NEED TO KNOW
The Golden Girls was one of the most groundbreaking TV series of all time. Not only was the popular sitcom, which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992, the first TV show to revolve around four older women and portray them as being active, fun and sexual beings. It also introduced the world to the concept of a comedy revolving around four female friends.
Strong and sturdy Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), sweet and traditional Rose Nylund (Betty White), man-hungry Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and salt-of-the-earth cynic Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) immediately established archetypes that would become a staple of TV in the decades that followed. The list of shows centered on four female friends that debuted after The Golden Girls is long, and it includes Designing Women, Living Single, Desperate Housewives, Girlfriends, Hot in Cleveland, Girls, Devious Maids, Mistresses, Harlem, Girls5eva and, of course, Sex and the City.
But Susan Harris, the woman who created The Golden Girls, doesn’t want that to be its legacy. “I have to take issue with the fact that anyone makes comparison to those other shows,” she tells PEOPLE. “The Golden Girls really spoke to what happens with older women. The other shows were just about young women. I just don’t think there is a comparison.”
“It was a surprise that it was right out of the gate such a hit and stayed that way for such a long time,” Harris, 84, adds. “I think that’s due to who the actors were and the characters. It was a universality in the show. It didn’t depend on people being young or pretty, and people really identified with that.”
Her colleague Tony Thomas, who executive-produced The Golden Girls alongside Harris and her husband Paul Junger Witt, concurs. He believes the comparisons are unfair to all those shows that followed The Golden Girls.
Maximum Film / Alamy Stock Photo
“I don’t like it because it’s disrespectful to Sex and the City,” Thomas, 76, says, zeroing in on the biggest of the bunch. “The ladies in Sex and the City were about young women trying to find their way in a big city and understanding life and relationships, etc, in a big city.”
“Our show is about four women in a much smaller city, Miami, living a brand new life and realizing life goes on. The last thing that Carrie and company were worried about is life going on. They were trying to figure out life in the moment. It’s just a whole different series. I think people like to make that connection because some of the characters had similar traits, but it’s not fair to [the other shows].”
As initially conceived, The Golden Girls was supposed to be about just two older women — not four. The idea was sparked by, of all things, Miami Vice. Night Court star Selma Diamond and Remington Steele actress Doris Roberts were introducing a new show called Miami Vice at the 1984 NBC upfronts when they started arguing about the popular cop show’s title. The banter gave two NBC executives an idea.”
NBC
“Brandon [Tartikoff] and Warren [Littlefield] turned to each other and said, ‘There might be something in this kind of relationship with older women,’” says Thomas. “Paul and I and another writer went to a pitch meeting [with them] for another show, and they were not interested, but they told us about the ‘two old ladies’ thing. The writer who was with us said, ‘I don’t write old people.’ ”
So Thomas and Witt brought in Harris (Witt’s wife), who had previously worked with them on the groundbreaking sitcom Soap, to make TV history. “The original premise was two women,” Thomas adds, “so we kind of went a little crazy.”
This fall, ABC News will air a one-hour special marking the 40th anniversary of The Golden Girls. All seven seasons are available to stream on Hulu.
