Latest / Children of the 80s / Thank You for Being a Friend: The Story of The Golden Girl

Transcript

Thank You for Being a Friend: The Story of The Golden Girl · Children of the 80s

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  Speaker 1: Children of the Eighties is brought to you by Q
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  Speaker 1: one O six point five Internet Radio. You can find
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it online at Q one o six five dot com
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: or download the app.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome Back to Children of the Eighties. I am one
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  Speaker 2: of your hosts, Jim, and I am joined as always
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  Speaker 2: by the lady who's hard is true and she's a
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  Speaker 2: pole and a confidant. It's my co host, Lindsay.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's pretty good. Do you know what I
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  Speaker 1: was gonna do? What I was gonna do? Welcome Back
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  Speaker 1: to Children of the Eighties. I am Lindsay, and with
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  Speaker 1: me today is my co host Jim, who always wants
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to be the Dorothy to my Blanche. It's my co host,
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  Speaker 1: Jim Butler.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I don't understand that. Oh no, I think we'll stick
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: with mine. Okay, what's going on over there?
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  Speaker 1: How are you?
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  Speaker 2: We got through Halloween? It's November, it's it's old. It's
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  Speaker 2: now depressing, okay for a little bit until we get
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  Speaker 2: to another good holiday.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, I don't get the the correlation between
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  Speaker 1: you're a Midwesterner and you don't believe in turning the
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  Speaker 1: heat on in a cold house, not until November. Well,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: guess what it's cold in here. It's cold in here,
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  Speaker 1: and it's November. I'm freezing, as Glenn Fry once said,
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  Speaker 1: So I'm worried that people are going to hear my
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  Speaker 1: teeth chatter while we record.
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  Speaker 2: Listen. I'm trying to save money wherever I can.
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  Speaker 1: If they hear my voice shaking, it's not nerves. It's cold.
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  Speaker 2: It's not that cold in here, folks. I want to
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  Speaker 2: know what temperature do you keep your heat on in
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  Speaker 2: the house in the winter or in the fall, because
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  Speaker 2: we have our set on a brisk sixty five and
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  Speaker 2: my partner over here is complaining about it and acting
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  Speaker 2: as if we're living in an igloo. Yes, in shorts
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  Speaker 2: and a tank top.
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  Speaker 1: I can't put on any more clothes right now and
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  Speaker 1: wear my headphones and be heard through a microphone. So
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  Speaker 1: this is this is all I've got, and it's I'm freezing.
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  Speaker 2: We are upstairs. The heat rises, right, we have a fireplace.
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  Speaker 1: When will it rise.
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  Speaker 2: When the south rises? A good wow, we're upstairs. The
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  Speaker 2: heat rises, so it's a little bit warmer up here.
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  Speaker 2: You're wearing a sweater where a card again, I think.
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  Speaker 1: It's a cardigan, and I'm I'm actually a little toasty shirt. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: We have a fireplace. So you go downstairs and turn
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  Speaker 2: on the fireplace and heat up some hot tea and
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  Speaker 2: you'll be fine.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I have now a heating pad that I
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  Speaker 1: just turn on, and I'm okay. I'm not cold natured.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I am a hot natured person. I'm a cold natured person,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and yet I am not okay. So I am at
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  Speaker 1: that age where I made some just random, I guess
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  Speaker 1: wrong move this afternoon, and now I can't use the
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  Speaker 1: left side of my.
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  Speaker 2: Body, Like did you have a stroke?
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  Speaker 1: I wonder because like my my shoulder, my left shoulder
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  Speaker 1: and my arm it's like dead, it's dead. Look you see,
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  Speaker 1: it's just hanging.
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  Speaker 2: You're moving it. It's not like you can't use it.
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  Speaker 1: It's just it's just here.
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  Speaker 2: What people, you had a stroke?
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  Speaker 1: Dangle? You're going to go on into I acknowledge that
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  Speaker 1: it's dangling, aren't you. Yeah? You know, like I sleep,
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  Speaker 1: maybe I sleep a little weird, and I can't move
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  Speaker 1: my neck the next morning. Like it's just I hate
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  Speaker 1: being this age. I've got two words for you, uh
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  Speaker 1: huh Cairo practor maybe that's just one word.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not very smart.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my goodness, gracious. So we did survive Halloween.
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  Speaker 1: It was tough here in the Butler household because Emmy
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  Speaker 1: wanted to go trick or treating with friends instead of
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  Speaker 1: mom and Dad, and that may may have broke Dad's heart.
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  Speaker 2: It may have just broke Dad. No, I know, Dad
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  Speaker 2: may be broken and never coming back from this.
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  Speaker 1: We've had a lot of pep talk since, but with
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  Speaker 1: each other.
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  Speaker 2: So do you want to tell the folks what we
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  Speaker 2: did on Halloween? Since we couldn't take Emmy out?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Emmy went and did her own thing. And so
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  Speaker 1: you and I cooked a frozen pizza and sat down
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  Speaker 1: and watched the classic Friday the thirteenth, the original, the
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  Speaker 1: original which you claimed last week that we had seen. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I see where we're going. You wanted me to issue
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  Speaker 1: a formal apology.
