The Golden Girls: 35 Years of Relevance and Friendship
On September 14, 1985, no one could have predicted that a show about horny grandmothers would spawn a cottage industry of official and unofficial Golden Girls merchandise. A generation that saw its older sisters and mothers debate whether they are a Samantha, Carrie, or Miranda now takes online quizzes to determine if they are a Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia, celebrating the fact that a 35 year old show maintains its relevance.
Everyone loves the Golden Girls. Whether you love Sophia Petrillo’s (Estelle Getty) snide remarks and old world wisdom, Rose Nylund’s (Betty White) wide-eyed naivete, Dorothy Zbornak’s (Bea Arthur) feminist ideals, or Blanche’s (Rue McClanahan) Southern charm and quest to bed the next eligible bachelor to walk into her house, there’s a Golden Girl who shares your worldview. Also, deep down, we all wish we are lucky enough to have a friend group to share our life with when we are over 65 years old.
The love apparent in every Golden Girls quip encourages individuals to develop parasocial relationships with the four fictional women. Because the Golden Girls are omnipresent on television, you can literally go to bed watching the show online or on DVD and wake up to TV Land running a marathon. In a way The Golden Girls are television comfort food, it is easy to develop a comforting relationship with a group of women who may remind you of your grandmothers or who you wish were your grandmothers. Many parasocial relationships can be unhealthy due to their one-sided nature, but is it really a bad thing that you spend Sunday mornings with Sophia because you wish she was your grandmother as long as you don’t dedicate a basement shrine to Estelle Getty?
To fully understand why The Golden Girls still resonates culturally, we must look back at the history of the show and evaluate its legacy.
History
Television lore states that, in the mid-1980s, President of NBC Entertainment Brandon Tartikoff commissioned “Miami Nice” after a watching How to Marry a Millionaire and listening to complaints about a friend’s aunt (1). Initially, no one took the concept seriously, until Tartikoff, Senior and Executive Vice President of NBC Entertainment Warren Littlefield, and other NBC executives realized the show could work with the right actresses. Initially, they thought Night Court’s Selma Diamond and Remington Steele’s (and later Everybody Loves Raymond) Doris Roberts could pull off the concept about retirees in Florida dating and living life to the fullest (2).
Since Diamond and Roberts were not available, the executives fleshed out “Miami Nice’s” plot. Tartikoff, Littlefield, and others decided that the future Golden Girls would depict the lives of four women and their gay housekeeper at a time when having a gay main character was controversial and unheard of. After hearing many unsuccessful pitches, the executives decided to seek out a production company and writer to flesh out the “Miami Nice” concept. Eventually, they found it in Witt/Thomas/Harris. Susan Harris, who had written the gay character Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal) on Soap, came on board as soon as she heard the idea (3).
Once the pilot was written, it was casting time. Even though Betty White and Rue McClanahan were known entities, they had to audition. Originally, White auditioned for Blanche and McClanahan read for Rose. Producer Paul Witt asked White to read for Rose because, as White recalled to Today’s Katie Couric in 1995, director Jay Sandrich realized audiences may see a Betty White Blanche as a continuation of The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Sue Ann Nivens, the Happy Homemaker and Minneapolis’ resident nymphomaniac (4).” For McClanahan, the swap also made sense since, unlike White, she had southern roots, could bring her life experiences to the role, and would be able to move past the naivete of Maude’s Vivian Harmon. With Rose and Blanche cast, The Golden Girls’ producers looked for their Sophia. Despite reservations over her young age and relative obscurity, Estelle Getty won over the producers with her attitude and dedication to the role, including finding Sophia’s iconic purse (5).
Even though she may have been the last to find out about The Golden Girls, Bea Arthur was the easiest to cast. Dorothy was so tailor made for the actress that the writers described the character as a Bea Arthur-type. The only problem was McClanahan had to convince Arthur to join the cast. McClanahan recounted Arthur’s initial statement as “Rue, I have no interest in playing Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens.” McClanahan made clear White and her had switched roles, which piqued Arthur’s interest and convinced her to join the ensemble (6).
Before we move on, we cannot forget who could have been the fifth main character: the gay housekeeper Coco. In The Golden Girls pilot, Charles Levin played Coco. Coco did not make it past the pilot because Sophia quickly became the breakout character. Also, NBC and the producers felt that 5 main characters was too many (7). The fact that Coco was gay, and America was not ready probably also played a role.
With the first season filmed, The Golden Girls debuted on NBC on September 14, 1985. The show would air until May 9, 1992, leaving 180 episodes for syndication. However, not everyone was ready to say good-bye to a Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia. A channel hop and a married Dorothy later, The Golden Girls morphed into CBS’s Golden Palace without Bea Arthur or her iconic character.
On Golden Palace, the three remaining Golden Girls ran a Miami hotel. Unfortunately, without Dorothy the show was not the same. Sophia, Blanche, and Rose needed her. CBS aired the show for one 24 episode season from September 1992 to May 1993, leaving it with 24 largely forgotten episodes that are rarely aired in syndication.
Immediate Cultural Impact
During The Golden Girls’ NBC run, the show was a success. Betty White noted, “Even when we first went on the air, I think the network was surprised. They put these four older ladies together, thinking they would address an older audience, and the kids picked up on it immediately (8).” Those kids pushed The Golden Girls into the Nielson ratings’ top ten for its first six years on the air (9). After all, it was the perfect family show at a time when family shows still had cultural cachet.
The United States was not the only country to fall in love with Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia, and Rose. The Golden Girls was broadcast in more than 60 countries, inspired the domestic spin-off Empty Nest, and had its concept adapted for Spanish, Russian, Philippine, British audiences (10). Despite ITV thinking The Brighton Belles would be better than one Southern belle and a strong 12 million viewer showing for its pilot, by the time three of its 10 episodes aired, viewers had had enough of Francis (Sheila Hancock), Annie (Wendy Craig), Sheila Gish (Bridget), and Josephine, resulting in the show’s cancellation (11).
Part of the problem with The Brighton Belles was that viewers felt the show was dated. Also, as the London Evening Standard’s Victor Lewis Smith pointed out, “IF THIS was really the best the writer could come up with, then what was the point of adapting the original at all? British audiences had no difficulty in understanding the references and humour in the American series, and in spite of the change of location, this anglicised version seemed to emanate from a far more remote and irrelevant world (12).”
The critics’ reception of The Golden Girls and The Brighton Belles could not have been more different. While The Brighton Belles received complaints that it belonged in the 1950s and a swift cancellation, The Golden Girls took home 35 Emmy awards, including one for each of the four stars, as well as three consecutive (1986, 1987, and 1988) Golden Globes for Best Television Series- Comedy or Musical (13).”
The Golden Girls’ lasting appeal cannot be overstated. In 1997, Buena Vista Television put the fiery foursomes’ escapades into syndication where it has been ever since. Since 1997, The Golden Girls has been on the air continuously (14). The shows’ current cable homes are TV Land and Logo. However, through the years Lifetime, Hallmark, and We TV have all aired the show, which often ranks among the highest rated programming on whatever channel it airs (15).
The Golden Legacy
For those of us with more liberal values, we watch The Golden Girls in awe. A show that consistently achieved high ratings was incredibly progressive for the 80s and got away with bold depictions of feminism and equality because any extreme boundary pushing was done offscreen. In 7 years, The Golden Girls tackled previously taboo topics, such as LGBTQ+ equality, HIV, illegal immigration, age discrimination, divorce, and that merely scratches the surface. Amazingly, The Golden Girls’ writers did this without raising conservative groups ire. For example, Clayton Hollingsworth marries, or more accurately has a commitment ceremony, to Doug, but he is not making out with his “very special friend” and fights for his sister to accept his homosexuality. While future series would feature gay main characters, enabling them to explore gay relationships with more detail and complexity, The Golden Girls’ managed to humanize gay men and women in Clatyon’s two episodes (“Scared Straight” and “Sisters of the Bride”) and Dorothy’s friend Jean’s one appearance (“Isn’t It Romantic”).
The Golden Girls comforted us with visions of a strong, loving, active, group of older women as it broke tremendous ground, so it is no surprise that other shows followed. While it undermines each show’s cultural significance, Jim Colucci points out that The Golden Girls’ numerous successors introduced their own unique twist on the “Golden Rule of Four.” Once The Golden Girls established a winning formula, viewers were treated to what Colucci refers to as “the Southern version (Designing Women), followed in the 1990s by the black version (Living Single) and the urban version (Sex and the City). In recent years (prior to 2017), the formula has shown a resurgence in popularity, spawning a suburban version (Desperate Housewives created by former Golden Girls writer Marc Cherry), a middle-aged version (Hot in Cleveland), a Latina version (Devious Maids), and, inevitably, more than one gay version (Noah’s Arc and Looking) (16).” In 2018, Logo almost capitalized on its success with Golden Girls reruns with Silver Foxes, which had fan favorites George Takei and Leslie Jordan attached, and planned to use its reputation as the “gay male Golden Girls” to address real life issues like discrimination in nursing homes. Due to budgetary reasons and not being able to find a new home, Silver Foxes never made it past the pilot (17,18).
While different interpretations of The Golden Girls have had varying success levels, one thing is clear: The Golden Girls is part of our television heritage. It is important to note that the way modern audiences interact with the 1980s hit is not the same way audiences at the time reacted. Elaine Patterson writes, “This is to say that how audiences make sense of The Golden Girls in contemporary culture is different to how audiences initially responded to the show when it was in its original run on network television from 1985 through to 1992.” She uses the episode “72 Hours” as an example. The episode follows Rose as she discovers her possible exposure to the AIDS virus and finds herself dealing with the fallout from a untested blood transfusion. In the end, Rose does not have AIDS. Even with that development, the show resonated with LGBTQ viewers because it spent 23 minutes tackling misconceptions about the disease and other important social issues facing the LGBTQ community (19). Nowadays, we look back at that episode and know that HIV and AIDS are not a death sentence and are not issues confined to the LGBTQ community and admire how the episode resonates with modern values.
Ironically, in the years since, NBC cancelled The Golden Girls for not attracting the prime 18 to 49 demographic, (20) cable has introduced younger and younger audiences to Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, Rose Nylund, and Sophia Petrillo who appreciate their values and seek to emulate their favorite TV grandmothers. The girls are not getting any younger, but Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and beyond keep them alive in memory and spirit through drag shows, devoted rerun watching, and reminiscing about their experiences with The Golden Girls.
Works Cited
1. Tartikoff, B., & Leerhsen, C. (1993). The Last Great Ride. New York, NY: Delta.
2. Colucci, J. (2017). Golden Girls forever. New York City, New York: Harper Design.
3. Ibid.
4. NBC News: Today [Transcript, Television broadcast]. (1995, September 5). In Today. New York City, New York: NBC.
5. Ibid. 2
6. Ibid. 2
7. Kypker, N. S. (2019). Sex and death and St. Olaf: Deconstructing the magic of The Golden Girls. Comedy Studies, 10(2), 199–212. doi:10.1080/2040610x.2019.1623504
8. Huguenin, Patrick. “THE GREAT (BETTY) WHITE WAY: The Golden Girl’s Going Strong, and Stealing scenes in ‘The Proposal.’” The New York Daily News 17 June 2009: 32. ProQuest. Web. 10 January 2010. (as cited in Berzsenyi, 2010)
9. Kypker, N. S. (2019). Sex and death and St. Olaf: Deconstructing the magic of The Golden Girls. Comedy Studies, 10(2), 199–212. doi:10.1080/2040610x.2019.1623504
10. Haider, A. (n.d.). The Golden Girls: The most treasured TV show ever. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200401-the-golden-girls-the-most-treasured-tv-show-ever
11. Hellen, N. (1993, September 29). Brighton Belles axed after failing to ring up a TV Hit. London Evening Standard.
12. Lewis-Smith, V. (1993, September 8). FOUR BELLES AND A CLANGER. London Evening Standard.
13. The Golden Girls. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088526/awards?ref_=tt_awd
14. Rawitsch, E. (2014). Silence Isn’t Golden, Girls: The Cross-Generational Comedy of ‘America’s Grandma’, Betty White. In 910556966 716691338 I. Whelehan & 910556967 716691338 J. Gwynne (Authors), Ageing, popular culture and contemporary feminism: Harleys and hormones (pp. 172–186). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
15. Rawitsch, E. (2014). Silence Isn’t Golden, Girls: The Cross-Generational Comedy of ‘America’s Grandma’, Betty White. In 910556966 716691338 I. Whelehan & 910556967 716691338 J. Gwynne (Authors), Ageing, popular culture and contemporary feminism: Harleys and hormones (pp. 172–186). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
16. Ibid. 2
17. Otterson, J. (2018, March 26). Super Deluxe to Develop Gay Senior Citizen Comedy ‘Silver Foxes’ From ‘Golden Girls’ Team (EXCLUSIVE). Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/super-deluxe-silver-foxes-1202736607/
18. Reynolds, D. (2018, April 12). Hollywood’s Ageism and Homophobia Almost Killed ‘Silver Foxes’. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.advocate.com/television/2018/4/12/hollywoods-ageism-and-homophobia-almost-killed-silver-foxes
19. Eleanor Patterson (2016) The Golden Girls Live: residual television texts, participatory culture, and queering TV heritage through drag, Feminist Media Studies, 16:5, 838–851, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2016.1149087
20. Elliot, S. (1992, May 13). THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; NBC Likes Young Viewers, Judging From Its Fall Plans. Retrieved 2020.
