The Golden Girls

Sophia Quote from The Golden Girls: Classic Sophia!

by Joi

The following scene’s from the episode of The Golden Girls titled A Little Romance.  The episode first aired on December 14, 1985. Wow, has it really been that long?!?!

In this episode, Rose is dating a Psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Newman. She has kept him a secret from Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia because the good doctor (played to hilarious perfection by Brent Collins) is a “little person” and she doesn’t know how they’ll react. The great Billy Barty (My Three Sons, Get Smart, The Waltons, 1978 The Lord of the Rings…) makes a memorable cameo in the episode.

In the scene below, Dorothy and Blanche are in the living room grilling Rose about her date when Sophia comes in… as Sophia usually does, at just the right time.

Dorothy: So, um, where are you going?
Rose: Out with a friend from work.
Blanche: Is it the same friend you’ve been out with 5 times in the last 3 weeks:
Rose: Yes.
Blanche: Alright, spill it. Who is he?
Rose: His name is Dr. Jonathan Newman. He’s a psychiatrist at the Grief Center.
Blanche: Soooo, you’re seing a psychiatrist?!?!
Sophia: (entering the room) It’s about time.

Must Have For Betty White Fans

by Joi

I would ask, “Do you love Betty White?” but that seems like a pretty lame question. It’d be like asking a 5 year old, “Do you love Santa Claus?”  Everyone (me included) adores Betty White.  If you think about it, she’s one of the rare celebrities that seems to resonate with everyone.  The fact that she doesn’t have enemies or “haters” is a testament to the comedic legend.

It’s just further proof that she’s a very special person and quite the American jewel.

The book shown above is Here We Go Again: My Life In Television – written by the one and only Betty White, herself.

From Publishers Weekly

Her late husband, Allen Ludden, once remarked that White had been one of the pioneers in silent television. That is just barely an exaggeration, because she got her start in Hollywood on Television in 1949 and has not been off the tube for any length of time for the past 46 years. Best known for her roles as Sue Ann on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and as the terminally naive Rose on The Golden Girls, she has had four Betty White Shows, starting in 1950, as well as a show close to her animal-lover’s heart, The Pet Set. She also played minor, recurring characters on The Carol Burnett Show and its spin-off, Mama’s Family, and announced the Rose Bowl parade for 20 years. Additionally, she was a frequent guest of Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and appeared on innumerable game shows. She knows everyone in the business, although her affection for them one and all, while perhaps real, cloys after a time. This behind-the-scenes look at television since the late 1940s, with its dozens of photos, should delight fans.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

White’s portrayals have always seemed good-natured, whether she was playing Sue-Ann Nivins on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. In her entertaining and insightful autobiography, she comes off as upbeat and good-natured in real life. White started out in early television on a five-hour-a-day live show called Hollywood on Television and has had “steady” work ever since. Here she chronicles her experiences on many hit series and several short-lived series, plus her two marriages. She writes with particular care and poignancy about her second marriage to Allen Ludden, which lasted a blissful 18 years until Ludden’s tragic and untimely death. White’s love of friends, family, work, and animals comes shining through these pages, as does her high-energy pleasant personality. This Hollywood autobiography can be highly recommended for all public libraries.
-?Judy Hauser, Oakland Schs., Lib. Svces., Waterford, Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Click HERE to read more about the book (as well as get a sneak peek at some gorgeous pictures of Betty White) and order a copy today. You might want to grab several – they’d make wonderful gifts.

Remembering the One and Only Rue McClanahan

by Joi

“People always ask me if I’m like Blanche. And I say, ‘Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta — and I’m not from Atlanta!’” - Rue McClanahan

One of my personal favorite entertainers ever, Rue McClanahan, passed away from a stroke on June 3. Best known as the sexy Blanche Devereaux on Golden Girls, Rue also appeared on Maude as Vivian Cavender Harmon and Mama’s Family as Aunt Fran Crowley. Another early role was on the hugely popular All in the Family.

This hilarious and talented actress was born in 1934 in Oklahoma. In addition to her wonderful work on television, Rue McClanahan was also very well known (and respected) for her charitable work. She lent her hand to organizations fighting against cancer, AIDS, and cruelty against animals.

She was married to her sixth husband, actor Morrow Wilson, at the time of her death.

Did You Know?