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  Speaker 2: Hold on, I'm not done. Last week on the show
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  Speaker 2: with Justin, you claimed that we had watched Friday the
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  Speaker 2: thirteenth together, And I told you I had never seen
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  Speaker 2: the original Friday at thirteenth, and you swore up and
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  Speaker 2: down that you had seen it with me and that
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  Speaker 2: we had watched it together. And I'm like, no, you're wrong,
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  Speaker 2: because I've never seen. It's the only Friday at thirteenth
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  Speaker 2: I haven't seen. So I decided that we're going to
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  Speaker 2: watch it together because maybe this will jog my memory
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  Speaker 2: because I am forgetful at times.
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  Speaker 1: You are very forgetful.
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  Speaker 2: And maybe i'll see if we watched this together, even
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  Speaker 2: though I know that we didn't. But I'll just go
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  Speaker 2: in and see. So we get about what ten minutes in, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and Crazy Ralph comes on the TV and you look
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  Speaker 2: at me and you go, I've never seen this movie
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  Speaker 2: before in my life ever, because I would remember Crazy Ralph.
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  Speaker 1: Never seen that movie. That was That was a That
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  Speaker 1: was a horrible movie.
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  Speaker 2: It was not good, but we knew it wasn't gonna
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  Speaker 2: be good going into it. Nothing from nineteen eighty horror
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  Speaker 2: is gonna be good except for the shining.
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  Speaker 1: It was just absolutely awful, so we knew it was
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  Speaker 1: gonna be That's my point.
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  Speaker 2: You got to see Kevin Bacon bite it.
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  Speaker 1: Though I like Kevin Bacon, so I don't know that
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  Speaker 1: that was like a perk of watching the movie. But
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  Speaker 1: I did doze off in the final twenty minutes.
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  Speaker 2: I can't really say that I blame you. It's a
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  Speaker 2: little boring.
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  Speaker 1: About the time that the mom showed up. Yes, that's
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  Speaker 1: when I dozed off.
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  Speaker 2: But I would like you to offer a retraction from
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  Speaker 2: last week saying I was incorrect. We did not watch
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  Speaker 2: that movie together until Halloween of twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so today is Wednesday, November the fifth, and I
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  Speaker 1: would just like to say that I Lindsey Rene Helton Butler,
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  Speaker 1: and you can find me anywhere now. Yeah, wait to
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  Speaker 1: give away your full name. My social Security number is
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  Speaker 1: one time I read a LifeLock, don't give it out.
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  Speaker 1: I would like to say I had never seen the
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  Speaker 1: original Friday the Thirteenth until you and I watched it
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  Speaker 1: on October thirty first, twenty twenty five. There, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: That's all I wanted was an acknowledgment that I was
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  Speaker 1: right that crazy What was his name, crazy Charlie, crazy Ralph?
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  Speaker 1: Crazy Charlie? He was crazy. Why do you keep calling
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  Speaker 1: him Charlie because it should be Charlie.
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  Speaker 2: No, it was Ralph.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well crazy ll doomed boom boomed.
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  Speaker 2: I like how he was hiding in the cupboard and
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  Speaker 2: somebody opened it and he came bouncing out you're boomed.
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  Speaker 2: That was scarier than the Killer.
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  Speaker 1: Oh so, yep, I give it not even a half star.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, come on, I give it one star.
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  Speaker 1: No, it was not one star worthy.
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  Speaker 2: It was one star worthy. It started the whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: It was one star worthy. Okay, you're wrong. There are
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  Speaker 2: you ready to get started?
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I've never been readier. This is a podcast that looks
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: back on the decade of the nineteen eighties. We talk
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: about things that were important to us as children and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: what we look back on with fond memories as adults. Ultimately,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: this is a nostalgia podcast.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: And today we are getting nostalgic about a television show
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  Speaker 2: that started forty years ago. Wow four zero.
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  Speaker 1: It might be where my shoulder hurt.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It could be forty years ago. This show debuted on
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  Speaker 2: September fourteenth, nineteen and eighty five, and this TV theme
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: song actually made it to the regional finals in its region,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: where it would lose out to Cheers, the eventual champion.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Otherwise this show might have been the champion. And what
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: do you think you want to play a little bit
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: for the folks now.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being traveled down a look back again.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Your heart is true, You're the pen and a confident
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: then body everyone. You would say the biggest gift would
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: be from remember Ah, thank you.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So does that song take you back or what?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Oh? It just almost gives me goosebumps. Yeah, every time
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I hear it brings me right back to being eleven
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  Speaker 1: years old. This is a sitcom that I can't even
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: tell you how many times I've seen it, but I
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: know I've seen every episode multiple times, to the point
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I can quote some of the script to some of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the shows and it never gets old.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Is this your favorite show of all time?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely? Hands down.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I kind of thought that might be the case in why.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I kind of took lead on this one.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you did, you did, and I thought this might
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: be where you might be heading since we were at
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  Speaker 2: a forty year anniversary. This is your favorite show of
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  Speaker 2: all time? I think it was the year that we
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: got married, or maybe the next year where I got
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: you a whole entire box set on DVB. Yes, I
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: love it, And you went through that thing in about
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, two and a half days.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, are you ready?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I'm ready?
