[30] 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. Another brief run of the show began on 27 April 2020 till summer 2020 on Channel 5, but only showed episodes up to the season-four finale and is returning to Channel 4 starting from early 2022. Although Sophia appears to be much older than the other girls in the show, Getty was actually younger than both Bea Arthur and Betty White. For, That was the case. 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. The hot young It Girl neighbor downstairsthe new Carrie Bradshaw if you will, a bruising realizationdrops the slur. "It was so exciting to be with four people with that chemistry. Gettleman says she suffered from advanced. Harold Gould played two of Rose's boyfriends, Arnie and Miles. 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. Sophia then recounts to Dorothy the account of the night Dorothy was conceived in Season 3, Episode 5, Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself. Sophia claims it happened in 1931, so Dorothy was most likely born in 1932, based on her sign. Blanche was probably around 50 when the show began, rather than 54. Exploring the Basics, Benefits, and Policies, How to Contact Tesla: Customer Service Phone Number, Website, Social Media, Email & Live Chat, Bruce Willis Health Condition: Understanding the Actors Diet and Exercise Regimen, Exploring the Impact of Greg Gutfelds Vacation from Fox News. Rue McClanahan is the youngest Golden Girl! White, Betty (2010). In "The Golden . In Australia, the show airs daily on FOX Comedy. The main cast of The Golden Girls included Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, Betty White as Rose Nylund, Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, and Estelle Getty as Dorothys mother, Sophia Petrillo. In 2022, we no longer believe that women need to lose their purpose once they hit the big 5-0. [59], Costume designer Judy Evans created distinctive looks for each of the four actresses to suit their characters' personalities and to reflect the Florida setting. Bea Arthur was not a part of the main cast but did guest star in a double episode, reprising her role as Dorothy.[106]. [35], Hired to shoot the pilot, director Jay Sandrich also became instrumental in helping to cast the roles of Blanche Devereaux and Rose Nylund. Estelle Getty auditioned and won the role as the feisty mother of character Dorothy Zbornak, 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. [33] The character of Sophia was thought by the creators to enhance the idea that three retirement-aged women could be young. Despite fan theories that the actresses were playing characters much younger than their actual age, Rue McClanahan's age in 1985 was 52, one year younger than her character on the show. 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. Airing from 1985 to 1992 with seven seasons in total, The Golden Girls was a smash hit during the entirety of its run. Dorothy meets and marries Blanches Uncle Lucas in the hour-long series finale, which aired in May 1992, and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta, Georgia. As such, this social belief is shown on our screens in the Sex and the City reboot, whereas Golden Girls portrayed societal norms of the 1980s. The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be? [41] Rue McClanahan, who shared a dressing room with Getty, described the severity of Getty's stage fright: "She'd panic. In "And Just Like That.", Miranda and Charlotte are 54, while Carrie is 55. . 41 Behind-the-Scenes 'The Golden Girls' Facts - 'Golden Girls' Trivia. 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. (Photo Credit: New Line Cinema/ HBO/ MovieStills DB and MovieStills DB). In conclusion, the evidence suggests that the Golden Girls characters were actually younger than their stated ages. How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be? - TrendRadars 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 atIt was almost like Betty became her nemesis, someone she could always roll her eyes about at work. The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. Actors How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be? In fact, the two were less than four months apart in age. ", This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 17:40. The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. White's birthday is January 17th and Arthur's was May 13th. The Golden Girls began in 1985 and concluded in 1992, both in real life and in the fictional realm. McClanahan and White were friends on- and off-screen. Featuring an all-male cast in drag, The Golden Girls: Live! Carrie's age range in "And Just Like That." puts her in the same age range as the characters in "The Golden Girls" season one, according to TODAY with Hoda & Jenna. She was also 63 years old by the time The Golden Girls premiered in 1985. The show never approached the popularity or acclaim of the original, and ranked 57th[citation needed] in the annual ratings. How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be? [68] Many episodes of the series followed a similar format or theme. On November 9, 2010, the studio released a complete-series