September 14, 1985: "The Golden Girls" Premieres

Left to right: Estelle Getty, Beatrice Arthur,

Rue McClanahan and Betty White

September 14, 1985, 40 years ago: The Golden Girls premieres on NBC. The Miami-set sitcom lasts 7 seasons, and becomes an all-time favorite.

Beatrice Arthur was already a legend for playing the title character, an outspoken feminist, on the 1972-78 CBS sitcom Maude. One of her co-stars was Rue McClanahan, who played Maude's best friend, the nice but dumb Vivian Harmon. Betty White was already a long-standing TV star, including appearing on another iconic CBS sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as the smart-mouthed, maneating Sue Ann Nivens.

TV producer Tony Thomas, son of comedian Danny and brother of actress Marlo, wanted to produce a sitcom about older women in Miami, a city known for having a lot of older people, showing that they could have just as much fun as younger people. He created the series with Susan Harris, with whom he had previously created the sitcoms Soap and its spinoff Benson.

Thomas wanted Bea Arthur, thinking the show needed a Maude type. So he went back-channel, first getting McClanahan and White -- but reversing their former roles. So when Rue approached Bea with the idea, Bea said she didn't want Rue playing "another Vivian." "Oh, but you don't understand," Rue said. "This time, Betty's playing Vivian, and I'm playing Sue Ann!" Bea immediately got the reference, and said, "Interesting!"

So Bea played Dorothy Zbornack, a tough teacher who moved from New York to Miami after splitting with her no-good cheating husband Stan, a recurring character played by Herb Edelman. Betty played Rose Nylund, a nice but dumb lady from St. Olaf, a small town in Minnesota whose eccentricities featured in her stories that the other "girls" could never believe. (This may have been a nod to James Noble's Governor Gene Gatling, the good-natured, odd-story-telling, in-over-his-head Governor on Benson.) She moved to Miami after the death of her husband, Charley, who was never shown.

And Rue played Blanche Devereaux, a Southern belle who had already moved to Miami with her husband, George, but had advertised for roommates after his death in a car crash. How she stayed faithful to him for years wasn't explained, but, both before and after her marriage, she slept around. And around, and around, and around.

In the pilot episode, Dorothy's 82-year-old mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), moved in with them, after her nursing home, Shady Pines, mysteriously burned down. Dorothy frequently threatened to send her back to the rebuilt Shady Pines, but never carried the threat out.

Oddly, Getty was younger than the actress playing her daughter: At the time the show began, Arthur was 63 years old, Getty was 62, McClanahan was 51, and White was also 63.

Being the youngest, McClanahan's character also was, and Blanche's age became a point of contention. In the 2nd season premiere, she feared she might be pregnant, and mentioned her age as being 48. To make matters worse for Blanche was that she didn't know who the prospective father was: According to her "little black book," there were 5 potential candidates! (And there's no way to know if 5 different men in a week is Blanche's "personal best"!)

(Coincidentally, 48 was also the age Maude was when she was pregnant, and got TV's 1st abortion, in 1972, when it was still illegal in most of the country, but legal in the State of New York, where her show was set.)

As it turned out, Blanche was going through menopause, and was afraid this would make her less desirable to men. This also turned out not to be true, and she kept up her wild lifestyle, all the while denying that she was in her 50s. As Dorothy put it: "Blanche, have you heard the latest ad campaigns? 'Join the Navy, see the world, sleep with Blanche Devereaux.' 'Join the Army, be all you can be, and sleep with Blanche Devereaux.' 'The Marines are looking for a few good men who haven't slept with Blanche Devereaux!'"

All 4 women had very sharp wits, and the above just scratches the surface of the digs they got in against each other. Given enough provocation, even Rose could briefly get smart enough to slip in a great insult. In the end, however, they would always reconcile, and split a late-night cheesecake. In other words, Friends was not the white Living Single. Living Single was the young black Golden Girls. And Sex and the City was the young white Golden Girls.

Cindy Fee sang the theme song, "Thank You For Being a Friend," which had been written by Andrew Gold, and was a minor hit for him in 1978.

The show was surprisingly progressive by the standards of the Reagan and Daddy Bush years. Blanche had a gay brother, Clayton Hollingsworth (Monte Markham). In his 1st appearance, she had trouble with him coming out to her, but accepted it; in his 2nd, he got married, though it wouldn't be legal in Florida for another 25 years.

The term "a friend of Dorothy" has long been used as a euphemism for a gay person, especially a woman. In a 1986 episode, Jean (Lois Nettleton), a friend of Dorothy's, moved to Miami after the death of her partner, and Dorothy was afraid to tell the others that Jean was a lesbian, until Jean admitted she was falling for Rose. Things were settled tastefully. And Dorothy's brother, Phil Petrillo (never portrayed onscreen), was a cross-dresser, which was difficult for Sophia to handle, until he dies, and they have to deal with it.

The show ran 7 seasons, and inspired a spinoff, Empty Nest, starring former Soap star Richard Mulligan as a widowed pediatrician with 3 unmarried daughters. That show spun off another sitcom, Nurses. The shows occasionally crossed over with each other.

In the series finale, Dorothy married Blanche's brother, Lucas Hollingsworth, played by Leslie Nielsen. Bea Arthur was done with the show, and apparently the jokes about her appearance bothered her more than the jokes about the others and their peculiarities bothered them.

So, just as the 3 actors who wanted M*A*S*H to keep going starred in AfterMASH, which failed, White, McClanahan and Getty starred in The Golden Palace, where Rose, Blanche and Sophia ran a hotel, with help from comedian Cheech Marin as the hotel's chef, and an as-yet-unknown Don Cheadle as its manager. Despite some notable guest stars, including Arthur in a two-parter, the show tanked, and was canceled after 1 season. The conclusion of Empty Nest in 1995, after 7 seasons, ended the franchise.

Herb Edelman died in 1996, Estelle Getty in 2008, Bea Arthur in 2009, Rue McClanahan and Leslie Nielsen in 2010, and Andrew Gold in 2011. Betty White became America's favorite old person. She died on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2021, 17 days short of her 100th birthday. This was very upsetting to a lot of people, more so to Golden Girls fans than to fans of her other shows. Many people went online and issued profane remarks about how 2021 wouldn't let us take Betty into the New Year for her Centennial. As of September 14, 2025, Tony Thomas, Susan Harris and Cindy Fee are still alive.

In 2023, an all-drag version, 4 men playing the characters, began starring in Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue, which depicts the characters in the present day. The play has toured continuously.

In 2024, a rumor got around that there would be a reboot, starring former Saturday Night Live castmembers Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, and former Friends star Lisa Kudrow -- the oldest of them, and, presumably, the one who would have played Sophia. But both Fey and Rudolph publicly denied the rumor. Susan Harris, in particular, has resisted efforts to reboot the show.