Post by jasong on Nov 18, 2018 12:54:12 GMT
First off, I'm writing this a second time, after I forgot to save it, my computer froze and I had to restart it.
I've been around on the forum writing about the show for at least a year now, and I have written about almost everything I could think of, shared my opinions on mostly everything and have received great feedback and great comments from fans and people who like and still watch the show to the day and it means much more than words could say. Wrote about the ladies, wrote about some of the episodes, the award wins and much more, but today I'm just gonna talk about the show as a whole and why its fun to discuss the show with many people.
The Premise-
The Golden Girls was a comedy, and like most of the 80s, was filled with them. From Night Court, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Diffrent Strokes, The Jeffersons and many more. But Golden Girls was a show that featured one thing these other shows didn't. A much older cast, of 4 extremely talented ladies, something TV hadn't seen before. Living it up in Miami and enjoying life, going out, making fun of each other and generally becoming the TV family we all wanted.
The Pilot-
The pilot, the episode that started it all. After reading Susan Harris' article a few weeks ago the show aired to 44 million people, after I had read the show debuted to 21.5 million people. The pilot beat out The Cosby Show in ratings for that week, and maintained the same night for its entire run. The pilot didn't just burst onto the scene it took over and blew it out of the water. (Also a little piece of trivia, future designing women star Meshach Taylor was in the episode as a cop who tells Blanche her husband to be is a bigamist. So if you didn't know that you now do!.)
The pilot gave us Dorothy making fun of school kids (calling them ugly to look at..), gave us Rose's first meme moment, Blanche being Blanche and going out on a date, and the ever amazing entrance of Sophia, when 'The Home' burns down. Sophia's first amazing comeback of 'You look like a prostitute' and calling Coco an 'Okay petunia'.
"That we're together. And that no matter what happens, even if we all get married, we'll stick together."
And the pilot is how we all came too love the show, the pilot is what we saw as a TV 'family' and made us watch every week just to see what shenanigans the ladies got up to. What made us watch this TV family is they were like family for those 7 years they felt like family and that's why the show was so successful in the time it was on and the show's message of being a family even if you aren't related. Blanche let go of her pain in and embraced the fact that they were like a family.
The Award Wins-
Well as we know the show was nominated 121 times for awards and won 36, out of those 36 include 11 emmy wins, 4 golden globes, 2 TV land awards ,4 AMC awards and many more. But the thing is when they won the awards the ladies were all so humble about winning, none more so then Rue, who in her speech thanked everyone including her sister and manager, (it's up on youtube if you wish too watch it.. Howie Mandel mispronouncing Rue's last time is funny..) Bea thanked Norman Lear for getting her into the 'crazy, delicious, medium' which was acting, Estelle thanked everyone and even so being cute called Bea Arthur her 'daughter' and so did Betty. And the ladies never let the success of the show get to their heads, they remained humble in long run and never forgot.
A Meeting With The Queen Mother-
It's not often you get to have a performance with the Queen Mother and the Queen, but that's what the ladies did, they performed at a royal variety event, and according to crew in a cast and crew documentary they did this in the middle of a 'hectic filming schedule'. This can be seen on youtube if it is still available and it is worth giving a worth, as the ladies performed on stage an episode, but with changed dialogue.
The Backstage Drama-
Well, you know how it goes, there's no drama like backstage drama, but according to all the guest stars there was 'no ego' on set and that everyone 'got along', but now with what we know, it's not that surprising actually. Like all shows, everyone has a different personality and sometimes they clash, as we know how strained the relationship between Bea and Betty was (according to an article, Bea was angry she didn't win the emmy first in 1986, as Betty won it first.) but the thing was Betty acknowledged it and said she didn't know what she did, but she loved Bea, and this is evident in later interviews after Bea's death. Another bit of drama was Estelle's stage fright and many times this would apparently 'annoy' the girls, as they would often have to stay back and film scenes again - often after the audience had left.
But then again Bea said years after that 'They should've known something was wrong, when she would forget her lines..', Estelle was diagnosed with Lewy-body dementia and passed away in 2008, Rue and Betty decided after that to remain in contact, until Rue died in 2010.
Spin-off Success-
Well....not at first... As we know the show had spun-off the show Empty Nest, but in season 2 the show tried to use a backdoor pilot method like a few other shows, rarely do these backdoor pilots work and this wasn't working... The backdoor pilot remains the lowest rated episode on IMDb with 3.7 and the ire of even the fans and the people who were in the episode. Rita Moreno said that the episode was awful, the script had been changed so many times they didn't know what to do, the Golden Girls were annoyed and Susan Harris was ill and couldn't do rewrites.
