The Golden Girls
From Free net encyclopedia
| format = Sitcom | runtime = 25 minutes (22 minutes for syndication) | creator = Susan Harris | starring = Beatrice Arthur
Betty White
Rue McClanahan
Estelle Getty | country = USA | network = NBC | first_aired = September 14, 1985 | last_aired = September 7, 1992 | num_episodes = 180
}}
The Golden Girls was a popular sitcom that originally aired Saturday nights on NBC from September 14, 1985 to September 7, 1992. It can now be seen in syndication frequently on the Lifetime cable network in the United States, Prime in Canada, Living TV in the UK and RTL in Germany.
The sitcom was originally conceptualized by NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff. Tartikoff was visiting his elderly aunt one day and saw how she and her next-door neighbor, who was also her best friend, interacted with each other. Despite their constant bickering and arguments, they were still the best of friends and loved each other. He thought that would make a great storyline for a show, and The Golden Girls was born.
Beginnings
Image:TVGuidegoldengirls.jpg The show was created by Susan Harris, who had also created the sitcoms Soap and Benson.
The premise of the show was four older women sharing a fashionable house together in Miami. Blanche owned the house, while Dorothy and Rose responded to an ad for roommates, to be joined later by Dorothy's mother Sophia.
Characters
The show starred Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, who maintained an arsenal of withering put-downs and killer glares; Betty White as dense Minnesotan Rose Nylund; Rue McClanahan as oversexed Southern belle Blanche Devereaux; and Estelle Getty as the wisecracking Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy's mother (although Getty is actually two months younger than Arthur so was heavily made up to seem much older). In the early days of casting, McClanahan auditioned for the role of Rose, while White auditioned for the role of Blanche, only to switch roles before the pilot. During its original run, The Golden Girls won 65 Emmy nominations, 11 Emmy awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Viewers for Quality Television awards. All the lead actresses won Emmy Awards for their performances on the show. The Golden Girls, along with All In The Family and Will & Grace, are the only shows where all the principal actors have won Emmy Awards.
Dorothy Zbornak
Main article: Dorothy Zbornak Image:Gg beaarthur.jpg Dorothy Zbornak (née Petrillo) was an Italian girl raised in Brooklyn, New York by her mother, Sophia, and her father, Salvadore. Nicknamed "Pussycat" by her mother, Dorothy had a younger brother, Phil, and a younger sister, Gloria. After moving to Miami in her later years, Dorothy continued working as a substitute teacher.
In high school, Stanley Zbornak got Dorothy pregnant and a wedding took place to give the baby a name. Stan and Dorothy were married for 38 years, although Stan cheated on her numerous times, finally leaving her for a young flight attendant named Chrissy, whom he met on the way to a business conference in Hawaii. The captain on the flight told the flight attendants to give the passengers a "lei" and she got confused. Dorothy had two children, Michael and Kate, and a grandchild (born to Michael). The grandchild was never shown on the series, and was never so much as mentioned.
Though Dorothy and Stan were divorced, he made several appearances on the show, usually running to Dorothy whenever something went wrong in his life. Stan continually saw Dorothy as a comforting, reliable figure, even though he was the one who ended their marriage. Dorothy emerged from the divorce a stronger person, while her ex seemed to descend further into childishness. They ended up having a one-night stand in the first season (which Stan mistakenly thought would lead to a reconciliation), and, a few seasons later, started dating again and planned to remarry. Dorothy called off the reconciliation on the day of the wedding when Stan asked her to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. (Dorothy's proud mother Sophia, who had never quite forgiven her "yutz" son-in-law for cheating on her daughter, proudly announced to the wedding guests: 'She dumped him. Remember that!')
In the series' final episode, Dorothy married Blanche's uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth, played by Leslie Nielsen, making her Dorothy Zbornak Hollingsworth.
Rose Nylund
Main article: Rose Nylund Image:Gg bettywhite.jpg Rose Nylund (née Lindstrom) was from the small farming town of St. Olaf, Minnesota, a community of Norwegian-Americans that was once referred to by Dorothy as "the cradle of idiocy." Rose delighted in telling stories of life growing up in St. Olaf, stories which provided comedic fodder for her character.
