Coco

The Golden Girls article

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Coco
Portrayed by	Charles Levin
Character Information
Nicknames	The Fancy Man
Gender	Male
Age	Adult
Occupation(s)	Cook
Romances
Ex-Boyfriends Unnamed policeman
Production Information
Appears In	The Golden Girls
Debuts in	"The Engagement" (The Golden Girls, 1985)
Final Appearance	"The Engagement" (The Golden Girls, 1985)
Episode Count	1

Coco is a minor character in the 1985 NBC sitcom The Golden Girls. He was a gay housekeeper and cook that lived with the ladies.

Coco's only appearance was in the pilot episode, after which he was written out of the show due to concerns about how he would fit into the cast and criticism from NBC. He was portrayed by the late Charles Levin.

Personality and Traits

Due to heavy editing, many of Coco's scenes were cut from the pilot, thus much of his personality is watered down or unknown. He appears to have a dry sense of humor, but is still rather empathetic, offering words of support to the ladies during hard times.

Biography

Some time before the pilot takes place, Coco was hired by Blanche Devereaux to be a cook and housekeeper at her home in Miami, Florida. He ended up befriending Blanche as well as her two roommates, Dorothy Zbornak and Rose Nylund.

During the pilot, he lent a sympathetic ear to Dorothy and Rose about their current woes.

Career

Coco was intended to be a hired housekeeper/cook.

Relationships

Sophia Petrillo

Though Coco and Sophia are never seen interacting in the finished pilot, Sophia appears to be tolerant of him at the very least and fond of him at best. After getting a sandwich from the kitchen, Sophia commented that Coco was "an okay petunia". At the end of the episode, Sophia couldn't go out to eat with the ladies because she was taking Coco out to the dog track.

In a cut scene, Coco poured his heart out to Sophia after a bad date, and Sophia decided to cheer him up by taking him to the dog track, providing context for the final scene.

Appearances

The Golden Girls (1985 -1992)

Season 1
1. "The Engagement":	Debut	13. "A Little Romance":	Absent
2. "Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding":	Absent	14. "That Was No Lady":	Absent
3. "Rose the Prude":	Absent	15. "In a Bed of Rose's":	Absent
4. "Transplant":	Absent	16."The Truth Will Out":	Absent
5. "The Triangle":	Absent	17. "Nice and Easy":	Absent
6. "On Golden Girls":	Absent	18. "The Operation":	Absent
7. "The Competition":	Absent	19. "Second Motherhood":	Absent
8. "Break-In":	Absent	20. "Adult Education":	Absent
9. "Blanche and the Younger Man":	Absent	21. "The Flu":	Absent
10. "The Heart Attack":	Absent	22. "Job Hunting":	Absent
11. "The Return of Dorothy's Ex":	Absent	23. "Blind Ambitions":	Absent
12. "The Custody Battle":	Absent	24. "Big Daddy":	Absent
25. "The Way We Met":			Absent

Casting and Development

Casting

This episode is the only appearance of Coco, who had been planned to live with the Golden Girls as their houseboy and confidante. Casting associate Allison Jones noted that while they never had a particular "type" in mind for Coco, prospective candidates ranged all over the Kinsey Scale, including Italian-American comics Dom Irrera and Paul Provenza. Producers originally considered Jeffery Jones for the role, who had previously played gay characters in Cloud Nine and Amadeus, and at the time was preparing to play Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. According to Jones, he talked himself out of the role as he didn't believe that Coco was very realistic and drew attention away from the female leads. Paul Junger Witt recalled that the casting team was thinking of Coco as a "drag queen", but as a drag queen performing drag, and not a drag queen playing a serious role. As there weren't a lot of actors willing to commit to doing drag, Witt decided to try it himself. He was referred by a friend to singer Hillary Carlip, and picked out an outfit he thought would work. -- but rather than coming off as a "big, flamboyant" drag queen, he picked out a costume similar to a "nice, average, Beverly Hills-esque woman". While he didn't get the part, Witt's performance and costume were extremely convincing, as he was propositioned by the lot's security guard on the way back to his car -- "(He) said "I've never seen you around here before. You must be new in town," which I thought was really funny.". Witt came to the conclusion that they didn't want an "outrageous, campy" character, and the producers began looking across other demographics to find what they needed.

Then-NBC president Brandon Tartikoff suggested Charles Levin for the role, based on Levin's groundbreaking portrayal of Eddie Gregg on NBC's Emmy-winning drama Hill Street Blues.

Removal

Coco was written out of the show before the second episode was taped. Levin initially left the episode's taping with high hopes for the show's pickup, but two days before the option deadline, Paul Junger Witt called him and said that it wasn't going to work out. The writers observed that in many of the proposed scripts, the main interactions between the women occurred in the kitchen while preparing and eating food, and decided a separate cook would distract from their friendship. As said by Levin, "They didn't want to have to give me less just to keep me on the show; it wouldn't be fair to me."

In an interview with Jim Colucci in his book Golden Girls Forever, Levin revealed that Coco had been given more scenes than had made it into the episode, but many of those scenes ended up being cut. One scene in particular included Coco talking to Sophia about his lackluster love life, exclaiming "That's the last time I date a cop!", which provided context for Sophia going out to the dog track with him. According to Levin, "Susan wanted to write a character who gave you insights as to what gay guys do - their love lives, their private lives ... Well, word came down that this was offensive to NBC, who did not want any reference to what Coco was doing with other men ... Nobody wanted to know what he did on the outside. His only function was to be within the house, dealing with the women." Ultimately, Levin attributed Coco's removal to the death of Rock Hudson, the first major American celebrity to die from AIDS: "I think it threw everyone for a loop, especially those in TV. Because now, how do you deal with gay characters when there's this threat of a horrible death hanging over their heads?"

Trivia

• While Coco was cut from the original version of the series, the Greek version of The Golden Girls kept Coco on as a houseboy named Joseph. Joseph and Sophia shared a room with bunk beds.

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