-Four women, previously married, now live together in a house in Miami, trying to get through life the best way they can-sharing experiences and laughs at the same time
-Bea Arthur: Dorothy Zbornak
-Betty White: Rose Nylund
-Rue McClanahan: Blanche Devereaux
-Estelle Getty: Sophia Petrillo
-Herb Edelman: Stan Zbornak
-Harold Gould: Miles
-Sid Melton: Salvadore Petrillo
-Bill Dana: Angelo
-Scott Jacoby: Michael Zbornak
-George Grizzard: George Devereaux
-Doris Bellack: Gloria Petrillo
Did You Know?
-The Queen Mother in England was such a fan of the show that she wrote to the four actresses and asked them to perform an episode live for her. They flew to London and performed an episode on stage for the Queen and her family
-It was Rue McClanahan's idea for Blanche to have a Southern accent. It was not originally in the script
-Despite being the oldest member of the cast, Betty White was the last surviving member after Rue McClanahan died
-Estelle Getty had gotten some work done on her face between the first and second seasons. Makeup crew had a hard time making her look old on camera
-It took approximately 45 minutes to transform Estelle Getty into Sophia Petrillo
-Despite the fact that there were four women living in the house, only three chairs were present at the dining room table. This was designed to not have all four squeezed in shoulder to shoulder and to have no backs to the camera. Bea Arthur always sat in the center due to her tall height. Plus her facial expressions were extremely comical when listening to Blanche's previous sexual encounters, Sophia's "Picture this!" stories and Rose's "St. Olaf" stories
-According to Betty White, she and fellow Golden Girl Bea Arthur did not get along
-Brandon Tartikoff, an NBC executive, got the idea for the show after visiting his elderly aunt one day. He saw how she and her equally elderly next door neighbor, both of whom were friends, interacted. They would fight and argue, but still loved each other as friends
-The show has dealt with issues otherwise considered controversial, like HIV/AIDS, LGBT, etc. There was a personal chef named Coco who was openly gay. Blanche's brother Clayton was openly gay. An old friend of Dorothy's was a lesbian. Another episode dealt with HIV/AIDS
-Dorothy has a brother named Phil who is always mentioned but never seen. He has kids with his wife but is a cross dresser. He dies from a heart attack in season 6
-Both Estelle Getty and Bea Arthur were Jewish. Getty wasn't Italian. Supposedly, Getty asked producers "couldn't we just make Dorothy and Sophia Jewish?" but producers didn't oblige
-Sophia often had the raciest, most suggestive lines. The reason being early in the show she had a stroke and was unable to control what she said
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