box set titled The Golden Girls: 25th Anniversary Complete Collection. Required fields are marked *. Although the four main stars appeared to have good chemistry onscreen, there was some tension on the set between Betty White and Bea Arthur, whose personalities clashed during filming. In an interview with The Village Voice in 2011, White stated that Arthur found me a pain in the neck sometimes. Because none of the other Golden Girls explicitly disclose their ages, the logical process begins with Dorothy. According to the math, Blanche was 53 at the start of the series. [40] However, Arthur preferred that her three castmates and she all break for lunch together on workdays. Rose was probably closer to 51 than her stated age of 55, and Sophia was likely closer to 79 than her stated age of 77. 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. Colucci, Jim (2016). 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. That was the case. Getty was the first of the four stars to die in 2008 at age 84. [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. How old were the golden girl actresses during filming? Dorothy is revealed to be a Leo in another episode, which means she was born in July or August of 1932, making her character 53 years old at the time the series began. How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be? - TrendRadars The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur elected to quit the series after six seasons in the top ten and the seventh season at #30. 5. Saving the most difficult to track down for last, Rue McClanahan's character Blanche Devereaux kept her age a mystery (and a recurring joke) throughout most of The Golden Girls. Beginning July 3, 1989, NBC added daytime reruns of the show, replacing long-running Wheel of Fortune (which had moved to CBS) on the NBC schedule at 11:00am(EST); it ran until September 1990. After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series. Plus, Sophia was a great cook. Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, and Sophia Petrillo managed the single life as seniors in Miami for seven seasons. Blanche was inspired by the popular fictional characters Blanche DuBois (from A Streetcar Named Desire, a famous 1947 Broadway play written by Tennessee Williams) and Vivien Leigh, who portrayed the same character in the 1951 film adaptation alongside Marlon Brando. Based on the assumption that Season 1 and Season 2 took place in the same year, Rose would have been 55 at the start of The Golden Girls. However, with some detective work, audiences can figure them out. Her thesis examined menstrual education in Victorian England. Luckily, Susan Harris didnt lose her spark after Soap concluded, as she included much of the humor and sharp wit that made Soap popular in The Golden Girls as well. Blanche Elizabeth Marie Devereaux (ne Hollingsworth) is one of the four, fictional, main characters on the highly-acclaimed, revered, and well-received 1985-1992 NBC situation-comedy/sit-com TV series, The Golden Girls, and its spin-off, The Golden Palace. "[47] Getty died in 2008, the result of dementia with Lewy bodies. The pilot takes audio from the sitcom and sets it against a futuristic background inspired by The Jetsons. Estelle Getty portrayed the role of Sophia Petrillo, the mother of Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthurs character). 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. She'd be walking around like Pig-Pen, under a black cloud. However, it did so from a very different perspective. Their regular writer declined, so Witt asked his wife, Susan Harris,[24] who had been semiretired since the conclusion of their ABC series Soap. The Golden Girls | Golden Girls Wiki | Fandom Prior to that, when old people were shown on television, you could almost smell them., Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux, and Betty White as Rose Nylund in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). 10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Golden Girls' - Biography Blanche was probably around 50, Dorothy was likely in her late 40s, Rose was probably closer to 51, and Sophia was likely closer to 79. It was, however, more than a fringe success. The Golden Girls (TV Series 1985-1992) - Trivia - IMDb It wasnt until she was informed of Roses naivety that she gained the confidence to play the role and pull off the character. [63] Much of Arthur's wardrobe was custom-made because at the time, finding off-the-rack clothing that was flattering for a taller woman was difficult. Interestingly enough, Estelle Getty suffered from stage fright and would often freeze on camera during the filming of The Golden Girls. We didn't want the show to be about four dowdy ladies. The Golden Girls - Wikipedia [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. [73], In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. In a 1988 interview, Getty commented on her phobia and expressed how working with major stars, such as Arthur and White, made her even more nervous. Click Registration to join us and share your expertise with our readers.). The Golden Girls first aired on September 14, 1985, and it continues to appeal to both young and older audiences. She would start getting under a dark cloud the day before tape day You could see a big difference in her that day. Ironically, despite being the oldest actress in the show, Betty White was the last of the main stars to survive. 