Post by tweetsfrommaude on Jun 9, 2018 3:02:21 GMT
As everyone knows me on Twitter, I like to roam around the Internet Movie Database or IMDb for facts about shows, to find out little bits of information on the show in question, most of it has probably been posted before, but its better late then never right? 
.
Lets start off with everyone's favourite sitcom...
Golden Girls-
- The character of Sophia was originally supposed to be a guest character, but test audiences for the pilot loved the character so much, that Coco (The housekeeper) was written out of the show.
- The Pilot beat out "The Cosby Show" in ratings for that week, with an estimated 25.1 million people tuning in for the Golden Girls pilot. And 27.1 million people tuning in to say goodbye 7 years later. (On finale rankings this leaves Golden Girls at 17th for most viewed finale as of 2016)
- Desperate Housewives creator and producer Marc Cherry wrote several episodes of Golden Girls and the continuation series Golden Palace.
these are the Golden Girls episodes he wrote
- Journey to the Center of Attention
- Old Boyfriends
- Dateline: Miami
- Beauty and the Beast
- What a Difference a Date Makes
- Sister of the Bride
- How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia?
- Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy
- The President's Coming! The President's Coming! Part 2
- Sisters and Other Strangers
- An Illegitimate Concern
- Estelle Getty Suffered from severe stage fright and would often freeze during taping. (Some scenes had to be re-shot after the audience left), Getty also claimed in her Intimate Portrait she was afraid because she was the only one who didn't come from a TV series, she came straight off broadway. (Later Bea Arthur would claim after Estelle was diagnosed with Dementia, that they should've known something was wrong)
- During the shows season 1 run, the producers were prepared to suspended filming of the series, because Bea had lost her mother, and Rue was dealing with another divorce and Betty was still getting over the loss of husband Allen Ludden. The girls refused to take time off and they said "we just need to work"
- Elaine Stritch was originally going to be Dorothy Zbornak but she messed up in the audition process because she changed a few words around in her script. She also claimed that "As soon as I walked into that room. I knew she (meaning Harris) didn't like me."
- The writers and EVEN the actors for the episode "Empty Nests" thought it was so bad that they thought it would end the premise of Empty Nest. It didn't end the premise but the only actor from the backdoor pilot to survive onto the show was David Leisure.
- Golden Girls was so popular it was remade in 3 countries and Britain even tried to remake the show they called it "Brighton Belles" but it was so bad they cancelled it after 10 episodes.
- The Queen Mother loved the show so much that she had the cast perform for her
- The show spent 6 seasons in the Top 10 of the Nielson Ratings, the last season, season 7 was the only season not to be in the Top 10. It was ranked 30.
- The Golden Girls was nominated for 121 awards, and Won 36. The show won 11 emmy awards and 4 Golden Globes. (Estelle was the only one in the cast to win a Golden Globe). It was also one of just 3 shows where all 4 of the main cast won an award (All in the Family and Will and Grace have this distinction)
- It was well known that Bea Arthur did not like Betty White, it all stemmed from Betty winning the emmy award first. When the show ended its possible that Bea was told by her manager about Golden Girls events she had to go to as well. The last time all 4 would be on a set together was the filming for Golden Palace episode "Just Like Old Times", the producers were keen for Bea to come back for another season of Golden Palace but she refused, and semi retired from TV, only doing a handful of tv cameos after Golden Girls, she went back to Broadway and started her own Broadway show.
- Rue and Betty would in between takes play word games and even leave each other puzzles to do in the kitchen on the bulletin board that was there.
- Rue and Betty after the death of Bea Arthur decided to remain in contact with each other (they contacted each other every weekend) and before Rue went into heart surgery Betty called her to wish her luck. Betty and Rue were the only two who caught up often after the show ended.
Designing Women-
- Dixie Carter had a compromise with the producers and writers of the show, for every rant she went on and didn't agree with personally, she'd get to sing in a future episode.
- It was well known that Delta Burke feuded with the cast and even the creator of the show (this lead to her exit) but after the show ended she made up with the creators and cast. (she made up with creator Linda Bloodworth on the set of Women of the House, where she walked onto set broke character and walked off to bring Linda on set to show the audience that she had apologised for her actions on the DW set.) It was later explained in the Designing Women Reunion she was suffering from depression, and when she was having a bad day on set and wouldn't come out of her dressing room, the cast would send in Dixie Carter to calm her down "she would tell me it was okay, she would calm me down.".
- The show competed with Golden Girls for 6 years (as Golden Girls ended in 92.) Designing Women was also moved to Monday Night to accommodate the fact that Golden Girls was more popular. Designing Women and Golden Girls ended up tying in ratings in the 90-91 season with 16.5 million viewers
- Hal Holbrook (Dixie Carter's husband) and her daughters Ginna and Mary appeared on the show, Ginna and Mary would appear in one episode and Hal would appear as a guest star for 9 episodes. He also produced a couple of episodes. (could you see the love between the two?) Holbrook requested his character "end his run" so Holbrook could appear in another movie.