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Picture it? Miami nineteen eighty five, Four Women, One House,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Unlimited Cheesecake Today we're celebrating one of the greatest sitcoms ever,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: The Golden Girls. This show gave us heart, humor, shoulder
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: pads in Saint Olah. The Golden Girls aired on NBC
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  Speaker 1: from September fourteenth, nineteen eighty five to May ninth, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety two, with one hundred and eighty half hour episodes
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: spanning a total of seven seasons. The show's ensemble cast
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  Speaker 1: stars Beatrice Arthur, Eddie White, Room McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.
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  Speaker 1: It's about four older women, three widows and one divorcee
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  Speaker 1: sharing a house in Miami while navigating their golden years.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Get it golden, Ye, I get it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I have a question. Is it divorcee or divorce?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, and I knew you were going to
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  Speaker 1: say that.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: How did you know?
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I know you that I know you, so I'm sorry
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: if I got it wrong. I don't know which it is.
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  Speaker 1: The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche
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  Speaker 1: Devereux played by Rum McClanahan, who was joined by fellow
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  Speaker 1: widow Rose Nyland played by Betty White, and divorcee divorce
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Okay Dorothy Zubornak played by b Arthur. After they both
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: responded to an ad on the bulletin board of a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: local grocery store a year before the start of the series.
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  Speaker 1: In the pilot episode, the three are joined by Dorothy's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: eighty year old widowed mother, Sophia Petrillo, played by a Stelghetti,
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  Speaker 1: after Shady Pines, the retirement home where she lived, burns
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  Speaker 1: to the ground.
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  Speaker 2: Good synopsis there. I like how you called her Beatrice
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  Speaker 2: Arthur and not just be Arthur. I mean, I don't
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  Speaker 2: know anybody that has ever called her Beatrice in my
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  Speaker 2: entire life. Her mama did well, I'm sure she did,
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  Speaker 2: but I believe she went by be ain't be.
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  Speaker 1: You know what, if you were as close to these
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  Speaker 1: characters as I am, you might would refer to her
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  Speaker 1: as Beatrice Arthur.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I gotta know which one of these characters was your favorite.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's always been really hard for me because
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  Speaker 1: there are certain things about each of them. I think
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  Speaker 1: if I have to go with just one, probably Rose. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: But it's hard. It's really hard. It like picking your
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  Speaker 1: favorite child, right, which one is yours? Sophia Sophia. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Sophia was my favorite as a kid. She's still my
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  Speaker 1: favorite now. I don't know if I've ever told you
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  Speaker 1: this or not. I probably have, but I also want
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: to hear what other people think about this. I want
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to recreate in some way. I don't know exactly how
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: you would do this. The kitchen and the living room
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and maybe one bedroom of the Golden Girls house, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I want to like rent it out like an Airbnb.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, I like that idea.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Super fans I would stay there. I like that idea.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know where we're gonna be able.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: To do that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you would have to take just, you know, like
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  Speaker 1: an ordinary house and just try to make it work.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Obviously it's not going to be like perfect.
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  Speaker 2: I think you're gonna have to knock down some walls
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: because they had a very spacious living room.
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  Speaker 1: Well like all that back area, they've got a fireplace,
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  Speaker 1: They've got a whole nother house back there that they
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: never even used and that bothered me as a child.
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  Speaker 2: And then they had a way out to the patio
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: out to the background n the lunai.
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  Speaker 1: So I think you would have to just that would
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: just have to be a wall back there. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think we could. I mean, it was it was a labyrinth.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it was. It was huge. I never
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  Speaker 2: Inssary except for the kitchen. Kitchen was very tiny.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, the kitchen was very eighty ish eighties ish. Yes.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I know. Nowadays we have big kitchens, I know, but
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: back then we didn't. So okay, let me tell you
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: how the show came to be. I think it's kind
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: of a fun little origin story. So NBC exec Brandon Kardikoff, well, okay,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: thank you. Tartakoff saw a comedy sketch joking about older
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: women living together called Miami Nice Cool, and he went, wait,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: hold on, wait, hold on, that they might be onto
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: something there. Okay, So enter Susan Harris, who created the show.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: She based the tone partly on her own mom and
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  Speaker 1: the idea that aging women still have something to offer
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: in full lives, which TV hadn't really showed up until then.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: So the two actresses Selma Diamond from Night Court oh yeah,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I remember, and Doris Roberts, who at the time was
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: from Remington Steel Now she would go on and be
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: m yep from Everybody Loves Raymond. They are the two
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: that appeared in the skit called Miami Nice. So the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: two of them did the skit promoting the upcoming show
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Miami Vice called Miami Nice, and it was a parody
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: about old people living in Miami. And that is my friends.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: How the Golden Girls were born interesting Selma Diamond and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Doris Roberts. Now Selma Diamond, was she the elderly bailiff?
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And then they had to replace.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Her, yes, with somebody else who died?
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: What do you mean with somebody else who dies?
