I was sorry to hear about the death of The Golden Girls' Estelle Getty. My ex-wife was a big fan of Golden Girls -- a character flaw that should have been a red flag for me -- so I sat through a few episodes when they were in reruns. Getty was a bright light in an otherwise painful sitcom experience. I remember thinking "Come on, Betty White. You're better than this!" And Bea Arthur? One word: freakish. Anyway, I was shocked to learn during bar trivia a few months back that The Golden Girls is one of the only sitcoms that had all of its stars nominated for Emmy awards. Frankly, I was surprised that they even one nomination. I'm chalking this all up to a problem with demographics (but I never understood The O.C. either). I don't think they were aiming the show at the 18-35 crowd. In a "seeing the man behind the curtain moment," a number of years ago, I was on the backlot tour at Disney Studios in Orlando, and they pointed out the house they used for the exterior shots in The Golden Girls. Realizing that the house on this fake Disney street was just a facade, I thought for a fleeting moment: "Where are those crazy old bats, Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose living then?" In retrospect, it's probably best they're fictional. Can you imagine living next to that lunatic asylum filled with promiscuous senior citizens? So, I salute Estelle Getty who brought a grandmother to the screen whose acid tongue was only surpassed by my own grandmother, Ella. Maybe they're up in heaven now making wisecracks.Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Let's Raise a Parting Glass
I was sorry to hear about the death of The Golden Girls' Estelle Getty. My ex-wife was a big fan of Golden Girls -- a character flaw that should have been a red flag for me -- so I sat through a few episodes when they were in reruns. Getty was a bright light in an otherwise painful sitcom experience. I remember thinking "Come on, Betty White. You're better than this!" And Bea Arthur? One word: freakish. Anyway, I was shocked to learn during bar trivia a few months back that The Golden Girls is one of the only sitcoms that had all of its stars nominated for Emmy awards. Frankly, I was surprised that they even one nomination. I'm chalking this all up to a problem with demographics (but I never understood The O.C. either). I don't think they were aiming the show at the 18-35 crowd. In a "seeing the man behind the curtain moment," a number of years ago, I was on the backlot tour at Disney Studios in Orlando, and they pointed out the house they used for the exterior shots in The Golden Girls. Realizing that the house on this fake Disney street was just a facade, I thought for a fleeting moment: "Where are those crazy old bats, Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose living then?" In retrospect, it's probably best they're fictional. Can you imagine living next to that lunatic asylum filled with promiscuous senior citizens? So, I salute Estelle Getty who brought a grandmother to the screen whose acid tongue was only surpassed by my own grandmother, Ella. Maybe they're up in heaven now making wisecracks.
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1 comment:
Really, there's nothing wrong with Rose. You're right though, Estelle was the best of the ensemble.
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