35+ Surprising Things You Never Knew About 'The Golden Girls'

The Golden Girls was a celebrated sitcom show that was on during the 1980’s about a group of senior citizens. The premise was that these sassy older ladies lived together, loved life, and sometimes got into some peculiar situations. With a cast of women who were a combination of Broadway veterans, comedy legends, and just all around amazing it wasn’t a surprise that the show lasted for seven seasons and is still shown regularly on syndication with repeats every day. Once that theme song gets stuck in your head, you’ll be singing it all day long, since it’s a total earworm. Here’s a line if you don’t remember…”thank you for being a friend, traveled down the road and back again!” You might even think of the Golden Girls almost like friends, but there are some interesting things you might not know about them. Here are shocking things that went on behind the scenes and on set that you never knew about The Golden Girls. 1. Getty Had Stage Fright Estelle Getty’s lack of acting experience reportedly caused her to become terrified before each performance. She thought the audience would know she was faking it. 2. The Set Was Recycled From Another Series The famous kitchen set was first created for the show It Takes Two, but then outfitted with a different wallpaper and a more tropical theme. 3. Bea Arthur Hated Her Wardrobe After a long day of filming, Arthur’s ears would often hurt. That’s because the big earrings Dorothy Zbornak wore were actually clip-ons since Arthur didn’t have pierced ears. 4. Rue McClanahan Got To Keep Blanche’s Clothes McClanahan was clever enough to know that she’d be going through numerous outfits on the show, so she had it written into her contract that she could keep Blanche’s wardrobe. 5. There Was Going To Be A Butler In The Show The pilot episode actually had a maid and personal chef in the house for the women, but the character was cut. It’s likely the character’s supposed homosexuality played a part. 6. The Show Could Be Controversial At Times Talking about sex, gay marriage, or abortion is commonplace in today’s TV world, but in The Golden Girls heyday, those topics were highly controversial. It’s a likely reason why the show endures today as being far ahead of its time. 7. They All Had Different Roles In The Beginning Betty White as Blanche? Rue McClanahan as Rose? Yep, the actresses were originally cast differently but agreed to switch to play roles they weren’t commonly known for. 8. No One Liked Bea Bea Arthur was notoriously difficult to work with and at one point or another on the show, every woman had a falling out with her. 9. Bea Was A Civil Rights Activist While she may have been difficult to work with at times, it’s no doubt that Arthur was passionate about her work…off screen as well. Arthur was a vocal supporter of LGBTQ, elderly, Jewish, women’s rights, and even the homeless. After her death, she reportedly donated a large sum of her estate to homeless LGBTQ youth. 10. Bea Also Was Involved In PETA Oh yeah, she also advocated for animal rights as a member of PETA. 11. Betty White Also Is An Animal Rights Activist But if White and Arthur didn’t always agree on everything, they definitely agreed on protecting animals and animal rights. 12. Betty White Holds The Guinness World Record For Longest Television Career Let’s see, it’s 2016. Betty White has been going strong since the 1950s. If my math is correct, that’s one heck of a career. Yep, my math’s correct. 13. Estelle Was Younger Than Bea Even though she played her mom on the show, Estelle was actually one year younger than Bea Arthur’s character. 14. Estelle Was A Gay Rights Activist After losing a homosexual nephew to AIDS, Estelle became a major fundraiser for AIDS research. 15. Betty White Was On A Lot Of Game Shows In between takes on The Golden Girls, Betty White would often play word games with her costars. That love of games transitioned into White appearing on numerous game shows, including Password, where she eventually met her future husband. 16. Estelle Getty Had a Face Lift Guess she didn’t run this one by the producers? In between two seasons, Getty had a facelift to look younger in real life. Unfortunately, the folks who did her makeup had to work even harder to make Getty appear as the oldest character on the show. 17. The Series Was Nominated for Over 60 Emmys Over the course of its seven seasons, The Golden Girls racked up more than 60 Emmy nominations, bringing home Outstanding Comedy Series in 1986 and ’87. 18. That’s A Whole Lot Of Emmys Over the years, all four actresses won an Emmy for their performance. White and Getty racked up seven nominations each, while Arthur and McClanahan received four apiece. 19. Betty White Is The Only One Alive White is also the only surviving member of the gang today. Rue passed away in 2010 due to a brain hemorrhage. Getty passed away in 2008 from Lewy Body Dementia, and Bea Arthur passed away in 2009 from cancer. 