Post by jasong on Oct 19, 2018 8:44:44 GMT
After reading Susan Harris' article from Entertainment Weekly the other day, it was good to read, highly informative. She didn't hold back on the shows she created nor her career start or the episodes of TV shows she created and wrote for. Susan was the creator of the hit classic Golden Girls, and alongside her during those times were Tony Thomas and her late husband Paul Junger Witt.
(Here's a famous tangent of mine)
Tell me an episode of the show that hasn't dealt with a problem that is in the eye of this decade. Just give me one and I can tell you how wrong you could be when you think "oh its just a TV phenomena and left little legacy.." oh you're wrong if you think that. The show was a hit in over 60 countries and was even remade in three countries, oh sure "no legacy you tell me.." the girl even performed in front of the Queen Mother because she loved the show that much for crying out loud, not many shows can say they ever did that. The Golden Girls is special, those women Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty gave their all in this series, for 7 years and 177 episodes, that made an effort to do their best with what they were given for some episodes, other episodes you think "what happened here.." but that is all shows that on TV now, every show has episodes fans don't like or a favourite character they had of course I can say my favourite was always Rose (I also loved Dorothy as many people do, but I am a little bit of Rose and I have to respect fans opinions on who was their favourite Golden Girl..
The Show-
We all know the show she created, Golden Girls, it was an instant smash, it was different to what TV fans were used to, but fans fell in love for one simple reason. The show showed older women enjoying their lives in Miami. Shared heartbreak, love, cheesecake and insults for 7 years. For those 7 years the show was apart of everyone's lives, it was so popular that when fans wrote in to the show, it was young girls wanting to live with them. The show also had a massive following in the gay community as well, the clubs would shut down the dance floor and they would all sit to watch the show. Tell me a huge fanbase that keeps a show in the Top 10 for 6 years.
The rest is in fact what we live with in everyday life, and it can be a tough life to live for anyone. You must know that the show debuted in the 80s in years in which many other shows were topical as well. Norman Lear was still about producing his shows and proving that his envelope pushing did extremely well. Susan Harris, Tony Thomas, and Paul Witt wrote a little show named the Golden Girls which over its 7 seasons won over millions of people, and I will say this, the show in 2018 is more important than ever.
Soap, Benson and Empty Nest-
Just a couple of other shows that were written with the help of Susan, Tony and Paul. Benson being a spin-off of Soap and Empty Nest being the successful spin-off of Golden Girls (that's after its failed back door pilot). Soap was controversial in it's own right and Benson was loveable until its last episode. Empty Nest I can officially say I didn't really get into, but Mulligan did tie for the emmy with another 2 actors whenever that was (I think it was in the 90s?). All three of those shows I mentioned with legacies all their own.
Those Maude Episodes-
1972 was the year TV smashed taboos and Maude was one of them shows. Susan Harris wrote the two episodes of Maude titled "Maude's Dilemma" parts 1 and 2. So what are those episodes about? Maude's late-life pregnancy and subsequent abortion in the second episode, when the episodes aired 4,000 people wrote letters to the station, and over 20 affiliate networks refused to carry the episode. But the next year is when it exploded. The Roe v Wade decision was put into law and as a result a re-run of those two episodes were put to air, causing more than 20,000 letters of either support or disgust to be sent in. Bea Arthur claimed she never got to see the "bad hate mail" but claimed some of it came from "good people with convictions". More then 8 years later McClanahan, Arthur and Harris would be working on another show.
Not Watching It-
As I got further into the article, Susan explained that she doesn't watch the show anymore. And for that, I don't blame her. What I am saying is that after you created such a show and watched it grow from behind the scenes for those 7 years, and all those episodes, is there a need to watch it more then 30 years later? She also said she had no interest in a modern reboot for any of the shows she created or creating more shows, leaving behind her own legacy as the woman who created Golden Girls.
In a way, I understand not wanting to reboot such a classic, you'd have to find the perfect cast, there was a perfect cast, the original cast. I am all for reboots if they're good enough to remember what the original had in mind, but in no way would you reboot Golden Girls with just one original, you leave it alone.
