The Golden Girls

Written by: Jessica Renee

Edited by: Avalon Cupid and Niki Poplin

Originally written: March 2020; Edited in May/June 2022

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. The series ran for a total of seven seasons and a total of 180 full-length episodes.

The television series stars well-known, veteran stage and television actresses, Beatrice (Bea) Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. The premise of the show centers on four, older women who share a Miami single home, going through the many motions of aging and life.

The series was created by producers, Susan Harris and Paul Junger Witt, in the association of the Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions with Touchstone Television and distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television in syndication.

The Golden Girls won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. It also won three Golden Globes for outstanding TV series comedy/musical. All four stars each received an Emmy Award throughout the series' run and each had multiple nominations. It also ranked among the top ten highest-rated programs for six out of its seven seasons.

Series overview
The series revolves around four older, single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami, Florida. The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) after they both responded to a room-for-rent ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store. In the pilot episode, the three were joined by Dorothy's 80-year-old widowed mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), after the retirement home where she lived burned down. Initially, the women had a gay cook named Coco (Charles Levin) who lived with them, but the character was never seen again after the pilot episode.

Finale
After six consecutive seasons in the top 10, and the seventh season at #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. Presumably, Sophia was to join her, but, in the end, Sophia stays behind with the other girls in Miami, leading into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace.

Dorothy, after making an emotional speech and telling the girls that "I love you, always", comes rushing back in through different entrances of the house for their final goodbyes, until making her final exit, saying "You'll always be my sisters. Always", leaving the other three ladies. The series finale was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2018, the finale ranked at #17 of most-watched finales. Watch Golden Girls Now on Hulu and Disney + internationally

Recurring characters

 * Herbert Edelman as Stanley Zbornak, Dorothy's cheating, freeloading ex-husband who first appears in the second episode of Season 1, and appears in 26 episodes total throughout the series.
 * Harold Gould as Miles Webber (Nicholas Carbone), Rose's professor boyfriend who appeared in 14 episodes, starting in Season 5. Gould also guest starred in the show's third episode in its first season as Arnie Peterson, Rose's first serious boyfriend after her husband Charlie's death. He also appeared in the third episode of The Golden Palace, after Rose discovered he was cheating on her.
 * Debra Engle as Blanche's daughter Rebecca Devereaux, who has a baby girl by artificial insemination and appeared in three episodes, seasons 5–7. Shawn Schepps played Rebecca in season 3, when she returns from a modeling career in Paris, overweight and engaged to a verbally abusive man.
 * Monte Markham as Blanche's brother Clayton Hollingsworth in two episodes, first when he comes out and later to introduce his boyfriend.
 * Sheree North as Virginia Hollingsworth Wylde, Blanche's sister who appeared in two episodes, first in season one then again in season five.
 * Sid Melton as Salvadore "Sal" Petrillo, Sophia's late husband, usually seen in dreams or flashback sequences who appeared in eight episodes. He also appeared as Don the Fool, a waiter at a medieval restaurant in season six.
 * Nancy Walker as Angela Grisanti-Vecchio, Dorothy's aunt and Sophia's sister, with whom Sophia constantly fought, appeared in two episodes in 1987.
 * Brenda Vaccaro played Angela Petrillo, the widow of Dorothy's brother, Phil, for one episode in 1990.
 * Bill Dana as Sophia's brother and Dorothy's uncle Angelo Grisanti who appeared in seven episodes from seasons 3 to 7. Dana also appeared as Sophia's father in a season 4 episode.
 * Doris Belack as Gloria Mayston, Dorothy's younger sister who in season 1, is married to a wealthy man in California and wants Sophia to move in with her. She later lost all of her money and returns in season 7 for a 2-part episode played by Dena Dietrich and upsets Dorothy as she becomes romantically involved with Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan.
 * Scott Jacoby as Dorothy's aimless musician son Michael Zbornak who appeared in three episodes.
 * Lynnie Greene, credited as Lynn Greene; she portrayed a younger Dorothy in flashbacks in four episodes.
 * Steve Landesberg played Stan’s psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Halperin, appearing in three episodes in season 7.

The show also drew many well-known or then up-and-coming actors and actresses for single guest starring roles, such as Don Ameche, Barbara Babcock, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Ken Berry, Lloyd Bochner, Sonny Bono, Eddie Bracken, Joseph Campanella, Virginia Capers, Rosalind Cash, George Clooney, Polly Holliday, Robert Culp, Ruby Dee, the Del Rubio triplets, Jeane Dixon, Anne Francis, Johnny Gilbert, Jack Gilford, Alice Ghostley, Beth Grant, Peter Graves, Merv Griffin, George Grizzard, Jane Kapowski, Rachel Bloom, Terry McGurrin (Scaredy Squirrel), Freddie Jackson, Tony Jay, Billy Jayne, Gordon Jump, Paula Kelly, Alan King, David Leisure, Jenny Lewis, Hal Linden, Mario Lopez, Ralph Manza, Kevin McCarthy, Edie McClurg, Marian Mercer, Martin Mull, Leslie Nielsen, Jeanette Nolan, Jerry Orbach, Leland Orser, Milo O'Shea, Robert Picardo, Tony Plana, Peggy Pope, Joe Regalbuto, Burt Reynolds, Debbie Reynolds, Donnelly Rhodes, Richard Riehle, Alex Rocco, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, Harry Shearer, Reid Shelton, McLean Stevenson, Inga Swenson, Jeffrey Tambor, Meshach Taylor, Jay Thomas, Alex Trebek, Dick Van Dyke, Tom Villard, Lyle Waggoner, David Wayne, and Fred Willard. Director Quentin Tarantino appeared as an Elvis impersonator in one episode.

Trivia

 * Aired in a programming block with sister shows Empty Nest (1988-1992) and Nurses (1991-1992). All three shows were created by Susan Harris and took place in Miami, Florida. On several occasions the shows featured interwoven story lines (such as a hurricane), in which characters from all three shows would interact. In 1992 the spin-off The Golden Palace served as a sequel to The Golden Girls.