The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. The series comprises 180 half-hour episodes across seven seasons and features an ensemble cast led by Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. Set in Miami, Florida, the show centers on four older women who share a home and navigate friendship, aging, and daily life.

The series was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television. Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, and Susan Harris served as the original executive producers.

The Golden Girls received critical acclaim during its original run and earned numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Each of the four lead actresses won a Primetime Emmy Award, making it one of only four sitcoms in history where all principal cast members received Emmy recognition. The show ranked among the Nielsen top 10 for six of its seven seasons.

In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. In 2014, the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time". Terry Tang of the Associated Press reported that the series continues to attract new fans in the 21st century and characterized it as an example of a sitcom that has aged well.

Premise

The show, featuring an ensemble cast, revolves around four older single women (three widows and one divorcée) sharing a house in Miami while navigating their "golden years" with humor, friendship, and occasional chaos. The owner of the house is a widow named Blanche Devereaux (McClanahan), who was joined by fellow widow Rose Nylund (White) and divorcée Dorothy Zbornak (Arthur) after they both responded to an ad on the bulletin board of a local grocery store, a year before the start of the series. In the pilot episode, the three are joined by Dorothy's 80-year-old widowed mother, Sophia Petrillo (Getty), after the retirement home where she lived burned down.

Many episodes of the series followed a similar format or theme. For example, one or more of the women would become involved in some sort of problem, often involving other family members, men, or an ethical dilemma. At some point, they would gather around the kitchen table and discuss the problem, sometimes late at night and often while eating cheesecake, ice cream, or some other dessert. One of the other girls then told a story from her own life, which somehow related to the problem (though Rose occasionally regaled the others with a nonsense story that had nothing to do with the situation, and Sophia told outrageous, made-up stories). Some episodes featured flashbacks to previous episodes, flashbacks to events not shown in previous episodes, or to events that occurred before the series began.

Finale

The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. In the hour-long series finale, which aired in May 1992, Dorothy meets and marries Blanche's uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen) and moves to Hollingsworth Manor in Atlanta. Sophia is to join her, but in the end, she stays behind with the other women in Miami. This led into the spin-off series The Golden Palace.

The series finale of The Golden Girls was watched by 27.2 million viewers. As of 2016, it was the 17th-most watched television finale.