The Golden Girls : Did Charlie Nylund have any redeeming qualities?

We know that he was boring, because Rose said they always talked about doing fun stuff but never did, in the episode where she guilts Miles into skydiving.

We know he was terrible with money and didn't make all that much to begin with because he left Rose basically destitute without his pension and didn't leave any money in his will to his kids.

We know he was unambitious because, according to Wikia, he was fired to giving up too often at his insurance sales job.

We know he was dumber than a box of rocks based on pretty much every story Rose ever told of him.

It's never mentioned if he fought in WWII as nearly every able-bodied man between 18-40 years old did. So he probably was a wuss.

So what did Rose see in him? I guess he was a nice person, but damn. Rose was an idiot.

He was a nice man and treated her well, maybe not with material things but he did what he could.
Rose isn't exactly smart either.
He never cheated on her that we know of.
They had so much sex she didn't know what I Love Lucy was.ok that's cause he was too "freakin frugal" to buy a tv (not perfected yet)
But they still had a lot of sex (or maybe that would just make him selfish too especially since it took her years to find out why your eyes rolll back in your head)

Plus look at her other choices Buzz and Thor Anderson..maybe old Charles was the pick of the crop in St Olaf lol

Don't forget about Mr. Terrific. (yeesh, he was the worst.)

I love Rose but I'm sorry every time I see that episode where she claims she and Charlie had sex every night of their marriage (except once) I think that's got to be the most BS thing she's ever said. I know it's supposed to be a joke but c'mon, get real, Rose.

Don't forget the first house he bought her was a burning building. It was warm and toasty. Three bedrooms, two baths. Then two bedrooms, one bath. Eventually they outgrew the place.

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It's never mentioned if he fought in WWII as nearly every able-bodied man between 18-40 years old did. So he probably was a wuss.

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I don't think he was old enough for WWII (1939-1945). He and Rose were said to be around the same age, and though Betty White (b. 1922) was in her early twenties during the latter phase of the war, Rose is supposed to be a decade younger. Several times they mentioned her being fiftysomething throughout the run of the show (1985-1992), which means Rose was born 1930-1932, and so was Charlie. He was mature for Korea, though (1950-1953).

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There is that scene of Rose's first birthday after Charlie died where she tells his "spirit" that she's selling the house and moving to Florida.
That scene takes place in a large, well-appointed kitchen.
So Charlie was probably making a damn good salary, especially since Rose never worked outside the home throughout their marriage.

He had broad shoulders and a bull would be jealous of his privates according to Rose. She also said he was very kind to his customers. And they made love every night and every morning for 18 years until he fell asleep early one night. Sounds like the ideal man to me!
Dini

We know he was in the army at least because Buddy Rourke showed up claiming to have been stationed with him.

Didn't Charlie cheat on Rose once, leading her to deny him sex for a spell?

A photograph led Rose to believe that Charlie cheated on her with Blanche, but it proved to be a double exposure.
Something that doesn't happen with smart phones, I think.

I recall that episode, but I'm sure in another Rose implies that Charlie slept with a farmer's daughter when he was travelling and got stuck out in a snowstorm. I think she said she eventually forgave him because the farmer had told him the only place Charlie could sleep was with his daughter.

I don't remember that story, but knowing Rose, she probably meant "sleep" in the literal sense, like they just slept. lol

My memory could be playing me false, but I seem to remember that the joke was that Charlie was told by the farmer the only place he could sleep was with his daughter, and Charlie (being a St Olafian) took "sleep with" to mean "have sex with" and so that's what he did - or else he made that ridiculous excuse to Rose, who, also being a St Olafian, accepted it and forgave him.

I remember it being an off-colour gag, because it pretty much ruined the Rose-Charlie relationship by having him actually have cheated on her, and all for the sake of a gag.

Yes, you're correct. There was an episode where she admitted he cheated on her

What episode was it?

I'd like to know too. It may be the one where Blanche finds out George had a son she never knew about. Seems like Rose fessed up about Charlie to console Blanche.

Dini

Yes it's in "An Illegitimate Concern". This scene is frequently edited out on Hallmark and TVLand. Rose states that she had lied earlier and that Charlie did cheat on her and told her he had to sleep in the bed of a farmer's daughter because he couldn't find his way home (even though he was only two blocks away from their own house). And that she was so humiliated, she didn't "make strudel" with Charlie for a year.

Yet another example of Charlie being a loser.

