Know Your Show: The Golden Girls #AtoZChallenge

This post is part of my #A2ZChallenge for April 2016 where my theme is TV Sitcoms.

For the letter G, I choose the Golden Girls.

Premise:

In this iconic comedy, four elderly women enjoy the golden years of their lives, together in a house in Miami. 

10 reasons you will love it:

1) If anyone asks you who the sassiest quartet of women on television were, The Golden Girls are the undisputed winners. Just remember that. (Sex in the City, my red baboon b**t! )

2) This show (1985-92) broke all the comedy stereotypes you could imagine - instead of hot babes or young couples, you had three widows and a divorcee staying together, leading fully active social lives and enjoying it to the hilt.

3) It features in the Writer's Guild of America's '101 Best Written Series of All Time' for a very good reason. The show was hilarious and yet poignant.

4) Star cast was magnificent here. 

• Bea Arthur as Dorothy. The ring leader, I guess, she delivered sarcastic jibes with such a straight, often annoyed face that you couldn't help laughing out loud literally.
• Rue McClanahan as Blanche. Famous for bragging about her admirers and conquests, she was often also at the receiving end from the others for her open attitude.
• The ageless Betty White as Rose. Heaven forbid you get stuck beside her when she starts telling a story about her childhood in the farming town of St. Olaf. She was the sweet one but also the hilariously slow-witted one which would often drive the others crazy.
• Estelle Getty as Sophia, Dorothy's mother. Dorothy definitely got those sarcastic genes from this hilarious old woman. 

5) One of only 3 shows in history (the other two being "Will & Grace" and "All in the Family") wherein all the stars of the shows won an individual Emmy for their performance. The show itself won 2 Emmys and 3 Golden Globes.

6) A complete show with negligible continuity issues. You can jump in at any point of time and enjoy an episode. 

7) You need to realize how huge these 4 are as pop culture icons even today. In various shows and sitcoms, people just have to say "She's a Dorothy" or "She's acting like Rose" and instantly, it is understood that we are referencing the Golden Girls.

Show: Happy Endings

8) Being sassy was not the show's only way of breaking stereotypes. The show did not hesitate to deal with serious topics like being alone in one's old age, having a heart attack, death, changing attitudes towards race and sexual identity et al.

9) Even 30 years after it debuted, it is still better than 90% of the comedy sitcoms that have come and gone.

10) Personal opinion: This was the first show I remember sitting down and watching with my parents on Channel 33 in Dubai as a kid in the 80's. Two decades later, revisiting it, I am still amazed at how funny this series is and how much it means to me. That theme song "Thank you For Being a Friend" always makes me happy. 

If aliens were to judge us based solely upon this show:

They would not fear growing old as long as they had a few good friends by their side.
They would also know that the starting point of their invasion of planet Earth should be Rose's hometown, St. Olaf. There couldn't be a dumber set of human beings around, surely!

Trivia:

• The image above is something no other set of television stars can boast of. In 1988, the Golden Girls performed live for a very special fan on her request - the Queen of England. Queen Elizabeth. The Queen absolutely loved them.  
• Here's a doozy. Estelle Getty, who played Dorothy's mom on the show, was actually a year younger than her in real life!

To see all the shows  I have talked about till date, please CLICK HERE.