20 Facts That Every “Golden Girls” Fanatic Should Know

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It’s time to learn somethings you might not know about your favorite Miami ladies.

1. The idea for a show revolving around older women came about after network executives watched Doris Roberts and Selma Diamond do a skit at the NBC upfronts.

NBC

Both were starring on NBC shows at the time (Doris was then-starring in Remington Steele, while Selma was on Night Court) and were asked to do a skit where they mishear the name of Miami Vice as Miami Nice, with them thinking that the show was about a bunch of old retired people.

Shortly before her death, Doris even tweeted about it:

2. The producers originally wanted to use Bette Midler’s song, “Friends,” as the theme song. But, it was too expensive so they settled on “Thank You For Being A Friend.” (Thankfully!)

3. The house used on the show isn’t in Miami, it’s actually in the LA neighborhood of Brentwood.

4. The kitchen that appeared on the show was actually a reused set from a short-lived sitcom called, It Takes Two.

The show, which ran one season (1983-84), was also created by GG creator, Susan Harris.

5. Susan Harris created the role of Dorothy Zbornak as a “Bea Arthur type,” but the head of NBC at the time did not want to cast Bea in the role.

Also, the last name Zbornak came from Kent Zbornak, a stage manager Susan had worked with on another show.

6. Elaine Stritch was one of the original choices to play Dorothy, but she said she blew the audition because, not only did one of the writers not like her, but she ad-libbed and added the word “fuck” during her audition.

In 2014 she talked about losing the role to Pride Source, saying, “My feelings were very hurt by that, but I’m awful glad I didn’t do it.”

7. Betty White was actually up for the role of Blanche Devereaux, while Rue McClanahan was up for the role of Rose Nylund.

While Betty was thrilled to play Blanche, the pilot’s director, Jay Sandrich, said she should play Rose instead, in order to avoid playing a character that would be too similar to Sue Ann Nivens, the man-hungry character she played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

8. Rue and Betty had actually both co-starred together before, on Mama’s Family.

9. While Bea Arthur and Rue had both previously co-starred together on Maude.

It was actually Rue who convinced Bea to go after the role of Dorothy, telling her “Why are you going to turn down the best script that’s ever going to come across your desk as long as you live?”

10. When Estelle Getty got the script she thought they were offering her the role of Dorothy.

Her manager had to tell her that it was actually for the role of 80-year-old Sophia — the character was actually 18 years older than Estelle was at the time.

11. Estelle found Sophia’s iconic straw purse (which was used for the entire run of the show) while shopping for props to use as part of her audition for the role.

12. It took the makeup artist 45 minutes to transform Estelle (using aging makeup and a wig) into Sophia Petrillo.

Estelle was actually a year younger than her on-screen daughter Bea. She was also younger than Betty.

13. Rue had a clause in her contract that allowed her to keep all of Blanche’s clothes.

14. Bea did not have pierced ears, so she wore clip-ons. Unfortunately they would make her ears go numb from wearing them for so long.

15. Sophia was never supposed to be part of the regular cast, but Estelle stole every scene she was in in the pilot. She was then promoted to series regular.

16. The fourth character on the show was meant to be Coco, the gay cook who worked for the ladies. While the character did well with test audiences, he was removed from the show in favor of Sophia (who tested better).

NBC/Disney

Coco only appeared in the pilot and his character was never mentioned again on the show.

17. The show premiered at No. 1, and was watched by 21.5 million households.

18. Both Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother were fans of the show. In 1988, they invited the cast to perform a seven-minute skit live, as part of the Royal Variety Performance at the prestigious London Palladium.

19. Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury were also both reportedly fans of the show. According to UK comedian, Cleo Rocos, the two once spent an afternoon drinking champagne while watching reruns of the show with the volume down and improvising lines with “a much naughtier storyline.”

20. Estelle suffered from extreme stage fright (she was a theater actress and wasn’t used to TV) and often hid her lines in the objects in front of her.

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