's what I saw in this interview more than a few times.

Salina: And he was, like, unnecessarily aggressive at points, condescending at times.

Salina: I honestly felt bad for her, where straight up, I would have been a couple of times, like, you're not going to talk to me like that.

Salina: It blew me away that she was able to.

Salina: So people can say what they wanted to say about her, but the fact that she was able to keep her composure when she asked a question, he was like, you're p****** me off right now.

Nikki: I'm so sorry.

Salina: I would be like, you seem so angry.

Nikki: Tell me about that.

Salina: You need to chill out.

Nikki: So extra.

Salina: And there's other points where his words were humble, but his demeanor was really arrogant.

Salina: It was like an incredibly uncomfortable watch.

Nikki: Perfect.

Nikki: I'm glad you got to watch it.

Salina: We're going to link to it if you guys want to watch it, too.

Salina: The only other thing that really stood out to me that kind of breaks my brain a little bit is while he acted like that, he's also like, when you listen to the things he's saying, he was impressively progressive.

Salina: It sounds like he was like one of the first actor activists.

Salina: And, I mean, I know some of this, but he marched for civil rights and he was really big into American Indian rights when he was alive.

Salina: He even donated his salary from a movie he did in 1989 to antiaparte to an anti apartheid charity.

Salina: So I don't know.

Salina: He's a really interesting person is all.

Salina: I went into my own personal deep dive.

Nikki: It's fascinating because the takeaway from that interview was that Connie Chung looked like a ditz, not that he looked like an ahole.

Nikki: And that's interesting to me.

Salina: I think that's a 1990 lens maybe, versus a 2023 lens, but that's how I felt about it.

Salina: He also, I'm pretty sure he referenced the Jim twins.

Salina: Really?

Salina: I'm almost sure he did.

Nikki: When he said Jim Twins, I wish he had.

Salina: He talked about twins like they had the same pet name and they didn't grow up near each other.

Salina: And I was like talking about the Jim twins.

Nikki: I bet the gym twins thought, I understand because he didn't listen to that episode.

Salina: That's not true.

Salina: I read it all to him.

Salina: Gotcha.

Salina: Can you just imagine the thrill it would be being married to me?

Salina: All right, that's all I got.

Nikki: Swear.

Nikki: So next episode, season five, episode eight, nowhere to run to.

Nikki: We'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage.

Salina: Why that grammar?

Salina: Why the two?

Salina: The two man bothered me, too.

Salina: Why is that?

Nikki: The first time I noticed that we'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage Instagram and Facebook at Sweet TeanTV TikTok at Sweet Tea TVPod.

Nikki: We're on YouTube at SweetTV 7371.

Nikki: Our email address is sweettvpod@gmail.com.

Nikki: And we love when we hear from you guys by email.

Nikki: So thank you for continuing to let us know what you're up to while you're listening to the show, what it makes you think of any of the feedback that you're offering.

Nikki: We really do appreciate it where you.

Salina: Are in the South.

Salina: Gotten a lot of that lately.

Salina: That's been really nice.

Nikki: That's true.

Nikki: Our website is ww sweettv.com.

Nikki: So if you want to watch a really awkward Connie Chung Marlon Brando interview, it's there for you.

Salina: I'm here for you.

Nikki: And on the website you can find a support us page so you can support the show.

Nikki: You can also just tell your family and friends about us or rate and review the podcast wherever you listen with a good rating if you don't mind, and then come back Thursday for extra Sugar.

Nikki: We're going to talk about celebrity child models.

Salina: I just blanked because, I'm sorry, I was multitasking in my head.

Salina: Did it look good?

Nikki: So Salina's going to do a grid splits and I think you just got a glimpse into what that's going to look like.

Salina: Silence on my part.

Salina: I'm like, I don't know.

Nikki: It'll be fun.

Salina: Can I do one more plug?

Salina: Yes.

Salina: I have not gotten the courage up or just don't think about it because I think it's so sweet when people reach out, and I truly mean it when I say that we are honored by you reaching out.

Salina: But one thing that I keep forgetting to say is if you're wondering what you can do, that rating and review will be super helpful.

Salina: So if you have taken the time to reach out and do that, then I assume that you would like to give us fives.

Salina: And we would love that.

Salina: Because the more that that happens, it may seem like this silly thing, but the more that happens, the more that other people can find us, too.

Salina: And I know that we've heard from more people than we currently have ratings and reviews from.

Salina: So just want to say we would be over the moon appreciative for that.

Nikki: Yeah, I think that's true.

Nikki: I am admittedly not a great leave a review sort of gal.

Nikki: If I'm leaving a review, it's either because I love something a lot or because I hate something and anything in the between.

Nikki: Like something that I buy on Amazon that I really like, but not so much that it's changed my life.

Nikki: I never leave a review, but I read all the reviews and that's how I find what I'm going to buy is when people have left a yeah, it's not a fun thing to do, but it is really easy.

Salina: Right?

Nikki: And I'm going to commit to doing better about that.

Salina: Yeah, it's not like we're going to be mad if you don't.

Salina: It's more like we would just really love it if you did, you know what I'm saying?

Nikki: Or else we just have to stop making the podcast.

Salina: There you go, guys.

Nikki: Do without what you will think of us, please.

Salina: And thank you.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Thank you for reaching out because honestly that's cooler than the rating and reviews directly.

Nikki: I love when people message.

Salina: They always come at these times where I'm like having a bad day and it's always really nice, so I don't want to downgrade that.

Salina: That's actually the coolest thing.

Salina: Unfortunately, Apple Podcast hasn't really picked up on that yet.

Nikki: Well, I'm just going to start copying.

Salina: And pasting our algorithm.

Nikki: I'm going to start copying and pasting into a review.

Nikki: Yeah, can I do that?

Nikki: Comments people email us.

Nikki: Yeah, it'd be easier if you all would do it though.

Salina: All right, so we made that awkward.

Salina: Love you.

Salina: Well, you know what that means.

Nikki: What does it mean?

Salina: Well, it means one, we've done our.

Nikki: Job and two, we've guilted everybody unpaid job.

Salina: And two, it means that we will see you around the bend.

Salina: Bye.



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