 | It has been suggested thatSophia Petrillo,Dorothy Zbornak,Rose Nylund andBlanche Devereaux bemerged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2025. |
| The Golden Girls | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Susan Harris |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | Andrew Gold |
| Opening theme | "Thank You for Being a Friend" performed byCynthia Fee |
| Ending theme | "Thank You for Being a Friend" (instrumental) |
| Composer | George Tipton |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 180(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Camera setup | Videotape,Multi-camera |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 14, 1985 (1985-09-14) – May 9, 1992 (1992-05-09) |
| Related | |
The Golden Girls is an Americansitcom created bySusan Harris that aired onNBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. The series comprises 180 half-hour episodes across seven seasons and features anensemble cast led byBea Arthur,Betty White,Rue McClanahan, andEstelle Getty. Set inMiami, Florida, the show centers on four older women who share a home and navigate friendship, aging, and daily life.
The series was produced byWitt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association withTouchstone Television.Paul Junger Witt,Tony Thomas, and Susan Harris served as the original executive producers.
The Golden Girls received critical acclaim during its original run and earned numerous accolades, including twoPrimetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and threeGolden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.[2] Each of the four lead actresses won aPrimetime Emmy Award, making it one of only four sitcoms in history where all principal cast members received Emmy recognition. The show ranked among theNielsen top ten for six of its seven seasons.[3]
In 2013,TV Guide rankedThe Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.[4] In 2014, theWriters Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time".[5] Terry Tang of theAssociated 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.[6]
The show, featuring anensemble cast, revolves around four older single women, three widows and one divorcée, sharing a house in Miami while navigating their "golden years" with humor, friendship, and occasional chaos. The owner of the house is a widow namedBlanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widowRose Nylund (White) and divorcéeDorothy 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 are joined by Dorothy's 80-year-old widowed mother,Sophia Petrillo (Getty), after theretirement home where she lived burned down.[7][8]
Many episodes of the series followed a similar format or theme. For example, one or more of the women would become involved in some sort of problem, often involving other family members, men, or an ethical dilemma. At some point, they would gather around the kitchen table and discuss the problem, sometimes late at night and often while eating cheesecake, ice cream, or some other dessert.[9] One of the other girls then told a story from her own life, which somehow related to the problem (though Rose occasionally regaled the others with a nonsense story that had nothing to do with the situation, and Sophia told outrageous, made-up stories). Some episodes featured flashbacks to previous episodes, flashbacks to events not shown in previous episodes, or to events that occurred before the series began.[10][self-published source?]
The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. In the hour-longseries finale, which aired in May 1992, Dorothy meets and marries Blanche's uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen) and moves to Hollingsworth Manor inAtlanta. Sophia is to join her, but in the end, she stays behind with the other women in Miami. This led into the spin-off seriesThe Golden Palace.
The series finale ofThe Golden Girls was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2016, it was the 17th-most watched television finale.[11]
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | Rank | Rating | Viewers (millions) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | ||||||
| 1 | 25 | September 14, 1985 (1985-09-14) | May 10, 1986 (1986-05-10) | 7[12] | 21.8 | — | |
| 2 | 26 | September 27, 1986 (1986-09-27) | May 16, 1987 (1987-05-16) | 5[13] | 24.5 | — | |
| 3 | 25 | September 19, 1987 (1987-09-19) | May 7, 1988 (1988-05-07) | 4[14] | 21.8 | — | |
| 4 | 26 | October 8, 1988 (1988-10-08) | May 13, 1989 (1989-05-13) | 6[15] | 21.4 | 33.1 | |
| 5 | 26 | September 23, 1989 (1989-09-23) | May 5, 1990 (1990-05-05) | 6[16] | 20.1 | 30.8 | |
| 6 | 26 | September 22, 1990 (1990-09-22) | May 4, 1991 (1991-05-04) | 10[17] | 16.5 | 24.6 | |
| 7 | 26 | September 21, 1991 (1991-09-21) | May 9, 1992 (1992-05-09) | 30[18] | 13.1 | 19.2 | |
| "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 executiveWarren Littlefield about reading the pilot script[24] |
