Just when you think you’ve heard everything there is to know about The Golden Girls, you happen upon a gem of an interview (which you’ll see below, thanks to the Archive of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences), and it’s the equivalent of discovering pop-culture gold.
In this case, thank you, Rue McClanahan (Blanche), for being a friend spilling the most scintillating secrets we’ve ever heard about the show.
1) Bea Arthur (Dorothy) and Rue didn’t have much of a friendship.
Just wait till you see Rue do a spot-on impersonation of the crusty Bea Arthur in the video below. Rue admits that “Bea and I didn’t have a lot of relationship going on. She wouldn’t go to lunch with me unless Betty would go too.” In fact, the girls really didn’t hang out much outside of the show except when Estelle had her annual birthday party every June.
2) Estelle Getty (Sophia) was traumatized come tape night
Rue admits that Estelle had such severe stage fright that she would blank on tape nights and forget all of her lines. “She was a completely different person the rest of the week,” Rue explains, “But once it was the day of the show, she was like Pigpen with a black cloud. Poor thing.” Rue tried to give Estelle advice, especially when it came to telling her “Picture it, Sicily, 19xx” stories, but it didn’t always work.
3) Rue was pretty much Blanche, and Blanche was pretty much Rue.
Rue admits that it would have “been painful to play Rose!” and that she wouldn’t have known where to start (surprising given that the producers originally wanted her for the role of Rose and Betty White for the role of Blanche). But the best is when interviewer Jim Colucci (who shares more about the ladies below) asks Rue what she thought when the producers were interested in her when casting the series. Rue’s Blanche-like response? “How smart of them to consider me!” Call it cockiness or confidence, but whatever it is, you just have to watch Rue tell it. Pure Blanche.
4) Rue kept all of Blanche’s lingerie.
Imagine that closet! Rue stored all of Blanche’s nighties in her own closet, and she even created her own clothing line at one point.
5) Rue was a landlord at her own house, just like Blanche.
Rue had two female roommates, but listening to the way Rue tells it, they certainly weren’t as funny or go-with-the-flow as Dorothy or Rose. Rue describes one of them as rigid and a control freak, while the other one would never pay the rent or utilities on time. Needless to say, we wouldn’t want to be part of the 3 A.M. cheesecake gatherings at that house.
Meanwhile, Jim Colucci, who did the above interview with Rue, released his own book about The Golden Girls a few years ago. How awesome is the cover illustration by Glen Hanson?
While the book is currently out of print (but Jim says a revised, expanded second edition will be available in the fall), Jim shared some behind-the-scenes info about the girls during their interviews. Some of the highlights:
*When Jim went to Rue’s house in New York City to do the interview, “she answered the door fresh from the shower, in a bathrobe that looked like it was about to fall open!”
*Jim interviewed Betty in her living room, with her golden retriever Pontiac lying on their feet. “Betty is so quick witted, with lots of great stories to share right off the top of her head.”
*Interviewing Bea Arthur was a very interesting experience for Colucci. “It was very tough to get her to agree to an interview at all. I practically had to phone stalk her.” Although Jim was aware of Bea’s gruff personality, he notes that after spending four hours with her, he was able to uncover the real Bea. “It took Bea a while to warm up to my questions because she really didn’t remember much about the show—although she was extremely proud of certain moments, of course. But by the end, I felt I had really bonded with her. I packed up my questions and put away my tape recorder, and then we shared a bottle of white wine in her living room, her bare feet up on the coffee table. And then I was on my way, after giving her a hug, which at first surprised her, and then I felt her relax in my arms. It was really a touching moment, and I’ll always treasure my day with her!”
