To celebrate my latest interview with writer, producer, director, and playwright Stan Zimmerman (Episodes 67 & 68) - who is best known for writing for several classic TV series including “The Golden Girls”, “Roseanne”, and “Gilmore Girls” - I’ve put together this entertaining trivia list featuring some fun facts about Rose, Dorothy, Blanche & Sophia from the classic 1980’s TV sitcom for you to enjoy!
“The Golden Girls” was created by Susan Harris. It aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons.
The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. 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”. Afterwards, Getty had returned to New York, but gained permission from her manager to return to California in early 1985. Getty figured it would be her last chance to find television or film work. She would return home to New York if she were unsuccessful.
Hired to shoot the pilot, director Jay Sandrich also became instrumental in helping to cast the roles of Blanche Devereaux and Rose Nylund. 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. Producers wanted to cast McClanahan as Rose and White as Blanche based on roles they had previously played; White portrayed the man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, while McClanahan co-starred as the sweet but scatterbrained Vivian Harmon in “Maude”. Eager not to be typecast, they took the suggestion of Sandrich and switched roles at the last minute.
It was not originally scripted for Blanche to have a Southern accent. Instead, it was Rue McClanahan's idea to introduce it.
The actresses consumed over 100 cheesecakes during the show's seven-year run. Bakeries from around the USA would send in cheesecakes for them. Bea Arthur hated cheesecake in real life.
The pilot included a gay houseboy, Coco (Charles Levin), who lived with the girls. 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”. After the pilot, the character of Coco was eliminated from the series.
Though Harris had created the character of Dorothy with a "Bea Arthur type" in mind, Littlefield and the producers initially envisioned actress Elaine Stritch for the part. Stritch's audition flopped, however, and under the impression that Arthur did not want to participate, Harris asked McClanahan if she could persuade Arthur, with whom she worked previously on the CBS sitcom “Maude”, to take the role. Arthur flipped upon reading the script, but felt hesitant about McClanahan's approach, as she did not "want to play (their Maude characters) Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens." She reconsidered, however, after hearing that McClanahan and White had switched roles.
When the show first aired, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother loved it so much that she wrote to the four actresses and asked them to perform a live show especially for her. They obliged, and acted out a sketch during the “The Royal Variety Performance 1988” (1988), at which the Queen Mother was present, in which the girls are depicted onstage visiting London, first interacting with the host Ronnie Corbett and then sitting down for dinner, recreating various moments from previous episodes.
Rue McClanahan had a clause written into her contract that she be allowed to keep all of Blanche's custom-made clothing. McClanahan had 13 closets filled with the designer wardrobe in her Sutton Place co-op in Manhattan.
Getty continuously battled stage fright during her tenure on the show. In a 1988 interview, Getty commented on her phobia and expressed how working with major stars, such as Bea Arthur and Betty White, made her even more nervous. At times, she even froze on camera while filming.
During the "Herring War" story that Rose tells, Rue and Bea break character and the scene got so out of hand that they were going to cut it from the episode entirely, but they kept it in the episode to show just how good the comedy in the show could be.
Estelle Getty underwent a face-lift between the first and second seasons, much to the horror of the make-up crew who already had to go to great lengths to make Getty look older on camera.
Throughout the series, there are many jokes made by the girls, at Rose's expense, regarding her natural hair color. Betty White was in fact a natural brunette and dyed her hair blonde.
In his new book "The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore" writer Stan Zimmerman shares insights on his experience working on the first season of “The Golden Girls” - with his lifelong writing partner James Berg - including the sitcom's most beloved gags, like character Dorothy Zbornak’s withering stare. “We wrote [the phrase] 'Dorothy shoots her a look,'" Zimmerman says. "And that's become a thing in writing now, 'shooting a look.' But that's something very few actors could do. Bea Arthur could nail a look, and you knew exactly what she meant."
Betty White and Estelle Getty both received seven Emmy nominations, while Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan only received four. All four actresses won Emmys for their performances.
Although there were four women living in the house, there were always only three chairs around that famous kitchen table. That was strictly due to the limits of filming; in consideration of the fourth wall, and to avoid squeezing all four shoulder-to-shoulder. Bea Arthur was always given the center chair, both because of her height and also in order to catch her priceless facial expressions in reaction to either Blanche's remembrance of sexual encounters past, Rose's St. Olaf story, or Sophia's "Picture it!" monologue.
