Few Facts about The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls is a sitcom that centered around four senior, single
women; Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. The actors who played these
infamous characters are Bea Arthur, Rue McClenahan, Betty White,
Estelle Getty, respectively. The Golden Girls is a classic that had enjoyed
critical success and a popular vote at the same time. A lot has been said
about The Golden Girl’s cast, costumes and legacy. Some of those facts
about this timeless series are given below:

1. Well-Written and Classic Script

In 2014, The Golden Girls was placed in the list of ‘101-Best Written TV-
Series of All Time’ by The Writers Guild of America. The script played a
great role in convincing The Golden Girls cast in accepting to play the
roles of older women in this TV-show. While Rue McClanahan had been
convincing Bea Arthur to take the role of Dorothy, she stated that she
phoned her and said: “Why are you going to turn down the best script
that’s ever going to come across your desk as long as you live?”

2. Bea Arthur was not the first choice for Dorothy in The Golden
Girl’s cast

One now cannot imagine ‘Dorothy’ being played by someone other than
Bea Arthur. But Bea Arthur was not the first choice of Susan Harris-the
creator of the series. She wanted to cast Lee Grant for the role of Dorothy,
but Grant did not want to play the role of an old single woman, so the role
was later played by Bea Arthur. Initially though the production team was
doubtful of casting Bea Arthur in this sitcom, the viewers clapped back
with the viewer ratings to prove their doubts were completely misplaced.
The series also ranked among the top-10 Highest rated programs in almost
all of its seasons.

3. Getty Suffered from Imposter Syndrome

Getty was the youngest and most inexperienced actor in comparison to the
other three leading ladies. Although she was a brilliant actress, but she
used to feel extreme anxiety and stage freight when she acted with the
other three actresses. She felt as an imposter who was not up to par with
other three and she feared that the audience would catch her in this act.
McClanahan recollects how taxing it used to be for Getty in the beginning.
 4. Kitchen-Set of The Golden Girls

The kitchen set of The Golden Girls in which many iconic sketches had
been enacted was borrowed from another drama of Susan Harris. The
unforgettable kitchen-table covered in brown and white block-cloth,
around which many important scenes have taken place was thus also taken
from the sitcom, It Takes Two.

5. Mystery of Three-chairs

The sharp-eyed viewers did not miss the absence of the fourth chair
around the kitchen table. Though the ladies had many of their
conversations there but only three chairs were present near the table. This
was done due to the restrictions of filming at that time. If all the four
actresses would be placed together then one of their backs would face the
camera. Thus, three chairs were placed in a way to avoid this and the
fourth actress would either be shown exiting the scene or a stool would be
placed for her at an angle that would not hinder the camera placement.

6. Shimmering Costumes of The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls literally issued golden style statements throughout the
series. Their costumes included chunky jewelry, shimmery coats, sequined
jackets, big glasses and classic silhouettes. But all the big earrings given to
Bea Arthur by The Golden Girl’s stylist Judy Evans were clip-ons because Bea
Arthur’s ears were not pierced.

7. Make Up- A huge Feat!

The production was not only conscious of the clothes of the actresses but also
their makeup. As the actresses were mostly younger than the age of their
characters so it used to take a lot of time and effort to transform them into their
characters. During the first season of the show the makeup department used to
take more than forty-five minutes to do the makeup of Getty alone.

8. Dorothy’s Personal Styling

Bea Arthur stood at an impressive height of five feet and ten inches. The
actress confessed later on how she was conscious of her height in the
beginning of her career. So, to avoid being a sore thumb she used to not
wear heels but still utterly wished to. After growing on more comfortable
in her skin, she tried to wear heels but found those utterly uncomfortable.
Consequently, in this sitcom she chose to wear flats.

9. BLANCHE'S Costumes went in McClanahan’s Wardrobe:

During all of the seven seasons, McClanahan owned the costumes of her
character, Blanche. She had even added a clause in her contract that
allowed this to happen. By the end of the sitcom, it was reported that
McClanahan might had more than thirteen closets full of Blanche’s
dresses. Now this makes one curious; if she took the jewelry home too?

10. The Queens begot The Queen:

The fandom of The Golden Girls wasn’t confined to America alone.

Rather, it crossed the borders and garnered quite a wider audience in
Britain too. One such ardent fan is the Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth.
She had invited them to the 1988’s Royal Variety Performance in London
where they performed a few kitchen-table scenes on the stage.

11.An Autobiographical Episode

Susan Harris had suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in her life because
of which she was not able to partake properly in the production of The Golden
Girls. Harris wrote about this struggle in the episode named, “Sick and
Tired”. In this episode it showed how Dorothy was most of the times
misdiagnosed or her symptoms were usually not taken seriously by the
doctors just because she was a woman. Harris has said that she wrote this
episode as "my revenge script for all the people out there who had a disease
like that".

12. EMMY Winners

The Golden Girls is one of the only three sitcoms in which each of the four
lead actors became winners of the Emmy Award. This shows how
immensely talented was the cast of The Golden Girls.

13. The Golden Girls’ Legacy

The Golden Girls remains a classic and pop-culture icon that comically
and eloquently represents a stratum of the society that’s usually left
ignored. The acting, script, styling, production and all the other elements
which make a tv-series equally played a cohesive role to make this
timeless; golden sitcom.