[31] The suit was later settled. Initially, White was considered for the role of Blanche Devereaux, which eventually went to Rue McClanahan. How Old Were The Golden Girls Cast When Series Premiered? However, the actress who played Sophia, Estelle Getty, was only 62 years old in real life, making her one year younger than her on-screen daughter! 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. Did Rue McClanahan have a Southern accent? (Photo Credit: MovieStills DB). The golden girls trivia is the most exciting series we have created for those who love comedy. 4. She is also the only living core cast member from the series. Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai. Estimating the ages of the characters can be tricky, since the show never explicitly states their ages. Dorothy states she is a Leo in Season 4, Episode 10, "Stan Takes a Wife," placing her birthday either in late July or early-to-late August. [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. McClanahan continued to portray the role of Blanche in the spin-off series The Golden Palace, which only lasted for one season from 1992 to 1993. The Golden Girls' ages were never quite revealed on screen. DO YOU LOVE SHOES? [73], In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. 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. The cast of The Golden Girls, Sophia, Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose, have been even further immortalised in two puppet parody shows Thank You For Being A Friend[110] and That Golden Girls Show: A Puppet Parody, both created by Australian screenwriter Thomas Duncan-Watt and producer Jonathan Rockefeller. [54] The model used for exterior shots of the house from the third season through the end of the series was part of the backstage studio tour ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Its probable it examined a lot of the same scenarios as previous episodes. McClanahan deliberately exaggerated her accent, stating, "I played Blanche the way I felt Blanche. The faade was based on a real house at 245 North Saltair Avenue in the Westgate Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. 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. How Old Were the Golden Girls? - CBR How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be? Your email address will not be published. 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. [5] Terry Tang of the Associated Press reported that the series continues to attract new fans in the 21st century and characterized it as an example of a sitcom that has aged well. Ironically, the actress who played Sophia, Estelle Getty, was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter, Dorothy. In conclusion, the evidence suggests that the Golden Girls characters were actually younger than their stated ages. This could be because the writers wanted to create an atmosphere of timelessness, allowing the show to appeal to viewers of all ages. Both the Hallmark Channel and WE tv picked-up the reruns in March 2009. Win free shoes, organize your shoe closet, see the latest styles + more, About [43] Mitchell Hurwitz also served as writer for the show in its last two seasons. In the end, the math adds up to Dorothy being 53 at the start of the series and 60 at the series' end. 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. [24] The Cosby Show director Jay Sandrich, who had previously worked with Harris, Witt, and Thomas on Soap, agreed to direct the pilot episode. FIRST TIME meeting her service dog!!! | dog | This is Ana's FIRST TIME 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]. For example, Betty White, who played Rose, was 76 when the show first aired and 80 when it ended. On November 15, 2005, Warner Home Video released The Golden Girls: A Lifetime Intimate Portrait Series on DVD which contains a separate biography of Arthur, White, McClanahan and Getty, revealing each woman's background, rise to stardom and private life, which originally aired on Lifetime network between June 2000 and January 2003. I kept reading scenes to them and saying, 'God, this is brilliant [] There's nothing trendy about this show. We didn't want the show to be about four dowdy ladies. 10 things you never knew about 'The Golden Girls' - Fox News The Golden Girls began in 1985 and concluded in 1992, both in real life and in the fictional realm. Reportedly, White doubted that she could effectively play the role of Rose. Going by the math, that makes Blanche 53 at the start of the series. When the show hit TV screens in the 1980s, society believed that women in their 50s were more grandmotherly, and ready for retirement. One, while the characters ages on the show appeared to be quite consistentBlanche, Rose, and Dorothy were all in their mid-50s, and Sophia was Dorothys widowed, elderly motherthe actors who played them were all somewhat varied in age. (season two, episode five). The Golden Girls: How the Classic Sitcom Ended, Christina Ricci's Wednesday Addams Is Iconic for Pushing Boundaries. How Old Was Rose Nylund On Golden Girls? Advertise Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kristen Davis in And Just Like That. (Photo Credit: MovieStills DB). The Golden Girls ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992. She thought an accentuated Southern accent would be sexy and strong and attractive to men. Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, and Sophia Petrillo managed the single life as seniors in Miami for seven seasons. Each of the four main stars received an Emmy Award, making The Golden Girls one of only four sitcoms in the Primetime Emmy Awards history to achieve this. Soap lasted for four seasons and was marred by controversy due to Harriss insistence on including content that dealt with themes of sexuality, religion, and race. In the original Sex and the City, Samatha Jones (Kim Cattrall) was in her late 40s/ early 50s, but Cattrall decided not to be a part of the reboot. She would start getting under a dark cloud the day before tape day You could see a big difference in her that day. Estelle Getty, however, was 62 in 1985, making her 17 years younger than the character she portrayed. After reruns on different regional channels of the ARD Network, the show later aired on private channels RTL, VOX, Super RTL, Disney Channel and RTLup. Social norms regarding women in their fifties have also changed since Golden Girls premiered. The clever use of makeup and a wig aged Getty to match her character's age. [70][self-published source?] Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Bea Arthur as the beloved main cast of the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). The show ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992 and featured four women in their golden years living together in Miami. [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. It was popular for addressing a demographic that rarely saw the spotlight on television or in Hollywood: senior women. This indicates that Sophia was likely close to her real-life age. [9], The pilot was taped on April 17, 1985.[10]. Similarly, Estelle Getty, who played Sophia, was 79 when the show began and 83 when it ended. The wooden accents, columns, and doors were painted to mimic bald cypress wood, popular in South Florida homes, with rattan furniture and tropical-printed upholstery chosen for the furniture. If technically supported by the home television, this system allowed their audience to watch the show either in the dubbed German version (by default) or the original English version. Contact Us Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo in the 1985 sitcom The Golden Girls (Credit: NBC). It shattered stereotypes and even made that demographic entertaining for audiences of all genders and ages. Between 1973 and 1977 White made several appearances on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Sue Ann Nivens, the snobby, man-obsessed supporting character. Covering the hottest movie and TV topics that fans want. Blanche would have been 60 by the series' end. Another brief run of the show began on 27 April 2020 till summer 2020 on Channel 5, but only showed episodes up to the season-four finale and is returning to Channel 4 starting from early 2022. [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. Going off the idea that Season 1 takes place within the same year, Rose would have been 55 at the start of The Golden Girls as well, making her the oldest Golden Girl -- after Sophia, of course. Betty White, who died on December 31, 2021, at the age of 99, was best known for her role as the wonderfully naive Rose Nylund in the NBC comedy The Golden Girls. Cast alongside Rue McClanahan, she impressed the producers of The Golden Girls with her recurring role as Ellen in Mamas Family. [52][53] Debbie Reynolds was brought on as a guest star in the season six episode "There Goes the Bride: Part 2" to test her chemistry with the other actresses as a possible replacement for Arthur, but producers decided that nobody could replicate the chemistry of the four original actresses. One such source is the actors who played the characters. In any event, Arthur chose to commit to a seventh and final season. | By the end of the series, Rose was 62. Though Littlefield nixed their idea, he asked if they would be interested in delivering a pilot script for Miami Nice, instead. 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. As such, this social belief is shown on our screens in the Sex and the City reboot, whereas Golden Girls portrayed societal norms of the 1980s. The Golden Girls: Live! The Golden Palace, a spinoff of the successful sitcom The Golden Girls, will make its streaming debut on Hulu early next year.. On Jan. 10, just one week before Betty White's 100th birthday on Jan. 17, the single season of the sitcom featuring three of the four main characters from the original series -- Rose Nyland (White), Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty . Shopping Guide This suggests that her character was likely around the same age. In "And Just Like That", Miranda and Charlotte are 54, while Carrie is 55. Who was the youngest Golden Girl cast member? 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. Lifetime, which held the rights to The Golden Girls at the time, aired reruns of The Golden Palace in the summer of 2005, and again in December of that year. In her spare time, Maddy loves playing volleyball, running, walking, and biking, although when she wants to be lazy she loves to read a good thriller. She was also 63 years old by the time The Golden Girls premiered in 1985. ISBN978-1-4516-1369-8. October 8, 2022 According to evidence presented by the ladies themselves during the first year of the show, Sophia is 80 years old, Rose is 55 years old, and Blanche is 50 years old. Apparently, writer Susan Harris envisioned a Bea Arthur type when conceptualizing the character of Dorothy. 'The Golden Girls' Turns 30: Facts You May Not Know About the Series [82], Buena Vista Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons, with edits, of The Golden Girls on DVD in Region 1 and Region 4 with the first four being released in Region 2. The show was a hit with viewers of all ages. (Note: Is this article not meeting your expectations? Characters from both shows made occasional crossover guest appearances on the other show, with the four girls guesting on Empty Nest and Mulligan, Dinah Manoff, Kristy McNichol, David Leisure, and Park Overall appearing on The Golden Girls in their Empty Nest roles. The initial pilot was aired as the 1987 Golden Girls episode "Empty Nests", and starred Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno as George and Renee Corliss, a married couple living next to the Golden Girls characters, who face empty nest syndrome after their teenaged daughter goes to college. Rose went so far as to search through official records to find out, only to learn it was "deleted by authority of the governor." According to the calculations, Dorothy was 53 at the start of the series, according to the, Blanche was 17 in 1949, according to Season 3, Episode 25, , Blanche lied to her housemates about her age so easily (and Sophia promptly called her out and said shed be 70 when the kid graduated), its reasonable to, Fun Things to Do for Mothers Day Filled With Activities, Hilarious Thanksgiving Puns for Your Friends and Family, 60 Sweet Merry Christmas Wishes for Mothers 2021 Update, Applauding Employee Appreciation Quotes Befitting for Hardworking Staff, Heart Warming One Month Anniversary Wishes Latest Update 2021, Adorable Thanks for Birthday Wishes Messages to Send Someone. Sophia was never afraid to admit how old she was, often using it to her advantage over the other women in the house. How old were The Golden Girls supposed to be on the show? Although Sophia appears to be much older than the other girls in the show, Getty was actually younger than both Bea Arthur and Betty White. This indicates that she was likely in her late 40s when the show began. : Extreme Stunt Show, discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, List of awards and nominations received by The Golden Girls, "TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time", Golden Girls appears to get better with pop culture age, "7 Things You Might Not Know About The Golden Girls", "The Golden Girls - Cast/Crew Documentary (2/9)", "These Are the Most-Watched TV Series Finales of All Time: 17", "The TV Ratings Guide: 1987-1988 season ratings", "Golden Girls: A 20th Anniversary Oral History", "Catching Up with the Golden Girls' Susan Harris", "Crackle's Creator Conversation: Soap's Susan Harris", The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, "Betty White and Bea Arthur's Friends Open Up About Their On-Set Feud", "Say It Isn't So, Girls! Celebrities Rose is said to be in her mid-50s, suggesting that she was between 55 and 59. This would mean that Dorothy, who was born in 1938, would have been around 47 when the show started. Rose, who was born in 1934, would have been around 51, while Sophia, who was born in 1906, would have been 79. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Proudly powered by WordPress The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. The film Golden Girls was a critical and commercial triumph. : Extreme Stunt Show attraction, later replaced by Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Similarly, Dorothy mentions in another episode that she was married in 1960, which would have made her 22. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Continue reading to find out how old were the golden girls on the set of The Golden Girls. This article promises to be interesting and really informative. It was popular for addressing a demographic that rarely saw the spotlight on television or in Hollywood: senior women. The doorway from the living room, with the alcove and baker's shelf just inside, was designed to give the illusion that the actors were walking into and out of the kitchen. 1. Clearly, the wardrobe and hairstyles in each show are extremely different from each other. [84], After the original series ended, White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their characters in the CBS series The Golden Palace, which featured Rose, Blanche, and Sophia selling their house to buy and run a hotel in Miami. Finally, Sophia is stated to be in her late 70s, suggesting that she was between 77 and 79. Her thesis examined menstrual education in Victorian England. Because none of the other Golden Girls explicitly disclose their ages, the logical process begins with Dorothy. 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). Fans of all ages still enjoy The Golden Girls and its actors today. How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be - Pagelagi The oldest character in Golden Girls is Sophia (Estelle Getty), who is thought to be about 80 years old at the start of the series. As of February 2013, WE tv's rights expired and Viacom networks' TV Land, home to Betty White's last series Hot in Cleveland, purchased them,[79] as did Logo TV. [24][30], In the pilot script, Blanche was described as "more Southern than Blanche DuBois", so McClanahan was perplexed when she was asked by director Sandrich during the filming of the pilot not to use the strong Southern accent she had developed, but to use her natural Oklahoma accent instead. In fact, that's who I think she thought she was."[37]. Bill Dana played Sophia's brother Angelo and her father. Blanche (played by Rue McClanahan) was thought to be around 47 years old in the first season of Golden Girls. 