The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning seven seasons. The show stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty as 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.

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, making it one of only three sitcoms in the award's history to achieve this. The series also ranked among the top-10 highest-rated programs for six of its seven seasons. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. In 2014, the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time".

Premise
The show had an ensemble cast and the plot revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami. 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 an ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store a year before 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 had been living burned down.

Pilot
The first episode featured a gay cook/butler named Coco (played by Charles Levin), but the role was dropped before the second episode. The writers observed that in many of the proposed scripts, the main interaction between the women occurred in the kitchen while preparing and eating food. They decided that a separate cook would distract from their friendship. In addition, the character of Sophia had originally been planned as an occasional guest star, but Getty had tested so positively with preview audiences that the producers decided to make her a regular character.

Finale
After six consecutive seasons in the top 10, and the seventh season at number 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, she stays behind with the other women in Miami. This led into the spin-off series, The Golden Palace.

The series finale of The Golden Girls was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2016, it was the 17th-most watched television finale.

Main



 * Beatrice Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak (née Petrillo), a substitute teacher. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Sicilian immigrants Sophia and Salvadore Petrillo, Dorothy became pregnant while still in high school, resulting in a marriage to Stanley Zbornak (Herb Edelman) to legitimize the baby. Stan and Dorothy eventually moved to Miami, but divorced after 38 years when Stan left her for a young flight attendant. The marriage produced two children, Kate, in her early 20s, and Michael, who was inconsistently aged between his mid-20s and late 30s (Michael was purportedly the cause of the shotgun wedding). In the series' final episode, Dorothy marries Blanche's uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth, and relocates to Atlanta. Arthur also played Dorothy's grandmother, Sophia's mother, in a flashback episode to when they lived in Brooklyn in the 1950s when Dorothy was a young adult (even though two episodes -- "My Father, my Brother" and "The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo" stated that Sophia's mother died when Dorothy was younger). In season one episode seven, Dorothy is stated to be 55.
 * Betty White as Rose Nylund (adopted maiden name Lindström), a Norwegian American from the small farming town of St. Olaf, Minnesota. Often slightly naive and known for her humorously peculiar stories of life growing up in her hometown, Rose was happily married to Charlie Nylund, with whom she had five children; three daughters: Kiersten, Bridgette, and Janella; and two sons: Adam and Charlie, Jr. Upon Charlie's death, she moved to Miami. She eventually finds work at a grief counselling center, but later switches careers and becomes assistant to consumer reporter Enrique Mas at a local TV station. In later seasons, Rose became romantically involved with college professor Miles Webber. During season six, Webber was placed into the Witness Protection Program, but returned later in the season. Their relationship continued throughout the series and shortly into the sequel series, The Golden Palace.
 * Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux (née Hollingsworth), a Southern belle employed at an art museum. Born into a wealthy family, Blanche grew up as the apple of her father's eye on a plantation outside of Atlanta, Georgia, prior to her relocation to Miami, where she lived with her husband, George, until his death. Their marriage produced six children; two daughters: Janet and Rebecca; and four sons: Doug, Biff, Skippy, and Matthew. A widow, Blanche was portrayed as man-hungry and clearly had the most male admirers and stories detailing various sexual encounters over the course of the series.
 * Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy's mother. Born in Sicily, Sophia moved to New York after fleeing an arranged marriage to Guido Spirelli. She married Salvadore "Sal" Petrillo, with whom she had three children: Dorothy, Gloria, and Phil, a cross-dresser who later dies of a heart attack (episode "Ebbtide's Revenge"). Initially a resident of the Shady Pines retirement home after having a stroke prior to the start of the series, she moved in with Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy following a fire at the institution. During the series' run, Sophia married Max Weinstock, but they soon separated. Throughout the series, she held a few part-time jobs, mostly involving food, including as a fast-food worker and an entrepreneur of spaghetti sauce and homemade sandwiches.

Recurring

 * Herb Edelman as Stanley Zbornak, Dorothy's cheating, freeloading ex-husband who left her for a young flight attendant. Stanley worked as an unsuccessful novelty salesman until he became a successful entrepreneur by inventing a baked potato opener that made him wealthy.
 * Harold Gould as Miles Webber (or Nicholas Carbone/Samuel Plankmaker) is Rose's professor boyfriend from season 5 onwards. In season 6, Miles reveals he is in the witness protection program and was a bookkeeper for a mobster. Gould also guest-starred once in the first season as Arnie Peterson, Rose's first serious boyfriend after her husband Charlie's death.
 * Sid Melton as Salvadore Petrillo, Sophia's late husband, who is usually seen in dreams or flashback sequences. Melton also appears as Don the Fool, a waiter at a medieval restaurant in season six.
 * Shawn Schepps and Debra Engle, as Blanche's daughter, Rebecca Devereaux. Initially an overweight former model in an emotionally abusive relationship, she later slimmed down and had a baby girl named Aurora by artificial insemination.
 * Monte Markham and Sheree North as Blanche's siblings Clayton Hollingsworth and Virginia Hollingsworth.
 * Bill Dana and Nancy Walker as Sophia's siblings Angelo and Angela. Dana appears in seven episodes (seasons 3-7), while he also played Sophia's father in a season-four episode. Walker starred in two episodes in season 2.
 * Doris Belack and Dena Dietrich as Gloria Petrillo, Dorothy's younger sister who is married to a wealthy man in California. She later loses all of her money and becomes romantically involved with Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan.
 * Scott Jacoby as Dorothy's aimless musician son Michael Zbornak.
 * Lynnie Greene (credited as Lynn Greene) as a younger Dorothy in flashbacks.
 * Lisa Jane Persky and Deena Freeman, as Dorothy's daughter, Kate Zbornak.