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: They replaced her, and then that actors died into that season,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: and then they finally brought in Rose. But we're not
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: talking about night Court right now. We're talking about We'll talk.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: About whatever we want. But the pilot episode included a
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: gay housekeeper named Coco who also lived in this labyrinth
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: of a house.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it was big enough. But I do want to say,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: since you brought up the pilot, that pilot is the
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: funniest pilot I've ever seen. You think so? Oh, yes,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: it is absolutely the funniest, Okay, or if it's not
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the funniest, it's one of the funniest. Now, How I
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Met your Mother pilot was extremely fun That was a
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: good one. So Scrubs was pretty funny as well. But
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Golden Girls pilot still holds up and it's hilarious. It
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: made me laugh out loud several times.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Well so those that remember Coco, which is a ridiculous
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: name for a man. But anyways, after the pilot he
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: was eliminated. They decided he wasn't needed because seriously, all
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: those women living in a house, they don't need a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: housekeeper or cook or chef or whatever he was.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I agree, they had enough humor amongst them, and surely
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: at least one of them could do some laundry or
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: cooking or house cleaning as needed.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. A lot of shows do a pilot with the
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: idea that if they get picked up, they're probably gonna
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: lose somebody, right.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to give you a little snippet
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: of each character. Beatrice Arthur, there you go again. Her
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: character was Dorothy Tall, sharp witted, perfect eye roll form,
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  Speaker 1: Broadway legend, star of maud Emmy winner, How did I
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: do their pretty good? She was extremely sarcastic, very very sarcastic. Okay.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Rue McClanahan played Blanche, Southern charm glam queen real life.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: She was very shy and she kept all of Blanche's clothes,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: which is kind of icon behavior. Well, we might talk
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: a little bit more about that too.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: In the middeit a minute, she kept all of Blanche's clothes.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: She did that was in her contract.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: And she was shy in real life.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, she was very shy in real life.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Interesting, okay.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Betty White played Rose. Yes, sweetest song all ever. She
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: was a pioneer TV producer decades long career, loved animals
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and was known to be super super kind in real life.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, and in the show she was a little bit
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: of a dingbat, or at least naive to some extent,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: very naive.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And I'd a ding bat too, why not just own it?
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And she was from a small farming town in Minnesota.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Like our friends from Pop Culture Yearbook, They're all from
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: a small farming town in Minnesota.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, a Stealgatty played Sofia. She actually was the youngest
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: cast member.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know. That blew me away when I found
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: that out. As a kid.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: She was a scene stealer, no doubt, but struggled in
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: real life with crippling stage fright.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Oh wow. Oh she was fantastic. She was so funny,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: and she was also sarcastic as well. Yes, but she
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: was also a great storyteller. And she was just funny.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: That's that's all I can say. She was just so funny.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Those four came together with a little bit of cheesecake,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: a little bit of coffee, a lot of sass, and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: maybe some Sicilian flair in there to form the iconic
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Golden Girls.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: So I think it's funny that not funny, but interesting
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: maybe that three of them were widows and Dorothy was
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: the only one that was not a widow. And so
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: of course every now and then her ex husband Stan
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: would show up, and he just seemed like a sleeves ball.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about stance. Oh so, yeah,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: don't get too far ahead. So let me let's take
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a victory lap, a victory. I want to take a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: victory lap. Let's talk Cayle rip him when he passed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Luke Garritt's record, something like that. Let me give you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: some of the awards that they won.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they won a lot of Emmys, didn't they.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They did sixty eight Emmy nominations in total, they got
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: eleven Emmy wins. Each actress won an Emmy, which is
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: extremely rare. And it's a top ten show for six
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of its seven seasons.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm looking at that right now. It was
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: ranked seventh its first season, which doesn't happen a lot.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And I would like to point out that what some
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: people consider the show of the nineties, Friends, you know
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: what its ranking was in the first season.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I bet it was pretty low.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: It was eight. Okay, okay, so it was eight, but
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Golden Girls was seven. And I would also like to
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: point out that Friends was on Thursday nights, where it's
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: not hard to get high ratings.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Golden Girls was on Saturday night. It was always on
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Saturday night. Saturday never ventured off that that day.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: They don't put scripted television on Saturday nights anymore because
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: nobody is home to watch it right Saturday nights in
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: the fall with football and everything else. Golden Girls ranked
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: in the top ten six out of seven years. It
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: blows me away.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: So I mentioned that it was one of only four
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: sitcoms in the Awards history to achieve each actress winning
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and Emmy. Do you know what the other three shows are? Oh?
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's a great question.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: It's a live action show sitcom. Okay, a live action sitcom.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: There's only one other, one other or three others. So
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: there's three others. Okay, there's four total? Is Taxi one
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of them?
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: No?
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: All in the family, Okay, that's I was going to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: guess that. Will and Grace Oh wow? And Shit's Creek
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: oh wow? Okay, where all the principal actors have won
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: at least one Emmy. So in twenty thirteen, TV Guide
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: ranked The Golden Girls number fifty four on its list
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: of the sixty best series of all time. I think
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that's low.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Now is it talking just sitcom series or like all
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: series together? Because if it's everything that's ever beoun televisions,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I'm still probably a little low, but I get it.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, the Writers Guild of America placed the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: sitcom at number sixty nine in their list of the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: one hundred and one best written TV series of all time.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So I put Golden Girls in my top ten of
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: funniest sitcoms of all time, and maybe maybe top six.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I've got a few things that I want to talk
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: about that maybe people will know, maybe they don't know.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: So here we go. You're ready in no particular order,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Beatrice Arthur Served.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I feel like you're doing it just I am.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I am b Arthur Served in the US Marine Corps
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: during World War Two. Did you know that?