- The Only Emmy that Designing Women won was for Hairstyling, the show however would win 16 awards from the Viewers of Quality TV
- Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry was Dixie Carter's personal assistant during the shows run.
Diff'rent Strokes-
- The episode "The Bicycle Man" is considered one of TVs most infamous episodes due to the topic of Child Exploitation, and was slammed when it first aired, but has today become a camp classic.
- Conrad Bain and the cast received hate mail when the show first aired, the mail came from racists who at the time hated the idea of an interracial family.
- According to the E! Diff'rent Strokes Story, the young cast became so diva-ish on set that they'd order around the crew to get them food. (Conrad Bain had to step in an tell them to pull their heads in) and he said "I've been around this business for years, you don't see me speaking to the crew like that do you?" and then again it didn't work
- Gary Coleman feuded with Dixie Carter and that caused her exit from the show in season 7 (because Coleman was possibly losing out on more money in his paycheck.) it was said they often clashed. Carter refused to discuss her time on the show interviews, so something he must've said to her must've been awful. But he seemed to get along with Mary-Ann Mobley who replaced Carter in season 8.
- It was Conrad Bain's second last foray into series TV before he retired in 1996. He did a season of "Mr President" and appeared in the finale of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air", he was also the only one to appear in all episodes of Diff'rent Strokes.
- The show ended on ABC because NBC had lost interest in the series, and so did Gary Coleman, who was so sick of his character's catchphrase he wanted to retire it.
Maude-
- Over 27 affiliate networks refused to carry controversial abortion episode "Maude's Dilemma" over 4,000 letters were sent to the production company after the Roe v Wade decision was passed and the episodes aired.
- Bea Arthur once failed to talk to Bill Macy for an entire year of filming the show, because of a prank he pulled at the emmy awards.
- Esther Rolle clapped back at Bea Arthur after Arthur said she "displayed no comedic talent" during her time on the show, Rolle said "I don't do windows or comedy"
- The show was viewed by over 25 million people in 5 seasons, in the last season it wasn't ranked in the top 30.
- Bill Macy discussed in an interview, that the reason Maude ended was because Bea Arthur had just divorced husband Gene Saks, and she was struggling to deal with it, so she made the decision to end the show.
- Rue McClanahan was so sick of wearing a wig and looking older she told the producers about the idea of a "facelift episode"
- Bill Macy broke down in the Maude DVD discussing the episode about alcoholism and having to slap his co-star, he said he hated it so much he never wanted to do something like that again.
All in The Family-
- The show spent 5 seasons at Number 1 (season 2-6)
- The show spun-off Maude, The Jeffersons
- Jean Stapleton grew so tired of playing Edith, that in the continuation series she asked Norman Lear to "kill her off, she's only fiction" Lear replied with "Not to me", Edith died off screen and many theories think that the phlebitis that was diagnosed in the finale was the thing that led to her stroke off-screen.
- Rob Reiner was balding so fast on the set of AiTF, he wore a Toupee for his entire run on the show
Moonlighting-
-Bruce Willis' success on Die Hard created a hard working environment for all on the set, and even now co-stars say Willis is a "buzzkill"
- Bruce and Cybil's relationship diminished to the point Bruce blamed her for stalls in production.
Desperate Housewives-
- A fan loved the dress Eva Longeria wore in the pilot so much, that they wrote in and asked where they got it from. They sent her the dress that Eva wore.
- The character of Orson was only supposed to last for just one season, but MacLauchlan wanted to stay, so they had the idea to bring in Dixie Carter to be the mother from hell (Gloria Hodge), Cherry explained he thought that Carter had the "flair for the dramatic" and contacted her to take part. (Carter was his old boss on Designing Women)
- By the time the series ended, they were all sick of Eva Longeria.
- Kathryn Joosten died just 20 days after her on-screen character Mrs McClusky did
Law and Order-
-The Law and Order series is currently the longest running Legal Drama in the US
- The show has several successful spin-offs. Including Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury and Law and Order LA
Family Law-
- Was Tony Danza's first TV role in a drama series
- According to an article, Dixie Carter helped Danza settle into his TV role and made him feel comfortable on set
- The show was cancelled in 2002 due to "low ratings" but fans say it was mismanaged to the point of cancellation episodes are extremely hard to find online
Gimme A Break-
- Dolph Sweet's final episode aired just 3 days after he died in 1985
- Nell Carter was flown to rehab several times during the shows run to deal with her cocaine abuse and destructive lifestyle
- Rue McClanahan called the show "Really bad" when she guest starred on the series, she took the role because at that point of her career "she had to take something"
.Lets start off with everyone's favourite sitcom...
