The Golden Hues of Nostalgia TV

Monday is movies. And sometimes TV. Today it's TV. Nostalgia TV. One classic show in particular, which I thank for being a friend!

There are times in front of the television where I’ll be restlessly scrolling, looking for just the right thing. But what is it? Is it a new show that’s playing out week to week, or something with rave reviews that’s already three seasons deep and likely to go on until it runs out of ideas? Is it that thing I’ve been meaning to watch because it was water-cooler talk for a while, or the one I didn’t like all that much but everyone else assures me it’s great? Do I feel like a film instead?

Streaming is wonderful.

And it’s bloody awful.

It has taught us to be consumed with, well, consuming. The content farmers have us using hideous words like content. And we are watching TV to keep up with the chat about TV. That’s how it can feel sometimes.

I took a break from all that recently, and headed to more wholesome hills.

I have been watching this show called The Golden Girls. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? There’s a handy link you can click on there to catch you up if not. And it’s streaming (all seven seasons of it) on the Disney channel. In case you needed to know.

The Golden Girls was a half-hour sitcom that ran from 1985-1992. Four older women share accommodation in Miami, Florida. They are widows. They are in their 50s and 60s, with Sophia (Dorothy’s mother) in her 80s.

The show featured three legendary performers (Betty White as Rose, Bea Arthur as Dorothy, and Rue McClanahan as Blanche) with Estelle Getty lesser known but still a recognisable talent. She was the first cast – playing the 80-year-old Sicilian grandmother, Sophia. She’d sit in a makeup chair for up to three hours at a time to transform into Dorothy’s mother. And she’d suffer stage fright throughout the entire run of the series; nervous at working with such legends. But Sophia’s lines, and Estelle’s delivery of them made her a favourite character.

It was a show of favourite characters.

All four were lead actors – and all four won the Emmy for Outstanding Actress, or whatever the title of the award is. It’s one of the only sitcoms in history to achieve that, the equal weighting where every star shines.

I watched The Golden Girls when I was a kid. And I liked it. But also, I watched it because there were only two channels of choice. And TV1 was boring. My parents decided what we watched too. So, there was that.

But The Golden Girls became a highlight of the schedule. So much so, that I can still remember when it was on. Tuesday nights. 8pm. If I was lucky, I’d have a milo, maybe a biscuit. It would be bedtime shortly after. And we’d laugh as a family as the tropes: man-hungry Blanche, a southern belle, who also had a heart of gold even if she seemed obsessed with money and status and was sure she was better than the others. Rose the dimwit from the farm. Her shaggy-dog stories would get there in the end and may even contain traces of logic. Dorothy was wise counsel, a pragmatic and stoic force in the house. The boss, really. Sharp-tongued and delivery the knock-out one-too of a deadpan line with a withering look. And her mother, Sophia, was a wonderful cook, loyal and protective, and cantankerous and in competition with her daughter for the best lines of the show.

It was soppy and terrific. Its banger of a theme tune, Thank You For Being A Friend. It summed up the vibe of the show and had a built-in nostalgia to trigger that feeling in the viewer almost instantly. The song was a throwaway, written quickly at least a half-decade before the show was created, but feeling like it could have been made specifically for it.

The Golden Girls was full of hugs and resolutions. There were health scares, and friends falling out, old lovers returned to mess things up, they were unlucky in love and their kindness was taken advantage of. It was about lessons and learnings, and the composer  (George Tipton) was essentially scoring the show on heartstrings. He’d pull at them gently, giving big – obvious – clues as to how we were meant to feel.

I found The Golden Girls on the Disney Channel recently. And thought about diving in. I checked no one was watching at first. No one to judge me. Then I realised that I’m closer in age to the actors in the show than I ever thought might happen. Blanche would kick me to the curb, no doubt. I’d be too old for her!

Watching The Golden Girls has brought levity and warmth to the house. There is something calming and subtly wonderful about this show. It was expertly performed and exquisitely written. It is of its era, of course. But it somehow transcends that now. There is such huge heart on display throughout every 22-minute episode.

It's from the time when TV wasn’t just weekly and episodic, but it lasted for half the year. There are 24 episodes of each season, totalling 180 all up. It would play out week to week across six months of the year. The stars would be on the cover of the TV Guide in between times. So you’d be thinking about it when it wasn’t on.

That’s such a Rose thing to say, you might think.

What would Dorothy do?

You’d realise that Blanche wasn’t actually your least favourite, she was maybe the absolute best.

And Sophia was there with the final line. Usually. You could hear it in your head after a while.

I can’t say that I’ve seen every episode of The Golden Girls. We weren’t recording it when we were out. I probably missed some along the way, but I watched it often enough across its duration. The late 1980s. Sitcoms were big in the house. And we’d gather together to watch them.

I’m halfway through season one of The Golden Girls and threatening to stick with it for all seven seasons.

I’m desperate to find The Golden Palace next. This was a sequel/spin-off that was ill-fated, lasting just one season. Spoiler alert: Dorothy finds love and leaves the show at the end of the final season – Bea Arthur wanted to go on and do something different, something bigger. (Second spoiler alert: She didn’t). The three other ‘girls’ set up somewhere new and Cheech Marin is added as a comic foil. A young Don Cheadle is in there too. An updated version of Thank You For Being A Friend helped to seal the show’s fate.

(I never got to see The Golden Palace – but I am ready for its car-crash. Yes. Yes!)

watching The Golden Girls has been the best thing across the last couple of weeks. An episode or two here, a run of three or four there.

Blanche dating a younger man, only to find out he sees her as a mother figure. Wounded pride! Dorothy firmly telling her ex-husband that she’s a new person in the last two years, after their 38 years of marriage. She’s not taking him back. Sophia thinking she had a heart attack after eating too much, and refusing to let the doctor leave the house until he tries some of her wonderful cooking. And Rose, petrified after a home invasion, finally stands up for herself and knees a parking-lot pursuer in the groin. A pity he was actually the parking attendant and was chasing her because she had forgotten her keys.

It was a different time.

But there’s something so heartening about returning to it. Maybe it is just golden hues that fill my re-watch of The Golden Girls. Nostalgia TV at its finest. Well, that’s just fine actually.

Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant.