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[3] In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. Blanche was probably around 50 when the show began, rather than 54. McClanahan continued to portray the role of Blanche in the spin-off series The Golden Palace, which only lasted for one season from 1992 to 1993. But one of the questions that has always been asked is: how old were the Golden Girls characters supposed to be? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Proudly powered by WordPress However, there are some clues that can be found in the show itself. She received her Bachelors of Arts in history and her Masters of Arts degree in history both from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. None of the other Golden Girls outright state their ages, so Dorothy is where the deductive work begins. In Season 2, Episode 1, "End of the Curse," Blanche believes she is pregnant, and states she'll be 65 by the time the child graduates high school. The women in The Golden Girlsall have white, short hair styled in a way we often associate with older individuals. Betty White, who died on December 31, 2021, at the age of 99, was best known for her role as the wonderfully naive Rose Nylund in the NBC comedy The Golden Girls. Featuring an all-male cast in drag, The Golden Girls: Live! Getty was picky about the jokes Sophia would make. In March 1997, the Lifetime cable network acquired the exclusive rights to repeat the episodes of The Golden Girls in the US until March 1, 2009. She was also 63 years old by the time The Golden Girls premiered in 1985. The Golden Girls: Live! As head writers, Speer and Grossman, along with Mort Nathan and Barry Fanaro, who won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing for the first season, gave general ideas to lower staff writers, and personally wrote a handful of scripts each season.[43]. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, the show is about four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida.It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions . Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). 12. [74] The show was the anchor of NBC's Saturday line-up, and almost always won its time slot, as ABC and CBS struggled to find shows to compete against it, the most notable being ABC's Lucille Ball sitcom Life With Lucy in the beginning of the 198687 season although it aired at 8:00, an hour earlier. In order to try and determine the real ages of the Golden Girls, we need to look at other sources of evidence. [6], The show features an ensemble cast and the plot revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorce) sharing a house in Miami. This means that she was 63 years old by the time the show premiered in 1985. Eager not to be typecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles at the last minute. There are no tricks. By tape day, she was unreachable. The women's ages were usually not explicitly stated, although some deductive work gives a pretty safe estimate of how old each Golden Girl was at the start of the series. The show is seen in more than a hundred countries. [58], The kitchen set seen on The Golden Girls was originally used on an earlier Witt/Thomas/Harris series, It Takes Two, which aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983. She was born on July 25, 1923, making her 62 years old by the time the sitcom premiered. Blanche lied to her housemates about her age so easily (and Sophia promptly called her out and said shed be 70 when the kid graduated), its reasonable to assume she was 53 when The Golden Girls premiered. Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). The Golden Girls will always be remembered as a show that put a spotlight on senior women in a way no other show had done before. The producers of The Golden Girls decided to cast Bea Arthur, Betty White, and Rue McClanahan after seeing them act alongside each other in shows like Maude (1972-1978) and Mamas Family (1983-1984). Carl Gettleman, one of her two sons, says the co-star of the TV show "The Golden Girls" died early Tuesday, July 22, 2008, at home in Los Angeles. In reality, all but one of the principal cast members of the Golden Girls had enormous age gaps between their true ages and the ages of their roles. [67], The Golden Girls was shot on videotape in front of a live studio audience. "[44] Writer Christopher Lloyd explained that the usual situation was for all of the more junior writers to be assigned the same scene to write, with the one judged the best version becoming the one chosen. However, the exterior backdrop seen through the kitchen window changed from the view of Chicago high-rises to palm trees and bushes for the Miami setting. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on Channel 4, Living and Disney Channel. She would start getting under a dark cloud the day before tape day You could see a big difference in her that day. For simplicity's sake, each season is considered a separate year, as the show ran for seven seasons. [71], On Metacritic, the series has an overall score of 82 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim. In 1989, Marc Sotkin, previously a writer on Laverne & Shirley and a producer on another Witt/Thomas series, It's a Living, assumed head writing responsibilities, and guided the show (to varying degrees) during what were its final three seasons. Your email address will not be published. The company expected the show to appeal to older female viewers. She joined the cast as Rose Nylund, a Norwegian-American hailing from St. Olaf, Minnesota. The writers observed that in many of the proposed scripts, the main interaction between the women occurred in the kitchen while preparing and eating food. How Old Was Rose Nylund On Golden Girls? All the lead actresses won Emmy awards for their performances on the show. In her spare time, Maddy loves playing volleyball, running, walking, and biking, although when she wants to be lazy she loves to read a good thriller. [68] Many episodes of the series followed a similar format or theme. Ironically, the actress who played Sophia, Estelle Getty, was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter, Dorothy. As of February 2013, WE tv's rights expired and Viacom networks' TV Land, home to Betty White's last