Ideas for a comedy series about older women emerged during the filming of a television special atNBC Studios inBurbank, California, in August 1984.[24] Produced to introduce the network's1984–85 season schedule, two actresses appearing on NBC shows,Selma Diamond ofNight Court andDoris Roberts ofRemington Steele, appeared in a skit promoting the upcoming showMiami Vice asMiami Nice, a parody about old people living in Miami.[25] NBC senior vice presidentWarren 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.[24]
Shortly afterward, he met with producers Paul Junger Witt andTony Thomas, who were pitching a show about a female lawyer. Though Littlefield nixed their idea, he asked if they would be interested in delivering apilot script forMiami Nice, instead. Their regular writer declined, so Witt asked his wife,Susan Harris,[24] who had been semiretired since the conclusion of their ABC seriesSoap.[26] She found the concept interesting, as "it was a demographic that had never been addressed," and she soon began work on it.[24] 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,[27] Littlefield was impressed when he received her pilot script and subsequently approved production of it.[24]The Cosby Show directorJay Sandrich, who had previously worked with Harris, Witt, and Thomas onSoap, agreed to direct the pilot episode.[28]
The pilot included a gay houseboy, Coco (Charles Levin), who lived with the girls. Levin had been suggested by then-NBC presidentBrandon Tartikoff based on Levin's groundbreaking portrayal of a recurring gay character, Eddie Gregg, on NBC's Emmy-winning dramaHill Street Blues. After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series.[29][30]
The Walt Disney Company, NBC Studios and the creators were named in a federal copyright infringement suit filed by Nancy Bretzfield claiming the show was based on a script rejected by NBC in 1980.[31] The suit was later settled.[citation needed]
According to the actorMark Feuerstein, Susan Harris has stated that she intendedThe Golden Girls to be a show about four Jewish women. Feuerstein said that "She wrote it about four old Jewish women living in Florida. They shot a pilot, it was great and everyone was excited, but the network told her ‘Rewrite it. Nobody is interested in watching four old Jewish women.’"[32][33]
The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. 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 ofTorch Song Trilogy. Afterwards, Getty returned to New York, but her manager sent her back to California in early 1985. Getty figured it would be her last chance to find television or film work, and she would return home to New York if she were unsuccessful.
Casting director Judith Weiner had seenTorch 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 actorMichael Gross), for a guest episode ofFamily 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 ofThe Golden Girls.[34]
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.[35] The character of Sophia was thought by the creators to enhance the idea that three retirement-aged women could be young. Disney'sMichael 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."[36] Getty continuously battled stage fright during her tenure on the show. 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. At times, she even froze on camera while filming.[37]
Hired to shoot 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 seriesMama's Family, in which the two co-starred, had been cancelled by NBC. Producers wanted to cast McClanahan as Rose and White as Blanche based on roles they had previously played; White portrayed the man-hungrySue Ann Nivens onThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, while McClanahan co-starred as the sweet but scatterbrained Vivian Harmon inMaude. Eager not to betypecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles at the last minute.[24][30]
In the pilot script, Blanche was described as "more Southern thanBlanche DuBois", so McClanahan was perplexed when she was asked by director Sandrich during the filming of the pilot not to use the strongSouthern accent she had developed, but to use her natural Oklahoma accent instead.[38] Once the show was picked up for a first season, new directorPaul 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, likeVivien Leigh. In fact, that's who I think she thought she was."[39]
Though Harris had created the character of Dorothy with a "Bea Arthur type" in mind, Littlefield and the producers initially envisioned actressElaine Stritch for the part.[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 sitcomMaude, to take the role. Arthur flipped upon reading the script, but felt hesitant about McClanahan's approach, as she did not "want to play (theirMaude characters) Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens." She reconsidered, however, after hearing that McClanahan and White had switched roles.
