5 Times The Golden Girls Were There For Each Other (& 5 Times They Were Ready To End Their Friendship)

Without a doubt, the Golden Girls supported each other like family, but there were times they almost ended their friendship for good!
Part of the appeal of The Golden Girls is that the show illustrates the benefits and pitfalls of a close-knit friendship. In fact, The Girls were so close that due to the way they joked, comforted, and shouted at each other, they were often mistaken for sisters.
The Golden Girls may not have blood, but they were definitely family. From bickering to the point of almost going their separate ways to rally with each other during a health crisis, these ladies knew how to both support each other and get under each other’s skin.
End The Friendship – Grocery Store Grousing
A flashback episode at the end of Season 1 aptly titled “The Way We Met,” illustrates that the bickering begins in the first week of Dorothy and Rose moving into Blanche’s house, where a trip to the supermarket had the Girls contemplating moving out. Almost ending their friendship before it started, these differences in character and opinion would be the template for all future arguments in the show’s seven-year run.
The problems stemmed from the interplay between Rose’s naivety, Blanche’s over-charged sexuality, and Dorothy’s take-charge, somewhat overbearing nature. Ironically, these are the very qualities that will make the Girls such amazing friends.
There For Each Other – Sophia’s “Heart Attack”

Sophia’s pieces of homespun wisdom and sarcastic quips quickly made her a fan-favorite character, but the Girls were reminded about the fragility of life when Sophia believed she was dying of a heart attack in a Season 1 episode, entitled, “The Heart Attack. “

The episode poignantly revealed the depth of the relationship between Sophia and her roommates. Rose and Blanche both focused on Sophia as they would a mother. Dorothy and Sophia shared some intimate truths and feelings, and their dialogue softened their character’s brusque and sarcastic natures. Although health issues with Sophia (and all the Girls) will recur semi-frequently through the series, this particular episode was where the love and support between the roommates and friends were most grounded and real.
End The Friendship – The Barbara Thorndyke Incident
For Dorothy, who often prided herself as an intellectual, listening to Rose’s funny yet inane St. Olaf stories and accounts of Blanche’s many sexual adventures were sometimes unfulfilling. That all changed when she befriended an author named Barbara Thorndyke.

Barbara’s snobbish demeanor leaves Rose and Blanche cold and revealing that to Dorothy nearly broke the roommates’ friendship apart. This quasi-hero worship was uncharacteristic for the usually grounded and pragmatic Dorothy. It’s only when Barbara offended Dorothy’s principles and strong sense of morality by being complicit in a restaurant’s anti-semitic policies that she reconciled with her true friends.
There For Each Other – The End Of The Curse
The Golden Girls never shied away from tackling the socially relevant topics of its day or the sensitive aspects of growing older as a woman. The first episode of Season 2, entitled “The End of the Curse,” was particularly poignant, as it revolved around Blanche’s experience with menopause. Believing that her “life was over” because she would lose her sex appeal, Blanche became despondent and depressed, reluctant to leave her bed for days.
Despite seeing a therapist to help her get through her experience, what really helped Blanche cope with menopause was the support of her friends. In Blanche’s own words, Rose, Dorothy, and Sophia rallied to her, offering her everything from advice to a shoulder to cry on; something she will regularly need as the series progresses.
End The Friendship – Catching The Flu
When it came to their friendship, The Girls managed to turn their differences in character into strengths, albeit with a generous amount of patience and conscious oversight. However, a flu caught by Rose and given to the other Girls quickly eroded that delicate balance, and the Girl’s foibles quickly became flammable irritants.

In a scenario that became all too familiar throughout the series, the situation escalated and the Girls began to bicker and fight to the point where they stopped speaking to each other. Things got nasty enough to end in tears, but realizing the value of friendship at a banquet that celebrated charitable work brought the Girls back together.
There For Each Other – Rose’s Fantasy Father

She may be the most visible chipper and upbeat of the Girls, but Rose’s life was filled with some of the saddest events on the show. An orphan, Rose imagines about who her biological father could be and believed it was the iconic comedian Bob Hope.

Both Dorothy and Blanche tried their best to be delicate when dismissing the idea, even when Rose proclaimed that they could get the legendary comedian to host a talent show run by Dorothy. Eventually, Rose came face to face with reality but when she did, Dorothy and Blanche were there to help her through it.
End the Friendship – Dancing & Sculpting
It may not have looked so on the surface, but the Girls were often extremely competitive with one another, in everything from dancing to relationships. In one memorable short from a Season 3 clip show entitled “Golden Moments,” the Girls vied to win a dance competition, along with the one thousand dollar prize that came with first place. As the competition got heated, so did the customary insults and barbs.
That sense of competition extended itself to a Hungarian sculptor who the Girls were clandestinely seeing as models in another episode. Hoping to extend that relationship from the artistic to the romantic, the Girls once again allowed competition to infuse harsh words and feelings into their friendship, almost resulting in a permanent schism.
There For Each Other – Phobia Flight
The Girls may be resilient, but even they had their Achilles’ heels in the form of several distinct phobias: Dorothy of flying, Rose of giving public speeches, and Blanche of a dream she had involving an enclosed space with bald men.

This all came to light when Rose had to travel to the Bahamas to give an eulogy for her late aunt, coincidentally populated by former Mr. Cleans on the way to a convention. Although this Season 3 episode entitled “Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself,” was the first and last time these girls had to face these fears (and Dorothy was seen flying with no concerns in other episodes), they did it with their typical blend of humor and compassion.
End The Friendship – A Visit To The Psychiatrist

The Girls’ long-standing character differences became tedious enough for them to seek the help of a psychiatrist in a Season 3 episode entitled, “Three on a Couch.”
Constantly at each other’s throats, even in the psychiatrist’s office, the Girls enumerated each and every little thing that drove them crazy about the other, from Dorothy’s perfectionism to Blanche’s egoism to Rose’s propensity to talk excessively. Shockingly, the psychiatrist recommended they split up and move out, which the Girls seriously considered doing. Thankfully, some sage words from Sophia reminded them that petty squabbles shouldn’t get in the way of true friendship, and the Girls stayed together.
There For Each Other – Ruined Christmas
Although many relatives have visited the Girls in the best and worst of circumstances, they have also visited their families who resided in states all over the country: Rose in Minnesota, Blanche in Georgia, and Dorothy and Sophia in New York. In one of their annual Christmas episodes, their holiday plans were curtailed when the airport grounded all their flights due to increasing weather.

Retreating to a nearby diner to lick their wounds and commiserate over not being with their families over the holidays, the Girls realized that they actually were family. Bonded in strong friendship, the Girls celebrated Christmas as light snow fell over the diner.