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I did not, but it doesn't surprise me.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I know, right, she was kind of a badass. Well,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: she was that too. She enlisted in nineteen forty three
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: as one of the first members of the Marine Corps
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Women's Reserve.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: She was a real life g I Jane.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: She was honorably discharged in September of forty five with
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the rank of staff sergeants. Oh wow, I mean I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have messed with her. Be Arthur and Betty White
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: didn't really get along.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard that.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So I don't I'm not saying they were enemies, but
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: b Arthur was annoyed by betty ys perkiness.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can see that.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Anyways, Betty White was known for breaking that fourth wall
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: during breaks, and she would talk to the audience and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: that would frustrate Beatrice.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Say did they say whyatt would frustrate her?
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: She just wanted to stay in character and she didn't
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: want anything throwing her off. And I guess Betty White
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: could could come in and out and yeah, yeah, So anyways,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I don't think it really bothered Betty White, which is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: funny to me. She was kind of her own badass.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: She just kind of seems very happy, go lucky. Yeah,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: like she just didn't really care. So A stelle Getty
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: casting director Judith Weiner had seen Torch Song Trilogy, which
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: estelle Getty was in. I don't even know what that is,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: but she was very impressed. So she also saw an
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: audition that estelle Getty did to play Stephen Keaton's mother
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: in a guest spot on Family Ties. Now, she didn't
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: get the role, but Judith Weiner was so impressed with
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: her that they wanted her for Golden Girls. Now, estelle
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Getty went through a three hour transformation to become Sophia
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: if she wore heavy makeup, thick glasses, and obviously a
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: white wig to transform herself into Sophia.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: So while we're on the Sophia Petrillo trail here, I
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: just looked up because you were talking about what a
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: stell Getty did, and I just looked up her Wikipedia
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: like filmography and did you know, oh that obviously she
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: played Sophia Patrillo for one hundred and eighty episodes on
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: the Golden Girls, but she was also Sophia Petrillo on
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: an episode of Blossom.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't know about Blossome.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: She was Sophia Petrillo on obviously twenty four episodes of
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: The Golden Palace, which was the spin off. She was
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Sophia Patrillo on an episode of Nurses Yes, and she
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: was Sophia Petrillo on fifty two episodes of Empty nest Okay.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting to me because her stage fright grew
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: worse as the show went on. So, according to McClanahan,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: by the end of season three, Estell Geddy had significant
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: problems remembering her lines, which at the time was attributed
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to her anxiety. To aid her trying to remember her lines,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: they tried everything from hypnosis to the show hired her
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: an assistant that would run lines with her before taping,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: but nothing worked, so she took to writing her lines
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: on props at which she so she could like glance
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: at it easily, including that wicker purse that she had
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: all the time, which I thought was funny that sometimes
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: her lines were written on the side of the wicker
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: purse that we couldn't see. So the cast often had
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to stay behind after the audience had left to reduce
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: scenes that Estellgetty had flobbed Ultimately they resorted to using
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Q cards. That's what I was going to ask. Did
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: they use Q cards?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: So, so, was her stage fright only in front of
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: an audience or was it.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: So rue McClanahan shared a dressing room with a stell Getty,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and she said she would describe the civil verity of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: her stage fright as she would totally panic and she
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: would start getting under this dark cloud before tape day,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and she quote, you could see a big difference in
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: her on the day that we taped. She'd be walking
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: around like Pigpin, the Peanuts character Pigpin under a black cloud.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: By tape day, she was unreachable. She was just as
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: uptight as a human being could get. When your brain
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: is frozen like that, you can't remember lines. Unquote.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Well wow.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: So A Stelgedtty died in two thousand and eight as
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the result of dementia, and she had Louis body dementia,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: which is a very aggressive form. Unfortunately, we lost a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: family member this year with Louis body dementia. But it's brutal.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: So now, in hindsight, there is thought that maybe the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: progression of that disease, which they just didn't realize could
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: have been something absolutely was adding to her anxiety and
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: her inability to remember her lines. But so it's interesting
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: to me that she had what they considered anxiety and
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that she would just freeze on camera. Yet she went
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: on and she did a substantial amount of episodes of
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Empty Nest. Yes, it's interesting to me.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: She also starred in The Oscar Winner with Sylvester Stallow Stopper.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: My mom was, shoot, I.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Did not realize it had won an Oscar Jim, But
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: what in the world did I miss? Or maybe it
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: was a yeah, I think that might be what it is.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: So Disney's Michael Eisner, this is his take on her character.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: So quote A. Snell Getty made our three women into girls,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and that was to me what made it seem like
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: it could be a contemporary young show. Oh okay, I
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: mean that's in. I mean, he's not wrong.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: It's so funny that as a kid, I looked at
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: these ladies and they may as well have been each
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: one hundred, right, Like I know, like, you know, how
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: could Blanche be going out and getting men at one
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: hundred years old? And now look at us and now
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: I'm like, blank, shouldn't be a bad option. If you
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: were a widower. Oh no, really, ah No, I'm just
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: but she doesn't look a hundred That's all I'm saying.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: So I want to see how well you know you're