Born out of wedlock to a monk and his lover, who died in childbirth (although she didn't know the identity of her birth parents until late in the show's run), Rose was adopted and raised by the large Lindstrom family, including her free-spirited adoptive mother, Alma (who visited Rose in Miami but died (offscreen) during the course of the series). Rose was one of nine siblings (once stating that her parents loved 'all nine of us equally'), several of whom, like Rose, were named after types of flowers, including two who visited Rose in Miami: Lily, who was blind, and Holly, whom Rose could not stand.
Rose was married for many years to traveling insurance salesman Charlie Nylund, and they had five children: three daughters, Kirsten, Brigid, and Janella, and two sons, Adam and Charlie, Jr. Kirsten and Brigid would visit their mother in Miami on more than one occasion, but Adam, Charlie, Jr. and Janella were mentioned but never seen on the show. Rose had several grandchildren, including Charlie and Charlene (the latter of whom visited Rose in The Golden Palace).
After Charlie's death (he died of a heart attack while having sex with her), Rose lived alone in St. Olaf for a while, and then moved to Miami and found work at a grief counseling center. During the show's run, Charlie's pension was cut off, and Rose was not able to make enough money to support herself at the counseling center, so she took a job as consumer reporter Enrique Mas' assistant at local TV station. Over the course of the series, Rose also volunteered at the local hospital and worked on a number of charity projects.
In later seasons, Rose became romantically involved with Miles Webber (played by Harold Gould), a college professor; Rose later discovered that Miles was part of the Witness Protection Program. Incidentally, the same actor who played Miles also played "Arnie", one of Rose's love interests in the first season.
Rose suffered from a number of health problems during the course of the show, most notably a massive heart attack during the show's final season. In one episode it was also indicated that Rose had been addicted to painkillers for many years, even though the story concept never appeared anywhere other than that stand-alone episode.
Blanche Devereaux
Main article: Blanche Devereaux Image:Gg ruemcclanahan.jpg Blanche Devereaux (née Hollingsworth) was a Southern belle who grew up on a plantation outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Blanche was always the apple of her father's ("Big Daddy") eye, even though she tried to spin it the other way many other times. Blanche had a love-hate relationship with her sisters Charmaine (Barbara Babcock) and Virginia (Sheree North). She also faced difficulty coming to terms with her brother Clayton (Monte Markham)'s homosexuality and her brother Tad (Ned Beatty)'s mental illness.
The house the girls shared initially belonged to Blanche, who had lived there for many years with her late husband, George. (Later in the series, however, she sold equal shares of the house to Dorothy, Rose and Sophia.) Blanche and George had six children; two daughters, Rebecca and Janet, both of whom made appearances on the show, and four sons, including Matthew, a CPA who appeared in the spin-off series The Golden Palace, and Biff, Doug, and Skippy (who had asthma) who are mentioned but never seen on the series. Blanche had several grandchildren, notably David (a teenage rebel who visited Miami), Sarah (who visited with her mother, Janet, during the last season), Melissa (a young beauty-pageant contestant), and Aurora (Rebecca's infant daughter, conceived by artificial insemination in one of the series' ongoing storylines).
George Devearaux's illegitimate son, David (played by Mark Moses), the seventh Devereaux child, was discovered when the young man turned up at the house, looking for George. This led Blanche to struggle with the fact that her husband, to whom she was devoted, was unfaithful during their marriage.
Throughout most of the series, Blanche was portrayed as man-hungry, and she clearly had the most male admirers -- and stories detailing various sexual encounters -- over the course of the series. At the funeral for her husband, George (who had died when a drunk driver hit him head-on), she picked up a man, as Rose said, because "she couldn't live without a man."
Blanche was very vain, and as a result, she always tried to act younger than she was. While her exact age was never revealed (it was mentioned she even had her true date of birth removed from vital records "by order of the Governor"), she was clearly the youngest housemate. In a first season episode, after a younger man says he thinks of her like his mother, she states that it made her feel like she was "in my fifties". Dorothy responds "You ARE in your fifties," to which Blanche says "Yes, but normally I don't feel like it." Throughout the series, she claimed on numerous occasions to be in her forties, which may have fooled strangers, but her housemates knew better.
