Are you as obsessed with "The Golden Girls" as I am? If so, then you're going to LOVE this new blog post!
Picture it...September 14, 1985, NBC’s brand new sitcom “The Golden Girls” premieres and becomes a huge hit! The show, with its stellar ensemble cast including Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty - which aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992 - was about four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida.
However, what viewers didn’t know is that the house Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia lived in on the show wasn’t located in Miami. That lovely ranch-style home exists at 245 N Saltair Ave in the affluent, quiet, tranquil, town of Brentwood in Los Angeles! Crazy, right?!
How did I find it? During the pandemic lockdown, I did a lot of research online and featured it as one of the stops on my Hollywood Pandemic Tour - which I posted it on my social media for a year. As you can see it still looks exactly the way it did on every episode of that classic show! My followers loved it! And I loved visiting this location SO much! It's so special - especially to a huge Golden Girls fan like me.
During season one, the exterior shots of the house were of this home in Brentwood. However, from season two to the end of the series, the exterior shots of the home were shot at a replica house built at the Disney Hollywood Studios park in Orlando - which was sadly torn down and is no longer there.
UPDATE - the house in Brentwood was sold in 2020 for just over $4,000,000 and the new owners built a wall in front of the house to prevent fans from taking photos. UGH! That sucks, I know. Luckily, I took tons of photos of this familiar ranch-style home that I'll be using in the book I'm currently writing for you guys to enjoy!
Quiz - On the series "The Golden Girls", who was the owner of the house (located on the fake address of 6151 Richmond Street in Miami - there's no such street in Miami) Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, or Sophia?
Answer - Blanche was the owner of the house on the show until she sold it so she, Rose, and Sophia could invest in "The Golden Palace", a Miami Beach hotel that the girls run in the spin-off show of the same name. The Carlyle Hotel on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive was used for exterior shots depicting the Golden Palace Hotel.
Even though it’s been 32 years since it went off the air, this classic TV sitcom is still very much loved and watched by millions of people every day around the world. I, for one, watch it every night on the Hallmark Channel right before I go to bed. Admit it...you do the same, right? I promise I won't tell anyone. ;)
THE "EMPTY NEST" HOUSE ISN'T IN MIAMI EITHER
Believe it or not the location of the home on the spin-off series of The Golden Girls, “Empty Nest” - which aired for seven seasons (1988 to 1995) on NBC - is located about 5 minutes away from the Saltair house in the same town!
Like the house from ‘Girls’ this one is also NOT located in Miami! It’s actually at 1457 Jonesboro Drive in Brentwood - see how it still looks the same.
In case you don’t remember it, this hilarious series starred Richard Mulligan as recently widowed pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston, whose two adult daughters (Kristy McNichol and Dinah Manoff - who I did a fantastic interview with for my podcast - Episodes 53 & 54) return home to live with him. On the show, they are neighbors of Rose, Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia and there were several crossover episodes that characters from either show guest-starred on.
FUN FACT - actress Estelle Getty reprised her Golden Girls character Sophia Petrillo during Empty Nest’s final two seasons (after the cancellation of “The Golden Palace”). It was explained on the show that Sophia had moved back into the nearby Shady Pines retirement home!
In case I didn't already mention it - these two locations are a part of the coffee table book that I am writing about my year during the lockdown, posting my HOLLYWOOD PANDEMIC TOUR on all my social media for my friends and family to enjoy. Hopefully someday soon I’ll finish writing it and you’ll be able to purchase a copy soon.
Please Note: Both these locations are private homes, so if you decide to visit please be respectful, and do not trespass or disturb anyone who lives there.
To listen to my recent conversation with writer STAN ZIMMERMAN - author of the memoir "The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore"- click on the links below for more fun tidbits about what it was like for Stan to write some of the scripts that brought Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia to life. Enjoy!
Episode 67 - HERE
Episode 68- HERE
