- Bea's two
hit shows (Golden Girls & Maude) ended because she decided to leave.
- Estelle Getty (Sophia) is younger than her on screen daughter,
Dorothy (Bea Arthur).
- Rue McClanahan is actually the youngest "Golden Girl".
- Each "Golden Girl" won an Emmy Award for their work on the show.
- The Golden Girls were nominated for 57 Emmys. (7 of them for "Best
Comedy Series")
- The Golden Girls has two spin-offs: "Empty Nest" and "The Golden
Palace".
- According to the E! TV Tales, TGG shares a
special coincidence with All In the Family. Both shows are the only
two in television history where the main characters all won an Emmy
Award.
- Bea Arthur hates cheesecake. Said dessert was featured in almost 100
episodes in the series.
- Betty White was originally supposed to play Blanche, and Rue
McClanahan Rose. However, Betty didn't want to play another "sexpot"
like Sue Ann Nivens. She was caught off-guard when they asked her to
read for the part, but it turned out to be wonderful!
- Bea Arthur is 5' 9", and Estelle Getty is 4' 11". Bea Arthur was 3
months older than Estelle.
- It was Rue McClanahan's idea to give Blanche a Southern accent.
- Rose, Miles, and Angela were all on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Rose
played Sue Ann Nivens, Miles was Rhoda's father, and Angela (Nancy
Walker) played Rhoda's mother.
- Terry Hughes was considered the 5th "Golden Girl". As he was the
director for 5 straight years. Rue McClanahan did not attend his
farewell party.
- The first episode of The Golden Girls attracted more than 25 million
viewers and was the #1 show that week, beating out the NBC powerhouse,
The Cosby Show.
- Bea Arthur referred to Leslie Neilson as being "idiotic".
- Rue suspected that Estelle was intimidated by Bea.
- Bea actually wanted to leave the series after season 5 but was
coaxed to stay for 2 more seasons. (thankfully!)
- The 4 girls performed in front of the royal family in London in
1988.
- Marc Sotkin came on as the chief writer on the Golden Girls in 1989
after long time collaborators Barry Fanaro and Nathan Morris decided
to leave.
- Coco (The cook) was written out of the show after the first episode
because Sophia was a much stronger character and they didn't need him.
- None of the Golden Girls have daughters in real life.
- The Executive Producer Susan Harris suffers from Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome.
- Bea Arthur's birth name is Bernice Frankel.
- Estelle Getty suffered from stage fright every Friday night for 26
weeks.
- It took 45 minutes in make-up for Estelle to be transformed into
Sophia. |
Thank you to our message board
members for most of these interesting facts!!
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