how old were the golden girls supposed to be
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. [57], The show's designer, Ed Stephenson, took inspiration from his time living in Florida to design a "Florida look" for The Golden Girls house set. The classic NBC comedy The Golden Girls broke boundaries with its cast of four older women, a representation that was previously lacking on television. Arthur and White worked well together in shared mutual respect, but they did not pursue a personal friendship with one another outside of The Golden Girls set. 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. However, with some detective work, audiences can figure them out. [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. Despite her enjoyment in playing Dorothy, the show eventually concluded when Bea Arthur decided to depart the show in 1992. The program is about four elderly ladies who live . When "The Golden Girls" premiered over 30 years ago, on Sept. 14, 1985, audiences were introduced to Southern belle Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and her roommates Rose Nylund (Betty. She is also the only living core cast member from the series. Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper and Betty White as Ellen Harper-Jackson in the 1983 sitcom Mamas Family (Credit: NBC). In order to try and determine the real ages of the Golden Girls, we need to look at other sources of evidence. It has recently come to light that the leading ladies of AndJust Like That, Sex and the Citys reboot, are basically the exact same age as the leading ladies in The Golden Girls a fact that has completely blown our minds! 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. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, the show is about four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida. Designing Women began competing against The Golden Girls. Win free shoes, organize your shoe closet, see the latest styles + more, About It was popular for addressing a demographic that rarely saw the spotlight on television or in Hollywood: senior women. For simplicity, because the program lasted seven seasons, each season is treated as a different year for the purpose of simplicity. Initially, the producers of the show had planned for Getty only to be a recurring guest. 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]. [6], The show features an ensemble cast and the plot revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorce) sharing a house in Miami. However, White and McClanahan wanted to play against their typecasting, so McClanahan was cast as Blanche instead. Did Rue McClanahan have a Southern accent? 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. How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be on the show? Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). Maddy Hiltz is someone who loves all things history. It shattered stereotypes and even made that demographic entertaining for audiences of all genders and ages. 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. Betty White as Rose Nylund in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). In this article, we will explore the evidence and try to uncover the true ages of the Golden Girls. 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. Eager not to be typecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles at the last minute. DO YOU LOVE SHOES? Premiering in 1985, The Golden Girls was an instant smash, attracting a diverse audience for a then-novel concept depicting the lives of four older women sharing friendship, a home and a lot . Disney's Michael Eisner explains, "Estelle Getty made our three women into girls. How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be? 2023 Wording Vibes - WordPress Theme by Kadence WP, Although the womens ages were rarely disclosed, some deductive work may be used to, The Golden Girls began in 1985 and concluded in 1992, both in real life and in the fictional realm. How Old Was Rose Nylund On Golden Girls? However, with some detective work, audiences can figure them out. 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. 12. Apparently, writer Susan Harris envisioned a Bea Arthur type when conceptualizing the character of Dorothy. And that was, to me, what made it seem like it could be a contemporary, young show. The Golden Girls is an American comedy that was produced by Susan Harris and aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Blanche was probably around 50 when the show began, rather than 54. Empowering Lives with Nutritious and Delicious NDIS Meals! As of 2019, every episode is available for streaming on Stan. Crypto Wallet Development: Types, Features, and Popularity, 5 Ways AI is Detecting and Preventing Identity Fraud. In order to try and determine the real ages of the Golden Girls, we need to look at other sources of evidence. 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. During its original run, The Golden Girls received 68 Emmy nominations, 11 Emmy awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Viewers for Quality Television awards. As a result, new viewers are becoming aware of the show. [32], 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. [9], The pilot was taped on April 17, 1985.[10]. The Golden Girls: How the Classic Sitcom Ended, Christina Ricci's Wednesday Addams Is Iconic for Pushing Boundaries. Getty came to Weiner's mind soon after, when it became time to begin casting of The Golden Girls. [31] The suit was later settled. 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. 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]. In conclusion, the evidence suggests that the Golden Girls characters were actually younger than their stated ages. Bill Dana played Sophia's brother Angelo and her father. Although the writing was mostly comical, dramatic moments and sentimental endings were included in several episodes. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on Channel 4, Living and Disney Channel. In "The Golden Girls", Rose is 55, Dorothy is 53, Blanche is 47 and Sophia is 79. Before The Golden Girls, she was most renowned for creating the series Soap, which parodied daytime soap operas such as The Young and the Restless. [108] After the end of The Golden Palace, Getty joined the cast of Empty Nest, making frequent appearances as Sophia in the show's final two seasons. One, while the characters ages on the show appeared to be quite. 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. "[72], During the NBC upfronts, the preview screening of the show got a standing ovation. Ironically, despite being the oldest actress in the show, Betty White was the last of the main stars to survive. McClanahan deliberately exaggerated her accent, stating, "I played Blanche the way I felt Blanche. 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. Carl Gettleman, one of her two sons, says the co-star of the TV show "The Golden Girls" died early Tuesday, July 22, 2008, at home in Los Angeles. In fact, the two were less than four months apart in age. Their hair also hasnt greyed (or is colored), and they style their hair in a more contemporary way. 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. In an interview with The Village Voice in 2011, White stated that Arthur found me a pain in the neck sometimes. Afterwards, Getty had returned to New York, but gained permission from her manager to return to California in early 1985. Cast alongside Rue McClanahan, she impressed the producers of The Golden Girls with her recurring role as Ellen in Mamas Family. Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Betty White as Rose Nylund, and Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). "We had games going all the time off camera." 13. Clearly, the wardrobe and hairstyles in each show are extremely different from each other. According to Cherry, the writers' room was "a competitive atmosphere. White, Betty (2010). Privacy Policy, Brands I kept reading scenes to them and saying, 'God, this is brilliant [] There's nothing trendy about this show. This led into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace. How old was Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls? That means with a little digging, coming up with each Golden Girl's age is easy for a superfan. 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. She was said to have worn aged cosmetics in character to make her appear to be an eighty-something woman. We didn't want the show to be about four dowdy ladies. We hope this article on how old were the golden girls has been interesting and has also been able to bring back good memories. In New Zealand, the series aired on TVNZ and is replayed on public holidays and it is shown on Jones!. Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman were the first head writers of the series, and wrote for the show's first four seasons. 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 series also ranked among the Nielsen ratings' top ten for six of its seven seasons. Rose Nylund was 55 years old when the show premiered, as Dorothy stated in the Season 1 episode Job Hunting.. Sophia, Dorothys straight-talking mother, was the Golden Girls houses oldest figure. So why do the ladies in Golden Girls seem so much older than the characters in And Just Like That, even though theyre all supposed to be around the same age? Estelle Getty portrayed the role of Sophia Petrillo, the mother of Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthurs character). Born on January 17, 1922, Betty White was the oldest of the four main stars. [2] Each of the four stars received an Emmy Award, making it one of only four sitcoms in the award's history to achieve this. Sophia had her 50th birthday in April 1956, making her character 79 years old when the series premiered in 1985, according to a flashback scene in Season 2s , 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, 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. The adventures of Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Rose ( universally beloved Betty White) and Sophia (Estelle Getty) -- four older women who lived in a Miami home together -- took audiences by storm and provided representation to a group generally overlooked by television of the time. In Season 2, Episode 1, "End of the Curse," Blanche believes she is pregnant, and states she'll be 65 by the time the child graduates high school. Then, in Season 3, Episode 5, "Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself," Sophia tells Dorothy the story of the night Dorothy was conceived. Cherry commented on read-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. Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, and Harris served as the original executive producers. While the characters' ages on the series seemed fairly clear-cutBlanche, Rose and Dorothy were in their mid-50s, while Sophia was Dorothy's widowed, elderly motherit may surprise fans to know that the actual ages of the actresses playing them were completely different. The Golden Girls: Live! Actress Elaine Stritch was also considered for the role, but she blew her audition by using curse words, which was something that the writers felt was out of character for Dorothy. 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! This was the first time since 1993 that The Golden Palace was seen on American television. 8 Silk Pillowcases for Your Best Beauty Sleep. New Movie News, Movie Trailers & upcoming Movie Reviews. 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. In Germany, airing of the show started in January 1990, only months before the German reunification, by German public broadcaster ARD in the late evening programme on their main channel Das Erste. Ironically, the actress who played Sophia, Estelle Getty, was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter, Dorothy. 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 any event, Arthur chose to commit to a seventh and final season. Rose's age is the easiest to track down, thanks to Dorothy openly saying it in Season 1, Episode 22, "Job Hunting." In Canada, Corus Entertainment's digital specialty channel, DejaView, aired reruns of The Golden Girls until 2017. [124] The eatery closed in November 2017 after less than a year of operation.[125]. When Arthur first received the script for The Golden Girls, she loved the concept of having senior women as the stars of the show. Audiences can figure things out with a little detective work. Estelle Getty reprised her role as Sophia in The Golden Palace, which only lasted for one season. She received her Bachelors of Arts in history and her Masters of Arts degree in history both from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Cheers. How Old Was Rose Nylund On Golden Girls? [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. [48][49] 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. Among all of the great roles she played over the course of her legendary career, the late, great Betty Whitewho passed away on Dec. 31, 2021, at the age of. was an off-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. After some careful math, viewers also figured out that Dorothy (played by Bea Arthur) was supposed to be 53. The show became a huge hit with viewers, thanks to its clever writing and strong performances by the four main stars. 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. 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. Arguably the main protagonist of the show, Blanche Devereaux is portrayed by Rue McClanahan. "[34] Getty continuously battled stage fright during her tenure on the show. Your email address will not be published. Lets see how each actress was cast in their respective roles and how their careers continued after the show concluded. The film Golden Girls was a critical and commercial triumph. [83] 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. Both Betty White and Bea Arthur were 63 when The Golden Girls premiered, coinciding with the fan theory. [41], The show was the second television series to be produced by the Walt Disney Company under the Touchstone Television label, and was subsequently distributed by Buena Vista International, Inc. (which holds as the ownership stake in Disney Channel Southeast Asia, now DisneyABC Television Group). As of September 8, 2021 all 7 seasons of The Golden Girls were made available to stream on Disney+ in Canada. [62] 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. 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. 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. [39] In 2011, White stated that she believed it was her "positive attitude" and perky demeanor that got on Arthur's nerves. For one thing, it did pave the way for a new terrain. How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be? [25] NBC senior vice president Warren 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.