series Hot in Cleveland, purchased them,[79] as did Logo TV. However, White and McClanahan wanted to play against their typecasting, so McClanahan was cast as Blanche instead. This led into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Golden_Girls&oldid=1139544706, "Thank You for Being a Friend" (instrumental), "I was running all over the house grabbing anybody who would listen. "[47] Getty died in 2008, the result of dementia with Lewy bodies. Dorothy was likely in her late 40s, rather than her early 50s. For one thing, it did pave the way for a new terrain. When all of the evidence is taken into account, it seems likely that the Golden Girls characters were actually younger than their stated ages. I kept reading scenes to them and saying, 'God, this is brilliant [] There's nothing trendy about this show. Rue McClanahan is the youngest Golden Girl! [55] Producers used this residence for exterior shots during the first two seasons. The reasons for her departure are speculative, but the popular theory is that Arthur felt as though the quality of the sitcom had begun to slip by the seventh season, and she wanted to leave while the show was still popular. After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series. 5. As a tribute to the success of The Golden Girls, all four actresses were later named Disney Legends as part of the class of 2009.[78]. Rose's age is the easiest to track down, thanks to Dorothy openly saying it in Season 1, Episode 22, "Job Hunting." During a conversation where Rose discusses her difficulty finding a new job after losing her previous one at the grief counseling center, Dorothy reveals that Rose is 55. Betty White was famous in Hollywood for being a pioneer of television dating back to the 1950s. According to Cherry, the writers' room was "a competitive atmosphere. "[62], Bea Arthur had a preference for wearing loose-fitting clothing, like slacks and long sweaters, along with sandals, because she hated wearing shoes. It was popular for addressing a demographic that rarely saw the spotlight on television or in Hollywood: senior women. Sophia, Dorothys straight-talking mother, was the Golden Girls houses oldest figure. [5] Terry Tang of the Associated Press reported that the series continues to attract new fans in the 21st century and characterized it as an example of a sitcom that has aged well. (Photo Credit: New Line Cinema/ HBO/ MovieStills DB and MovieStills DB). The show was aired as a bilingual broadcast using a two-channel sound system (Zweikanalton). Rose, who was born in 1934, would have been around 51, while Sophia, who was born in 1906, would have been 79. How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be? In this article, we will explore the evidence and try to uncover the true ages of the Golden Girls. It won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series and two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series. [26] She found the concept interesting, as "it was a demographic that had never been addressed," and she soon began work on it. [40] However, Arthur preferred that her three castmates and she all break for lunch together on workdays. Styles This could be because the writers wanted to create an atmosphere of timelessness or to emphasize the idea that age is just a number. However, there is also some evidence to suggest that these ages may not be accurate. Rue McClanahan was the youngest of the Golden Girls, according to Parade. Estelle Getty, who portrayed Sophia, was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy, Sophias daughter. It was my positive attitude, and that made Bea angry sometimes.. 2023 Wording Vibes - WordPress Theme by Kadence WP, Although the womens ages were rarely disclosed, some deductive work may be used to, The Golden Girls began in 1985 and concluded in 1992, both in real life and in the fictional realm. Theme: Newsup by Themeansar. Both Betty White and Bea Arthur were 63 when The Golden Girls premiered, coinciding with the fan theory. It had a total of 180 half-hour episodes across its seven seasons. Arthur flipped upon reading the script, but felt hesitant about McClanahan's approach, as she did not "want to play (their Maude characters) Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens." How Does PTO Work for Salaried Employees? [81], Forever Golden: A Celebration of The Golden Girls released in select movie theaters across North America via Fathom Events on September 14, 2021, marking the show's 36th anniversary. [45][46] The cast often had to stay behind after the audience had departed to redo scenes where Getty had flubbed her lines, and although this was at first met with resistance from the producers, cue cards were eventually introduced to help her. [80] In 2020, CMT purchased the rights to the series. "[34] Getty continuously battled stage fright during her tenure on the show. [4] In 2014, the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time". Hulu estimated that over 11 million hours were spent viewing this sitcom in 2020 alone, making it one of the top ten most binge-watched series on the streaming service. (Photo Credit: MovieStills DB). [50] She had reportedly started to show signs of the dementia during the filming of the television series, when, despite more than three decades of theater work, she began to struggle to remember her lines, and in later seasons of the show, had to rely on cue cards. The series ran for a total of seven seasons and a total of 180 full-length episodes. After the retirement home where Dorothys mother, Sophia Petrillo, lived burned down in the pilot episode, the three were joined by Dorothys 80-year-old widowed mother, Sophia Petrillo. On the other hand, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is 55 in Just Like That, while Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristen Davis) are both supposed to be 54 years old. Arthur died from cancer in 2009 at age 86 and McClanahan followed in. Social norms regarding women in their fifties have also changed since Golden Girls premiered. Their hair also hasnt greyed (or is colored), and they style their hair in a more contemporary way. The adventures of Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Rose ( universally beloved Betty White) and Sophia (Estelle Getty) -- four older women who lived in a Miami home together -- took audiences by storm and provided representation to a group generally overlooked by television of the time. Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai. The pilot takes audio from the sitcom and sets it against a futuristic background inspired by The Jetsons. This suggests that her character was likely around the same age. "We had games going all the time off camera." 13. The Golden Girls is one of the most beloved and enduring sitcoms of all time. Sophia, Dorothy's straight-talking mother, was the oldest character in the Golden Girls' house. Blanche (played by Rue McClanahan) was thought to be around 47 years old in the first season of Golden Girls. In addition, the character of Sophia had originally been planned as an occasional guest star, but Getty had tested positively with preview audiences, so the producers decided to make her a regular character. The Golden Girls received critical acclaim throughout most of its run, and won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. The series also ranked among the Nielsen ratings' top ten for six of its seven seasons. ISBN978-1-4516-1369-8. The Golden Girls was a highly-acclaimed and rated, well-received, popular American situation-comedy/sit-com television series that aired on NBC originally from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Casting director Judith Weiner had seen Torch Song Trilogy, and thought Getty was terrific in it. Colucci, Jim (2016). During its original run, The Golden Girls received 68 Emmy nominations, 11 Emmy awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Viewers for Quality Television awards. The film Golden Girls was a critical and commercial triumph. McClanahan said, "Betty and I loved word games, and we would play word games every day,". [41] To aid her retention, Getty tried hypnosis, and the show hired an assistant to run lines with her before taping; neither method worked. The basic facts to work with are that The Golden Girls began in 1985 and ended in 1992, both in real life and in-world. In fact, the two were less than four months apart in age. Arguably the main protagonist of the show, Blanche Devereaux is portrayed by Rue McClanahan. Shopping Guide The Golden Girls Almost Had a Fifth Main Character - Here's Why He Was Dropped The Golden Girls broke boundaries with its main cast of older women, but it originally broke even more with the lost fifth member of the hit sitcom. Among all of the great roles she played over the course of her legendary career, the late, great Betty Whitewho passed away on Dec. 31, 2021, at the age of. Blanche Devereaux, a widow, was joined by Rose Nylund, a fellow widow, and Dorothy Zbornak, a divorced woman after they both answered a room-for-rent post on the bulletin board of a local grocery shop. If she had returned, her character would have been in her sixties. She was also impressed by Getty's audition for the role of the mother of Steven Keaton (played by actor Michael Gross) for a guest episode of Family Ties. DO YOU LOVE SHOES? The majority of sitcoms in the period centered on either families or teenagers. Blanche (played by Rue McClanahan) was thought to be around 47 years old in the first season of Golden Girls. [7][8], The first episode features a cook/butler named Coco (played by Charles Levin), but the role was dropped before the second episode. Estelle Getty portrayed the role of Sophia Petrillo, the mother of Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthurs character). Characters from both shows made occasional crossover guest appearances on the other show, with the four girls guesting on Empty Nest and Mulligan, Dinah Manoff, Kristy McNichol, David Leisure, and Park Overall appearing on The Golden Girls in their Empty Nest roles. I think we pushed that [the jokes about Arthur's appearance] a little bit far and I think she let it be known she didn't love that. One such source is the actors who played the characters. [24] Produced to introduce the network's 198485 season schedule, two actresses appearing on NBC shows, Selma Diamond of Night Court and Doris Roberts of Remington Steele, appeared in a skit promoting the upcoming show Miami Vice as Miami Nice, a parody about old people living in Miami. In "And Just Like That", Miranda and Charlotte are 54, while Carrie is 55. Who was the youngest Golden Girl cast member? -- Thirty years ago today, "The Golden Girls" premiered on television. New York: Scribner. [41] Rue McClanahan, who shared a dressing room with Getty, described the severity of Getty's stage fright: "She'd panic. The shows executives were unsure how the public would react to the eccentric program because older women in leading roles were rarely seen on television. McClanahan was 51 years old by the time The Golden Girls premiered, and she was 58 when it concluded. The Golden Girls is one of four live-action shows, along with All in the Family, Will & Grace, and Schitt's Creek, where all the principal actors have won at least one Emmy. The sitcom was conceptualized by writer Susan Harris. 100 Black-Owned Businesses to Shop Now. As of September 15, 2021, every episode was made available to stream on Disney+ in Germany and Austria. Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. The character of Blanche Devereaux appeared in a total of 8 seasons and a total of 204 full episodes in both The Golden Girls (total of 7 . Getty was the first actress to be cast, and her role was intended to make the rest of the characters appear younger. Its a tiny marvel, looking back, that the Golden Girls magnificent casting came together as well as it did. The story follows four older single women (three widows and one divorced) who share a home in Miami, Florida. However, with some detective work, audiences can figure them out. Arthur and White worked well together in shared mutual respect, but they did not pursue a personal friendship with one another outside of The Golden Girls set. Getty came to Weiner's mind soon after, when it became time to begin casting of The Golden Girls. How to Start a Fire in Dayz A Comprehensive Guide, How to Be More Ladylike: Speak Softly, Dress Modestly, Carry Yourself with Grace, How to Eat Babka: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, How to Wire a Weed Eater: A Step-by-Step Guide.