Historically, most broadcast network shows run their course and then disappear. A lucky few may find new life as a syndicated rerun for a few years after their network runs have ended. Even rarer still are those shows that are rerun for literally decades after their network runs have ended. Among such shows are I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, and M*A*S*H. The Golden Girls also numbers among these shows. It debuted on September 14, 1985 on NBC, and original episodes of the show ran until May 9, 1992. Forty years later, it is still being aired on various channels and is widely available on various streaming services.
The Golden Girls centred around four older women, although by today's standards, they wouldn't necessarily be considered that old, who shared a house in Miami. Blanche Devereaux (Rue Devereaux) was the widow who owned the house. She rented rooms in the house to fellow widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur). In the pilot, the retirement home where Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) burned down, so she wound up living with the three younger women. The four women had distinct personalities. Blanche was a Southern belle who was both man-hungry and vain. Rose was a Minnesotan of Norwegian descent and a bit scatter-brained, although also very caring. Dorothy is sarcastic and even short-tempered, but she tends to be the most practical of the four women. Sophia was brutally honest and sharp-witted, but she ultimately cared for both her daughter and her younger roommates.
The origins of The Golden Girls go back to August 1984 when the fall preview special for the coming season was being filmed at NBC's Burbank Studios. One sketch meant to promote the police drama Miami Vice and the detective show Remington Steele featured 59-year-old Doris Roberts (then playing secretary Mildred Krebs on Remington Steele) and 63-year-old Selma Diamond (then playing bailiff Selma Hacker on Night Court). Warren Littlefield, then senior vice president of NBC Entertainment, liked the sketch and thought a comedy based around "geriatric humour" could work.
It was not long afterwards that Paul Junger Witt (who had produced shows from Occasional Wife to It's a Living) and Tony Thomas (who had produced Benson) met with Warren Littlefield to pitch a show about a female lawyer. Warren Littlefield rejected the show about a lawyer, but asked if they would consider a pilot for a series about older women instead. The two producers approached their usual writer about the project, but he declined. Paul Junger then approached his wife, Susan Harris, who had created both Soap and Benson, about it. Susan Harris was interested in the concept, realizing that it was a demographic that network television had never really addressed.
The pilot for The Golden Girls would differ slightly from the regular series. In the pilot, a gay houseboy named Coco (Charles Levin) lived with the women. Ultimately, it was decided that the character of Coco was not going to work out and he did not appear following the pilot. It was during the process of creating The Golden Girls that changes would be made concerning the character of Sophia. Originally, Sophia was only meant to be a recurring character, but the character proved so popular with test audiences that she was made a regular. Arguably, Sophia proved to be the most popular character on the show. She not only appeared on the show's spinoffs Empty Nest and The Golden Palace, but also on the sitcom Blossom and the Empty Nest spinoff Nurses.
It was the character of Sophia who would be the first to be cast. Estelle Getty had a successful career on stage and had appeared in the movies Team-Mates (1978) and Tootsie (1984). She particularly impressed the producers in her audition, particularly Tony Thomas. Some concern was expressed over her age. At sixty-one, some thought she was too young to play Sophia, who was supposed to be much older (here I must point out that Estelle Getty was one year younger than the actor playing her daughter, Bea Arthur). In the end, Estelle Getty had to audition four times before landing the role.
The roles of Blanche and Rose would be filled by two actresses who had appeared on NBC's recently cancelled show Mama's Family, Rue McClanahan and Betty White. Curiously, the two actresses were not being considered for the roles that they would eventually play. The producers wanted Rue McClanahan to play Rose. She had played the somewhat scatterbrained Vivian on Maude. They wanted Betty White to play Blanche. She had played the lascivious Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It would be director Jay Sandrich who would be responsible for the two actors being cast in the roles for which they are now known. When Rue McClanahan was auditioning for the role of Rose, he asked her to switch to Blanche. This made Rue McClanahan happy, as she thought the role of Blanche was perfect for her. It was then that Rue McClanahan was cast as Blanche and Betty White as Rose.
While the role of Dorothy was originally written as a "Bea Arthur" type, it was Elaine Stritch who was first considered for the role. As it turned out, Elaine Stritch's audition went badly. It was then that the producers began courting Bea Arthur for the role. Initially, she was not interested. They asked Rue McClanahan to approach her old co-star, but she was initially reticent. For Bea Arthur, with Rue McClanahan playing Rose, it would be too close to Maude, in which Bea Arthur played a sarcastic Maude to a dingy Vivian. It was after Rue McClanahan told Bea Arthur that she and Betty White switched roles that Bea Arthur became interested. She read the script and was impressed enough to take the part.
In addition to its four main characters, The Golden Girls would have several recurring characters over the years. The most frequent to appear was perhaps Dorothy's ex-husband Stan (Herb Edelman), who had left Dorothy for a much younger flight attendant. Sid Melton appeared as Sophia's husband and Dorothy's father Sal in flashbacks. Bill Dana and Nancy Walker appeared as Sophia's brother and sister Angelo and Angela. Later in the run of the show, Harold Gould played Rose's boyfriend Miles Webber. There were several other recurring characters throughout the show's run.
Upon its debut, The Golden Girls received largely positive reviews. Associated Press television writer Fred Rothenberg said of the show, "The result is easily the funniest new comedy of the season." Columnist Karl Vick described The Golden Girls as "..probably the best of the fall crop." Jay Bobbin of The Star Tribune wrote of the show, "The Golden Girls offer high promise for an evening where originality in TV humour has languished since Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart left the night."
