Thank You For Being A Friend

Good-Bye Old Friends:
I just heard that Rue McClanahan died last week at the age of 78. Bea Arthur passed in 2008 and Estelle Getty soon after and now Rue. Wow, the Golden Girls of TV fame are all gone, all except one... the unstoppable Betty White whose career seems to be getting even bigger as she gets older.

The Award Winning Comedy Genius of The Golden Girls:
I absolutely loved the Golden Girls and watched every episode from 1985-1992 which spanned my teens through college and work then years later as reruns on Nick At Night. I will still watch a rerun even now and I still find myself laughing at the joke set-up and pay off. The comedic timing of the actors was great and the writing was the best.

I had watched these actresses for years, Bea Arthur on The Jefferson and later with Rue McClanahan on Maude and Betty White on Mary Tyler Moore(MTM) so I knew they were excellent but GG was how I got introduced to Estelle Getty through the character of Sophia Petrillo. Rue played Blanche Devereaux, a spoiled sex-starved southern belle (kind a Samantha of SATC but for the geriatric crowd ... now that I think of it, SATC ripped off GG quite a bit). Rue nailed the man-hungry role so well and it was a role similar to the one Betty White had played on MTM. These women earned the show 65Emmy noms and 3 Golden Globes for best TV comedy and all 4 actresses won Emmys for their individual performances over the 7 year run of the show (1985-1992).

The Golden Girls Legacy:
The combine years of industry knowledge between these four women was astounding and they were the first ensemble cast of women of any age to ever carry a comedy.

They Are Golden TV Icons:
Looking back, I am surprise how GG became a part of my most basic of memories. For example: I always thought that Dorothy and I had a lot in common and related to her mostly especially her dry humor, her height and her concern for others. Contrast that to my mother who loved Estelle Getty's take of the feisty Sophia mostly because I think it reminded her of her own mother who passed in 1994. It doesn't stop there folks. I actually had friends who would debate for hours whether it was possible for Rose Nyland (Betty White's character) to really be that "special" while others wanted Blanche to go to church and give up her "loose" ways.

I even took some of my home decor hints from them as my first couch in my first apartment had the same fabric as that in the show but mine was blue. I also wanted the palm wallpaper design that was on the wall of the living room but thankfully I couldn't find it anywhere. That Miami retirement home look is so out of style(lol).


Girls, We're Out Of Cheesecake:
I even ate the way the Golden Girls ate. They ended every crisis or every show with a huge slab of cake and good advice from a circle of close and trusted female friends. It seemed like a good idea to do the same and that may have accounted for at least half of the freshman 15 pounds I gained while in college(lol).
I even took dating advice from them and enjoyed the portrayal of women over 50 in romantic and relationship situations.



R.I.P. Rue MacClanahan, Bea Aurthur and Estelle Getty. You will be missed but to me you will always be "golden". As always, I "Thank You For Being A Friend".