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: golden girls.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: I want to know. I want to know something. Because
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: you went over Beatrice Arthur and Betty White and a Stellgetty,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like you went over Rue McClanahan.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're right. So we're going to pause for a
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: commercial break, okay, and play this little game, and then
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I'll give you all about Roale McClanahan.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I'm gonna give you a quote.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I want you to tell me which character said it.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: All right, some of these are might be a little easy,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: but I'm too attractive for my own good.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: That would be Blanche.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: This reminds me of the Great Herring Circus.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: That would be Rose.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: How did I do? I tried to handle her? Go
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: to sleep, sweetheart, Pray for brains, Dorothy, And then I
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: don't get the context of this. You look like a
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: before picture, I'm assuming Sophia. Yes, okay, I got it.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Four for four baby, Yes.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Do you know what you get? No, he's cheesecake.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, I'll take.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, So let me give you a little bit more
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: info on Rue McLanahan. So she had a special clause
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: written into her contract allowing her to keep all of
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Blanche's costumes or wardrobe, which were mostly custom made for her. Eventually,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: McClanahan went on to create a clothing line for QVC
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: called a Touch of Roue, inspired by Blanche, but made
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: with more affordable fabrics. So let me tell you, if
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I could get my hands on anything from her wardrobe,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: how awesome would that?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: It would be pretty cool?
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: What was your favorite episode? Do you have one?
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: I think it was the first season when Rose was really.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Frightened about being mugged. No really, yeah, do you know
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: that is one of my least favorite episodes.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know if it's one of my
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: favorites because listen, I haven't watched this as much as
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: you have, and I haven't really watched it since the eighties.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: But that's one that just sticks out to me. There
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: was another one, so it always cracked me up when
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Rose would talk about stories of Saint Olaf.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, and she.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Believed that Hitler had escaped and become her history teacher
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: in Saint Olaf I know that always cracked me up.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: My favorite episode is Blanche has decided she's gonna be
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the next great romance writer, okay, and so she doesn't
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: sleep for days on end while she's writing her book,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and then she gives the her manuscript a rose to
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: read and it's like gibberish. She hasn't slept for days,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and I can't remember if they're gonna try to get
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: her to eat breakfast or if they're doing something in
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, but she's she's come into the kitchen in
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: her long, flowy silk gown and she's laid her head
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: on the counter and they've like broken eggs into a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: bowl or something, or it's in and it's in a bag.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: So I don't know what they're doing with eggs in
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: a bag, but she looks at it and she goes,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: oh my god, why are there little balls of sunshine
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: staring up at me? And for whatever reason, that slayed me.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: And to this day, if I see that episode, I'm
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: glued to it and I'm cackling.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I knew you were gonna say, cacklin.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: How'd you know?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I just knew it.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting because they had each worked with each
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: other in the past minus a Stelle so Rue McClanahan
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: and Betty White. They had been on Mama's Family together.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: I knew that, right, but not as these characters.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, different characters. But I'm just saying
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: they had experience as actors working together. And then McClanahan
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: had co starred with b Arthur on Maud.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Oh. I did not know that, yep.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: And so they all kind of hand out tie in
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: to each other. So I don't know, I just I just.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Thought so McClanahan was kind of the glue because she
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: had worked with the other two. Yes, yes, interesting. So
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: speaking of interesting things, you and I were dating and
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: we were on the phone, and I believe something was
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: brought up about Miami, and I said, Miami is nice.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: So I'll say it twice, Miami is nice. Miami is nice.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: And you were blown away because that is a straight
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: quote for him. Yes, from maybe That's my favorite episode
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: from Dorothy trying to make up a song about Miami
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: playing it on the piano, and you were blown away
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: that I knew the Golden Girls, And I'm pretty sure
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: that's how I won you over.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I have no doubt that that's how you won me over. Okay,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: So I want to talk about a couple of the
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: iconic reoccurring second tier character. Yes, okay. So Herb Edelman
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: played Stanley's born at Dorothy's cheating, free loading ex husband
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: who left her to marry a young flight attendant named Chrissy,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: who later left him. Chrissy later left him for somebody else,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and so ultimately he was in and out of Dorothy's
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: life up until the very last episode. I don't know
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: if you know this. He kind of naps Dorothy when
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: she's on her way to her wedding because in the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: last episode of The Golden Girls she gets married.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I never saw the last episode.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: He kind of like kidnaps her and ends up. She
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: thinks he's gonna do something to try to stop the wedding.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: He ultimately just wanted to have I think a few
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: minutes with her to tell her he was sorry for
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: how he had acted. But he drove her. He was
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the limo driver that drove her to her wedding, So
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: even though they divorced, he never really went away. So,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Miles Weber, do you remember that Rose's professor boyfriend. He
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: came onto the scene in season five, played by Harold Gould.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I remember.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: That may This is one of the more outlandish storylines.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: In season six, Miles reveals he is in the Witness
