“Sister of the Bride” has Blanche’s brother Clayton turning back up in Miami to inform his sister of his plans to marry his long-time love, Doug. “All of the four actresses were geniuses, with amazing comic timing, and all four of them were friends of the gay community.”īy the time the episode titled “Sister of the Bride” aired during in 1991, it was the show’s sixth episode to feature LGBTQ characters or themes.
“I can’t speak for all Gays, but for me, the show felt genuine from the very start,” says Heklina, a popular California-based drag queen whose Golden Girls drag shows (where she played Dorothy) were a favourite on the local San Francisco scene. “That was a game changer at a time when LGBTQ characters were treated as villains, victims, or stereotypical caricatures or were completely invisible.” The show and the Queer community are forever linked because of it. “ The Golden Girls boldly and unapologetically had its lead characters embrace and accept LGBTQ people,” says Rich Ferraro, the Chief Communications Officer for GLAAD and Executive Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards.
Storylines involving homelessness, AIDS, ageism, racism, addiction, sexual harassment, and homophobia made it into the sitcom’s scripts. While a sitcom starring four white heterosexual women didn’t exactly make it a bastion of diversity, the show did tackle its share of social issues.
“That’s what made them ahead of their time – and actually, that’s one of the things that still holds up today. “They could mine storylines other shows didn’t dare, and so The Golden Girls wouldn’t always be retreading the same sitcom territory as other shows might have,” says Colucci. “There are a good deal of great sitcoms from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that were witty and fun,” says Jim Colucci who literally wrote the book on The Golden Girls called Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai but, he says, “there was something extra about The Golden Girls that was truly ahead of its time and that makes the show still seem so relevant today.” It was the show’s willingness to explore territory other sitcoms wouldn’t and its mission to deliver more than just laughs that set it apart from its contemporaries. Nearly three decades after its final episode aired in 1992, the show continues to not only entertain through reruns, DVDs, and streaming, but in these unprecedented times of uncertainty and unrest, the show is also providing hours and hours of comfort viewing The Golden Girls achieves that rare combination of offering warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia and familiarity, while also feeling fresh, timely, and relevant thanks to some of its more significant and progressive storylines. Over the course of the show’s seven seasons, the women, who society would definitely have deemed “past their prime” showed us that wants, needs, desires, and goals have no expiration date as they navigated life, love, loss, and the challenges associated with aging with heart, acerbic wit, timeless wisdom and, of course, a whole lotta cheesecake. The Golden Girls introduced us to Blanche Devereaux, Rose Nylund, Dorothy Zbornak, and Dorothy’s mother, spitfire Sophia Petrillo, all cohabitating in a Miami bungalow. A ground-breaking sitcom premieres on NBC starring an ensemble of women of a certain age…
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