Arthur and White worked well together in shared mutual respect, but they did not pursue a personal friendship with one another outside ofThe 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."[40] Both actresses had dramatically different training and acting backgrounds; Saks commented on White's habit ofbreaking the fourth wall to engage and joke with the studio audience during breaks between filming, which Arthur found unprofessional.[41] “Those two couldn’t warm up to each other if they were cremated together,” co-producer Marsha Posner Williams recalled during a celebration of the series’ 40th anniversary in 2025. Williams added that Arthur referred to White as a "cunt" on more than one occasion.[42] In 2011, White stated that she believed it was her "positive attitude" and perky demeanor that got on Arthur's nerves.[43] However, Arthur preferred that all four castmates break together for workday lunch.[44]
The Golden Girlstelevision pilot was filmed on April 17, 1985. In addition to the four ladies, the pilot featured a gay cook/butler named Coco, played byCharles Levin. While taping, the show's writers and producers, as well as theNBC representatives attending, noticed the audible audience response to Estelle Getty's short performance as Sophia. After the pilot wasgreen lit, the producers ofThe Golden Girls decided to make Getty a regular cast member rather than an occasional guest star. This would mean there wouldn't be enough weekly airtime or dialogue for a regular cast of five. In addition, 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 this would be nearly impossible with a live-in cook. In the end it was decided to write out Levin's character.[45][46]
The show was the second television series to be produced by the Walt Disney Company under theTouchstone Television label, and was subsequently distributed byBuena Vista International, Inc. (which holds as the ownership stake inDisney Channel Southeast Asia, nowDisney–ABC Television Group).[47]The Golden Girls was shot on videotape in front of alive studio audience.[48]
Creator Susan Harris went on to contribute another four episodes to the first season, but became less involved with the sitcom throughout its run; she continued reading all scripts, however, and remained familiar with most of the storylines. Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman were the first head writers of the series, and wrote for the show's first four seasons. 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.[49]
In 1989, Marc Sotkin, previously a writer onLaverne & 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. Richard Vaczy and Tracy Gamble, previously writers on227 andMy Two Dads, also assumed the roles of producers and head writers. Beginning in 1990,Marc Cherry served as writer and producer, years before creatingDesperate Housewives, which ran on ABC from 2004 to 2012.[49]Mitchell Hurwitz also served as writer for the show in its last two seasons. Hurwitz later createdArrested Development forFox and later for Netflix.
Cherry commented onread-throughs of the scripts that "generally, if the joke was a good one, the women found a way to make it work the very first time they read it. 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. But the women were so uniformly brilliant at nailing it the first time... we basically knew that if the women didn't get it right the first time, the joke needed to be replaced." According to Cherry, the writers' room was "a competitive atmosphere. There was a lot of competition to get your words into the script."[50] WriterChristopher 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. This "created a great deal of stress and competitiveness amongst those of us who weren't in that inner sanctum."[51]
After season three, Arthur had expressed her growing dissatisfaction with the disparaging jokes made about her physical appearance, which were often in the scripts. 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.[41][34] Christopher Lloyd later said, "I think that was a mistake we made, to be a little bit insensitive to someone who was an extremely sensitive person... 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."[51]
Estelle Getty'sstage fright, which affected her from the beginning of the show, grew worse as the show went on. According to McClanahan, by the end of season three, Getty had significant problems remembering her lines, which was attributed to anxiety.[44] To aid her retention, Getty tried hypnosis, and the show hired an assistant to run lines with her before taping; neither method worked. She took to writing her lines on props at which she could glance easily, like the wicker purse Sophia always carried with her.[51][52] 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.[44] Rue McClanahan, who shared a dressing room with Getty, described the severity of Getty's stage fright: "She'd panic. She would start getting under a dark cloud the day before tape day... You could see a big difference in her that day. She'd be walking around likePig-Pen, under a black cloud. By tape day, she was unreachable. She was just as uptight as a human being could get. When your brain is frozen like that, you can't remember lines."[53] Getty died in 2008, the result ofdementia with Lewy bodies.[54][55] Her co-stars, in an interview, said that her disease had progressed to the point that she was not able to hold conversations with them or recognize them.[56] Her difficulties remembering lines were later thought to be early signs of her dementia.[57]
During season six, some uncertainty arose over whether Bea Arthur would commit to future seasons, or leave the show once her contract expired, to pursue other projects. Arthur felt the characters had been in every possible scenario, and wanted to end the series while it was still successful.[58][59]Debbie Reynolds was brought on as a guest star in the season six episode "There Goes the Bride: Part 2" to test her chemistry with the other actresses as a possible replacement for Arthur, but Arthur chose to commit to a seventh and final season.[58]
