The Golden Girls | Goldengirls

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom television series created by Susan Harris that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning seven seasons. The show stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty as four older women who share friendship, and a home in Miami, Florida. It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, in association with Touchstone Television, and Paul Junger Witt. Tony Thomas and Harris served as the original executive producers.

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. It also won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Each of the four stars received an Emmy Award, making it one of only three sitcoms in the award's history to achieve this. The series also ranked among the Nielsen ratings Top 10 for six of its seven seasons. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. 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".

The show had an ensemble cast and the plot revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami. The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Arthur), after they both responded to an ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store a year before the start of the series. In the pilot episode, the three were joined by Dorothy's 80-year-old mother, Sophia Petrillo (Getty), after the retirement home where she had been living burned down.

Pilot

The first episode featured a cook/butler named Coco (played by Charles Levin), but the role was dropped before the second episode. 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. They decided that a separate cook would distract from their friendship. In addition, the character of Sophia had originally been planned as an occasional guest star, but Getty had tested so positively with preview audiences that the producers decided to make her a regular character.

Finale

After six consecutive seasons in the top 10, and the seventh season at number 30, The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. In the hour-long series finale, which aired in May 1992, Dorothy meets and marries Blanche's uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen) and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta, Georgia. Sophia was to join her, but in the end, she stays behind with the other women in Miami. This led into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace.

The series finale of The Golden Girls was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2016, it was the 17th-most watched television finale.

Cast and characters

Main

Beatrice Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak (née Petrillo), a substitute teacher. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Sicilian immigrants Sophia and Salvadore Petrillo, Dorothy became pregnant while still in high school, resulting in a marriage to Stanley Zbornak (Herb Edelman) to legitimize the baby. Stan and Dorothy eventually moved to Miami, but divorced after 38 years when Stan left her for a young flight attendant. The marriage produced two children; Kate, in her early 20s, and Michael, who was inconsistently aged between his mid-20s and late 30s (Michael was purportedly the cause of the shotgun wedding). In the series' final episode, Dorothy marries Blanche's uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth, and relocates to Atlanta. Arthur also played Dorothy's grandmother, Sophia's mother, in a flashback episode to when they lived in Brooklyn in the 1950s when Dorothy was a young adult (even though two episodes -- "My Father, my Brother" and "The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo" stated that Sophia's mother died when Dorothy was younger). In season one episode seven, Dorothy is stated to be 55.
Betty White as Rose Nylund (née Lindström), a Norwegian American from the small farming town of St. Olaf, Minnesota. Often slightly naive and known for her humorously peculiar stories of life growing up in her hometown, Rose was happily married to Charlie Nylund, with whom she had five children; daughters Kirsten, Bridget, Gunilla; and sons Adam and Charlie, Jr. Upon Charlie's death, she moved to Miami. She eventually finds work at a grief counseling center, but later switches careers and becomes assistant to consumer reporter Enrique Mas at a local TV station. In later seasons, Rose became romantically involved with college professor Miles Webber. During season six, Webber was placed into the Witness Protection Program, but returned later in the season. Their relationship continued throughout the series and shortly into the sequel series, The Golden Palace.
Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux (née Hollingsworth), a Southern belle employed at an art museum. Born into a wealthy family, Blanche grew up as the apple of her father's eye on a plantation outside of Atlanta, Georgia, prior to her relocation to Miami, where she lived with her husband, George, until his death. Their marriage produced six children; daughters Janet and Rebecca; and sons Doug, Biff, Skippy, and Matthew. A widow, Blanche was portrayed as man-hungry and clearly had the most male admirers and stories detailing various sexual encounters over the course of the series.
Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy's mother. Born in Sicily, Sophia moved to New York after fleeing an arranged marriage to Guido Spirelli. She married Salvadore "Sal" Petrillo, with whom she had three children: Dorothy, Gloria, and Phil, a cross-dresser who later dies of a heart attack (episode "Ebbtide's Revenge"). Initially a resident of the Shady Pines retirement home after having a stroke prior to the start of the series, she moved in with Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy following a fire at the institution. During the series' run, Sophia married Max Weinstock, but they soon separated. Throughout the series, she held a few part-time jobs, mostly involving food, including as a fast-food worker and an entrepreneur of spaghetti sauce and homemade sandwiches.