But they did try again. with more success, Empty Nest lasting 7 years and winning emmys and awards, even spinning off a spin off called Nurses, which technically is a spin off of Golden Girls (confused yet..) lol.
The Finale-
The show ended in 1992 after Bea had decided that enough was enough, 7 years was her end. The finale was watched by 27.2 million viewers (again I dunno how accurate that is..), and saw Dorothy finally meet happiness, with Uncle Lucas, the finale is difficult for most people to watch because thats where the magic ended, the girls no longer together, missing a piece of the puzzle, but you see it as Dorothy getting the one thing she struggled to find the series run, someone loving. We had Stan, who showed up (because of course he did.) and we watched him drive Dorothy to the wedding, and even see his regret knowing he should've treated her better. (also that dress.. they couldn't have made a worse dress if they tried.)
Golden Palace-
The Continuation Series that aired on CBS for a year, before being cancelled due to ratings, but again fans forget this exists and its just one of those series that I think didn't need to happen, but it did. If you haven't heard of it, the girls sell the house and move into and run a hotel, nothing much to it.
The Losses-
Something I always struggle to write about is of course, the 'Golden Girls Curse' which took Estelle, Bea and Rue in the space of 3 years, 2008 to 2010. And the even more eerier thing is in the episode 'Sophia's Choice' when the camera pans out and they are sitting on the couch, they are sitting in the order they passed away in, I still dunno if thats just bad luck or eerie. But nothing prepares someone knowing that they are the 'last one alive' and I remember watching a video of Betty saying, barely holding back tears, but the thing is, is that the girls would be proud of everything Betty has achieved.
The Show's Legacy-
Something I always end up talking about is the shows legacy, and its worth talking about. Now in 2018 the show is powering along more than any other show from the 80s. Ya know they released cereal? Which is fetching a high price on ebay, I mean.. cereal, but its a collectible and would be worth every cent. The show also many helps them laugh during serious moments in their life and if you're on twitter, videos are being shared all the time. The show has a growing legacy and will continue to keep growing as long as people remember how good the series is and how good the comedy was.
I've been around on the forum writing about the show for at least a year now, and I have written about almost everything I could think of, shared my opinions on mostly everything and have received great feedback and great comments from fans and people who like and still watch the show to the day and it means much more than words could say. Wrote about the ladies, wrote about some of the episodes, the award wins and much more, but today I'm just gonna talk about the show as a whole and why its fun to discuss the show with many people.
The Premise-
The Golden Girls was a comedy, and like most of the 80s, was filled with them. From Night Court, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Diffrent Strokes, The Jeffersons and many more. But Golden Girls was a show that featured one thing these other shows didn't. A much older cast, of 4 extremely talented ladies, something TV hadn't seen before. Living it up in Miami and enjoying life, going out, making fun of each other and generally becoming the TV family we all wanted.
The Pilot-
The pilot, the episode that started it all. After reading Susan Harris' article a few weeks ago the show aired to 44 million people, after I had read the show debuted to 21.5 million people. The pilot beat out The Cosby Show in ratings for that week, and maintained the same night for its entire run. The pilot didn't just burst onto the scene it took over and blew it out of the water. (Also a little piece of trivia, future designing women star Meshach Taylor was in the episode as a cop who tells Blanche her husband to be is a bigamist. So if you didn't know that you now do!.)
The pilot gave us Dorothy making fun of school kids (calling them ugly to look at..), gave us Rose's first meme moment, Blanche being Blanche and going out on a date, and the ever amazing entrance of Sophia, when 'The Home' burns down. Sophia's first amazing comeback of 'You look like a prostitute' and calling Coco an 'Okay petunia'.
"That we're together. And that no matter what happens, even if we all get married, we'll stick together."
And the pilot is how we all came too love the show, the pilot is what we saw as a TV 'family' and made us watch every week just to see what shenanigans the ladies got up to. What made us watch this TV family is they were like family for those 7 years they felt like family and that's why the show was so successful in the time it was on and the show's message of being a family even if you aren't related. Blanche let go of her pain in and embraced the fact that they were like a family.