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. Despite fan theories that the actresses were playing characters much younger than their actual age, Rue McClanahan's age in 1985 was 52, one year younger than her character on the show. In the hour-long series finale, which aired in May 1992, Dorothy meets and marries Blanche's uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen) and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta. She was just as uptight as a human being could get. It ran from September 1992 to May 1993 and also starred Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle. Sophia was never ashamed to confess her age, and she often took advantage of it to get an advantage over the other ladies in the home. Some episodes featured flashbacks to previous episodes, flashbacks to events not shown in previous episodes, or to events that occurred before the series began. Sarah Jessica Parker and Betty White, both of whom play a 55-year-old woman. How old was Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls? It's a classic. Rose even went to the trouble of looking up the information in official documents, only to discover that it had been removed by authorization of the governor.. Sophia, Dorothys straight-talking mother, was the Golden Girls houses oldest figure. Getty was picky about the jokes Sophia would make. [50] She had reportedly started to show signs of the dementia during the filming of the television series, when, despite more than three decades of theater work, she began to struggle to remember her lines, and in later seasons of the show, had to rely on cue cards. For instance, Blanche mentions in one episode that she was married in 1952, which would have made her 21 at the time. 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! But one of the questions that has always been asked is: how old were the Golden Girls characters supposed to be? In fact, the two were less than four months apart in age. [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. [11], Ideas for a comedy series about older women emerged during the filming of a television special at NBC Studios in Burbank, California, in August 1984. Blanche was probably around 50 when the show began, rather than 54. In an interview with The Village Voice in 2011, White stated that Arthur found me a pain in the neck sometimes. Dorothy, meanwhile, is stated to be in her early 50s, which could mean that she was anywhere between 50 and 54. Estelle Getty, who portrayed Sophia, was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy, Sophias daughter. She expressed that she would not continue if changes were not made, but changes were made and jokes regarding Dorothy's physique appeared less often. Crypto Wallet Development: Types, Features, and Popularity, 5 Ways AI is Detecting and Preventing Identity Fraud. For example, one or more of the women would become involved in some sort of problem, often involving other family members, men, or an ethical dilemma. In "The Golden Girls", Rose is 55, Dorothy is 53, Blanche is 47 and Sophia is 79. [74] The show was the anchor of NBC's Saturday line-up, and almost always won its time slot, as ABC and CBS struggled to find shows to compete against it, the most notable being ABC's Lucille Ball sitcom Life With Lucy in the beginning of the 198687 season although it aired at 8:00, an hour earlier. However, she wasn't much older than Bea Arthur. Blanche Elizabeth Marie Devereaux (ne Hollingsworth) is one of the four, fictional, main characters on the highly-acclaimed, revered, and well-received 1985-1992 NBC situation-comedy/sit-com TV series, The Golden Girls, and its spin-off, The Golden Palace. "[47] Getty died in 2008, the result of dementia with Lewy bodies. The women in The Golden Girlsall have white, short hair styled in a way we often associate with older individuals. There are no tricks. The women had a homosexual cook named Coco who lived with them at first, but after the premiere episode, the character was never seen again. For example, Betty White, who played Rose, was 76 when the show first aired and 80 when it ended. Gettleman says she suffered from advanced. Arthur was born on May 13, 1922, making her the second oldest actress in the main cast. 41 Behind-the-Scenes 'The Golden Girls' Facts - 'Golden Girls' Trivia. [41] To aid her retention, Getty tried hypnosis, and the show hired an assistant to run lines with her before taping; neither method worked. Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. The Golden Girls is one of the most beloved and enduring sitcoms of all time. The part of Sophia Petrillo was the first of the four roles to be cast. However, with some detective work, audiences can figure them out. "[61] Many of the characters' outfits were designed by Evans and made especially, but seven to ten costume changes per episode were made between the four actresses, which entailed a great deal of off-the-rack shopping. The 'And Just Like That' Women and 'The Golden Girls' Are the Same Age She would return home to New York if she were unsuccessful. 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. It was, however, more than a fringe success. However, there is also some evidence to suggest that these ages may not be accurate. Golden Girls Cast, Ages, Names & More - Parade: Entertainment, Recipes Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper and Betty White as Ellen Harper-Jackson in the 1983 sitcom Mamas Family (Credit: NBC). McClanahan was 51 years old by the time The Golden Girls premiered, and she was 58 when it concluded. The story follows four older single women (three widows and one divorced) who share a home in Miami, Florida. Blanche was 17 in 1949, according to Season 3, Episode 25, Mothers Day, when she and her mother reminisce about one of Blanches dates. She wanted to be a Southern heroine, like Vivien Leigh. The series also ranked among the Nielsen ratings' top ten for six of its seven seasons. As a result, new viewers are becoming aware of the show. [7][8], The first episode features a cook/butler named Coco (played by Charles Levin), but the role was dropped before the second episode.
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