The Golden Girls (TV series)
**Overview of The Golden Girls (TV series)**
"The Golden Girls" is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. The series revolves around four older women living together in a stylish house in Miami: Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia. Blanche, an attractive Southern belle, owns the house, while Dorothy and Rose respond to her ad for roommates. The dynamic of the group is enriched when Dorothy's mother, Sophia, joins them after her retirement home burns down. The show is notable for its humor and heartfelt moments often shared over cheesecake at their kitchen table, where the characters discuss personal issues and reflect on their pasts.
The series was groundbreaking for its portrayal of women over the age of 50, challenging the norms of television at the time, which predominantly featured younger casts. "The Golden Girls" received critical acclaim, including sixty-five Emmy nominations and eleven wins, making it a significant cultural touchstone of the 1980s. Its impact extended beyond its original run, as it gained new fans and is remembered for its warmth, humor, and relevance. The show's legacy continues, exemplifying the importance of diverse representation in media.
The Golden Girls (TV series)
Identification Television comedy series
Date Aired from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992
The Golden Girls was often extremely controversial, tackling topics that, during the 1980’s, were taboo for network television—and often in society at large—including homosexuality, menopause, gun control, domestic violence, suicide, cross-dressing, HIV/AIDS, lesbianism, euthanasia, chronic fatigue syndrome, artificial insemination, and senility.
The Golden Girls was an American situation comedy, created by Susan Harris, that originally aired Saturday nights on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. The show followed four older women who shared a fashionable house together in Miami. Blanche owned the house; Dorothy and Rose responded to an ad seeking roommates on the bulletin board of a local grocery store. The three women were later joined by Dorothy’s mother, Sophia, when Sophia’s retirement home, Shady Pines, burned down. The show starred Bea Arthur as practical Dorothy Zbornak, Betty White as naïve Minnesotan Rose Nylund, Rue McClanahan as sexy Southern belle Blanche Devereaux, and Estelle Getty as the wisecracking Sicilian Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy’s mother. In many episodes, the ladies ate cheesecake at the kitchen table—a familiar set in almost every episode—as they talked about their problems or reminisced about the past.
During the seventh season, Arthur decided that she wanted to leave the series, so in the last episode of that season, her character married Blanche’s Uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen). The other three protagonists, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia, continued in a spin-off series, The Golden Palace, but it lasted only one season. After the end of The Golden Palace, Getty joined the cast of another sitcom, Empty Nest, making far more frequent appearances as Sophia in the show’s final years than she had earlier as a recurring guest.
During its original run, The Golden Girls received sixty-five Emmy nominations and won eleven Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series), four Golden Globe awards, and two Viewers for Quality Television awards. Most unusual, all four lead actresses won Emmy Awards for their performances on the show.
Impact
The Golden Girls combined humor, warmth, and relevance to become one of the most popular and successful television programs of the 1980’s and one of the few shows to develop new fans years after its original run. The show, featuring four women of middle age or older, was highly unusual in a time when broadcast television relied on young, attractive stars to attract viewers. In that context, The Golden Girls was as significant as was The Cosby Show in diversifying the casts and audiences of network sitcoms.
Bibliography
Colucci, Jim. The Q Guide to “The Golden Girls.” New York: Alyson Books, 2006.
Mitz, Rick. The Great TV Sitcom Book. New York: Putnam, 1988.