The Golden Girls are a TV-Comedy-Series comprising 180 episodes. The series was made in colour and originally shown on NBC from 1985-1992. It was made by Touchstone Television and distributed by Buena Vista Television. The follow-up series Golden Palace comprised 24 episodes. Both companies belong to Disney. Disney was searching for a prime time hit with well-known actresses. Therefore they asked the producer team Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas and Susan Harris. Together they created the incredibly successful sitcom "The Golden Girls".
Thanks to the Golden Girls Touchstone Television became one of the leading distributor of American TV networks. Before, they hadn't been lucky in the prime time at all. At an NBC conference in August 1984 actresses Selma Diamond and Doris Roberts performed the sketch "Miami Nice" (a parody of "Miami Vice"). The sketch was about elder women. The reaction of the test audience was enthusiastic, so NBC was encouraged to make a big thing of the sketch.

At first, NBC merely ordered six episodes of the Golden Girls. While the first episode was written NBC increased the number of episodes to 13. NBC believed in the concept.

The series tells the story of four elder women (Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia) who share a house in Miami Beach, Florida. All four of them share the passions of men, cheesecake, and discussing life. Often they talk about their former husbands.

Despite being set in Miami, Florida, it was actually videotaped in Hollywood at first at Sunset Gower Studios and later at Ren-Mar Studios. At first, the location shots of the house were taped in Los Angeles, California. Since the 5th season they were taped in Orlando, Florida.

Each episode lasts approximately 25-30 minutes. (Sometimes TV stations cut out scenes due to save time or to remove 'critical' scenes... The latter is a fairly ridiculous argument, though.)

Marc Sotkin, Executive Producer of The Golden Girls comments on episode titles:
"I did 4 years of It's A Living before GG and always title shows that I write as The____Show. The ____is whatever the episode is about. So The Amy and Louie Show is the episode where Amy dates Louie. Easy to remember. When I went on GG the first episode I wrote was where Rose got a new job as a consumer reporter. I entitled it The Rose's New Job Show. I was told I couldn't do that on GG, that it would show a lack of caring. So in protest I started writing episodes with titles like, Ebbtide, Ebbtide's Revenge, Ebbtide IV The Wrath of Stan, etc. The titles meant nothing but, for some reason executives felt they showed more caring. But as a result, when someone asks me about an episode like 72 hours, I have no idea what the show was about." (27-Oct-2005)

More than 80 TV stations worldwide have broadcast the series yet. It was a smash hit in 60 different countries and was highly regarded in the industry.

Picture on the left:
7th season of "Friends", 3rd episode "The One With Rachel's Assistant". Monica Gellar (played by fabulous Courteney Cox Arquette) backbites on Ross: "Rose stayed home every Saturday night to watch Golden Girls."

The series won 65 Emmy nominations, 10 Emmy awards, and 3 Golden Globe Awards. It's the only TV series for which all of its stars have won Emmys.

Some of Hollywood's biggest stars have willingly guested on the show including Bob Hope, Burt Reynolds, Don Ameche, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Julio Iglesias.

Over 100 cheesecakes were devoured during the seven-year run.

The series' surprisingly broad base of fans included the Queen Mother, who personally requested The Golden Girls appearance at the Royal Variety Performance in 1988.

Twenty-six authors have written the stories for The Golden Girls.

Sophia's home is called "Shady Pines". Shady also means "of questionable merit"... (according to Webster's New Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1996)

First Golden Girls release in the U.S.:14-Sep-1985.

First Golden Palace release in the U.S.: 18-Sep-1992. Transmission of the very last episode: 14-May-1993.

Transmission History (U.S. Television):
September 1985- July 1991, NBC, Saturday 9:00-9:30pm (EST)
August 1991- September 1991, NBC, Saturday 8:30-9:00pm (EST)
September 1991- September 1992, NBC, Saturday 8:00-8:30pm (EST)
September 1992- May 1993, CBS, Friday 8:00-8:30pm (EST)

Even in 2003 more than 13 million Americans (per week) watched The Golden Girls on Lifetime TV. The Golden Girls Special in Juni 2003 was the most successful special (4.2 million viewers) in the 19-year history of Lifetime Television.

The Golden Girls stayed in the U.S. Top 10 for the first 5 seasons. When NBC moved the time slot for the next two seasons, the show lost some of its audience.
Many producers and authors left the series during the 1990-91 season. They wanted to attend to other projects. At the same time The Golden Girls went into syndication.

U.S. TV rankings (Source: Annual Nielsen Ratings):
1st Season: #7 (21.8 average rating)
2nd Season: #5 (24.5 average rating)
3rd Season: #4 (21.8 average rating)
4th Season: #6 (21.4 average rating)
5th Season: #6 (20.1 average rating)
6th Season: #10 (16.5 average rating)
7th Season: #30 (13.1 average rating)

Transmission History (UK Television):
01 August 1986-07 April 1993, BBC, mostly on Fridays, later on Wednesdays, mostly at 10:00pm

The spoken language is English but a brilliant German translation is also available. ARD, the first public German TV station, provided both English and German. RTL, a privately owned TV station, provided German only.

The series differs from the pilot in the following:
- Blanche Holling(s)worth changed to Blanche Devereaux
- "Hollingsworth" became Blanche's girl's name
- The part of the gay houseboy and cook called "Coco" was commentlessly cancelled. When the series started they had to either keep Estelle Getty on as a regular or the cook.
- Blanche's room was where the lanai is in later episodes. The lanai was accessed through the patio doors at the back of the living room.
- The gate on the lanai was on the right hand side, not the left as it was from then on.
The series is accompanied by some other inconsistencies as well. By the way: a terrace built in Hawaiian style is called a lanai.