Blanche was employed at an art museum.
Sophia Petrillo
Main article: Sophia Petrillo Image:Gg estellegetty.jpg Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy's mother, was born in Sicily and moved to New York, after annulling her first (arranged) marriage to Guido Spirelli (she was also briefly engaged to a young man from her village, Augustine Bagatelli, as a teenager). She married Salvadore Petrillo and they had three children: Dorothy, Phil (a transvestite), and Gloria (who married rich).
After suffering a debilitating stroke, Sophia was put away in a nursing home, Shady Pines, by Dorothy. In the pilot episode, Sophia came to live with the girls after Shady Pines burned to the ground. Sophia never had good things to say about her retirement home, and she alluded to poor treatment by the staff many times throughout the series' run (although at least once, she did compliment their services). There were constant hints in the series that she and her family back in Sicily had some mafia connections; she once stated that she had lived through "two world wars, fifteen vendettas, four operations and two Darrins in Bewitched".
Members of Sophia's family who appeared on the program include her sister Angela (played by Nancy Walker), her brother Angelo (played by Bill Dana), her daughter Gloria, and, in flashbacks, her husband Sal, and her mother (played by Bea Arthur), and Dorothy herself at a younger age, played by Lyn Green. Phil was never seen, but he passed away later on the series. At her son's funeral, Sophia ended the long feud she had with her daughter-in-law Angela (played by Brenda Vaccaro).
During the series' run, Sophia married Max Weinstock (played by Jack Gilford), Sal's business parter, and attempted to revive Sal and Max's old pizza-and-knish business, but they soon separated, realizing they were better off as friends (with occasional benefits).
Response
Image:Gg scene.jpg The Golden Girls was quite risqué for its time, as its main characters were four single older women who lived together, but were still up-to-date with pop culture and sexually active. Mild profanity and strong sexual innuendo were common on the program. Estelle Getty's character, Sophia, was written as a woman who had a stroke that destroyed the part of her brain that censored her speech, thus enabling her to get away with much more than the other women. The show was extremely controversial for often tackling topics that, at the time of airing, were taboo for TV and often times simply not addressed in society. These included the coming out of Blanche's brother, menopause, domestic violence, euthanasia, artificial insemination and senility. Perhaps the most controversial episode involved Rose getting tested for HIV years after receiving an untested blood transfusion and having to wait 72 hours for the results.
Continuity errors
The Golden Girls was one of the last sitcoms to have its complete initial run before the widespread advent of the Internet. With fans of a TV show now able to watch and discuss each episode, offer suggestions and even point out continuity mistakes, writers and producers have the option of keeping much better tabs on their potential viewers. As The Golden Girls took place before such avenues of communication were as widely available, the characters were written more as "concepts first, people second." While the sitcom was not unique in this respect, it did have its fair share of minor continuity errors, ranging from disappearing siblings and illnesses that may or may not have happened to the question of Sophia's age (after awhile, her character simply replied "in my 80s" when asked).
- One of the core cast members, the housemates' gay cook, Coco, was dropped after the pilot episode, with no mention of what had happened to him. The off-screen explanation for Coco's disappearance had to do with network ratings. Although the Sophia character was only introduced as a guest who might make spot appearances to the sitcom, she garnered so much audience favoritism in her debut that the network executives decided to place Sophia (Estelle Getty) in permanently and removed the Coco character from the cast.
- Rose's adoptive mother, Alma Lindstrom, appeared early on in the series played by Jeanette Nolan; a few seasons later, Rose mentioned that her mother was dead. Apparently Alma had died offscreen, since no episode had dealt directly with her death.
- Various actors played more than one character throughout the course of the series' run:
- In the second season, Nan Martin played Frieda Claxton, a mean woman who lived down the street from the girls. Martin showed up again in Season 4 to play Philomena, an old friend of Sophia's who may or may not have been Dorothy's real mother. Vito Scotti played Dominic (who may or may not have been Dorothy's real father) in that episode, after previously appearing as Sophia's cousin Vincenzo in Season 3 (Vincenzo was hired to renovate the girls' garage into a guestroom.)
