Sophia's Wedding: Part 1

Sophia learns that her best friend Esther Weinstock has died, she and Dorothy attend the funeral in Brooklyn. Sophia encounters Max, Esther's widower, a man she has held a grudge for over forty years, but a revelation changes things.

Jack Gilford was great as Max, a very funny in a wonderfully zany episode.

Plenty of fun moments, that Elvis sequence at the start was very funny, who wouldn't want to attend that Hunka Hunka Burnin' love group, that pork chop sequence was hilarious, Dorothy's sarcasm was joyous. Sophia in bed with Max, side splitting.

It's always great when they take Sophia back a few years, it's always amazing how much you get she looks with dark hair and a bit of makeup.

Enjoyed this very much.

8/10.

This has got to be the most busiest and event filled installment out of the whole series. A bitterness from Sophia's past comes back to infuriate her once again. Her good friend, Esther Weinstock dies at the age of 88. Sophia refuses to attend her funeral due to the extremely deep grudge she held towards Esther's widower, Max. Sophia and her husband, Salvador, at one time planned on opening a business together with the other couple which failed due to the money getting blown on Max's alleged gambling addiction.

The truth eventually comes out about what really happened and Sophia ends up forgiving and getting too close with Max, which leads to an impending marriage. The sparks end up flying right there with Dorothy who was against her mother marrying another man because it made her feel like her mother was trying to replace her beloved father with somebody else. The conflict finally gets worked out with the wedding going on as planned but with no family members in attendance for it. A group of Elvis Impersonators came instead.

Yeah, the highlight was when Blanche and Rose started up an unauthorized "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love", Elvis Fan Club. The most hilarious moment was when a meeting was held and everyone got awed and excited over a priceless Elvis artifact - a genuine partially eaten pork chop. Dorothy made the mistake of making a joke about it, saying she couldn't believe: "Elvis would leave so much meat on a chop". She ended up getting kicked out of the club over that due to their extremely strict rules about any "derogatory comments made about the King being grounds for automatic dismissal".

More crammed in scenes follow with Sophia and Max following a long held dream by opening up a Pizza-Knish stand at the beach. There was enough content here for a two hour special but it got squeezed into a two part episode instead. It seemed to progress itself into a choppy collection of scenes where so much happens within a limited amount of time.

Still, the genuine laughs continue to be there regardless of it jumping all over the place in quick succession. The quality of the series wasn't lost in this installment but there were quite a few flaws that were noticeable. All in all, I did enjoy this GG outing, I mean that Elvis Fan Club stuff was the most hilarious out of it all. A partially eaten porkchop from Elvis was like finding the Holy Grail from that fanatical crew. Hilarious.

Dorothy says something about having aunt Regina's phone number also when Sophia says she is going to put a curse on her.

I suppose it could be Salvador's sister she is referring to. Sophia's aunt would be too old to be alive.

Sophia only has 2 siblings: Angelo and Angela.

I guess with any show there are going to be factual errors. Especially when it is on for numerous seasons.

In conclusion, I think it is silly that a review has to be at least 10 lines. :-)

Not all reviews require 10 lines. I wish IMDb would change that.