During an interview Betty did for a TV station in the United Kingdom she mentioned the fact that she was close to get the part of Blanche. She said the crew changed their mind and casted her as Rose because they didn't want her to be typecast. She played a man hungry character like Blanche on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" called "Sue Ann Nivens" and they wanted her to play a different kind of character. Rue McClanahan once said that when she was auditioned, she asked the director if he would mind switching roles with Betty. (Rue didn't want to play the same kind of character again she already did as "Vivian Harmon" on "Maude" or as "Fran".) The director liked the idea, and Betty didn't mind switching roles either for the same reason. The rest is history...

Bea Arthur left the show because she "wanted to do something else". And when asked about a reunion episode she said she did not want to ruin what they had. According to her that what the girls had on the show was so great, that what they would have done on a reunion would not compare, and might be a dissapointment. (Jerry Seinfeld left "Seinfeld" at the peak of his career as well.) However, Betty White has always expressed a wish to do a Golden Girls reunion. Bea Arthur expressed her wish to leave the show already during the 6th season as she was fed up with always doing the same routine.

Bea Arthur is wearing winter boots in quite a few episodes in one season while all the other girls were in summer clothes, and since the show is to take place in Florida, her boots really seemed a bit odd. In some episodes Bea did not wear shoes at all because they made her look even taller. Otherwise, she likes to wear open sandals or tennis shoes. Rue McClanahan prefers backless shoes whereas Betty White's shoes run the range from sneakers to fancy pumps.

In Betty White's book called "In Person" she wrote the following concerning the episode with Count Bessie, the piano-playing chicken: As much as Bea loves animals, she has a deathly fear of live chickens, so they had to arrange it in a way that the chicken and Bea were always across the room from each other on that episode. Betty said that she, Estelle, and Rue teased Bea all the time about her fear and would often make clucking noises on the set.

Some people even want to rebuild the Golden Girls house and want to live in it, although the cast house suffers from many inconsistencies...

Betty White is the oldest actress, followed by Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan.

Four times Estelle Getty was invited to auditions. Just before the 5th audition she asked her make-up artist to make her look older. She found a used polyester skirt in a second hand shop. The skirt was much too large for her. Moreover, she bought a hand bag. Dressed this way she arrived at the audit - and was assigned the part.

In the scene where each of the girls gets Blanche's boudoir calendar, there is a real picture of one of the men on the crew that one of the other crew members snuck in as a prank to surprise the girls. (See also Reunion Special.)

Unfortunately, some TV stations (such as NBC) perpetrate "Granny Dumping". That is, they simply cancel shows (such as the GG's) in order to please a younger audience.

Some other famous shows like "ALF", "The Kids in the Hall" or "The Simpsons" refer to the Golden Girls in some dialogs from time to time.
"The Kids in the Hall": The devil is sitting in his chair, watching his evil wreck havoc on a mortal on his television. The programme is entertaining and amusing. Then, he looks at his watch. "Oops, Golden Girls." He switches channels.
"The Simpsons", 6th season, episode #15 "Homie the Clown" (transmitted 12-Feb-1995):
Krusty, the Clown: "Did you send those 1,000 roses to Bea Arthur's grave?"
Personal Assistant: "Yes, but Bea Arthur isn't..."
Then, the personal assistant is cut off and dismissed.

Many of the names of the episodes are take-offs on titles of movies, plays, books or songs. (For example "Beauty and the Biest".) The kitchen used in the series was part of the set of an earlier "Helen Hunt" TV series. Moreover, Sophia's house in Brooklyn was used in another Junger Witt/Thomas production.

Brandon Tartikoff was one of the youngest and top programming heads at NBC. He died on August 27, 1997. It is said that he was the major force behind putting the Golden Girls on the air. His widow is the producer of the show.

The production of Golden Palace had been quite difficult and unsatisfying right from the start. The scripts were published every monday, the revised scripts arrived every tuesday and sometimes completey new scripts were published on Wednesday, and so on.

In 1993 Carlton Television decided to produce a British adaptation of the Golden Girls for mainstream telestation ITV. The series was called "The Brighton Belles" and shipped The Golden Girls to the south coast of Britain. The main cast: Sheila Gish as Bridget (Blanche), Sheila Hancock as Frances (Dorothy), Wendy Craig as Annie (Rose) and Jean Boht as Josephine (Sophia).

Blanche, Rose and Sophia emerged sporadically as guest stars in the series "Empty Nest". During the last seasons Sophia moved back to "Shady Pines" and became a regular part of the series. Susan Harris created Empty Nest in 1988. The series consists of seven seasons and ended in 1995.

The "American Psychological Association" certified that the Golden Girls have heavily influenced the public opinion on elder women in a very positive way.

Bea Arthur was most hostiled to because of her salary. It is told that Bea Arthur earned 75.000 US$ per episode (last season). Rue McClanahan and Betty White earned about 50.000 US$ per episode. Estelle Getty merely earned 20.000 US$.

International Titles of The Golden Girls:
- As Supergatas (Brasil)
- Carré de Dames (Canada)
- Zlatne Djevojke (Croatia)
- Panter tanter (Denmark)
- Kullakesed (Estonia)
- Tyttökullat (Finland)
- Les Craquantes (France)
- Öreglányok (Hungary)
- Cuori senza età (Italy)
- Pantertanter (Scandinavia)
- Las Chicas de Oro (Spain)
- Altin Kizlar (Turkey)