The Golden Girls also proved to be a hit in the Nielsen ratings. Its premiere had the highest Nielsen ratings in two years, with a 25 rating and 43 share. It was the no. 1 rated show for the week. Ultimately, it would rank no. 7 in the ratings for the 1985-1986 season. It did even better in its second season, when it ranked no. 5 for the season. Its ratings went up again for its third season, when it ranked no 4 for the year. For its fourth and fifth seasons, it came in at no. six for the year. It was with its sixth season that its rating slipped to no. 10. The Golden Girls' ratings faltered even more in its seventh and final season, when it dropped to no. 30. The drop in the ratings in its seventh season may have been due to the fact that The Golden Girls had been moved from its original 9:00 PM Eastern/8:00 PM Central time slot on Saturday to 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central.
Through the years The Golden Girls would often tackle serious topics, some considered controversial at the time. The sixth season episode "Sisters of the Bride" featured Blachen's gay brother Clayton (Monte Markham) having a commitment ceremony with his partner, this twenty-four years before marriage equality was legalized in the United States. In the fifth season episode, "72 Hours," Rose becomes concerned after receiving a letter telling her that she might have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion years ago. The Golden Girls addressed sexual harassment multiple times. One notable episode was "Adult Education" from season one, in which Blanche's psychology professor offers to give her an "A" if she has sex with him. In the fifth season episode "Not Another Monday, Sophia's friend Martha asks Sophia to assist her in her suicide. During its run, The Golden Girls also addressed such topics as age discrimination, agoraphobia, artificial insemination, elder care, homelessness, immigration policy, menopause, and many others.
The success of The Golden Girls would lead to the spin-off Empty Nest. Empty Nest centred on paediatrician Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), whose two adult daughters move back in with him. Dr. Weston was a neighbour of the Golden Girls, and Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose all appeared on the show. Sophia appeared frequently enough on Empty Nest that she could be considered a recurring character. Empty Nest debuted in 1988 and ran until 1995. It would have its own spinoff in the form of Nurses, which debuted in 1991 and ran until 1994. Both Rose and Sophia would appear on Nurses as well.
After seven seasons of The Golden Girls, the contracts for the four leads were up. While the other three actresses consented to do an eighth season, Bea Arthur decided not to do so. Quite simply, she thought the show had run its course. With Bea Arthur's departure, Susan Harris then created The Golden Palace. Like Mayberry R.F.D.with The Andy Griffith Show and Archie Bunker's Place with All in the Family, it is debatable whether The Golden Palace was a continuation of The Golden Girls or a spin-off. In the final episode of The Golden Girls, Dorothy remarried and moved out of Blanche's house. With the first episode of The Golden Palace, Blanche had sold her house, and Blanche, Rose, and Sophia invested in a Miami hotel called The Golden Palace. In addition to Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, and Betty White, The Golden Palace featured Don Cheadle as the hotel's manager Roland Wilson, and Cheech Marin as the hotel's chef Chuy Castillos.
It was in early 1992 that executive producers Susan Harris Tony Thomas, and, Paul Junger Witt pitched The Golden Palace to NBC. NBC agreed to an order of 13 episodes for the upcoming 1992-1993 season. CBS, whose sitcoms beyond Evening Shade, Murphy Brown, and Love & War weren't performing particularly well, made an offer to pick up The Golden Palace for an entire season. The executive producers asked NBC to make a better offer, but the network turned them down due to the original show's declining ratings. The Golden Palace then wound up airing on CBS.
CBS scheduled The Golden Palace on Friday at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central. The show did well in the ratings for its first few weeks. Unfortunately, its rating gradually dropped as the season progressed. In the end, The Golden Palace came in at no. 57 for the season. According to Rue McLanahan in a Television Academy interview, CBS had renewed The Golden Palace for a second season, but then cancelled it only a few hours before the upfronts for the 1993-1994 season.
While The Golden Girls was still on the air, NBC ran repeats of the show on weekdays from July 3, 1989 to September 1990. It was in September 1990 that reruns of the series were syndicated to local television stations. Since then The Golden Girls has aired on various cable channels. Lifetime began airing reruns of the show in March 1997 and continued to do so until March 2009. Since the show has aired on the Hallmark Channel (where it still airs), WeTV, TV Land, Logo, and CMT. The Golden Girls is currently available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.
The first season was released on DVD in November 2004. Over the next several years, seasons of The Golden Girls would be released, with the seventh and final season released in February 2007. A box set of the complete series was released in 2010.
At the time that The Golden Girls debuted, its characters were considered old and some even described them as elderly. Except for Sophia (who was in her eighties), this would not be the case today. Betty White and Bea Arthur were both only 63 when the show debuted. Even by the standards of the time, Rue McClanhan would not have been considered old. She was only 51 when the series debuted.
Regardless of how young or old one considers the lead characters on The Golden Girls, at the time and even now very few shows centred on women of that age. In fact, in the Eighties, it was rare to see very many lead characters over the age of 40 on American television shows. As noted earlier, Susan Harris thought it was a demographic that had not really been addressed before. This probably accounted for the show's popularity at the time and its continued popularity as well. Older people could see themselves in the characters on the show. Younger people could recognize the older people they knew in the characters on the show. Many people probably knew older women like Blanche or Dorothy or even Rose or Sophia. Of course, it helped that the characters were well developed and the episodes well-written. The show was nominated for and won multiple Emmy Awards.
The Golden Girls was one of the most successful shows of the late Eighties and early Nineties. It continues to be popular to this day. It seems likely people will still be watching it forty years from now.
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