It's a great interesting article none-the-less, so I suggest you read it.
ew.com/tv/2018/10/15/susan-harris-golden-girls-soap-oral-history/
(Here's a famous tangent of mine)
Tell me an episode of the show that hasn't dealt with a problem that is in the eye of this decade. Just give me one and I can tell you how wrong you could be when you think "oh its just a TV phenomena and left little legacy.." oh you're wrong if you think that. The show was a hit in over 60 countries and was even remade in three countries, oh sure "no legacy you tell me.." the girl even performed in front of the Queen Mother because she loved the show that much for crying out loud, not many shows can say they ever did that. The Golden Girls is special, those women Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty gave their all in this series, for 7 years and 177 episodes, that made an effort to do their best with what they were given for some episodes, other episodes you think "what happened here.." but that is all shows that on TV now, every show has episodes fans don't like or a favourite character they had of course I can say my favourite was always Rose (I also loved Dorothy as many people do, but I am a little bit of Rose and I have to respect fans opinions on who was their favourite Golden Girl..
The Show-
We all know the show she created, Golden Girls, it was an instant smash, it was different to what TV fans were used to, but fans fell in love for one simple reason. The show showed older women enjoying their lives in Miami. Shared heartbreak, love, cheesecake and insults for 7 years. For those 7 years the show was apart of everyone's lives, it was so popular that when fans wrote in to the show, it was young girls wanting to live with them. The show also had a massive following in the gay community as well, the clubs would shut down the dance floor and they would all sit to watch the show. Tell me a huge fanbase that keeps a show in the Top 10 for 6 years.
The rest is in fact what we live with in everyday life, and it can be a tough life to live for anyone. You must know that the show debuted in the 80s in years in which many other shows were topical as well. Norman Lear was still about producing his shows and proving that his envelope pushing did extremely well. Susan Harris, Tony Thomas, and Paul Witt wrote a little show named the Golden Girls which over its 7 seasons won over millions of people, and I will say this, the show in 2018 is more important than ever.
Soap, Benson and Empty Nest-
Just a couple of other shows that were written with the help of Susan, Tony and Paul. Benson being a spin-off of Soap and Empty Nest being the successful spin-off of Golden Girls (that's after its failed back door pilot). Soap was controversial in it's own right and Benson was loveable until its last episode. Empty Nest I can officially say I didn't really get into, but Mulligan did tie for the emmy with another 2 actors whenever that was (I think it was in the 90s?). All three of those shows I mentioned with legacies all their own.
Those Maude Episodes-
1972 was the year TV smashed taboos and Maude was one of them shows. Susan Harris wrote the two episodes of Maude titled "Maude's Dilemma" parts 1 and 2. So what are those episodes about? Maude's late-life pregnancy and subsequent abortion in the second episode, when the episodes aired 4,000 people wrote letters to the station, and over 20 affiliate networks refused to carry the episode. But the next year is when it exploded. The Roe v Wade decision was put into law and as a result a re-run of those two episodes were put to air, causing more than 20,000 letters of either support or disgust to be sent in. Bea Arthur claimed she never got to see the "bad hate mail" but claimed some of it came from "good people with convictions". More then 8 years later McClanahan, Arthur and Harris would be working on another show.
Not Watching It-
As I got further into the article, Susan explained that she doesn't watch the show anymore. And for that, I don't blame her. What I am saying is that after you created such a show and watched it grow from behind the scenes for those 7 years, and all those episodes, is there a need to watch it more then 30 years later? She also said she had no interest in a modern reboot for any of the shows she created or creating more shows, leaving behind her own legacy as the woman who created Golden Girls.
In a way, I understand not wanting to reboot such a classic, you'd have to find the perfect cast, there was a perfect cast, the original cast. I am all for reboots if they're good enough to remember what the original had in mind, but in no way would you reboot Golden Girls with just one original, you leave it alone.
It's a great interesting article none-the-less, so I suggest you read it.
ew.com/tv/2018/10/15/susan-harris-golden-girls-soap-oral-history/