  • In 1997, Rue was diagnosed with cancer. She had a lumpectomy and five months of chemotherapy.
  • Was of Scot-Irish and Choctaw Indian ancestry
  • Played the same character, Blanche Devereaux, on four different TV series: “The Golden Palace” (1992), “The Golden Girls” (1985), “Nurses” (1991), and “Empty Nest” (1988).
  • Was a vegan.
  • Oddly enough, Betty White was originally considered for the role of  Blanche, on “The Golden Girls”. However, Betty had already been the sexy Sue Ann Nivens on “Mary Tyler Moore” while Rue had played the rather shy and unassuming Vivian on “Maude”. It was thought best not to typecast these two actresses by having them portray similar characters. So, Betty got the part of naive Rose Nylund and Rue played the sex-crazy Blanche!  It’s impossible to imagine it any other way.

It’s pretty depressing that two of the past posts on Hollywood Yesterday are centered around stars we’ve recently lost. But that’s really the whole idea behind Hollywood Yesterday – I wanted a place where the stars, movies, and shows of yesterday could live on forever and continue to touch lives.

This way we never really have to say goodbye. Mostly just, “Thanks.” And to Rue, of course, we have to add, “Thank you for being a Friend.”

Classic Golden Girls Clip

by Joi

I ordered Season 1 of an all-time favorite sitcom recently – The Golden Girls. A day without TGG is just barely worth suiting up for.

In the video below, Blanche and Dorothy have agreed, as a favor to Rose, to be guests on a show for the station she works for. Rose, being Rose, completely missed the concept for the show, leaving Dorothy uncomfortable, Blanche panicking, and Sophia amused… temporarily.

Classic!

Hot in Cleveland: A TV Land Original Sitcom

by Joi

If anyone knows TV, it’s me.  Not only do I happen to, unapologetically, love the medium, I can’t imagine what a day without TV Land, televised sports, or the Food Network would be like.  Don’t want to know!  Anyway, I am sitting on tremendous TV knowledge and that knowledge leads me to announce that the fact that Betty White is returning to television is the best “television-related” news in two forevers.   This beautiful and hilarious comedienne  is one in a gazillion and how any network has let her go unutilized this long is beyond me.  For that matter, come on, shouldn’t the entire Golden Girls cast be gainfully employed on television and the movies?

Betty White has signed on in a Recurring Role in a promising new TV Land original series,  Hot in Cleveland.  I’m also doing back flips over the concept of Valerie Bertinelli returning to television.  I think her recent commercial campaign, her autobiography, and bikini pics (with snow and ice covering most of the country, I chose to show one of these pics at the top of the post – Valerie can thaw out as much ice now as she did 20 years ago…  probably more!) reminded the public of just how much we all love her.  TV Land is absolutely brilliant to bring both ladies back into our living rooms.

From TV Land:

“HOT IN CLEVELAND”

New York, NY, January 13, 2010 – TV Land announced today that it has signed comedic actresses Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick to star as best friends in the network’s sitcom pilot “Hot in Cleveland.” Additionally, the incomparable Emmy Award-winning Betty White has also been cast in the comedy pilot as a recurring guest star. The sitcom, which was previously announced in October along with comedy pilot “Retired at 35,” is TV Land’s foray into scripted comedy series and is a TV Land PRIME presentation.

“Hot in Cleveland” is written by Emmy Award-winning Suzanne Martin (“Frasier,” “Ellen”) and is produced by Emmy Award-winner Sean Hayes’ Hazy Mills Productions.

The new comedy revolves around three fabulous, LA women of a certain age and best friends (Bertinelli, Leeves and Malick). Their lives are changed forever when their plane unexpectedly lands in Cleveland and they soon rediscover themselves in this new “promised land.” Loving their new home, the women find themselves living under one roof and battling their sassy, property caretaker, played by Betty White, who pretends to care more about her property and income tax but is a gem underneath.

Popular actress Valerie Bertinelli is most-remembered for her role as “Barbara Jean Cooper” on the beloved Norman Lear sitcom “One Day At A Time.” She also starred in “Touched By An Angel” for the show’s final two seasons. More recently, Bertinelli became a spokesperson for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program and in 2008 she released the autobiography Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound At A Time, which discussed her struggles with weight loss. In November 2009, Bertinelli released a fitness DVD called “Losing It and Keeping Fit” and also wrote a follow-up book called Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life without Opening the Fridge.