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. Then, in Season 3, Episode 5, "Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself," Sophia tells Dorothy the story of the night Dorothy was conceived. For example, in the pilot episode, Blanche states that she is 54 going on 55, which would mean that her age at the start of the show was 54. This could be because the writers wanted to create an atmosphere of timelessness or to emphasize the idea that age is just a number. This "created a great deal of stress and competitiveness amongst those of us who weren't in that inner sanctum. As one of the few times in television history where three shows from the same producer, set in the same city, aired back-to-back-to-back on the same network, the three shows occasionally took advantage of their unique circumstance to create storylines carrying through all three series, such as "Hurricane Saturday". (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Continue reading to find out how old were the golden girls on the set of The Golden Girls. This article promises to be interesting and really informative. [24][30], 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. Getty figured it would be her last chance to find television or film work. In any event, Arthur chose to commit to a seventh and final season. 4. Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. This faade, 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! The series also ranked among the Nielsen ratings' top ten for six of its seven seasons. the golden girls | CBR The show was aired as a bilingual broadcast using a two-channel sound system (Zweikanalton). Lets see how each actress was cast in their respective roles and how their careers continued after the show concluded. Betty White was 63 years old when the show premiered in 1985, yet she managed to play a younger persona perfectly. The show was a hit with viewers of all ages. Dorothy, following an impassioned speech in which she told the girls that I love you, always, she says as she rushes back into the home through several entrances for their final goodbyes, before making her final exit, saying, Youll always be my sisters. Continually , leaving the other three females to fend for themselves. On November 15, 2005, Warner Home Video released The Golden Girls: A Lifetime Intimate Portrait Series on DVD which contains a separate biography of Arthur, White, McClanahan and Getty, revealing each woman's background, rise to stardom and private life, which originally aired on Lifetime network between June 2000 and January 2003. -- Thirty years ago today, "The Golden Girls" premiered on television. At the request of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was reputedly a big fan, the cast of The Golden Girls performed several skits as their characters in front of her and other members of the British royal family at the 1988 Royal Variety Performance in London.[77]. None of the other Golden Girls outright state their ages, so Dorothy is where the deductive work begins. Initially, the producers wanted Betty White to play Blanche because she had been famous for playing promiscuous characters in the past. These ages seem to contradict what is stated in the show, suggesting that the characters may actually be younger than their stated ages. RELATED: How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be? You have a lot of table reads where the actors will mess it up because they don't understand what the characters are doing, or they misinterpret. [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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Proudly powered by WordPress She remarked that it was revolutionary because it was the first time older women were shown in an atmosphere where they were well-groomed, well dressed, had active sex lives. She expressed that she would not continue if changes were not made, but changes were made and jokes regarding Dorothy's physique appeared less often. New York: Harper Collins. Getty came to Weiner's mind soon after, when it became time to begin casting of The Golden Girls. However, Season 3, Episode 25, "Mother's Day," confirms Blanche was 17 in 1949, when she and her mother reminisce about one of Blanche's dates. 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]. Blanche (played by Rue McClanahan) was thought to be around 47 years old in the first season of Golden Girls. An instant ratings hit, The Golden Girls became an NBC staple on Saturday nights. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on Channel 4, Living and Disney Channel. This was the first time since 1993 that The Golden Palace was seen on American television. Roses age is the easiest to determine, owing to Dorothy revealing it in Season 1, Episode 22, Job Hunting. Dorothy exposes Roses age is exposed during a chat in which Rose describes her problems finding a new career after leaving her prior one at the grief counseling center. It could also be because the show was trying to emphasize the idea that age is just a number and that life does not end at a certain age. In order to try and determine the real ages of the Golden Girls, we need to look at other sources of evidence. Writer and producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason created a sitcom with this kind of image as a "four women" show, which became Designing Women on CBS. The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. | 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. The show dealt with many controversial issues, such as coming out and same-sex marriage,[75] elder care, homelessness, poverty, HIV/AIDS and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, US immigration policy, sexual harassment, teenaged pregnancy, artificial insemination, adultery, bad medical care, sexism, miscegenation and interracial marriage, antisemitism, age discrimination, environmentalism, addiction to pain killers, problem gambling, nuclear war, death, and assisted suicide.[76]. Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). Privacy Policy, Brands "[45], After season three, Arthur had expressed her growing dissatisfaction with the disparaging jokes made about her physical appearance, which were often in the scripts. 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. Getty was picky about the jokes Sophia would make. Finally, Sophia is stated to be in her late 70s, suggesting that she was between 77 and 79. She was born on July 25, 1923, making her 62 years old by the time the sitcom premiered. The ages of the Golden Girls were never revealed on TV. In the original Sex and the City, Samatha Jones (Kim Cattrall) was in her late 40s/ early 50s, but Cattrall decided not to be a part of the reboot. However, this older age makes sense because Sophia is Dorothys mother. Disney's Michael Eisner explains, "Estelle Getty made our three women into girls. 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 owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (White) and divorce 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. 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It won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series and two. Thats also the same reason why she refused to reprise her role in the spin-off series The Golden Palace, which featured Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. [11], Ideas for a comedy series about older women emerged during the filming of a television special at NBC Studios in Burbank, California, in August 1984. 2. 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 into and out of the kitchen. Blanche was 17 in 1949, according to Season 3, Episode 25, Mothers Day, when she and her mother reminisce about one of Blanches dates. She is passionate about Princess Diana, the Titanic, the Romanovs, and Egypt amongst other things. 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. (season two, episode five). Their fears were allayed when the preview screening garnered a standing ovation and the program was instantly renewed for 12 more Golden Girls episodes. But what made the show golden were its stellar cast and the beloved characters they portrayed. It had a total of 180 half-hour episodes across its seven seasons. [56] In 2020, owners marketed the property for $3 million. Dorothy states she is a Leo in Season 4, Episode 10, "Stan Takes a Wife," placing her birthday either in late July or early-to-late August. Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Bea Arthur as the beloved main cast of the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). In "The Golden Girls", Rose is 55, Dorothy is 53, Blanche is 47 and Sophia is 79. Eager not to be typecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles at the last minute. Both Betty White and Bea Arthur were 63 when The Golden Girls premiered, coinciding with the fan theory. Every episode of The Golden Girls was made available to stream on Hulu on February 13, 2017. Getty was the first actress to be cast, and her role was intended to make the rest of the characters appear younger. Season 2, Episode 25, "A Piece of Cake," reveals Sophia celebrated her 50th birthday in 1956, putting her at 79 at The Golden Girls' beginning. (Photo Credit: MovieStills DB). She joined the show after Estelle Getty, who was the first actress to be cast in The Golden Girls. Blanche would have been 60 by the series' end. The series starred Stephanie Hodge and a set of other young nurses. She was just as uptight as a human being could get. Both Rue McClanahan and Betty White came into consideration, as the series Mama's Family, in which the two co-starred, had been cancelled by NBC. Although the womens ages were rarely disclosed, some deductive work may be used to approximate how old each Golden Girl was at the commencement of the series. Some episodes featured flashbacks to previous episodes, flashbacks to events not shown in previous episodes, or to events that occurred before the series began. Similarly, Dorothy mentions in another episode that she was married in 1960, which would have made her 22.