Recurring

Herb Edelman as Stanley Zbornak, Dorothy's cheating, freeloading ex-husband who left her for a young flight attendant. Stanley worked as an unsuccessful novelty salesman until he became a successful entrepreneur by inventing a baked potato opener that made him wealthy.
Harold Gould as Miles Webber (or Nicholas Carbone/Samuel Plankmaker) is Rose's professor boyfriend from season 5 onwards. In season 6, Miles reveals he is in the witness protection program and was a bookkeeper for a mobster. Gould also guest-starred once in the first season as Arnie Peterson, Rose's first serious boyfriend after her husband Charlie's death.
Sid Melton as Salvadore Petrillo, Sophia's late husband, who is usually seen in dreams or flashback sequences. Melton also appears as Don the Fool, a waiter at a medieval restaurant in season six.
Shawn Schepps and Debra Engle, as Blanche's daughter, Rebecca Devereaux. Initially an overweight former model in an emotionally abusive relationship, she later slimmed down and had a baby girl named Aurora by artificial insemination.
Monte Markham and Sheree North as Blanche's siblings Clayton Hollingsworth and Virginia Hollingsworth.
Bill Dana and Nancy Walker as Sophia's siblings Angelo and Angela. Dana appears in seven episodes (seasons 3-7), while he also played Sophia's father in a season-four episode. Walker starred in two episodes in season 2.
Doris Belack and Dena Dietrich as Gloria Petrillo, Dorothy's younger sister who is married to a wealthy man in California. She later loses all of her money and becomes romantically involved with Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan.
Scott Jacoby as Dorothy's aimless musician son Michael Zbornak.
Lynnie Greene (credited as Lynn Greene) as a younger Dorothy in flashbacks.
Lisa Jane Persky and Deena Freeman, as Dorothy's daughter, Kate Zbornak.

Production

Creation

"I was running all over the house grabbing anybody who would listen. I kept reading scenes to them and saying, 'God, this is brilliant [...] There's nothing trendy about this show. There are no tricks. It's a classic."

—NBC executive Warren Littlefield about reading the pilot script

Ideas for a comedy series about older women emerged during the filming of a television special at NBC's Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, in August 1984. Produced to introduce the network's 1984–85 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. NBC senior vice president Warren Littlefield was among the executive producers in the audience who were amused by their performance, and he envisioned a series based on the geriatric humor the two were portraying.

Shortly afterward, he met with producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, who were pitching a show about a female lawyer. Though Littlefield nixed their idea, he asked if they would be interested in delivering a pilot script for Miami Nice instead. Their regular writer declined, so Witt asked his wife, Susan Harris, who had been planning to retire after the conclusion of their ABC series Soap. She found the concept interesting, as "it was a demographic that had never been addressed," and she soon began work on it. Though her vision of a sitcom about women in their 60s differed from NBC's request for a comedy about women around 40 years old, Littlefield was impressed when he received her pilot script and subsequently approved production of it. The Cosby Show director Jay Sandrich, who had previously worked with Harris, Witt, and Thomas on Soap, agreed to direct.

The pilot included a gay houseboy, Coco (Charles Levin), who lived with the girls. Levin had been suggested by then-NBC president Brandon Tartikoff based on Levin's groundbreaking portrayal of a recurring gay character, Eddie Gregg, on NBC's Emmy-winning drama Hill Street Blues. After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series.

Casting

Rue McClanahan in 2007

The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. Estelle Getty auditioned and won the role of the feisty mother of character Dorothy Zbornak. This was due, in part, to the rave reviews she garnered in her Off-Broadway role reprisal for the 1984 Los Angeles run of Torch Song Trilogy. Afterwards, Getty had returned to New York but gained permission from her manager to return to California in early 1985. Getty figured it would be her last chance to find television or film work. She would return home to New York if she was unsuccessful.

Casting director Judith Weiner had seen Torch Song Trilogy and thought Getty was terrific in it. 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. Although Getty was impressive, the show's producers went with another actress. Getty came to Weiner's mind soon after when it became time to begin casting of The Golden Girls.

Getty, who went through a three-hour transformation to become Sophia, wore heavy make-up, thick glasses, and a white wig to look the part. The character of Sophia was thought by the creators to enhance the idea that three retirement-aged women could be young. Disney's Michael Eisner explains, "Estelle Getty made our three women into girls. And that was, to me, what made it seem like it could be a contemporary, young show." As surprising as it might sound, Estelle Getty continuously battled her stage fright. During an interview in 1988, Getty commented on her phobia and expressed how working with major stars, such as Arthur and White, made her even more nervous. At times, she even froze on camera while filming.

