A viral poster is making the rounds (primarily on Facebook) teasing a reboot of the hit sitcom The Golden Girls, which ran on NBC from 1985 until 1992 and delivered 180 episodes.
This reboot says it is set for a streaming release on Disney+ and would consist of 10 episodes, trimming way down from the original show’s 25-26 episodes per season.
The poster teases current comedy stars Tina Fey (Dorothy), Amy Poehler (Sophia), Lisa Kudrow (Rose), and Maya Rudolph (Blanche) in the leading roles. They would take over the characters originally played by the late Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, Betty White, and Rue McClanahan.
The full image, which teases a June 2024 release date, can be seen below:
In the end, Golden Girls fans should not get their hopes up for a reboot. This is a fake poster coming from a Facebook page known for creating satirical fake posters for movies and TV shows that are not being released.
Will a Golden Girls Reboot Ever Happen?
Three separate spin-off series followed The Golden Girls run in the ’80s and ’90s – The Golden Palace (1992-1993), Empty Nest (1988-1995), and Nurses (1991-1994). None of these series hit on the same level critically or in terms of viewership as the original though.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in 2017, creator Susan Harris specifically touched on why The Golden Palace failed after only one season. That show brought back the original show’s entire main cast as series regulars except for Bea Arthur (who appeared in two episodes), and it also included Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle.
Harris explained that the premise simply “didn’t work” without Bea Arthur’s Dorothy, adding that The Golden Girls was “what it was and that’s the way it should remain.”
Along with Empty Nest and Nurses, nearly a dozen non-English remakes of The Golden Girls have aired on TV across the world. This includes countries like Egypt, Israel, Greece, Russia, and Spain.
Additionally, during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 (per Harper’s Bazaar), an all-Black reimagining of the series took place over Zoom, featuring Tracee Ellis Ross, Regina King, Alfre Woodard, and Sanaa Lathan embodying versions of the main characters.
BoJack Horseman director Mike Hollingsworth took his own stab at The Golden Girls’ legacy in 2022 (per IndieWire) with a story called Golden Girls 3033. This utilized the voices from the original show for an animated short, making it a riff on the hit 1960s animated series The Jetsons.
Considering Harris’ comments, the chances of The Golden Girls being remade in the near future are just about zero, even with a cast featuring such highly accomplished comedians. Particularly with all four original actresses having passed away, this feels like a show that would be in poor taste to reboot, and it does not seem that anybody associated with the ’80s show wants to see that legacy tainted.
Also, from a logistical standpoint, if a Golden Girls remake were to happen, it would more than likely stream on Peacock rather than Disney+, considering that streamer hosts nearly all NBC-developed series. Whether the rights have changed hands is unclear, although that may not be relevant anyway considering the lack of fervor or desire for this show to be remade.