Golden Girls-
- The character of Sophia was originally supposed to be a guest character, but test audiences for the pilot loved the character so much, that Coco (The housekeeper) was written out of the show.
- The Pilot beat out "The Cosby Show" in ratings for that week, with an estimated 25.1 million people tuning in for the Golden Girls pilot. And 27.1 million people tuning in to say goodbye 7 years later. (On finale rankings this leaves Golden Girls at 17th for most viewed finale as of 2016)
- Desperate Housewives creator and producer Marc Cherry wrote several episodes of Golden Girls and the continuation series Golden Palace.
these are the Golden Girls episodes he wrote
- Journey to the Center of Attention
- Old Boyfriends
- Dateline: Miami
- Beauty and the Beast
- What a Difference a Date Makes
- Sister of the Bride
- How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia?
- Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy
- The President's Coming! The President's Coming! Part 2
- Sisters and Other Strangers
- An Illegitimate Concern
- Estelle Getty Suffered from severe stage fright and would often freeze during taping. (Some scenes had to be re-shot after the audience left), Getty also claimed in her Intimate Portrait she was afraid because she was the only one who didn't come from a TV series, she came straight off broadway. (Later Bea Arthur would claim after Estelle was diagnosed with Dementia, that they should've known something was wrong)
- During the shows season 1 run, the producers were prepared to suspended filming of the series, because Bea had lost her mother, and Rue was dealing with another divorce and Betty was still getting over the loss of husband Allen Ludden. The girls refused to take time off and they said "we just need to work"
- Elaine Stritch was originally going to be Dorothy Zbornak but she messed up in the audition process because she changed a few words around in her script. She also claimed that "As soon as I walked into that room. I knew she (meaning Harris) didn't like me."
- The writers and EVEN the actors for the episode "Empty Nests" thought it was so bad that they thought it would end the premise of Empty Nest. It didn't end the premise but the only actor from the backdoor pilot to survive onto the show was David Leisure.
- Golden Girls was so popular it was remade in 3 countries and Britain even tried to remake the show they called it "Brighton Belles" but it was so bad they cancelled it after 10 episodes.
- The Queen Mother loved the show so much that she had the cast perform for her
- The show spent 6 seasons in the Top 10 of the Nielson Ratings, the last season, season 7 was the only season not to be in the Top 10. It was ranked 30.
- The Golden Girls was nominated for 121 awards, and Won 36. The show won 11 emmy awards and 4 Golden Globes. (Estelle was the only one in the cast to win a Golden Globe). It was also one of just 3 shows where all 4 of the main cast won an award (All in the Family and Will and Grace have this distinction)
- It was well known that Bea Arthur did not like Betty White, it all stemmed from Betty winning the emmy award first. When the show ended its possible that Bea was told by her manager about Golden Girls events she had to go to as well. The last time all 4 would be on a set together was the filming for Golden Palace episode "Just Like Old Times", the producers were keen for Bea to come back for another season of Golden Palace but she refused, and semi retired from TV, only doing a handful of tv cameos after Golden Girls, she went back to Broadway and started her own Broadway show.
- Rue and Betty would in between takes play word games and even leave each other puzzles to do in the kitchen on the bulletin board that was there.
- Rue and Betty after the death of Bea Arthur decided to remain in contact with each other (they contacted each other every weekend) and before Rue went into heart surgery Betty called her to wish her luck. Betty and Rue were the only two who caught up often after the show ended.
Designing Women-
- Dixie Carter had a compromise with the producers and writers of the show, for every rant she went on and didn't agree with personally, she'd get to sing in a future episode.
- It was well known that Delta Burke feuded with the cast and even the creator of the show (this lead to her exit) but after the show ended she made up with the creators and cast. (she made up with creator Linda Bloodworth on the set of Women of the House, where she walked onto set broke character and walked off to bring Linda on set to show the audience that she had apologised for her actions on the DW set.) It was later explained in the Designing Women Reunion she was suffering from depression, and when she was having a bad day on set and wouldn't come out of her dressing room, the cast would send in Dixie Carter to calm her down "she would tell me it was okay, she would calm me down.".
- The show competed with Golden Girls for 6 years (as Golden Girls ended in 92.) Designing Women was also moved to Monday Night to accommodate the fact that Golden Girls was more popular. Designing Women and Golden Girls ended up tying in ratings in the 90-91 season with 16.5 million viewers
- Hal Holbrook (Dixie Carter's husband) and her daughters Ginna and Mary appeared on the show, Ginna and Mary would appear in one episode and Hal would appear as a guest star for 9 episodes. He also produced a couple of episodes. (could you see the love between the two?) Holbrook requested his character "end his run" so Holbrook could appear in another movie.
