The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy Zbornak, walked away from the show, but why did she actually leave the sitcom?
- Bea Arthur left The Golden Girls because she felt that the writers had done everything they could with the main characters and the quality of the sitcom was slipping.
- Arthur was offended by the jokes about her character on the show, which took a toll on her as an actress.
- Arthur left the show due to a combination of feeling that the show had run its course, wanting to retire and slow down, and the aging process.
The beloved sitcom The Golden Girls ended because one of the leads decided to leave the show, but why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls in the first place? She played Dorothy opposite Betty White’s Rose, Rue McClanahan’s Blanche, and Estelle Getty’s Sophia. Unlike other sitcoms with multiple leads, The Golden Girls was a true ensemble, as each character was pivotal in the show’s overall vibe. So, it was a shock when Arthur announced that she was walking away from the project, effectively setting up its end.
For seven seasons, the series went through their day-to-day lives, highlighting the delights and struggles of ladies their age — something that was unique and even modern during that era. Each character was charming and memorable in their own right: Dorothy was sarcastic and witty, Rose was a bit slow to catch on but was kind and charming, Blanche was unapologetically sexual, and Sophia was wise and frank, almost to a fault. The Golden Girls is one of the best ’80s sitcoms, so why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls?
The beloved sitcom The Golden Girls ended because one of the leads decided to leave the show, but why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls in the first place? She played Dorothy opposite Betty White’s Rose, Rue McClanahan’s Blanche, and Estelle Getty’s Sophia. Unlike other sitcoms with multiple leads, The Golden Girls was a true ensemble, as each character was pivotal in the show’s overall vibe. So, it was a shock when Arthur announced that she was walking away from the project, effectively setting up its end.
For seven seasons, the series went through their day-to-day lives, highlighting the delights and struggles of ladies their age — something that was unique and even modern during that era. Each character was charming and memorable in their own right: Dorothy was sarcastic and witty, Rose was a bit slow to catch on but was kind and charming, Blanche was unapologetically sexual, and Sophia was wise and frank, almost to a fault. The Golden Girls is one of the best ’80s sitcoms, so why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls?
Why Bea Arthur Wanted The Golden Girls To End
There were several reasons Bea Arthur left Golden Girls; which included feeling like the writers had done everything they could with the four main characters. According to the book Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai written by Jim Colucci, who interviewed 20 actors and crew members of the show, including Arthur, the actress felt that by the later years, the quality of the sitcom was starting to slip. The Golden Girls was known for its solid narratives, and she was simply no longer impressed with how the episodes were panning out.
Arthur wanted to leave the show while it was still resonating with people. The same tell-all also revealed that she was actually offended by how much the show poked fun at her character. Colucci says that while White, Getty, and McClanahan were less fazed by below-the-belt jokes regarding their characters, their co-star ultimately struggled. Perhaps that explains Arthur not participating in a Golden Girls reunion on the 1990s sitcom Ladies Man. The author shared,
“Unfortunately, the things that were said about Dorothy were that she was big and ugly . And that wears on an actress after a while.”
Arthur’s son, Matthew Saks, backed up the idea that his mother thought that “the ideas had started to run out” in a separate interview with Closer (via Cheat Sheet). But he added that aging was also part of why the actress left The Golden Girls. Arthur was around 70 years old when the sitcom ended, and it’s understandable why she wanted to retire Dorothy Zbornak and slow down. Filming an entire season of a series composed of 25–26 episodes is no easy feat. Arthur died of lung cancer in 2009, just two and a half weeks short of her 87th birthday.
Why Bea Arthur Didn’t Star In The Golden Palace
When asked about the opinion that The Golden Girls had run its course, and why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls, White had a different take: she thought they ended prematurely. Chances are that the rest of the non-Arthur cast felt the same way, considering they stayed behind and starred in the short-lived spinoff The Golden Palace. The spinoff saw Rose, Blanche, and Sophia buy a hotel together in Miami, thinking it would be a profit machine. Only after the sale do they find out that most of the staff has been let go, and that they’d need to take on some duties at the business themselves.
Arthur’s Dorothy was at least sent off satisfyingly in the final season of The Golden Girls. After years of dealing with her cheating husband, Stan, and struggling to navigate the dating scene, she caught herself in a whirlwind romance, marrying Blanche’s uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth, and the pair relocated to Atlanta. Arthur only appeared as Dorothy in The Golden Palace once, as part of a two-part story concerning her mother, Sophia. Considering her reasons behind quitting The Golden Girls, it’s not hard to understand why she wasn’t more involved with its spinoff. The Golden Palace wasn’t a hit and was canceled after only one season of 24 episodes.
Did Bea Arthur Fall Out With Her Castmates?
When Betty White was alive, the biggest thing that people noticed about her was her kindness and her daring ability to do just about anything for a laugh. That makes it somewhat hard to believe that she and Bea Arthur had a hostile feud during their time on The Golden Girls. Arthur’s son Matthew Saks admitted that his mother was not a “diplomatic person.” He said that his mother thought it was “fun to have somebody to be angry at” and White was her main target (via Country Living). White backed this up as well.
“She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude — and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes if I was happy, she’d be furious!”
However, despite the feuding, the women remained professional at all times while making the hit TV show. Rue McClanahan wrote in her book, My First Five Husbands…and the Ones Who Got Away, “Things got pretty spicy once in a while, but what mattered most to each of us individually and all of us as a group: the chemistry worked. We were damn funny. And we did it together.” Why did Bea Arthur leave Golden Girls? It was just her time, and likely had little to do with a falling out.
Golden Girls’ Betty White Left Behind A Powerful Legacy
Bea Arthur wasn’t the only Golden Girl to leave behind a considerable legacy; her co-star Betty White has had an illustrious career in show business. In fact, White went on to earn a Guinness World Record in 2014 and 2018, for “Longest Career Held By An Entertainer (Female).” Some may not know that Betty White was one of the first women to work both in front of and behind the camera, the first woman to produce a sitcom (called Life With Elizabeth), and is often called “the First Lady” of television. After volunteering for the American Women’s Voluntary Services during WWII, Betty hit the pavement in Los Angeles looking for work.
She got her start in radio in 1949. Her radio career began to take off after she was offered her own slot on the radio, called The Betty White Show. The Betty White Show then moved to television, and that’s when the actress started making a name for herself. During this time, White became good friends with Lucille Ball, since their shows were recorded at the same studio. She garnered more attention when her character, Sue-Ann Nivens, became a series regular on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Finally, she made her way to The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the rest is history. Betty White spoke highly of her co-star Bea Arthur, although she never answered why she left Golden Girls. In a tribute on the Today Show in 2009, White said of Arthur’s passing, “I knew it would hurt, I just didn’t know it would hurt this much.”