- Rose had a brief fling with a gentleman named "Arnie" (played by Harold Gould) early in the series. We later see the same actor playing "Miles," Rose's more serious and long-term boyfriend.
- Several characters were played by more than one actor. In some cases, the differences were barely noticeable (such as when two different actresses, Lisa Jane Persky and Deena Freeman, played Dorothy's daughter Kate) or were close enough (such as when two different actors, Murray Hamilton and David Wayne, played Big Daddy Hollingsworth). However, some role changes were more dramatic and obvious: Rose's daughter Kirsten was alternatively short and blond (when played by Christine Belford) and tall and red-headed (when played by Lee Garlington); also Blanche's daughter Rebecca was first played by plus-sized Shawn Schepps and subsequently played by the very slender Debra Engle. Similarly, Dorothy's sister Gloria was a short redhead when played by Doris Belack, but was a tall blonde when played by Dena Dietrich.
- In a flashback scene in the first season episode "The Way We Met," Rose had a cat (Mr. Peepers) which she gave to a little boy in a supermarket soon after she met Blanche. Later in the show, in episode in which Rose battled an addiction to pain killers, she made up an excuse to cover up her addiction; "It's the anniversary of the death of my dear cat Fluffy." Dororthy replied by saying, "Rose, you never had a cat. You're allergic." To further compound this continuity error, in the first season episode "The Heart Attack," Rose had mentioned she had a cat named Lindstrom for whom she used to cook her specialty dish, Lindstrom Surprise (herring pie). Since Rose's maiden name was Lindstrom, that would make her cat, "Lindstrom Lindstrom." Rose's explanation for this: "It was less confusing for him."
- Sophia married her deceased husband's former business partner, ending with the two calling it quits, but not quite seeking a formal, legal end to the marriage, such as divorce or annulment, nor was there any mention of his death later on. Later in the series, Sophia became a nun; however, nuns may not be married women.
- Another continuity error involved Rose's high school education. In one episode, Rose brags about being valedictorian of her graduating class despite being 4th in the class. (When asked how that happened, her response was "We drew straws.") However, another episode involved Rose going back to school to get her diploma. (Her explanation for not having it was that she contracted mono and slept through the rest of her senior year.)
- When the series first introduced Sophia's sister Angela, the sisters note that Sophia and Angela are the last two surviving members of their family. In later seasons, however, several episodes revolve around Sophia's brother Angelo. No reference is made during the Angelo episodes to Angela, who supposedly had moved to Miami at that time.
- Blanche's "Mammy" (her childhood nanny, played by Ruby Dee), referred to Blanche as "Blanche Marie Hollingsworth." In a later episode, however, Blanche revealed that her middle name was Elizabeth and that her initials spelled BED (Blanche Elizabeth Deveraux).
- The greatest discontinuity is the ages of Dorothy and Stanley's two children, Michael and Kate, one of whom was conceived prior to their parents' marriage, which is repeatedly said to have lasted 38 years. Either Michael or Kate--whoever was the firstborn--should have been at least 37 at the time of Dorothy and Stan's divorce, which had occurred a few years before the series even began. However, both of the Zbornak children are shown to be in their mid- to late-twenties throughout the show--it's highly unlikely that one of them is ten to 15 years older than the other, as they appear close in age. These ages also don't match up with Dorothy having gotten pregnant with her first child at 17, but being at least 55 now.
- When Blanche's father dies he was remarried to a younger women than Blanche, yet you never saw her or hear her mentioned during the episode where Blanche's father dies. Also, in the episode where Blanche's "Mammy" appears, Blanche is selling off all of her father's belongings in an auction, instead of his wife.
- Several times Dorothy uses references such as growing up during the depression and other refences to events that happened during her childhood and her married life. The events never match to Dorothy's age or to those of her children's.
- The kitchen goes through several changes. The wallpaper is changed from one style to another and an alcove in the entrance of the kitchen also appears and dissapears. The kitchen window also goes through varous transformations in several episodes.
