Blackout! 35

It’s the Golden Girls!

An American sitcom created by Susan Harris that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, the series centers on four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida. It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, in association with Touchstone Television, and Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, and Harris served as the original executive producers.

Remember the the theme song of NBC’s sitcom “The Golden Girls”

The Golden Girls received critical acclaim throughout most of its run and won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. It also won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Each of the four stars received an Emmy Award (from multiple nominations during the series’ run), making it one of only three sitcoms in the award’s history to achieve this.

The series also ranked among the top ten highest-rated programs for six out of its seven seasons. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls No. 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. In 2014, the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at No. 69 in their list of the “101 Best Written TV Series of All Time”.

The series revolves around four older, single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami, Florida. The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Arthur) after they both responded to a room-for-rent ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store a year prior to the start of the series.

In the pilot episode, the three were joined by Dorothy’s 80-year-old mother, Sophia Petrillo (Getty), after the retirement home where she lived burned down. After six consecutive seasons in the top 10, and a seventh season at No. 30, The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series.

In the hour-long series finale, which aired in May 1992, Dorothy meets and marries Blanche’s Uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen), and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta, Georgia. Sophia was to join her, but in the end, Sophia stays behind with the other women in Miami, leading into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace. The series finale was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2010, the episode ranked at No. 17 of most-watched finales.