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Protection program because he was a bookkeeper for a mobster. Okay, okay, no, no, okay.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Sid Melton played South Petrilla, which was Sophia's late husband,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: so sometimes we got to see him in dreams or flashbacks, right,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and then also wanted to give credit to Lenny Green.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: She was credited as Lynn Green. She played a younger
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Dorothy in flashbacks, and every time she was in an episode,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: my mom would comment about there is no way that
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: somehow they were not related, because she was just the
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: perfect younger b Arthur.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's great.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I'm going to name some of the big named guest
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: stars that appeared over the years in episodes of The
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Golden Girls. Burt Reynolds, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Debbie Reynolds,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Leslie Nielsen, which is who Dorothy goes on in Mary's
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Mickey Rooney, Sonny Bono, Dick Van Dye, Bob Hope because
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Rose thought that Bob Hope was her dad, Alex Trebek,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Jerry or Bac and Don Cheatle who goes on and
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: stars with three of the ladies in the Golden Palace,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: which I never really watched me neither. The Golden Girls
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: was like Hollywood bingo. Every rising actor or classic star
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: had to pass through their living room. We had future
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: movie stars, comedy legends, and even Quentin Tarantino wearing an
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Elvis wig before he became you know Quentin tarantine right. So,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: showwriter Mark Cherry commented on read throughs of the scripts
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: that generally, if the joke was a good one, the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: women found a way to make it work the very
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: first time they read it. You have a lot of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: table reads where the actors will mess it up because
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: they don't understand what the characters are doing, or they
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: misinterpret or they misread. But the women were so uniformly
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: brilliant at nailing it the first time that we basically
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: knew that if the women didn't get it right the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: first time, the joke needed to be cut. Interesting because
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: read throughs are generally thought to be the time where
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: you kind of like flub through right. The show dealt
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: with many controversial issues in a time when some of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: these things weren't really openly talked about same sex marriage, homelessness, poverty,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: HIV AIDS, immigration issues, sexual harassment, teenage pregnancy, adultry, sexism,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: interracial marriage. I mean, it goes on and on and
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: on about the different topics that they dealt with over
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the years, which is interesting considering that it was a
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: really funny show. Yes, so, at the request of Queen Elizabeth,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the Queen Mother, the cast of the Golden Girls performed
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: several skits as their characters in front of her and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: other members of the British Royal family at the nineteen
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: eighty eight Royal Variety performance in London.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: I think it's funny that the show made it across
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: the sea, right, and not just across the sea to
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: the common folk, but across the sea to the Queen.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would say that's a pretty stinking big
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: deal right there, I would think.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: So that's how big the show was. I wonder if
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: any other shows made it across the sea to the Queen.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: So I just want to bring something up real quick.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: You know, everybody talks about the Thursday Night mus SETV
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: of NBC when we were kids, right, it was Cosby's Show,
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: then Family Ties in night Court which was they were excellent,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: right and then after that Hill Street Blues and maybe
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit later in the decade La Law. They
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: were all excellent, I no doubt about it. But the
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Saturday Night lineup of our childhood holds its own with
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: two two seven Amen, the Golden Girls in Empty Nests
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: and then with Hunter to follow. So I think if
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Thursday Night was the best night on television, Saturday Night
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: was probably the second best.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I agree one hundred percent. Now I have
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a bone to pick with Disney. Okay, Uh, we're big
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Disney fans before though, we became big Disney fans before
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I even knew what Hollywood Studios was. Apparently the exterior
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: of the Golden Girls home was at Hollywood Studios, so
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Blanche Devro's address was sixty one fifty Richmond Street in Miami, Florida.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: But in reality, the exterior used for the first three
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: and a half seasons of The Golden Girls was a
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: real house in Brentwood, California. But in nineteen eighty seven,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: a front exterior replica was built at Disney to be
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: used for filming exterior shots. So it was part of
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: the backstage studio tour ride at Hollywood Studios with MGM
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: at MGM. You know, I still like to call it
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: MGM because that's what it was when I first went.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: So apparently the exterior of the Empty Nest Home was
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: also there. Both were damaged considerably by a hurricane, really so,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: and that's what ultimately led to them deciding to get
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: rid of it. And that's now where they've got the
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Galaxy's Edge. Oh that's kind of a bummer, isn't that craze?
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: What I wouldn't have done to have been able to
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: have seen the exterior of the home. I would have
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: been beside myself. That would have been such a better
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: use of space than the stupid galaxy. Well, I was
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: going to say, other than the rides. Galaxy's Edge kind
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: of sucks, So it really does. Okay. So The Golden
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Girls came to an end in nineteen ninety two when
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Beatrice Arthur chose to leave the series. In the hour
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: long series finale, Dorothy meets and Mary's blanches uncle Lucas
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: played by Leslie Nielsen, and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Right down the road from here, Sophia is to join
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: her but in the end she stays behind with the
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: other women in Miami. This led to the spinoff series
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: The Golden Palace.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: Which it's my understanding that it didn't do so hot
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: in the ratings. It was kind of like Joe spinning
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: off from Friends.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: The series finale of The Golden Girls was watched by
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: twenty seven point two million viewers.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: As of twenty sixteen, it was the seventeenth most watched
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: TV finale.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: Really, do you have the sixteen ahead of it?