In several episodes which showed flashbacks to when Dorothy and Sophia were living in New York during the '40s and '50s, Estelle Getty appears without the wig and makeup.
It took 45 minutes in make-up to transform Estelle Getty into Sophia.
For the first season, exteriors were shot of a real house in the Westgate Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. For later seasons exterior shots were filmed at Walt Disney World's MGM Studios (now "Disney's Hollywood Studios"). They built an exact replica of the house in Orlando. This replica was demolished in 2003. The real house from season one still stands at 245 N. Saltair Avenue in Los Angeles. In 2020, owners marketed the property for $3 million.
Betty White played Rose Nylund on four different shows: “Empty Nest” (1988), “Nurses” (1991), “The Golden Girls” (1985) and “The Golden Palace” (1992)
During its seven seasons on the air at NBC, “The Golden Girls” was nominated for 68 Emmy Awards and the show won a total of 11 Emmys, including two wins in the Outstanding Comedy Series category for its first two seasons.
This was one of the few series of its era to include openly gay and lesbian characters. The Pilot featured the Girls' openly gay personal chef Coco. Blanche's openly gay brother Clayton appeared in two episodes, the second of which introduced his boyfriend. One episode featured an old friend of Dorothy's who was a lesbian. Another episode dealt with the theme of HIV/AIDS when Rose learned she may have contracted the virus years before from a blood transfusion. The series had a strong following among the LGBT community.
Estelle Getty had trouble remembering her lines and, in later seasons of the show, she had to rely on cue cards. Getty suffered from osteoporosis, and she was also thought to have Parkinson's disease. This diagnosis was ultimately changed to Lewy Body Dementia.
Rose was the only character whose husband, Charlie, was never depicted on the show. Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan, was a recurring character. Sophia's husband, Sal, was seen in flashbacks. Blanche's husband, George, was depicted in a dream.
The writers of the show always tried to give Sophia the raciest lines. They did this because her character had a stroke earlier in her life, which made her unable to control the things she said.
A young George Clooney made an appearance as a young cop in "To Catch A Neighbor" in season 2.
Cynthia Fee sang the theme song "Thank You for Being a Friend." It was originally written and recorded in 1978 by Andrew Gold, whose version was a hit on the Billboard Pop Chart.
Estelle Getty played Sophia on six different shows: “The Golden Girls” (1985), “The Golden Palace “(1992), “Empty Nest” (1988), “Blossom” (1990), “Nurses” (1991) and “Ladies Man” (1999).
According to a Bravo documentary about the show the writers' racy jokes were usually censored and then softened for network viewings. For example, Dorothy and Sofia were playing Scrabble. Dorothy tells Sofia "Ma! Pizwam is not a word!" Sofia responds "Yes there is! This pool is Pizwam!" NBC strongly vetoed this joke, which was changed to the following exchange: "Ma! Disdam is not a word!" Sofia responds: "Yes it is! You're no good at disdam game!"
Harold Gould played "Arnie Peterson," in "Rose the Prude" (episode # 1.3), her first boyfriend since the death of her husband, before going on to becoming Rose's regular boyfriend, Miles.
In DVD commentary on an episode, Rue McClanahan says that she and Betty White used to leave each other riddles and puzzles to solve on the bulletin board in the kitchen.
Blanche's father, Big Daddy, was originally played by Murray Hamilton. Upon Hamilton's death, the role was recast with David Wayne.
Despite playing characters of Sicilian descent, Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty were Jewish.
In 1992, when Bea Arthur left the show, it was retooled by show creator Susan Harris and became “The Golden Palace” (1992).
This show had three spin-offs. “Golden Palace” bombed after about a season. “Empty Nest” was a huge hit that ran for many seasons. “Nurses” ran for three seasons, sometimes being watched by more viewers than its mother series “Golden Girls” and “Empty Nest”.
Most notable celebrities to have appeared on this series include: Mario Lopez, Jerry Orbach, John Fiedeler, Leslie Nielson, Tony Jay, Mickey Rooney, George Clooney, Burt Reynolds, Julio Iglesias and Quentin Tarantino. The show launched the acting career of Mario Lopez.
The series finale of “The Golden Girls” was watched by 27.2 million viewers.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked “The Golden Girls” number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.
Trivia items from IMDB
To listen to my enlightening conversation with writer STAN ZIMMERMAN - author of the memoir "The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore"- click on the links below. Enjoy!
Episode 67 - HERE
Episode 68- HERE