Blanche Devereaux's address was at 6151 Richmond Street inMiami, Florida. In reality, the exterior used for the first three and a half seasons ofThe Golden Girls was a residence at 245 North Saltair Avenue inBrentwood, California. In 1987, a front exterior replica was built inBay Lake, Florida to be used for filming exterior shots for mid season three and onward. It was part of the backstage studio tour ride atDisney's Hollywood Studios. The structure was identical to the front of the North Saltair Avenue residence, with the exception of the immature landscaping. Over time it sustained hurricane damage (along with theEmpty Nest home), leading to Disney's 2003 decision to bulldoze the houses of "Residential Street" and construct itsLights, Motors, Action!: Extreme Stunt Show attraction, later replaced byStar Wars: Galaxy's Edge. In 2020, owners of the original Brentwood home marketed the property for $3 million.[60][61][62][63]
The show's designer, Ed Stephenson, took inspiration from his time living in Florida to design a "Florida look" forThe Golden Girls house set. The wooden accents, columns, and doors were painted to mimicbald cypress wood, popular in South Florida homes, withrattan furniture and tropical-printed upholstery chosen for the furniture.[64]
The kitchen set seen onThe 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 Chicagohigh-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 into and out of the kitchen.[65]
Costume designer Judy Evans created distinctive looks for each of the four actresses to suit their characters' 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."[66] Anna Wyckoff of theCostume Designers Guild wrote, "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."[67] Many of the characters' outfits were designed by Evans and made especially, but seven to ten costume changes per episode were made between the four actresses, which entailed a great deal ofoff-the-rack shopping.[68] 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."[68]
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 playingMaude, and Evans honored it in her designs for Dorothy.[69] 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.[70] Rue McClanahan had a special clause written into her contract allowing her to keep her costumes, which were mostly custom-made for her, utilising expensive fabrics.[71][72] Eventually, McClanahan went on to create a clothing line forQVC called "A Touch of Rue", inspired by Blanche, but made with affordable fabrics and practical designs.[73]
The Golden Girls premiered to widespread acclaim,[74] which it maintained throughout its run.[75] OnMetacritic, the series has an overall score of 82 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[76]
During the NBC upfronts, the preview screening of the show got a standing ovation. The show promptly received a full order of 12 episodes.[77]
In 2013,TV Guide rankedThe Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.[4] In 2014, theWriters Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time".[5] In 2023,Variety rankedThe Golden Girls #18 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.[78] Terry Tang of theAssociated 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.[6]
An instant ratings hit,The Golden Girls became an NBC staple on Saturday nights.[79] 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'sLucille Ball sitcomLife with Lucy in the beginning of the 1986–87 season although it aired at 8:00, an hour earlier.The Golden Girls was part of a series of Brandon Tartikoff shows that put an end to NBC's ratings slump, along withThe Cosby Show,227,Night Court,Miami Vice, andL.A. Law.
The show dealt with many controversial issues, such ascoming out andsame-sex marriage,[80]elder care,homelessness,poverty,HIV/AIDS anddiscrimination against people with HIV/AIDS,US immigration policy,menopause,sexual harassment,teenage pregnancy,artificial insemination,adultery,bad medical care,sexism,miscegenation andinterracial marriage,antisemitism,age discrimination,environmentalism,substance abuse,problem gambling,nuclear war,death, andassisted suicide.[81]
Writer and producerLinda Bloodworth-Thomason created a sitcom with this kind of image as a "four women" show, which becameDesigning Women on CBS.Designing Women began competing againstThe Golden Girls.
At the request ofQueen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who was reputedly a big fan, the cast ofThe Golden Girls performed several skits as their characters in front of her and other members of the British royal family at the 1988Royal Variety Performance inLondon.[82]
The season 3 episode "Mixed Blessings" was noted as controversial. In it, Dorothy's son Michael (Scott Jacoby) plans to marry a Black woman, Lorraine (Rosalind Cash). In one scene, Blanche and Rose walk out of the kitchen wearing mud masks and Rose says "We're not black". Streaming serviceHulu pulled the episode in 2020 due toblackface concerns but, as an article inVulture pointed out this was not an example of blackface; they were just mud masks. As of 2023, the episode is back streaming on Hulu.[83][84]
The season 6 episode "Sisters of the Bride" featured Clayton, Blanche's gay brother, celebrating acommitment ceremony with his partner (assame-sex marriage would not be legalin the United States until the early 2000s). WriterMarc Cherry described in a 2025 episode of theSoapypodcast that "if we weren’t the first, we were only the second show to do something about gay marriage".[85] Cherry told the podcast interviewers that "they called us up to the office a few days after the episode aired, and they said, 'So you guys are gettingdeath threats'" and that "they literally showed us a letter that was written 'to those f—king Jew producers ofGolden Girls'".[85] As a result of the controversy, Cherry and his then-writing partner Jamie Wooten" had tounlist their telephone numbers.[85]
During its original run,The Golden Girls received 68 Emmy nominations, 11 Emmy awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and 2Viewers for Quality Television awards. All the lead actresses won Emmy awards for their role on the show.The Golden Girls is one of four live-action shows, along withAll in the Family,Will & Grace, andSchitt's Creek, where all the principal actors have won at least one Emmy.
