They were the original foursome. Long before Sex and the City, there were Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia. The Golden Girls, created by Susan Harris, originally aired from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, spanning over seven seasons, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes.
The show stars Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty as four mature women sharing a home in Miami, Florida. The hilarious and touching show became a pop culture phenomenon. Think you already know these gals head-to-toe? Here are some facts you might not know about The Golden Girls.
White read first for Blanche, then for Rose. Prior to The Golden Girls, White had appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the "neighborhood nymphomaniac," Sue Ann Nivens.
Producers decided that if White played another man-hungry character, audiences might think it was Sue Ann revisited. So, it was decided Rose would be a better fit. Even with this drastic change, White was thrilled with playing her part.
McClanahan had a clause written into her contract that allowed her to keep all of her character Blanche's custom-made clothing. Throughout the years she actively collected props, souvenirs, and artifacts during her years on The Golden Girls, with the intent of one day sharing them with her loyal fans.
Four Golden Girls — but, only three chairs? The math doesn't add up! Well, according to director Terry Hughes, "There was a technical reason for that, because somebody would have had to sit with their back to the camera.
"We got lots of letters from teenage girls who were unhappy at home and wanted to move in with us. They thought it was real life," McClanahan said, in an interview from the Archive of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. "The appeal of these four characters was their warmth and friendship and the fact that we stuck together through thick and thin." These four ladies seemed like the grandmothers these teenagers wished they had