- The Only Emmy that Designing Women won was for Hairstyling, the show however would win 16 awards from the Viewers of Quality TV
- Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry was Dixie Carter's personal assistant during the shows run.
Diff'rent Strokes-
- The episode "The Bicycle Man" is considered one of TVs most infamous episodes due to the topic of Child Exploitation, and was slammed when it first aired, but has today become a camp classic.
- Conrad Bain and the cast received hate mail when the show first aired, the mail came from racists who at the time hated the idea of an interracial family.
- According to the E! Diff'rent Strokes Story, the young cast became so diva-ish on set that they'd order around the crew to get them food. (Conrad Bain had to step in an tell them to pull their heads in) and he said "I've been around this business for years, you don't see me speaking to the crew like that do you?" and then again it didn't work
- Gary Coleman feuded with Dixie Carter and that caused her exit from the show in season 7 (because Coleman was possibly losing out on more money in his paycheck.) it was said they often clashed. Carter refused to discuss her time on the show interviews, so something he must've said to her must've been awful. But he seemed to get along with Mary-Ann Mobley who replaced Carter in season 8.
- It was Conrad Bain's second last foray into series TV before he retired in 1996. He did a season of "Mr President" and appeared in the finale of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air", he was also the only one to appear in all episodes of Diff'rent Strokes.
- The show ended on ABC because NBC had lost interest in the series, and so did Gary Coleman, who was so sick of his character's catchphrase he wanted to retire it.
Maude-
- Over 27 affiliate networks refused to carry controversial abortion episode "Maude's Dilemma" over 4,000 letters were sent to the production company after the Roe v Wade decision was passed and the episodes aired.
- Bea Arthur once failed to talk to Bill Macy for an entire year of filming the show, because of a prank he pulled at the emmy awards.
- Esther Rolle clapped back at Bea Arthur after Arthur said she "displayed no comedic talent" during her time on the show, Rolle said "I don't do windows or comedy"
- The show was viewed by over 25 million people in 5 seasons, in the last season it wasn't ranked in the top 30.
- Bill Macy discussed in an interview, that the reason Maude ended was because Bea Arthur had just divorced husband Gene Saks, and she was struggling to deal with it, so she made the decision to end the show.
- Rue McClanahan was so sick of wearing a wig and looking older she told the producers about the idea of a "facelift episode"
- Bill Macy broke down in the Maude DVD discussing the episode about alcoholism and having to slap his co-star, he said he hated it so much he never wanted to do something like that again.
All in The Family-
- The show spent 5 seasons at Number 1 (season 2-6)
- The show spun-off Maude, The Jeffersons
- Jean Stapleton grew so tired of playing Edith, that in the continuation series she asked Norman Lear to "kill her off, she's only fiction" Lear replied with "Not to me", Edith died off screen and many theories think that the phlebitis that was diagnosed in the finale was the thing that led to her stroke off-screen.
- Rob Reiner was balding so fast on the set of AiTF, he wore a Toupee for his entire run on the show
Moonlighting-
-Bruce Willis' success on Die Hard created a hard working environment for all on the set, and even now co-stars say Willis is a "buzzkill"
- Bruce and Cybil's relationship diminished to the point Bruce blamed her for stalls in production.
Desperate Housewives-
- A fan loved the dress Eva Longeria wore in the pilot so much, that they wrote in and asked where they got it from. They sent her the dress that Eva wore.
- The character of Orson was only supposed to last for just one season, but MacLauchlan wanted to stay, so they had the idea to bring in Dixie Carter to be the mother from hell (Gloria Hodge), Cherry explained he thought that Carter had the "flair for the dramatic" and contacted her to take part. (Carter was his old boss on Designing Women)
- By the time the series ended, they were all sick of Eva Longeria.
- Kathryn Joosten died just 20 days after her on-screen character Mrs McClusky did
Law and Order-
-The Law and Order series is currently the longest running Legal Drama in the US
- The show has several successful spin-offs. Including Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury and Law and Order LA
Family Law-
- Was Tony Danza's first TV role in a drama series
- According to an article, Dixie Carter helped Danza settle into his TV role and made him feel comfortable on set
- The show was cancelled in 2002 due to "low ratings" but fans say it was mismanaged to the point of cancellation episodes are extremely hard to find online
Gimme A Break-
- Dolph Sweet's final episode aired just 3 days after he died in 1985
- Nell Carter was flown to rehab several times during the shows run to deal with her cocaine abuse and destructive lifestyle
- Rue McClanahan called the show "Really bad" when she guest starred on the series, she took the role because at that point of her career "she had to take something"