The Award Wins-
Well as we know the show was nominated 121 times for awards and won 36, out of those 36 include 11 emmy wins, 4 golden globes, 2 TV land awards ,4 AMC awards and many more. But the thing is when they won the awards the ladies were all so humble about winning, none more so then Rue, who in her speech thanked everyone including her sister and manager, (it's up on youtube if you wish too watch it.. Howie Mandel mispronouncing Rue's last time is funny..) Bea thanked Norman Lear for getting her into the 'crazy, delicious, medium' which was acting, Estelle thanked everyone and even so being cute called Bea Arthur her 'daughter' and so did Betty. And the ladies never let the success of the show get to their heads, they remained humble in long run and never forgot.
A Meeting With The Queen Mother-
It's not often you get to have a performance with the Queen Mother and the Queen, but that's what the ladies did, they performed at a royal variety event, and according to crew in a cast and crew documentary they did this in the middle of a 'hectic filming schedule'. This can be seen on youtube if it is still available and it is worth giving a worth, as the ladies performed on stage an episode, but with changed dialogue.
The Backstage Drama-
Well, you know how it goes, there's no drama like backstage drama, but according to all the guest stars there was 'no ego' on set and that everyone 'got along', but now with what we know, it's not that surprising actually. Like all shows, everyone has a different personality and sometimes they clash, as we know how strained the relationship between Bea and Betty was (according to an article, Bea was angry she didn't win the emmy first in 1986, as Betty won it first.) but the thing was Betty acknowledged it and said she didn't know what she did, but she loved Bea, and this is evident in later interviews after Bea's death. Another bit of drama was Estelle's stage fright and many times this would apparently 'annoy' the girls, as they would often have to stay back and film scenes again - often after the audience had left.
But then again Bea said years after that 'They should've known something was wrong, when she would forget her lines..', Estelle was diagnosed with Lewy-body dementia and passed away in 2008, Rue and Betty decided after that to remain in contact, until Rue died in 2010.
Spin-off Success-
Well....not at first... As we know the show had spun-off the show Empty Nest, but in season 2 the show tried to use a backdoor pilot method like a few other shows, rarely do these backdoor pilots work and this wasn't working... The backdoor pilot remains the lowest rated episode on IMDb with 3.7 and the ire of even the fans and the people who were in the episode. Rita Moreno said that the episode was awful, the script had been changed so many times they didn't know what to do, the Golden Girls were annoyed and Susan Harris was ill and couldn't do rewrites.
But they did try again. with more success, Empty Nest lasting 7 years and winning emmys and awards, even spinning off a spin off called Nurses, which technically is a spin off of Golden Girls (confused yet..) lol.
The Finale-
The show ended in 1992 after Bea had decided that enough was enough, 7 years was her end. The finale was watched by 27.2 million viewers (again I dunno how accurate that is..), and saw Dorothy finally meet happiness, with Uncle Lucas, the finale is difficult for most people to watch because thats where the magic ended, the girls no longer together, missing a piece of the puzzle, but you see it as Dorothy getting the one thing she struggled to find the series run, someone loving. We had Stan, who showed up (because of course he did.) and we watched him drive Dorothy to the wedding, and even see his regret knowing he should've treated her better. (also that dress.. they couldn't have made a worse dress if they tried.)
Golden Palace-
The Continuation Series that aired on CBS for a year, before being cancelled due to ratings, but again fans forget this exists and its just one of those series that I think didn't need to happen, but it did. If you haven't heard of it, the girls sell the house and move into and run a hotel, nothing much to it.
The Losses-
Something I always struggle to write about is of course, the 'Golden Girls Curse' which took Estelle, Bea and Rue in the space of 3 years, 2008 to 2010. And the even more eerier thing is in the episode 'Sophia's Choice' when the camera pans out and they are sitting on the couch, they are sitting in the order they passed away in, I still dunno if thats just bad luck or eerie. But nothing prepares someone knowing that they are the 'last one alive' and I remember watching a video of Betty saying, barely holding back tears, but the thing is, is that the girls would be proud of everything Betty has achieved.
The Show's Legacy-
Something I always end up talking about is the shows legacy, and its worth talking about. Now in 2018 the show is powering along more than any other show from the 80s. Ya know they released cereal? Which is fetching a high price on ebay, I mean.. cereal, but its a collectible and would be worth every cent. The show also many helps them laugh during serious moments in their life and if you're on twitter, videos are being shared all the time. The show has a growing legacy and will continue to keep growing as long as people remember how good the series is and how good the comedy was.