- There are other discrepencies when it comes to the house. In some episodes, the roomates all have their own bathrooms while in other episodes Blanche is the only one to have her own bathroom and the rest of the roomates share one bathroom. Rose's bedroom also gains a window and then loses it. Finally, when you see the picture of the outside of the house, the door is painted dark brown and when the roomates open and close the door, its a wooden door.
Subsequent series, such as Friends, have carefully-organized flashback episodes, timelines, and even profiles for the fictitious characters.
The show's popularity and decline
The first head writers of the series were Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman, and wrote for the show's first four seasons (although it should be noted that as head writers, Speer and Grossman gave general ideas to lower staff writers, and personally wrote a mere handful of scripts each season). It was the popularity of the show's four leads and the stability in the show's writing department that kept the ratings as high as they were (eventually peaking at #4 for one season).
In 1989, Richard Vaczy and Tracy Gamble, previously writers on 227 and My Two Dads, took over head writing responsibilities, and were themselves replaced in 1990 with Marc Cherry (who went on to create Desperate Housewives) and Jamie Wooten. It was partially the abrupt and fast change in writing teams that slowly brought the ratings down, ultimately pulling it out of contention as a viable Top 10 show. Also, in 1990, Terry Hughes, regular director since early 1986, left the series.
In September 1991, NBC moved the series from its comfortable 9:00 PM EST time slot to 8:00 PM. NBC had trouble filling the slot since 227 vacated it in the spring of 1990. Each show they put in the time period failed, and The Golden Girls was stuck there as a last resort to save the night. As a result, the show fell from 10th place in the previous season to 30th place.
During the seventh season, Bea Arthur decided that she wanted to leave the series. The last episode of that season saw her character of Dorothy marry Blanche's Uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen).
Annual Nielsen Ratings
- 1985-1986 season: 7th place (tied with Dynasty), 21.8 average rating
- 1986-1987 season: 5th place, 24.5 average rating
- 1987-1988 season: 4th place, 21.8 average rating
- 1988-1989 season: 6th place, 21.4 average rating
- 1989-1990 season: 6th place, 20.1 average rating
- 1990-1991 season: 10th place, 16.5 average rating
- 1991-1992 season: 30th place (tied with In the Heat of the Night), 13.1 average rating
Post cancellation
Image:Gg season1.jpg Image:Goldenseason2.jpg Image:Gg season3.jpg Image:Gg4.jpg Image:GoldenGirls S5dvd.jpg
Syndication
American syndicated reruns began in the fall of 1990, distributed by Buena Vista Television, the syndication arm of Disney, whose Touchstone Pictures division produced the series. Starting in 1997, the Lifetime cable network acquired the exclusive rights to repeat the episodes in the US, which they still have as of 2006. The show remains popular in its second decade, with nightly airings still attracting roughly 1.2 million viewers.
In 2003, Lifetime hosted a special Golden Girls retrospective, showing some popular episodes as well as a reunion special featuring Arthur, McClanahan and White reminiscing about their times on the show; Estelle Getty was too ill to participate. Bea Arthur acknowledged that the reunion was not as touching as it should have been because of Getty's absence. Herb Edelman, who had played Dorothy's unorganized ex-husband Stan, had passed away before the reunion was broadcast. Arthur paid tribute to Edelman, saying that he was very nice and was not like his character, Stan.
DVD
On November 23, 2004, the first season of the series went on sale on DVD in Region 1 and on June 28, 2005, in Region 2. The second season went on sale in Region 1 on May 17, 2005, while the second season went on sale in Region 2 on August 1, 2005. The third season went on sale in Region 1 on November 22, 2005, and the fourth season was released on February 14, 2006. The fifth season is scheduled to be released on May 9, 2006. With the recent releases of the third, fourth, and fifth seasons, the rate of release has been shortened from 6 months between seasons to 3 months. These discs are the only way to see uncut episodes of the series; these versions have not seen the light of day since their original network airings, and include snippets of dialogue and entire scenes that do not appear in the current syndicated versions. If the sixth and seventh seasons are both released at the current rate, then all seven seasons will have been released by November 2006.