Hired to film the pilot, director Jay Sandrich also became instrumental in helping to cast the roles of Blanche Devereaux and Rose Nylund. Both Rue McClanahan and Betty White came into consideration as the series Mama's Family, in which the two co-starred, had been canceled by NBC. Originally, producers wanted to cast McClanahan as Rose and White as Blanche. The thinking for this was based on roles they previously played; White portrayed man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, while McClanahan co-starred as sweet but scatter-brained Vivian Harmon in Maude. Eager not to be typecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles last-minute.

In the pilot script, Blanche was described as "more Southern than Blanche DuBois", so McClanahan was perplexed when she was asked by director Sandrich during the filming of the pilot not to use the strong southern accent she had developed, but to use her natural Oklahoma accent instead. Once the show was picked up for a first season, the new director Paul Bogart felt exactly the opposite, insisting that McClanahan use a Southern accent. McClanahan deliberately exaggerated her accent, stating "I played Blanche the way I felt Blanche. She thought an accentuated Southern accent...would be sexy and strong and attractive to men. She wanted to be a southern heroine, like Vivien Leigh. In fact, that's who I think she thought she was."

Though Harris had created the character of Dorothy with a "Bea Arthur type" in mind, Littlefield and the producers initially envisioned actress Elaine Stritch for the part. Stritch's audition flopped, however, and under the impression that Arthur did not want to participate, Harris asked McClanahan if she could persuade Arthur, with whom she worked previously on the CBS sitcom Maude, to take the role. 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." She reconsidered, however, after hearing that McClanahan and White had switched roles.

Bea Arthur and Betty 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. Arthur's son, Matthew Saks, later spoke of tension between the two actresses, stating that his mother "unknowingly carried the attitude that it was fun to have somebody to be angry at...It was almost like Betty became her nemesis, someone she could always roll her eyes about at work. Both actresses had dramatically different training and acting backgrounds; Saks commented on White's habit of breaking the fourth wall to engage and joke with the studio audience during breaks between filming, which Bea Arthur found unprofessional. In 2011 White stated that she believed it was her "positive attitude" and perky demeanor which got on Arthur's nerves.

Exterior and interior sets

The house's address was mentioned as being 6151 Richmond Street, Miami. The model used for exterior shots of the house from the third season through the end of the series was part of the backstage studio tour ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This façade, along with the Empty Nest house, sustained hurricane damage leading to Disney's 2003 decision to bulldoze the houses of "Residential Street" and construct its "Lights, Motors, Action!" attraction. The façade was based on a real house at 245 N. Saltair Avenue in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Producers used this residence for exterior shots during the first two seasons.

The show's designer, Ed Stephenson, took inspiration from his time living in Florida to design a "Florida look" for The Golden Girls house set. The wooden accents, columns, and doors were painted to mimic Bald cypress wood, popular in South Florida homes, with rattan furniture and tropical-printed upholstery chosen for the furniture.

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. 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. Space was limited on the soundstage, so when the kitchen was off camera it was usually detached from the rest of the set and the space used for something else. The doorway from the living room, with the alcove and baker's shelf just inside, was designed to give the illusion that the actors were walking in and out of the kitchen.

Costumes

Costume designer Judy Evans created distinctive looks for each of the four actresses to suit their character's personalities and to reflect the Florida setting. According to Evans "I wanted a sexy, soft, and flowing look for Rue, a tailored, pulled-together look for Bea, a down-home look for Betty, and comfort for Estelle." Anna Wyckoff of the Costume Designers Guild wrote that "Evans took the direction from the producers to create a vibrant look for the four mature leads, and ran with it...redefining what “dressing your age” looked like." Many of the character's outfits were designed by Evans and made specially, but there were between seven and ten costume changes per episode between the four actresses, which entailed a great deal of off the rack shopping. Evans generally dressed the actresses in expensive pieces and high quality fabrics, despite the recurring theme that the four characters were struggling with money, because "The main idea was to make them look good. We didn't want the show to be about four dowdy ladies."

Bea Arthur had a preference for wearing loose fitting clothing, like slacks and long sweaters, along with sandals because she hated wearing shoes. She had established this signature look while playing Maude, and Evans honored it in her designs for Dorothy. Much of Arthur's wardrobe was custom-made because at the time it was difficult to find off-the-rack clothing that was flattering for a taller woman. Rue McClanahan had a special clause written into her contract allowing her to keep her costumes, which were mostly custom-made using expensive fabrics. Eventually McClanahan went on to create a clothing line for QVC, called "A Touch of Rue", inspired by Blanche but made with affordable fabrics and practical designs.