As a tribute to the success ofThe Golden Girls, all four actresses were later namedDisney Legends as part of the class of 2009.[86]
Beginning July 3, 1989, NBC added daytime reruns of the show, replacing long-runningWheel of Fortune (which had moved toCBS) on the NBC schedule at 11:00 amEST; it ran until September 1990. At this time, syndicated reruns began airing, distributed by Buena Vista Television (nowDisney–ABC Domestic Television), the syndication arm of Disney, whose Touchstone Television division produced the series.
In March 1997, theLifetime cable network acquired the exclusive rights to repeat the episodes ofThe Golden Girls in the US until March 1, 2009. Many episodes were edited to allow more commercials and for content.
BothHallmark Channel andWe TV picked-up the reruns in March 2009. As of February 2013, We TV's rights expired andViacom'sTV Land, home to Betty White's last seriesHot in Cleveland, purchased them,[87] as didLogo TV.[88] In 2020,CMT purchased the rights to the series.
In Australia, the show has aired weekends on Fox Comedy. As of 2019, every episode is available for streaming onStan. As of December 1, 2021, every episode was made available to stream onDisney+.
In Canada,Corus Entertainment's digital specialty channel,DejaView, aired reruns ofThe Golden Girls until 2017. As of September 8, 2021 all 7 seasons ofThe Golden Girls were made available to stream onDisney+ in Canada.
In Germany, the show began being broadcast in January 1990, only months before theGerman reunification, by German public broadcasterARD in the late evening program on their main channelDas Erste. The show was aired as a bilingual broadcast using a two-channel sound system (Zweikanalton). If technically supported by the home television, this system allowed their audience to watch the show either in the dubbed German version (by default) or the original English version. After reruns on different regional channels of the ARD Network, the show later aired on private channelsRTL,VOX,Super RTL,Disney Channel andRTLup. While RTL initially chose to cut some scenes for time, some of the gags remain incomprehensible for their broadcast and all subsequent reruns, only to be restored partially for the release of DVD in 2005. As of September 15, 2021, every episode was made available to stream onDisney+ in Germany and Austria.
In Italy, the series aired onRai Uno (or Rai 1) asCuori senza età (Ageless Hearts) from 1987 until 1994.
In Israel, the show was broadcast byIsraeli Educational Television on its transmission strip onChannel 1, and in 1993, it was moved to IETV's transmission strip onChannel 2 right after it went on air. In February 2024, the whole series was up on the IsraeliDisney+.
In Southeast Asia, Rewind Networks began airing reruns ofThe Golden Girls on its HD channel, HITS, in 2013.
In New Zealand, the series aired onTVNZ and is replayed on public holidays and on Sunday afternoons. It was shown on Jones!.
In the United Kingdom, the series aired onChannel 4,Living andDisney Channel. Another brief run of the show began on 27 April 2020 till summer 2020 onChannel 5, but only showed episodes up to the season-four finale and is returning toChannel 4 starting from early 2022.
In Ireland, the series has been airing onTG4 since 2021.
Every episode ofThe Golden Girls was made available to stream onHulu on February 13, 2017.[89]
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. The film featured five episodes from the show: "The Pilot", "The Flu", "The Way We Met", "Ladies of the Evening" and "Grab That Dough".[90]
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons, with edits, ofThe Golden Girls onDVD inRegion 1 andRegion 4 with the first four being released inRegion 2. On November 9, 2010, the studio released a complete-series box set titledThe Golden Girls: 25th Anniversary Complete Collection.[91] The 21-disc collection features all 180 episodes of the series as well as all special features contained on the previously released season sets; it is encased in special collectible packaging, a replica of Sophia's purse. On November 15, 2005,Warner Home Video releasedThe 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 onLifetime network between June 2000 and January 2003.[92]
| Title | Release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |
| The Complete First Season | November 23, 2004[93] | June 27, 2005[94] | August 17, 2005[95] |
| The Complete Second Season | May 17, 2005[96] | August 1, 2005[97] | September 21, 2005[98] |
| The Complete Third Season | November 22, 2005[99] | January 9, 2006[100] | October 1, 2005[101] |
| The Complete Fourth Season | February 14, 2006[102] | September 1, 2008[103] | December 5, 2007[104] |
| The Complete Fifth Season | May 9, 2006[105] | TBA | April 2, 2008[106] |
| The Complete Sixth Season | November 14, 2006[107] | TBA | December 3, 2008[108] |
| The Complete Seventh Season | February 13, 2007[109] | TBA | March 18, 2009[110] |
| The Complete Series | November 9, 2010[111] | TBA | November 7, 2018[112] |
| Four Complete Seasons(Seasons 1–4) | No release | October 26, 2015[113] | No release |
After the original series ended, White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their characters in the CBS seriesThe Golden Palace, which featured Rose, Blanche, and Sophia selling their house to buy and run a hotel in Miami. It ran from September 1992 to May 1993 and also starredCheech Marin andDon Cheadle. Bea Arthur was not a part of the main cast but did guest star in a double episode, reprising her role as Dorothy.[114]
The show never approached the popularity or acclaim of the original, and ranked 57th[citation needed] in the annual ratings. Reportedly, a second season was approved before being cancelled the day before the network announced its 1993–94 schedule.