20. The Queen of England Was A Huge Fan Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly such a huge fan of the show that she invited them to England to perform. Well, when a Queen invites you to her country, you can’t refuse, right? Right. All four women went and put on a stage performance for the Queen and Royal family. 21. A Hatred Of Cheesecake… And Hundreds Of Them Despite there being hundreds of slices of cheesecake eaten on the show, Bea Arthur later revealed she hated the desert. Just lost some brownie, ahem, cheesecake points, Bea. 22. Excuse Me — Do You Speak Norwegian? In one scene where Rose is supposed to be speaking Norwegian, White actually just says a bunch of gibberish with an accent. People were none-the-wiser. 23. Bea Arthur Originally Fought Against Joining The Show Arthur almost turned down the role in The Golden Girls because she thought the roles she, McClanahan, and White were going to play were too similar to their roles on Maude and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, respectively. When White and McClanahan decided to switch roles, Arthur came on board. 24. Alphabet Wars!!! Betty White’s love of the game show Password infected Rue McClanahan and the two would sometimes spend an entire day between takes playing a game. 25. Betty White Is The Oldest Of Them All She was the youngest of the four women, but Betty White was actually the oldest actress. 26. One Table And Three Chairs? Though there are obviously four main women, the kitchen table only featured three chairs. The producers didn’t ever want one character to have her back to the camera. 27. More Emmy History With all four leading ladies snagging Emmy gold at one point or another, it puts The Golden Girls in a class (almost) all their own. The only other shows to win Emmys for all its main characters are All in the Family and Will & Grace. 28. Inspiration From The Show Came From Real Life The inspiration for the show came from NBC producer Brandon Tartikoff one day visiting his aunt when her next door neighbor came over for a visit. The women bickered constantly, but it was obvious they shared a special connection and love. The Golden Girls was soon born. 29. What’s In A Name, Really? The episode titled, “Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy,” revealed Blanche’s name as “Blanche Marie Hollingsworth,” but a later episode says her name is “Blanche Elizabeth Deveraux.” No one on the show ever provided a reason for the unexpected change. 30. Eisner Demanded Changes Before The Show Was Picked Up Disney president Michael Eisner loved the idea for the show but said he wanted a younger female to broaden the appeal. Writers went back and added Sophia first, then Dorothy came along. The Golden Girls was given the go-ahead shortly after. 31. An International Sensation The show’s massive success transferred over into 60 other countries and versions of the program were made in England, Russia, and Greece. The show still runs in syndication today. 32. That’s Out Of This 'World' In one episode, Blanche wants to watch Another World, a soap opera where McClanahan played Blanche in several appearances. This was a gift to fans to really help personalize the actresses. 33. The Off-Broadway Production Full Of Guys In 2003, an off-Broadway, a;-male production of the show called The Golden Girls: Live! started showing. The play drew the attention of one of the TV show’s original creators, Susan Harris, who demanded production be stopped. A couple months later, the all-male cast was out of work when the production ceased. 34. A Stroke Of Racism Because Sophia had had a stroke earlier in life, the writers thought it’d be safer to give her any controversial racist lines that could be explained because of the ailment. It was an effective tool, but horribly, horribly wrong to do. 35. Everything Came Up Roses For Betty White Betty White’s Rose Nylund was so well received the character made several guest appearances on other TV shows, including “Empty Nest” in 1988, “Nurses” in 1991, and “The Golden Palace” in 1992. 36. That’s A Whole Lot Of People Talk about starting on a high note! The first episode of The Golden Girls racked up an astounding 25 million viewers. For seven years, those numbers hardly went down. 37. The Southern Accent That Didn’t Exist Blanche was never written with a Southern accent when the producers first started working on the show, but when Rue McClanahan started using the accent unexpectedly, everyone loved the charm it brought her character and it became a memorable part of the show. 38. Bea Arthur Was Born for This Role After Bea Arthur initially turned down the role of Dorothy, the producers set out on an exhaustive search for someone “Bea Arthur-esque.” Nobody was up to snuff. After the aforementioned role reversals for White and McClanahan, Arthur knew the show would be a hit. Turns out she was right. (Source: definition.org)