Zorak "Yes! The Golden Girls. I love the one where they all eat contaminated Geritol and die."

Space Ghost "Zorak, that's not one of their episodes."

Zorak "Well, it should have been."

1980s television show about four senior citizen women who live in a house together in the retirement mecca of Miami, Florida. Rose (Betty White) is a naive widow from the rural town of St. Olaf, Minnesota; Blanche (Rue McLanahan) is a Scarlett O'Hara-esque belle whose major interest is men; Dorothy (Bea Arthur) is an acerbic divorced woman whose jerk ex-husband Stan showed up in a few episodes; and Dorothy's mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) has had a mild stroke which "destroyed the part of the brain which censors what she says" according to some character in the show. (She couldn't say anything that wild, as this was network TV.)

(It's really scary that I did this writeup without having to look up anything except the name of the actress who played Sophia. I watched way too much TV as a child.)

The Golden Girls was a sit-com in the 80's which was based around the lives of four senior citizens who rented a house together in Miami, Florida USA.

Blanche Devereaux

Blanche Devereaux was the owner of the house. She was looking for some housemates after her husband George died so put an advert on a postcard on her local supermarket's noticeboard. This is where she met Rose who was having difficulties with her landlord as she had a pet cat which wasn't allowed in her rented property. Blanche didn't think that she would be able to cope with living with Rose, however, when Blanche saw Rose give her beloved cat to a small boy who had just had his cat run over, she changed her mind and let her move in despite her previous misgivings.

From Georgia, Blanche was a Southern belle. She had a gay brother called Clayton, and two sisters, Virginia and Charmagne who she claims to hate. She married George Devereaux and had a number of children. The number of kids she had and their names changed during the series numerous times. Biff, Doug, Skippy and Janet were some of the names which were mentioned. Blanche was always on the lookout for her next male conquest, and claimed to be a different age each time she was asked, once claiming to be 35. She was always ready to share juicy details of her 143+ relationships with her housemates even if they didn't want to hear them.

Dorothy Zbornak

Next came Dorothy. She came to the house with her mother Sophia for an interview. Their first argument came when they all went to the supermarket together and couldn't resolve the bill. They all went home carrying their own shopping, however the matter was resolved when they discovered they all liked chocolate cheesecake.

Rose Nylund

Rose was most well known for telling stories about the farming village where she was brought up as a child called St Olaf. She was adopted by the Lindstrums whilst young. She married Charlie and had children, but when Charlie died, she moved to Florida. She wasn't the cleverest person, however always meant well. Because of this she once worked as a grief counsellor.

Stan Zbornak

Deep voiced Dorothy was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA to Sophia and Sal Petrillo. Sophia alleges that Sal had a gambling problem which was passed onto Dorothy. She has a sister called Gloria and a brother called Phil who is a transvestite. She was married to Stan for 38 years and had two children, Michael and Kate. Stan left her for a younger woman who was an air hostess. She never forgave Stan for getting his solicitor to tell her that he wanted a divorce.

Sophia Petrillo

Sophia, Dorothy's mother, was born in Sicily. She had three children with her husband Sal. After her husband died she got remarried to Max, the husband of a friend who died whom she met at his wife's funeral. She lived in Shady Pines Retirement home until it burned down. She then went to live with her daughter in Blanche's house. She frequently told stories about her younger days in Sicily.

The Cast

The cast of "The Golden Girls" were:

Sources
http://us.imdb.com/Credits?%22Golden+Girls,+The%22+(1985)
http://www.thegoldengirlsuk.com/
http://geocities.com/MarvM1600/

"The Golden Girls" has been a well-liked show by my mother, as well as my friend's mother, so I used to catch a lot of it. I've seen nearly every episode several times, and I remember many of the jokes and storylines.

I remember one particular episode where Clayton (Blanche's gay brother) dropped by and brought his partner Doug along. I had originally seen this episode years back, and there was one particular gag I thought was very funny. Unfortunately, the next time I saw this episode, I was disappointed to see that the gag had been censored.

They censored The Golden Girls.

Lifetime (the network that is now pretty much the only one that airs the show) is probably the culprit responsible for the censorship. Incredible. It pissed me off, because I hadn't seen this particular episode in a long time, and I was looking forward to hearing this joke again when the episode re-aired.

The clip went something like this:

Clayton: (Referring to Doug, after announcing that they were to be married) "Doug is my best friend, and he'd do anything for me. And hell, I'd bend over backwards for him!"

The camera cuts to Sophia, who almost starts to say something. Dorothy quickly covers her mouth.

The new version removes the scene where Dorothy covers Sophia's mouth, and replaces it with a shot of the girls, staring vaguely at the direction of where Clayton would be, just sitting and smiling.

I really wish people's over-sensitivity would decrease to the point where we can enjoy things without having big red "CENSORED" stamps clomp across the screen. It's not like the show was anti-gay; this episode actually seemed to be the exact opposite. And the show dealt with many taboo topics fairly regularly, including one other gay storyline that comes to mind. (Jean thinking she's in love with Rose. "Jean's a lesbian." "So? Isn't Danny Thomas one?" "Not Lebanese, Blanche. Lesbian.") If I remember correcly, Dorothy's brother Phil was a cross-dresser as well.

Just a quick tidbit, in case you catch this episode. Now you know how it was supposed to go.

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