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: I do not.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: I know what number one is, mash Yes.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So after the original series ended, Betty White, Rue McClanahan,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: and Estell Getty reprised their characters in the CBS series.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: So they moved.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Wow, they jumped.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: The Shark, they jumped stations and my home Pound it
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: went from channel five to Channel four, so it's not
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: like it was a big move.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: So the CBS series The Golden Palace, which featured Rose,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Blanche and Sophia selling their house or selling Blanch.
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: And opening up a Chinese buffet, because that's what The
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: Golden Palace sounds like.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: To buy and run a hotel in Miami.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: I think it should have been a Chinese buff so.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: It didn't last long. It ran from September of ninety
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: two until May of ninety three. It also starred Cheach
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Maren Yeah good old Cheech, and Tommy Chong Don Chetle,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: so obviously never really took off. It ranked fifty seventh
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: in the annual ratings for that year. So this show
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: didn't just make us laugh. It showed that friendship has
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: really no age limit, and life stays rich when you
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: share it with people you.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Love, and when you eat a lot of cheesecake, there
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: you go. You know what, it's funny because I know
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: that I was watching one episode and maybe it was
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: near the end of the show when they were all
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: sitting around the table, kitchen table, eating cheesecake, and Dorothy
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: says something like, do you know how many pieces of
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: cheesecake we've shared over the years, And Rose goes know
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: how many?
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Because she was like literal like that, and that's
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: what made her so funny. Yes, to me, their storylines
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: would get a little absurd, of course, but I always
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: kind of forgave that because it was such good writing.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the writing was so good, and.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: The comebacks and the back and forth were so quick.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I just loved that so I would always forgive them
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: of like the ridiculousness of some of the storyline.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it was very clever.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: It was extremely well written. And obviously I watched it
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: as a child. I would say, through my college years
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: and my twenties. It was the show that I always
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: fell back on, you know, that I would just lose,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: like my comfort show. And even today I would sit
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: down and watch it and curl up and be just
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: happy as a clam.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: So this was this was a show that I would
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: watch whenever I was over at my grandma's on Saturday
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: nights and it would be on NBC, and I would
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: watch two two seven, Amen, This and Empty Nest and
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: then Hunter suffer through the news in hopes that Saturday
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: Night's main event was coming on rather than Saturday Night Live.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: But so this show, when I watch it, takes me
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: back to those Saturday nights at my grandma's house. I
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: never watched it at home. We were probably written a
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: movie or playing or whatever, you know, video games. We
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: could do just about anything over there. But over at
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: my grandma's, as I got older and you quit playing
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: with toys, there's not a whole lot to do over there.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: So it's like eat watch Golden Girls and eat ice
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: cream or whatever you eat dinner she cooked. So watching
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: Golden Girls, hearing that song and especially the closing credits, yes,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: takes me right back to that situation. It makes me
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: feel nostalgic, but also a little melancholy.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: It does me too, because a sense of sadness there
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: is because that time is now gone, you know, comforting
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: but also sad, right.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: And those people are gone, and so yeah, what I
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: wouldn't do to go back for one more weekend at
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: my grandma's house as a little.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Boy, you know, Oh yeah, oh, I know. And you know,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: I spend a lot of Saturday nights with my Papa
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: on Nanny and Nanny and I always watched the NBC
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: shows in the one room, well because Papaul watched wrestling
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: in the other room, and so I I So there's
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: part of me when I hear the theme song, I
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: go back to Papa Nanny's house and I'm that little
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: happy kid that's just safe and happy and all's good
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: with the world. But then it takes me, you know,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: through the decades as well, because then also I'm older
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: and I'm the single girl in my own apartment watching
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: The Golden Girls on a Saturday night, and I'm in
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: that era of life. And then I watched The Golden
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: Girls the first time we had COVID. I don't know
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: if you remember that, but when we have we had
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: the bad strand of COVID and I didn't sleep for
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: like three straight days or something. I couldn't sleep, and
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I watched The Golden Girls, and you know, so it's there.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Every time of my life, I fall back on the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Golden Girls. And that's there's something to be such a
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: chicken soup for your soul. Yeah it is.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved it. So what else.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: Can you say? So may your cheesecake be plenty, your
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: friends be loyal, and your comeback Sophia approved.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: I love Sophia. M all right. Well, uh, we would
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: like to know if you enjoyed The Golden Girls as
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: much as we did. What was maybe one of your
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: favorite episodes or one of your favorite lines that you remember?
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Did we cover enough for you? Did we cover too much?
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Let us know that we can do more. Yeah. You
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: can reach out to us on social media. We are
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: on x, Facebook, Instagram. You can reach us at Children
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: of Underscore eighties and also email us at childrenofthineteen eighties
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. We would appreciate it if you'd
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: leave us a review. We just got a new review,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: which is always exciting because it would have been a while.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Since we got that, so we got another one. We
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: appreciate that one that always helps us out.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and just let us know reach out. We always
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: promised to reply.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Until next time. I'm Jim and I'm Lindsey and we
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: are Children of the eighties. See you next Wednesday.