Lifetime, which held the rights toThe Golden Girls at the time, aired reruns ofThe Golden Palace in the summer of 2005, and again in December of that year. This was the first time since 1993 thatThe Golden Palace was seen on American television. Until April 2006, Lifetime played the series as a virtual season eight, airing the series in between the conclusion of the final season and the syndicated roll-over to season one.
For White's 100th birthday on January 10, 2022,The Golden Palace began streaming onHulu.
Susan Harris developed a spin-off centering onempty nest syndrome. The initial pilot was aired as the 1987Golden Girls episode "Empty Nests", and starredPaul Dooley andRita Moreno as George and Renee Corliss, a married couple living next to theGolden Girls characters, who face empty nest syndrome after their teenaged daughter goes to college.[115] When that idea was not well received, Harris retooled the series as a vehicle forRichard Mulligan, and the following yearEmpty Nest debuted, starring Mulligan as pediatrician Harry Weston, a widower whose two adult daughters moved back home.
Characters from both shows made occasionalcrossover guest appearances on the other show, with the four girls guesting onEmpty Nest and Mulligan,Dinah Manoff,Kristy McNichol,David Leisure, andPark Overall appearing onThe Golden Girls in theirEmpty Nest roles.[116] After the end ofThe Golden Palace, Getty joined the cast ofEmpty Nest, making frequent appearances as Sophia in the show's final two seasons. Mulligan and Manoff were alumni from one of Susan Harris' earlier shows,Soap.
Empty Nest launched its own spin-off in 1991 set in Miami in the same hospital where Dr. Weston worked. The series starredStephanie Hodge and a set of other young nurses. 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".
Starring actress Hodge left after two seasons,David Rasche joined the cast at the start of the second season, andLoni Anderson was added as the new hospital administrator in the third.
The Golden Girls: Live! was anoff-Broadway show that opened in the summer of 2003 in New York City at Rose's Turn theater in the West Village, and ran until November of that year.[117] The production ended because the producers failed to secure therights and received acease-and-desist order by the creators of the original television show. Featuring an all-male cast indrag,The Golden Girls: Live! consisted of two back-to-back episodes of the sitcom: "Break-In" (season one, episode eight) and "Isn't It Romantic?" (season two, episode five).
The Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue opened with an all-male cast in drag on December 14, 2023, in Los Angeles. The production stars Christopher Kamm, Adam Graber, Ryan Bernier, and Vince Kelley. The play was written by Robert Leleux and directed by Eric Swanson.[118]
The cast ofThe Golden Girls, Sophia, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose, have been even further immortalized in two puppet parody showsThank You For Being A Friend[119] andThat Golden Girls Show: A Puppet Parody, both created by Australian screenwriterThomas Duncan-Watt and producer Jonathan Rockefeller.[120]
Golden Girls 3033 is an animated pilot created by Mike Hollingsworth. The pilot takes audio from the sitcom and sets it against a futuristic background inspired byThe Jetsons.[121]
In 2025,The Golden Girls became acozy mystery novel series. The first book,Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery, by author Rachel Ekstrom Courage, was released April 15, 2025.[122] The book became aNew York Times bestseller. A second book,Death on the Lanai, will be released on April 28, 2026.[123]
In 2017, aGolden Girls-themed eatery, Rue la Rue Cafe owned by Rue McClanahan's close friend Michael La Rue, who inherited many of the star's personal belongings and in turn decorated the restaurant with them, opened in theWashington Heights section of the New York City borough ofManhattan.[135] The eatery closed in November 2017 after less than a year of operation.[136]
The first thing you should know about the first episode of The Golden Girls, which premiered 30 years ago to widespread acclaim
The television program received critical acclaim throughout its run
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