Spinoffs
The Golden Girls was created by Susan Harris, who later devised Empty Nest as a spinoff from The Golden Girls with some character crossovers. Nurses was later spunoff from Empty Nest, and the shows would occasionally have specials where characters from one show made appearances in the other ones in order to boost ratings.
The Golden Palace
After the original series ended, White, McClanahan, and Getty reprised their characters in the CBS series The Golden Palace, which ran from September 1992 to May 1993. The show never approached the popularity or acclaim of the original and ranked 57th place in the annual Nielsen ratings. There was reportedly a second season to this series, but it was cancelled the day before the fall schedule was announced.
Lifetime, the current US syndicated home of Girls, aired reruns of The Golden Palace in the summer of 2005 and starting again in December of the same year. This was the first time since the end of the series that The Golden Palace was seen on American TV. Lifetime is currently playing the series as a "virtual" Season Eight, playing the series in between the conclusion of the final season and the syndicated roll-over back to Season One.
Brighton Belles
Also in 1993, ITV premiered Brighton Belles, a United Kingdom version of the American sitcom. The show was nearly identical to Girls except for character name changes and actor portrayals. Only ten episodes of this version ever surfaced, due to low ratings. That was most likely due to the fact that most Britons had seen The Golden Girls.
SNL Spoof
In the early 2000s, Saturday Night Live had a skit that comically combined The Golden Girls with the then-popular MTV show, Jackass. Satirizing the many teens who had gotten themselves injured or killed by attempting to recreate the dangerous Jackass stunts, an SNL skit featured a group of teenage boys who idolized The Golden Girls and got together to recreate the goings-on of the four old women in the show, including taking the same medication that the women took on the show.
The Golden Girls: Live!
The Golden Girls: Live! was a popular Off-Broadway show that opened in the Fall of 2003 and ran until November of that year. The production began at Rose's Turn and was scheduled to move to Dillon's Cabaret until its abrupt cancellation. The popular production ended its run because the producers of the Off-Broadway version failed to secure the rights to the show. The play was served with a cease and desist order by Susan Harris and Paul Junger Witt, creators of the original television show.
Featuring an all-male cast, The Golden Girls: Live! featured two back-to-back episodes of the classic sitcom. The Off-Broadway company included John Schaefer as Dorothy and Peter Mac as Sophia.
Empty Nest
A 1987 episode of The Golden Girls, entitled "Empty Nests", featured guest stars Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno as George and Renee Corliss, a married couple living next to the Golden Girls and facing empty nest syndrome after their three adult daughters had moved out. The episode was intended to launch a spinoff series, but fan response to the characters was not favourable and the new show's premise was retooled.
The following year Empty Nest debuted, starring Richard Mulligan as pediatrician Harry Weston, a widower whose three adult daughters had moved back home. One supporting actor from the original episode, David Leisure, was retained in the new series, although his character, another neighbour of Weston's, was also renamed. Although the show did not feature the same characters who had appeared in "Empty Nests", Harris retained the Golden Girls' neighbourhood as the show's setting. Characters from both shows made occasional guest appearances on the other show.
Empty Nest launched its own spinoff in 1991, Nurses, set in the same hospital where Weston worked. As one of the few times in television history that three shows from the same producer, set in the same city, aired back to back on a single network in the same night, the three shows occasionally took advantage of their unique circumstances to create storylines which carried through all three series. This was one of the major factors in the popularity of fictional crossovers as a television plot device in the 1990s.
After the end of The Golden Palace, Estelle Getty joined the cast of Empty Nest, making far more frequent appearances as Sophia in the show's final years.