Jane Leeves starred for 11 seasons in the Emmy Award-winning NBC comedy “Frasier” and was also nominated for an Emmy as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the series as Daphne Moon. More recently, Leeves lent her voice to The Disney Channel’s “Phineas and Ferb” and guest-starred in USA Network’s “The Starter Wife.” Leeves is also known to audiences for playing the memorable character “Marla Penney” in several episodes of “Seinfield.”

Wendie Malick was nominated for two Emmy Awards and won a Golden Globe for her role as the hilarious and beautiful fashion editor Nina Van Horn in the NBC ensemble comedy “Just Shoot Me.” She appeared as Judith Tupper Stone in the early 1990s in the HBO comedy “Dream On,” for which she won four CableACE Awards as Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Malick’s work has included roles in the movies “The American President,” “Scrooged” and “Bugsy.”

One of television’s most beloved and talented actresses whose career has spanned over 50 years, Emmy Award-winning actress Betty White is best known for her role in the classic sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the beloved series “The Golden Girls.” White won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for the first season of “The Golden Girls” and was nominated every year of the show’s run. The series ran from 1985 to 1992 on NBC. White has also guest-starred on a number of television programs including “Ally McBeal,” ‘The Ellen Show,” “That 70s Show” and won an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, appearing as herself on a memorable episode of “The John Laroquette Show.” White had a recurring role in ABC’s “Boston Legal” from 2005 to 2008 as the calculating, blackmailing gossip-monger Catherine Piper, a role she originally portrayed as a guest star on “The Practice” in 2004. Most recently, White appeared in the 2009 motion picture, “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. She will be honored with the Screen Actors Guild Achievement Award on January 23, 2010.

“Hot in Cleveland” is part of TV Land’s foray into scripted comedy series and is one of two sitcom pilots for the network. The cast of the network’s other pilot, the multicamera “Retired at 35″ was announced last week with Johnathan McClain, “Saturday Night Live” alum Casey Wilson and acting veterans Jessica Walter and Christine Ebersole landing starring roles opposite previously cast George Segal. “Retired” follows David (McClain), a successful young businessman who decides to leave the New York rat race behind and move into his father Alan’s (Segal) Florida retirement home.

Scene From an Episode of The Golden Girls

by Joi

Classic scene from an episode of The Golden Girls. Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy are trying to fly under the radar while buying condoms. Naturally, it doesn’t turn out that way!

Rue McClanahan, The Spice in The Golden Girls Mix!

by Joi

Rue McClanahan

“People always ask me if I’m like Blanche. And I say, ‘Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta — and I’m not from Atlanta!’” – Rue McClanahan

One of my favorite sitcoms of all time is The Golden Girls.  The casting is sheer perfection and the chemistry between the actresses was the stuff most television producers only dream of.  Like Roseanne, Good Times, I Love Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies, Sanford and Son, and Andy Griffith – this is a sitcom that where you just can’t find a down side.

Rue McClanahan was flawless in her role as Blanche Devereaux.  I swear, I’m in a trance any time the woman comes on the screen.  Her mannerisms, her voice, the way she loses herself in her character – sheer brilliance.   As I watched an episode this morning with my cat, Alexa, it occurred to me that Rue McClanahan doesn’t get nearly enough credit or attention.

Which is exactly why I’m HERE right this minute paying tribute to this hilarious actress!

Rue McClanahan Trivia:

  • Rue was born in 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma.
  • She was a New York stage actress in the 1950′s. She was discovered on stage by Norman Lear and cast in roles on “All in the Family” (1971) and later “Maude” (1972).
  • Stands 5’3.”
  • When Rue was cast as Blanche on The Golden Girls, she was reunited with Bea Arthur (whom she’d worked with on Maude) and Betty White (whom she’d worked with on Mama’s Family).
  • Estelle Getty, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Bea Arthur all won emmy’s for their roles on The Golden Girls
  • After Bea Arthur left the show after eight seasons, McClanahan, White and Getty returned for a brief spin-off in “The Golden Palace” (1992).
  • Rue is currently married to her sixth husband.
  • In 1997, Rue McClanahan was diagnosed with cancer. She had a lumpectomy and underwent five months of chemotherapy.
  • Is a vegan and dedicated animal rights activist.
  • An Honorary Director for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.