You guys have obviously never heard of "The Farmer's Daughter" joke (alternately titled "The Traveling Salesman"), which is usually set up, as follows:

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A traveling salesman is driving through the mountains. The country is desolate, its getting dark, and suddenly the salesman's car breaks down.

The salesman sees a farm in the distance. He makes his way up the overgrown path up to the house and knocks on the door.

The door is opened by a wizened old farmer.

Excuse me, says the salesman, but my car broke down. I wonder if I could spend the night here.

Okay, says the farmer. But were short of beds around here. Youll have to share the bed with my beautiful daughter

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And here's where the joke usually deviates, depending on who's telling it and how dirty they want it to be. One mild version ends thusly:

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The salesman agrees and as evening falls, he climbs into bed with the farmers daughter. She is, indeed, beautiful. About 20 years old, and with a figure that would do justice to a centerfold.

The farmers daughter places a pillow between herself and the salesman, explaining that shed promised her father that she would keep a pillow between the salesman and herself. Nothing happens during the night.

The next day, as the farmer is waiting for a mechanic to fix his car, he spots the farmers daughter feeding chickens on the other side of a fence. He walks over to the fence and thanks the daughter for her hospitality.

Oh, it was nothing, says the farmers daughter, smiling and throwing the salesman a wink.

The salesman smiles back and says hes got half a mind to climb over the fence and kiss her.

The farmers daughter says, Hey, if you cant climb over a pillow, how are you gonna climb over a fence?

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Anyway, Rose's set-up doesn't have a punchline because there wasn't one. The incident really did happen to Charlie, and he did sleep with the farmer's daughter, but only in the literal sense. Rose's problem wasn't that she assumed he'd had sex with her, but that he'd shared a bed with another woman, even if they were just sleeping for the night. Remember, this is a woman who shattered a coffee mug in her bare hand, because she assumed that Dorothy and Miles were literally baking cupcakes together ("If I catch Miles in my kitchen with another woman").

Furthermore, the joke makes another appearance two seasons later in "Questions & Answers" during Dorothy's dream or rather, nightmare. Empty Nest's Charley Dietz is also a contestant and is given the following clue:

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Loretta Young played an innocent milkmaid in this Oscar-winning 1947 movie.

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Charley correctly answers, "What is The Farmer's Daughter?" Dorothy gives him this look, as if to say, "How the hell do you know that?" 'Cause, you know, Charley is a sexist womanizer and not someone you would picture watching classic black-and-white films. Anyway, he tells her that he'd accidentally watched it, because he'd thought it was "a different kind of movie." In other words, the film's title reminded him of the old farmer's daughter jokes, so he assumed it was a porno he'd rented or bought.


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We know he was terrible with money and didn't make all that much to begin with because he left Rose basically destitute without his pension and didn't leave any money in his will to his kids.

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That always makes me wonder how she was then able to pack up and move all the way across the country to Miami. You would think that would cost a fortune. Although, in real life I've known people who were practically penniless and they did that. I'm not really sure how. One moved from Chicago to New Orleans, but it was to Algiers that is basically the ghetto, not fashionable Miami. However, even the cost of the trip down seems like it would be a few thousand dollars.

Do I drink because my dreams don't come true, or don't my dreams come true because I drink?

Rose sold her house and, I imagine, almost everything in it: furniture, appliances, and probably almost all her personal possessions in a yard sale in order to finance her move to Miami.
And since everybody in St. Olaf seemed to know her, I suppose they paid pretty well for her stuff.
And also, she had Charlie's pension at that time.

I think the move may have been difficult on her personally, but not financially.

Charlie was evidently quite well endowed.

There's some inconsistencies in the show. They probably owned their house free and clear which should have given Rose a nice nest egg.

All typos are hereby blamed on my iPad.

Just one thing Up until mid-way through the series, Rose *did* get Charlie's pension (meaning she received it for several years after his retirement and death).

As I recall, she was sitting on the living room couch when she read the letter saying the pension fund had gone bankrupt.

Not saying this makes him an A+ guy, just correcting one little detail.

I'd say Charlie had at least one redeeming quality:


Rose Nylund: [Talking about raising children] The hardest part for me was explaining to my Kirsten the difference between boys and girls. I knew the time had come but I kept putting it off. Finally I decided it was time to take the bull by the horns.
Blanche Devereaux: So you told her?
Rose Nylund: No - I took the bull by the horns, turned him around and showed her what makes a bull a bull.
Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak: You are kidding, Rose?
Rose Nylund: No! That's how my mother taught me.
Blanche Devereaux: Honey, didn't that give you a false impression about what a man would look like?
Rose Nylund: It sure did! Can you imagine my surprise on my wedding night with Charlie? Boy, that bull would have been jealous.