Theme song
The theme song is Thank You For Being A Friend, which was a #25 Pop hit for Andrew Gold in 1978. However, this version is a re-recorded one sung by Cynthia Fee:
- Thank you for being a friend
- Traveled down the road and back again
- Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant
- And if you threw a party, invited everyone you knew
- You would see the biggest gift would be from me
- And the card attached would say, "Thank you for being a friend"
In later episodes the last three lines would be repeated twice making for a longer credits with more clips from past shows
Awards
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
Top TV series
- 1991 - George Aliceson Tipton
- 1990 - George Aliceson Tipton
- 1989 - George Aliceson Tipton
- 1988 - George Aliceson Tipton
American Comedy Awards
Funniest supporting female performer in a TV series
- 1992 - Estelle Getty
- 1991 - Estelle Getty
Funniest female performer in a TV series (leading role) network, cable or syndication
- 1987 - Betty White
BMI Film & TV Awards
Best TV series (title song)
- 1991 - Andrew Gold
- 1990 - Andrew Gold
- 1989 - Andrew Gold
- 1988 - Andrew Gold
- 1987 - Andrew Gold
Bambi Awards
Reader's choice
- 1989 - Beatrice Arthur
Directors Guild of America Awards
Outstanding directorial achievement in comedy series
- 1987 - For episode, "Isn't It Romantic?" - Terry Hughes, Director; Gary Shimokawa, Associate Director; Lex Passaris, Associate Director; Tom Carpenter, Stage Manager; Jane Greene, Stage Manager; Robert Spina, Production Associate; Ellen Deutsch, Production Associate
- 1986 - For Pilot episode - Jay Sandrich, Director; Harry Waterson, Unit Production Manager; Gary Shimokawa, Associate Director); Tom Carpenter, Stage Manager; Doug Tobin, Stage Manager; Laurie Gilbert, Production Assistant
Emmy Awards
Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series
- 1986 - Betty White
- 1987 - Rue McClanahan
- 1988 - Beatrice Arthur
Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series
- 1988 - Estelle Getty
Outstanding comedy series
- 1987 - Barry Fanaro, Co-Producer; Terry Grossman, Producer; Susan Harris, Executive Producer; Winifred Hervey, Co-Producer; Mort Nathan, Co-Producer; Kathy Speer, Producer; Tony Thomas, Executive Producer; Marsha Posner Williams, Co-Producer; Paul Junger Witt, Executive Producer
- 1986 - Paul Bogart, Supervising Producer; Terry Grossman, Producer; Kathy Speer, Producer; Tony Thomas, Executive Producer; Marsha Posner Williams, Co-Producer; Paul Junger Witt, Executive Producer
Outstanding directing in a comedy series
- 1987 - Terry Hughes, Director
Outstanding writing in a comedy series
- 1986 - Barry Fanaro, Writer; Mort Nathan, Writer
Outstanding technical direction/electronic camerawork/video control for a series
- 1992 - Dave Heckman, Camera Operator; Chester Jackson, Camera Operator; Randy Johnson, Video Control; Stephen A. Jones, Camera Operator; Ritch Kenney, Camera Operator; Bob Keys; John O'Brien, Video Control; Richard Steiner, Video Control; Kenneth Tamburri, Technical Director
- 1988 - Jack Chisholm, Cameraperson; Stephen A. Jones, Cameraperson; Robert G. Kaufmann, Senior Video Control; Ritch Kenney, Cameraperson; O. Tamburri, Technical Director; Ken Tamburri, Cameraperson
- 1986 - Randy Baer, Cameraperson; Victor Bagdadi, Senior Video Control; Gerry Bucci, Technical Director; Dale Carlson, Cameraperson; Steve Jones, Cameraperson; Donna J. Quante, Cameraperson
Golden Globes Awards
Best TV series - comedy/musical
- 1986 - Golden Girls
- 1987 - Golden Girls
- 1988 - Golden Girls
Best performance by an actress in a TV series - comedy/musical
- 1986 - Estelle Getty
Retirement Research Foundation Awards
Television and theatrical film fiction - special achievement award
- 1989 - Golden Girls - Susan Harris, Executive; Paul Junger Witt, Executive; Tony Thomas, Executive
TP de Oro, Spain Awards
Best foreign series (mejor serie extranjera)
- 1989 - Golden Girls
Viewers for Quality Television Awards
Best actress in a quality comedy series
- 1988 - Betty White
- 1987 - Betty White
Young Artist Awards
Exceptional performance by a young actor, guest starring in a television, comedy or drama series
- 1987 - Billy Jayne aka Billy Jacoby (playing "David" in episode, "On Golden Girls" (episode #1.6) October 26, 1985)