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

Casting and Development

Coco had been planned to live with the Golden Girls. Charles 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. However, Coco was written out of the show before the second episode was taped. Charles 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. They decided that 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 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." Additionally, Levin believed that the death of Rock Hudson, the first major American celebrity to die from AIDS, attributed to Coco's removal from the show. "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.