My impression is that he and Rose were this very naive, old school, midwestern suburban/"heartland America" stepford couple. A glossier, sillier, "blonder" version of Ward and June, with five or six equally corny kids. He probably didn't know what he was doing half of the time, but pretended that he didwhile Rose played along.

Has anyone else noticed that Charlie was the ONLY husband we never saw?
In "Blanche's Dream", George suddenly appeared and confessed to faking his own death.
Sal's ghost appeared periodically to confer with Sophia.
And we all know that Stan never stopped pestering Dorothy.

Sowhy no Charlie?

Charlie appeared on Golden Palace. Played by Eddie Albert.

Never watched GP.
But thanks, anyway.

That wasn't Charlie, though. Eddie Albert played a hotel guest with whom Rose becomes enamored because he resembled Charlie.

It kind of gives us the idea though. One person said "Picture Oliver Douglas (Green Acres) married to Sue Ann Nivens (Mary Tyler Moore)".

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We know that he was boring, because Rose said they always talked about doing fun stuff but never did, in the episode where she guilts Miles into skydiving.

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So what? He was wise enough to know skydiving is too risky.

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We know he was terrible with money and didn't make all that much to begin with because he left Rose basically destitute without his pension and didn't leave any money in his will to his kids.

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Where does it say he has to leave anything in his will to anyone?

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We know he was unambitious because, according to Wikia, he was fired to giving up too often at his insurance sales job.

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Hardly, a good salesman knows when to not waste time. He even sold "insurance" when he was a child.

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We know he was dumber than a box of rocks based on pretty much every story Rose ever told of him.

It's never mentioned if he fought in WWII as nearly every able-bodied man between 18-40 years old did. So he probably was a wuss.

So what did Rose see in him? I guess he was a nice person, but damn. Rose was an idiot.

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So what if he didn't fight in the war he didn't have to just because the "government" said he did.

We know he did fight in the war though because of the episode "Charlie's Buddy."

Charlie sucked. End of story.

That's your opinion, but you can't use that he didn't fight in a war to support said opinion when he clearly did.

Ooh! OUCH!!! Hope the guy is wearing a cup when he reads this!



Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.

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Did Charlie Nylund have any redeeming qualities?

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Apparently he could fly around the world like Superman.

How else can you explain how he was a salesman who traveled up and down the U.S., yet he and Rose never spent a night apart?

Again we know he fought in a war because of the episode "Charlie's Buddy."

fought as in drafted? srsly, nearly every man was drafted during that time. don't wanna go, too bad!


and he wasn't a dead beat. not by a longshot. I think that is what this thread is having a problem with redeeming qualities=/= deadbeat.

it looked like he provided a nice enough house, that kitchen was smashing. they seemed to have good and cute customs: the birthday person gets the rose on the cake. he was apparently a rabbit in the bedroom doing it all the time.

but talking about deadbeats what about George? he didn't leave any extra emergency money/insurance for the new roof!

srsly, my parents moved to Florida and two days before we arrived to move in there was a big [but expectable] storm. we were there for only a day when a neighbor stopped by with a roofing specialist coming by to check the damage. turns out, we did have damage although not terrible but we also were eligible for a completely new roof.



Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.

The episode doesn't say if he was drafted or not, or specify exactly which war he was in. Depending on the timelines (which is hard since time sort of floats on GG), Charlie could have fought in late WWII or Korea.

In general, it doesn't seem like Charlie was a deadbeat. He seemed to be a hard worker, even if Rose wasn't left independently wealthy after his death.

Flashbacks show a nice house, and Rose and Charlie seemed to have been economically between Blanche and Dorothy while married and raising children. They weren't wealthy enough for "staff" like Blanche and George were, but they didn't have the in and out of work problems of Dorothy and Stan either.

Rose and Charlie also had a lot of children who, even as adults who know about wealth, weren't aware that they were not rich.

To me, the post death and divorce finances seemed to come from the following:

Blanche: Simply spent George's money however she wanted in the short term.
Dorothy: Didn't have a lot of money from the marriage in the first place.
Rose: Had a modest amount of money left from savings and/or life insurance, most of went to pay for her transition from Minnesota to Florida.

He fought in the war, Charlie's Buddy. And he was hung better than a bull. So what are you even talking about? Do you even watch this show?

I thought I was gonna die! - Roseanne Roseannadanna

No